Super Bowl Notebook: Giants Touch Down, Talk Trash
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady fired the first salvo, Giants defensive back Antrel Rolle fired back. Let the trash talk begin.
Super Bowl XLVI doesn’t kick off until Sunday, but both teams claim that the other has provided bulletin board material for the other.
Monday’s New York tabloids talked of “Tom’s Taunt.” Brady told the crowd at Gillette Stadium pep rally Sunday, “we’re going to give it our best and hopefully we’ll have a lot more people at our party next weekend.” New York fans, the media and probably many of the players viewed those comments as a sign of Brady predicting a Pats victory on Sunday.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTMonday, the New York Giants arrived in Indianapolis and Antrel Rolle fired back saying, “we have come here for one thing and one thing only which is to win. We are expecting to win this game come Sunday.”
So there you have it. The battle lines have been drawn. Does this “bulletin board” material really help motivate a team? Maybe. But do players really need that type of talk to motivate them before playing in the Super Bowl? Doubtful.
Once the ball is kicked off sometime around 6:30pm on Sunday, everyone will forget what Brady, Rolle or anyone else said during the week. It will simply come down to who plays better.
NOTES:
-The big injury news remains the status of Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski. Gronk did not practice again on Monday making that 3 practices missed since he suffered a sprained left ankle in the AFC Championship game against Baltimore.
-Meanwhile, offensive tackle Sebastian Vollmer may play in the Super Bowl who has missed the last 7 weeks of action due to various injuries. Bill Belichick said that Vollmer did practice the week leading up to the AFC title game even though he was inactive for that game. Vollmer practiced Monday in Indianapolis as well. Even if Vollmer can go, rookie nate Solder may still draw the start at right tackle on Sunday.
-Wes Welker has been receiving a lot of attention this week and not because of what he has done on the field. Welker is in the last year of his contract with New England and is slated to become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. The Patriots receiver made it clear Sunday that he, “plans on being back” in New England next year and isn’t worried about that right now.
Given what Welker has meant to the Patriots offense and how Belichick and owner Bob Kraft feel about him, you can expect him to be wearing a Patriots uniform next season even if it means that they have to use the franchise tag on him.
-With Super Bowl XLVI scheduled to be played in the climate-controlled dome of Lucas Oil Stadium, it will mark the first time this year that the Patriots will have played a game indoors excluding their preseason contest in Detroit. Because of that, the Patriots practiced inside their indoor practice facility in Foxboro last week and are doing so again this week at the Colts indoor practice facility.
-Tuesday in Indianapolis it will be “media day” for both the Patriots and the Giants. Thousands of legitimate (and not so legitimate) members of the media will converge on Lucas Oil Stadium to ask good, bad, funny and ridiculous questions of both teams. The Patriots meet the media first from 10am-11am followed by the Giants who will speak from 12pm-1pm.
-Your Super Bowl trivia question of the day is: what jeweler designed the Lombardi Trophy? The answer is Tiffany’s.
