Fourth, maybe fifth.

Rob Gronkowski faces 4th surgery

According to a source familiar with the case, Gronkowski is going to
need a fourth operation to change the plate that’s securing the broken
bone in the forearm.
While there has been some suggestion recently
that this step might be avoided, the source indicated the fourth
operation still has to happen. The plate has to be switched, no matter
what, and the surrounding tissue tested. The real question is if
Gronkowski, who has been taking part in the team’s offseason program,
will need a fifth operation.
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To little Bills credit, it appears he's been preparing for the possibility of an extended layoff for Gronk;

Patriots' Handling of Rob Gronkowski Speaks Volumes of Bill Belichick's Genius

Let's dive into Gronkowski's nationwide appeal and explain why Belichick has been preparing to win without his reigning All-Pro tight end.


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Funny, BB never caught the wrath of the media or Pats fans for playing Gronk when they were up by like 80 points. Shanahan is still catching it for playing RG III, and that was a playoff game.
If it was Rex, he'd be runoff to his father's farm in Kentucky.


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LRJets wrote:Funny, BB never caught the wrath of the media or Pats fans for playing Gronk when they were up by like 80 points. Shanahan is still catching it for playing RG III, and that was a playoff game.
If it was Rex, he'd be runoff to his father's farm in Kentucky.


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Wasn't it simply putting him in for his blocking assignment on an extra point conversion? You neglect to mention that. Do you agree that it was a total fluke injury that happened to Gronk on that play? Was BB supposed to foresee that and keep Gronk out of harm's way? Please. How many injuries have you seen on extra point conversions? Perhaps Pats fans (most of them) don't blame BB on that play because it was such a fluke thing that happened. Also, they support BB when he subscribes to the basic philosophy of, "Football players play football." If you want to have a discussion about second guessing a coach's move in hindsight, after the fact, please be reasonable and intelligent about it, and compare apples to apples. What Shanahan did by playing a visibly limping and injured RGIII was in no way, shape or form, the same thing that BB did by putting Gronk in to his ususal blocking assignment on an extra point conversion.
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Further on Bill Belichick, or as George calls him, "Little Bill":

Patriots coach Bill Belichick gave the keynote address this morning at a
symposium called "Sports Medicine and the NFL: The Playbook for 2013."

Here is part of what he said:
“The only way for us as a team to get a championship level is to
continue to evaluate ourselves, and we have to look at what we’ve done
and critically analyze it. … We can’t hire a consultant to come in and
fix our problems. There is nobody else to turn to. There is no team in
the league that wants to help us and there’s no team in the league we
want to help.


“So the only way for us to get better is to do our own R & D
[research and development]. I think along with that comes a certain
amount of humility, being able to take constructive criticism -- we
certainly have all made a lot of mistakes; I’ve made more than my share
and so has everybody else. In order for us to improve and get better
and move forward, we’ve all got to be able to stand up and say ‘Hey, I
screwed that up’ or ‘I didn’t do a good job here, how can we correct the
problem and get it right the next time?’


“In our society, I would say there is not an over-abundance of that
out there. There’s a lot more trying to point the finger at somebody
else and make excuses, and all that. So we try to eliminate that in our
organization.

LRJets wrote:Gup, before reading George's reply to you, I was going to reply in similar fashion.
I do not want it to appear as two non-Patriots fans ganging up as trolls towards you. You're too fair a football fan for that.
Now....
Was the Pats game as significant?
Was it a "win or go home" game?
Didn't the Pats have it locked up at such a late point in the game?
I have to put the decision in the same bucket as when BB went for it on fourth down against the Colts a couple of seasons ago.
BB has been in this situation a thousand times where it's not an instinctive decision. The few seconds between plays are an eternity when you see a star hurting and you put him in for a "low-risk" play.
He is an ace tactician, but I think he got his riverboat gambler side from Parcells.

Personally, I don't think being a riverboat gambler at times is a bad thing at all. Just pick and choose the right times, thats all. In the famous "going for it on 4th and 2 deep in your own territory" game against the Colts, I have said in the past that it was the right call and I did not criticize BB over it. I took that stance because I really did not see anything wrong with the call, which, if it worked, would have won the game, as opposed to the opposite decision, which would have punted the ball back to a red hot Peyton Manning with plenty of time. Still thinking about it today, I don't criticize it. Again, not because I'm a Pats or BB fan, but because it was, on balance, a legitmate in game strategy decision to make. It just didn't work out. I think punting the ball would have been a supportable decision too. In other words, there was really no "right" or "wrong" decision in that moment. When the decision was made to go for it, proper execution of the play was needed to gain 2 or 3 yards. The execution was there on the pass to Kevin Faulk, but it wasn't perfect enough.

And while I'm on that play, it was a bad spot. He made the first down. Sorry George. LOL. I know Faulk "juggled" the ball for a half second. But in the next half second when he gripped it with both hands --- that's where the ball should have been spotted. It was not. I think Faulk's back was to the ref, and the ref could not see Fauld grip the ball with two hands. He saw the "juggle" a split second earlier, and the Colts defender actually made a great defensive play to drive Faulk back. Thus the spot being inches short of the first down. But he did make it. Pats should have won that one. Just one more heartache to add to the list of many emotional reversals for being a poor, deprived, constantly disappointed, New England Patriots fan.

Being a riverboat gambler is OK in my book. You won't come up aces every time, but if your gamble pays off more than 50% of the time, you'll get my support.

How many injuries have you seen
on extra point conversions?

One. One that may have cost the Patriots a Super Bowl.



Yup. Injuries happen. You can't do nothing but live with the result.

The question is what is reasonably forseeable and what is not? No one has a crystal ball.
As BB said to a reporter who questioned him on Gronk being in there on the play he was injured, "You tell me which guys are going to get injured on which play, and I'll get them out of there."

George1963 wrote:I do not want it to appear as two non-Patriots fans ganging up as trolls towards you. You're too fair a football fan for that.

Yea, jeez, I even knowingly posted something that had "Belichick" and "genius" in the same sentence.
Trying to play nice here.

I never took it any other way. I never felt or said I was being trolled or ganged up on at all. I felt no offense whatsoever. Really. We're just talking here. LR said what he said above, I didn't. I'm Mr. Low Key anyway. lol. I'm all about being humble now. The glory days of the Patriots are over. The Giants and Ravens have turned my dreams into nightmares. Now I can only hope for respectability in Brady's remaining few years.


So until things in Foxboro change in a big way, I will no longer be posting things like this:

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ote="guppy"]Ravens? Giants?

Agggghhhh. Please. Don't say those words. Any day that I hear or see them I lose sleep at night. [/quote]
I started out as a Giants fan. Think of all the aggravation we Jets fans had in lieu of being a G-fan. (four Lombardi's)
I remember when (before the merger), the Packers destroyed the Giants on a frigid New Years Eve day, 31-0. I think Paul Hornung scored 19 points.
My timing sucks!

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I started out as a Giants fan. Think of all the aggravation we Jets fans had in lieu of being a G-fan. (four Lombardi's)
I remember when (before the merger), the Packers destroyed the Giants on a frigid New Years Eve day, 31-0. I think Paul Hornung scored 19 points.
My timing sucks!

As a kid, I saw this iconic photo. You obviously know who it is. Its the kind of image you never forget.
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guppy wrote:I started out as a Giants fan. Think of all the aggravation we Jets fans had in lieu of being a G-fan. (four Lombardi's)
I remember when (before the merger), the Packers destroyed the Giants on a frigid New Years Eve day, 31-0. I think Paul Hornung scored 19 points.
My timing sucks!

As a kid, I saw this iconic photo. You obviously know who it is. Its the kind of image you never forget.
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I remember that pic as if it was yesterday. It was on the back of the New York Daily News. (Probably on papers all across this land, but the former was my world back in the day).
Allie Sherman was the Giants coach I believe.

] I remember that pic as if it was yesterday. It was on the back of the New York Daily News. (Probably on papers all across this land, but the former was my world back in the day).
Allie Sherman was the Giants coach I believe. [/quote]

Speaking of epic pics, this one from 43 years ago is epic around these parts. That goal scored by Bobby Orr (known as "The Goal") as he was in the process of being tripped by the defenseman's stick which he lifted up which sent Orr flying through the air was the game, series and Stanley Cup finals winning goal. Series over. Cup won. May 10, 1970. The puck in the photo aleady went in the goal and bounced out. You may or may or may not know that the image finally became a permanent statue now located on the sidewalk in from of the Boston Garden. A great trivia question is, what is the name of the St. Louis player in the photo that tripped Orr?

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Hockey was not my forte. Never played it, never took an interest in it.

It was a "Spaldeen" life in the streetsof Brooklyn in the beginning.

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A great trivia question is, what is the name of the
St. Louis player in the photo that tripped Orr?

Barclay Plagar.

Nope. Noel Picard.

guppy wrote: A great trivia question is, what is the name of the
St. Louis player in the photo that tripped Orr?

Barclay Plagar.

Nope. Noel Picard.

I guess it's not such a clear memory after all.

George1963 wrote:

guppy wrote: A great trivia question is, what is the name of the
St. Louis player in the photo that tripped Orr?

Barclay Plagar.

Nope. Noel Picard.

I guess it's not such a clear memory after all.

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Supposedly Gronk's surgery went well. The plate in his forearm was replaced with a new one, and there was no signs of infection. If he does have some residual infection, antibiotics could take care of it. As for the back and possible back surgery, that's another issue.

Meanwhile, the Pats have a few other TEs to line up with Hernandez if necessary: Jake Ballard, Daniel Fells, Michael Hoomanowanui.

George1963 wrote:Supposedly Gronk's surgery went well. The
plate in his forearm was replaced with a new one, and there was no signs
of infection. If he does have some residual infection, antibiotics
could take care of it. As for the back and possible back surgery,
that's another issue.

Looks like it's gonna be five.
Everybody said BB was a genius for getting Gronk where he did, but it was a risk.
Funny thing about guys who are injury prone in their teens; they don't generally turn into iron men in their twenties.

I am very worried about Gronk and his ability to stay healthy.

As far as the genius goes, how about the move signing Jake Ballard away from the G-Men and then stashing him away on IR for a year? It was like he knew something might be up with Gronk, and he was putting in a contingent plan in case something happened. As Joe Beningo would say on New York's WFAN, "How about that?"