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Randall Cobb Jersey . -- Tom Brady has made no secret of his desire to play into his 40s.Hes reached the halfway point of his 17th NFL season, and at age 39 heads into the Patriots bye week performing at a level that puts him in the conversation to become the leagues oldest MVP.He started the 2016 season as a spectator while he served a four-game suspension as part of his punishment for his role in the Deflategate saga.Since his return to the lineup Oct. 9, Brady has shown few signs of decline in his four starts. Hes 4-0, has already thrown for 12 touchdowns and 1,319 yards, and if the season ended today his 73.1 percent completion rate and league-leading 133.9 passer rating would both be career highs.Whats more, with 198 victories, he will enter the second half of the regular season just three wins shy of passing Brett Favre (199) and Peyton Manning (200) to become the winningest quarterback in NFL history.For Brady, though, the most important number is New Englands NFL-best 7-1 record.Its pretty early, so, theres a long way to go, he said. Seven wins, its a good place, I think decent position. But coach always says `Seven wins wont get you anything in this league. Hes right. Weve got a lot of football ahead.For what its worth, former quarterbacks Rich Gannon (2002) and Peyton Manning (2013) are the current oldest MVP winners, having won the award at the age of 37. If Brady can do it a year shy of 40, it would bolster his claim as the best quarterback in history.One of the biggest questions coming out of the preseason was how Brady would be able to adjust after not being able to practice with his teammates for the month he was suspended.He was able to get in work with new additions Chris Hogan and Martellus Bennett during preseason workouts, but only played in the final two preseason games after missing the first to attend a memorial service, and the second after accidentally slicing his thumb with a pair of scissors.There was also the nagging hamstring injury to favorite option Rob Gronkowski, which limited him over the first month as well.But Brady has made it work, and so far has been able to integrate both new and old options seamlessly; spreading around the wealth in offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels passing attack.In each of his four games Brady has completed passes to at least six different receivers, and has twice completed passes to eight different receivers. Hes done it without throwing an interception, while also showing more of a willingness to throw deeper routes and by opening himself up to hits by scrambling more.One example of Bradys toughness came during the Patriots 41-25 win at Buffalo was when he was able to hang in the pocket and deliver a 53-yard touchdown pass to Hogan just a play after taking a hard hit.Ive seen it for years, receiver Julian Edelman said. The guys a tough SOB. Its a pleasure to get to play with a guy like him.McDaniels says Bradys dedicated approach has been the thing thats stuck out since his return.Tommy is just consistent. Thats the thing, McDaniels said. He prepares as hard as he ever has. He doesnt leave any stone unturned. He takes care of his body. He gets his rest.Then comes out there and takes advantage of every minute of practice to try to work with his teammates to get better and really learn the game plan to go out there and execute it.That doesnt surprise me. When you work hard and try to do things right, you give yourself a chance to have some success. And weve certainly done that so far.As well as things have gone for the Patriots, the trade of defense stalwart Jamie Collins last week was a reminder to everyone -- Brady included -- that no one has infinite time in Patriots locker room.You cant be around this long and not realize that the world will keep spinning and the sun will come up tomorrow without you, Brady said.Thats just the way it goes. I think you enjoy just the experiences that you have, but also understand that it just keeps going on. It could happen to anybody. You just have to show up to work, do the best you can do every day, and let your performance just try to speak for itself.---AP NFL websites:
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http://www.twitter.com/khightower Troy Aikman Jersey . The defence is doing its part, too. Drew Brees threw a pair of touchdown passes in the first half and the guys on the other side made sure that was enough, sending the Saints to a 17-13 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night.
Larry Allen Jersey . With his new coach and six-time Grand Slam singles champion Boris Becker watching him during an official match for the first time, Djokovic appeared tentative early against the Slovakian player, who often appeared content to keep the ball in play.
http://www.shoptheofficialcowboys.com/Elite-Demarcus-Lawrence-Cowboys-Jersey/ . DAmigo scored twice in regulation and added the shootout winner as the Toronto Marlies edged the San Antonio Rampage 5-4 in American Hockey League action. Nothing stamps a college football program with an identity more than how its administrators handle hirings and firings. What LSU, Texas and Oregon said about themselves in the past week speaks volumes, and not in flattering tones.At LSU, public support and the wishes of the locker room dictated the decision of the administration to hire a coach.At Texas, public support and the wishes of the locker room failed to sway the decision of the administration to fire a coach.And at Oregon, where loyalty has been prized for more than three decades, the administration took the final, graceless step to illustrate that it no longer wants to be the Little School That Could. The Ducks no longer do it their own way. They acted just like everyone else does in this win-now world.Laissez les bon temps rouler in Baton Rouge. Ed Orgeron got the job, and we all know how well the Peoples Choice worked out for LSU a year ago. Public demand extended the LSU career of Les Miles for an entire four games into this season. Thats when the ardor of the fan base cooled enough for the administration to extract him without burning itself.Coach O is the new Peoples Choice, and he has made residents of Louisiana feel good again, being one of their own, with that Cajun-dipped voice somewhere between a growl and a diesel engine.That warm feeling well may last beyond four games into next season. But it is apparent that LSU hired Orgeron without regard for history -- his own, and the rest of major college footballs since the 1960s.Its entirely possible Ive missed someone. But Ive identified only 19 Power 5 schools in the past 50 years that hired a head coach who had been fired or forced out by another Power 5 school. Of those 19 coaches, one won a national championship. One won a conference championship. They are the same man, Gene Stallings, in the same season, 1992, at Alabama. Thats it.Only one coach won more than one division championship at his second-chance school. Yep, Stallings, who won four SEC West titles in seven seasons with the Crimson Tide.Only five of the 19 have or had a higher winning percentage at their second-chance school than the one that fired them. Only two of them finished with a winning record at the second school: Stallings and Paul Hackett, who went 19-18 in three seasons at USC and was fired for, yep, not winning enough.To be fair, the late Dennis Green turned around Stanford in three seasons before he left for the NFL, and Mike Leach has done the same in five seasons at Washington State. But LSU isnt asking Orgeron to win. Hell, Miles was winning. LSU expects Orgeron to win championships.And the majority of schools who hired these second-chance coaches are the schools that never win championships. But that just supports the point that LSU has colored outside the lines here. They didnt go out and hire a proven winner, the way that schools in the upper echelon of college football typically do.LSU expects Orgeron not to be the same coach who went 10-25 at Ole Miss from 2005 to 07. The Tigers want the Orgeron who went 6-2 as an interim coach at USC in 2013 and the Orgeron who went 5-2 this season. Although if he loses to rivals as he did with the Trojans (Notre Dame and UCLA) and this season with the Tigers (Alabama and Floridaa), they wont want Orgeron for long.
Tony Romo Youth Jersey. Maybe Orgeron will be another Stallings, who entered into the perfect second marriage of coach and school. Stallings had been fired by Texas A&M in 1971, and fired again by the Phoenix Cardinals only weeks before Alabama hired him.If Orgeron cant win championships, he will discover that support among the fans and in the locker room is a foundation of Kleenex. All he need do is look west to Austin to Charlie Strong, a warm, compassionate man in a sport that is neither.Its hard to recall a coach who won over the public and the players without winning games in the way that Strong did. They wanted him to succeed, even as he went 16-21 in three seasons. If Texas had announced that Strong would coach the Longhorns in 2017, the public would have supported the decision.It may have been the force of Strongs personality, unfailingly polite and positive and straightforward as the Longhorns continued to disappoint.The Longhorns may have been young. They may have been tight, desperate to play well to save their coach. But what they were not in the last month of the season was very good. They couldnt shed blocks. They missed tackles. They couldnt create space at the goal line for DOnta Foreman, the biggest, most prolific running back in the FBS this season.Strong failed to hire the right assistants, judging by the way he kept replacing them. As much as Texas and its Orangebloods wanted Strong to succeed, Texas couldnt give Strong another chance. It couldnt, because its Texas.Texas loves saying, Were Texas, as if that means something in college football. What it means over the past 46 seasons is a school with the same number of national championships as BYU and Georgia Tech.In the end, Strong won some, but not enough. That will get him a second chance, perhaps even at a Power 5 school. So will Mark Helfrich, whose firing by Oregon on Tuesday night signaled the end of an era.Loyalty at Oregon not only has been a virtue but a trumpeted virtue. The university has been proud of how it treats its coaches. Rich Brooks won two games in his fifth season with the Ducks. He won two games in his sixth season. Brooks took Oregon to the Rose Bowl in his 18th season.Five assistants on the Oregon staff have been there at least 10 seasons, three for more than 20. We are different, Oregon said. We found good people and we stuck with them and look what it has done for us.Only Oregon didnt stick with Helfrich. Two years ago, Helfrich led the Ducks to the College Football Playoff National Championship game. Yes, the defense has stunk in the past two years, and this year the offense didnt play well enough to cover for it. Yes, Oregon lost the Civil War for the first time since 2007. Yes, the fans ended a 110-game sellout streak.So when times got tough, Oregon bailed on Helfrich. It chose the big-hitters way. Oregon threw money at the problem. It will pay Helfrich $11.6 million to take a hike. Thats not who Oregon has been. But thats who Oregon thinks it is now. The Ducks lost a head coach, and they lost their identity. That just may be harder to recover from than going 4-8. ' ' '
