ATLANTA (AP) — If Tom Brady rated his performance Ryquell Armstead Jersey , nothing more, it was ho-hum at best.In fact, going strictly by the numbers, it was the worst Super Bowl showing of his brilliant career.No problem.On a night when the defenses ruled, Brady did just enough to win his sixth Super Bowl ring , leading the New England Patriots to an aesthetically unpleasing 13-3 victory Sunday over the Los Angeles Rams.In last year’s Super Bowl, Brady threw for 505 yards and three touchdowns but walked off the field with his head down as the Philadelphia Eagles celebrated a 41-33 victory.“We just couldn’t put points on the board for one reason or another,” he said. “But in the end, it feels a lot better than last year when we did get some points on the board.”Brady completed 21 of 35 passes for 262 yards with one interception, leaving him with a rather measly passer rating of 71.4. That is the worst figure of his nine Super Bowl appearances, and marked the first time he failed to throw for at least one touchdown pass in the championship game.Again, no problem.“We obviously could have played better offensively,” Brady said, “but the reality is (when) you get in these games, you just have to find a way to win. We played well in the end and that’s what we needed.”Indeed, Brady finally found his vintage form on the lone touchdown drive of the night. He hit four straight passes for 67 yards — the best of them a pinpoint toss threaded amid three defenders that dropped into the hands of Rob Gronkowski for a 29-yard gain to the Los Angeles 2.“Incredible catch,” Brady said. “He’s an awesome player, great teammate, friend, and I’m just so proud of everything that he’s done for our team.”On the very next play, Sony Michel darted into the end zone to break a 3-all tie.Not long after, Brady was taking a knee to become the first player in NFL history to win six Super Bowl titles.The first one came against the Rams http://www.jaguarsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-gardner-minshew-ii-jersey , way back in 2002, when that franchise was still St. Louis and known as the “The Greatest Show On Turf.”Now, at age 41, Brady has gotten started on a ring for every finger on his other hand.“There’s been a lot of guys be part of this journey with this team and it’s just been so fun to be a part of it,” Brady said. “It’s a challenging football environment, the pressure is always on, and for moments like this, you have to rise to the occasion.”Sure, it was the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever, a game that won’t be remembered fondly by anyone outside of New England.For Brady, it might be the favorite of all his titles.This one took a team.The whole team.“We needed everyone out there,” he said. “The defense played so well, and we finally helped them out by getting a touchdown.” Defensive lineman Jared Allen retired from the NFL in 2015 and wasn’t ready to give up on the competition he’d come to enjoy as a five-time All-Pro.His solution: The Olympics.The problem: He didn’t compete in any Olympic sports.Less than a year later, Allen and three other former NFL stars — none with any prior experience — are attempting to qualify for the U.S. national curling championships against players who have been throwing stones for most of their lives.It would be the first step toward competing in the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.“Every team in the NFL — whether you’re hot garbage or the defending Super Bowl champions — every coach come August says the same thing: ‘We’re trying to win the Super Bowl,'” Allen said. “We come from that mentality, where we set lofty goals.“Our short-term goals are continually to get better: fundamentals, strategy, sweeping. We know if we master these little things, it will take us a long way.”A 12-year NFL veteran who spent most of his career with the Chiefs and Vikings, Allen was lamenting the end of his playing days when a friend dared him to try an Olympic sport. Allen toyed with the idea of badminton but rejected it as too taxing.“We thought about curling: It was chill, and the winners have to buy the losers beer,” he said. “We thought it was a win-win.”He rounded up former Rams quarterback Marc Bulger and Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck and tackle Michael Roos to form a team; all were Pro Bowl selections during their NFL careers Christian Wilkins Jersey , and living in the Nashville, Tennessee, area.Adopting the name All-Pro Curling Team, they started from scratch in March and kept their plans under wraps until they felt like they had made enough progress.“We wanted the reaction when we got on the ice to be, ‘Oh, how long have you guys been doing this?” Allen said in a telephone interview after practicing on a converted hockey rink in Nashville. “We were serious. We didn’t want it to seem like it was just some media hype, or just trying to stay relevant.”The first test was in November, when Allen and Bulger — with two “regular” curlers — competed in the Curl Mesabi Classic in Northern Minnesota. Their first opponent: The gold medal-winning team from Pyeongchang led by four-time Olympian John Shuster.They lost 11-3, giving up five points in the sixth end.“Honestly, they were a little better than I had expected,” said Matt Hamilton, the second on that team. “All in all, Jared was technically pretty sound. But at the end of the day, I’ve seen thousands of curling shots and situations, and that is ultimately going to win us more games.”Although curling matches are often conceded when they are out of reach, the Olympians kept playing through the eighth (of 10) ends, to help the football players gain the experience they will need if they are to be more competitive. (If it’s any consolation for Allen’s crew, Shuster’s rink also scored a five-ender against Sweden in the gold medal match.)“We had one bad end, and we just kept playing with them. We just wanted to be a sponge,” Bulger said. “The key was they knew we were taking it seriously. It wasn’t just us saying, ‘We’re going to take over curling,’ kind of as a gimmick.“We hope to play them again http://www.dolphinsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-michael-deiter-jersey ,” he said, “when we’re better.”The All-Pros are back at it at the USA Men’s Challenge Round in Blaine, Minnesota, this weekend, where they are competing for one of four remaining spots in next month’s national championships. (Top teams such as Shuster’s have already qualified.)They got off to a rough start in their first match, falling 10-1 to Steve Birklid’s Seattle-based rink on Thursday night. But, by hopping into the sport early in the Olympic cycle, they have almost three more years before the team for the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing is chosen.Hamilton confessed that he was put off at first about newcomers thinking they could go to the Olympics after four years in a sport he has worked at to master his entire life. But he also realized that the publicity will be good for curling, which has struggled to break out of its niche as an every-four-years curiosity.“If I really think I’m that good, I should be like, ‘Bring it on!'” Hamilton said in an email to The Associated Press from a competition in Japan. “How much they respected the game, though, is what made me realize they aren’t making a mockery. We just have some extremely athletic individuals who respect sport but have a need to compete in their blood. Can’t disrespect that!”100<button class="view-gallery">View Gallery</button> Gallery:View from the sidelines: NFL cheerleaders 2018Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports | Raj MehtaAll four football players agreed that the reception they’ve received from lifetime curlers has been decidedly different than the one that might welcome a curler who tried to break into the hyper-competitive NFL.“Oh, he’d get smashed,” Allen said. “We’d go out of our way to test his mettle, for sure.”Instead, the ex-NFLers found that the tight-knit but friendly community of curlers was eager to accept them. In their match against the Olympians, there was trash-talking — or banter, depending on whom you ask — and Hamilton even gave them some of his old curling gear.“I looked at their broom heads and I was disgusted. I was wondering why these former pro football players couldn’t afford new broom heads,” he said. “So I went into my curling bag and gave them some gently used ones before the game. That really surprised Jared, claiming nothing like that would ever fly in football.”Like many of those who experience curling only every four years, on TV Garrett Bradbury Jersey , the football players saw the sweeping and the shouting and underestimated how hard it is. “We played football, but it’s a lot of muscles we didn’t use,” Bulger said.Sliding on the ice was also an adjustment, but the biggest challenge has been the strategy.When he first started watching, Bulger said, he would see curlers setting up protective stones called guards and thought they were missing their shots.“We just assumed that you throw to the button every time, and we learned that is not the game,” he said. “It’s like a novice chess player going against” a grandmaster.But their NFL experience did help in other ways, priming them with not just physical fitness, but also good practice habits, the ability to make decisions on the fly and to improve through film study and coaching.“Like any other sport you have to learn, try to figure out how to get better,” Bulluck said. “Playing football at a very high level, being one of the best at the position once upon a time, to get to that level in anything you do you have to be able to take coaching.”And, of course, they’re competitive.“The message is: We want to bring attention to it. We want to have fun with it,” Allen said. “But we’re dead serious about what we’re trying to accomplish.”
