From the Press Box
Milestones
By: Jim Lederman
Tom Brady was impressive in his first start of the 2018 football season. The Patriots defeated the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles (37-20) last Thursday night at Gillette Stadium.
Brady was 19 of 26 for 172 yards and two touchdowns. The Patriots have a number of individual ‘milestones’ within reach this year.
Tom Brady enters the 2018 season with 559 touchdown passes (488 in the regular season, 71 in the post season). ‘TB12’ needs 21 to move past Peyton Manning and become the all-time leader.
* Brady has 223 career victories
Regular season and post season and needs three to move past former teammate Adam Vinateri (225) for the most wins all time by an NFL player (Vinateri is 45 years old).
Brady is tied with Drew Brees for third all time at 488 regular season touchdown passes and needs 12 to become the third player to reach 500. He would join Manning and Brett Favre (508).
Brady has 66,159 career passing yards and needs 3,841 to become the fourth quarterback in NFL history with 70,000
Brady has started 251 regular season games at quarterback. If he starts all 16 in 2018 he will move past Manning (265) and be second all-time with 267 behind Favre (298).
Rob Gronkowski needs one more 1,000 yard season to move past Tony Gonzales and Jason Whitten for the most 1,000 yard seasons by an NFL tight end with five.
Gronkowski has 7,179 receiving yards, ninth all-time among NFL tight ends. He needs 802 to move into the top five.
Gronkowski needs 281 yards to move past Wes Welker (7,959) into second place on the Patriots receiving yards list. Behind only Stanley Morgan (10,352).
Bill Belichick has NFL-best five super bowl titles as head coach.
Belichick is tied for third all-time with Tom Landry with 250 regular season wins behind Don Shula (328) and George Halas (318).
Are you ready for some football?
Let the Games Begin!
Skimming the Sidelines
Jacob Hollister (number 47) is the Patriots back up tight end. Jake played for the University of Wyoming Cowboys. Three ex-Viking football standouts played for the Cowboys. The late Steve ‘The Tank’ Adamson, Billy Levine and the late Paul Frazier.
Speaking about archrivals the Winthrop Vikings lead the Revere Patriots (56-30-1) in their Thanksgiving rivalry. The Vikings travel to Della Russo Stadium in Revere on Thanksgiving morning.
The Vikings play host to the Lynn English Bulldogs on Friday night October 19th at Miller Field. The Bulldogs will have the top rated quarterback in the Northeastern Conference Matt Severance returns for his senor season. Matt passed for over 1,000 yards, threw for 16 touchdown passes and rushed for 600 yards. Severance is on the radar of college programs like Bentley, Bryant, Sacred Heart and Harvard.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, the former Harvard quarterback is the backup quarterback on the Tampa Bay Bucs. He will start in the first three Tampa Bay games with James Winston on a three game suspension. His top receiver at Harvard was Adam Jenkins, son of former WHS Superintendent Steve Jenkins. Adam is assistant coach at Central Connecticut State.
The 1948 Blue Devils
Seventy years ago the 1948 Winthrop High School football team were known as the ‘Blue Devils.’ The team colors were Silver and Blue.
The coach was Gordon Connor; assistant coaches were Ed MacFarland and Dick Stevenson. Coach MacFarland was head coach for twenty years.
John Booras was a member of the team and provided this picture. The team had many three-sport athletes. Tony Brogna is an active golfer at the Winthrop Golf Club.
Bob McDuffee still lives in town and his son Michael is a Winthrop town councilor.
The late Sheldon Bernstein is a member of the Winthrop high school athletic Hall of Fame.
Lou Racca was a longtime high school football coach at Malden and Wakefield. My brother Ed, who lives in Italy and Florida, played on the squad.
Jack DiMento, Carmen Merlino, Howie Swatzer, Bob Schiner and Lester Levey played at Miller Field.
Memories of Winthrop high 70 years ago!