The Falcons host the Patriots at the Dome Thursday night, and the two have decided to do a little pregaming beforehand, which doesn’t mean drink a lot of beer, in this case.
Joint Falcons-Patriots practices at Flowery Branch on Tuesday, August 17 from 8:30 to10:55 AM and from 3:45 to 5:35 PM are open to the public. Your correspondent hopes to attend the morning’s festivities punt-downing drills yelled at by Stats.
Open practices on hostile (yet lush) turf seems contrary to the super-secretive Patriot Way. Coach Bill Belichick once famously referred to wide receiver Troy Brown’s leg, land-mined off in World War II, as a “lower affliction. Probable.” Mike Smith and Thomas Dimitroff clearly subscribe to Patriot theory, with Smitty recently refusing to detail any news of Michael Jenkins’ injury beyond acknowledging that we all saw it occur.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s participation is up in the air, as he has some sort of hand injury that Belichick is vaguely downplaying. See what I mean?
Wednesday’s practices, of course, are in full Code Belichick: interlopers, expect a mangling.