Once a Patriot, always a Patriot.
Despite being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles in April, former New England cornerback Ellis Hobbs remains a devoted student of the Patriot Way.
Especially toward the intense guy wearing the hoodie on the sidelines: Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
During a recent interview with Colin Cowherd of ESPN Radio, per Christopher L. Gasper of the Boston Globe, Hobbs went out of his way to stick up for Belichick and the Patriots. And he didn’t display any signs of bitterness after being shipped out of town for two fifth-round draft picks.
When asked to clarify any incorrect perceptions about the Patriots, Hobbs didn’t hesitate to play a little defense.
“That we’re all a bunch of jerks, starting with the head man, Bill,” Hobbs said. “Bill will be the first to tell you he comes off as a jerk, intentionally. Because, I think, what he tries to manifest throughout the players is that we’re here for football. There’s so much going on, the circus in the media and all that stuff, and the hoopla in the NFL these days, it’s hard to keep the focus on the game.
“I think that’s why they have everything so distinguished, set apart from everything, as far as the organization away from the players. Where there’s only access for the players on the lower level, the players and the coaches. And I think by him doing that, it kind of sets the tone, and let’s you know that we’re here to play football and win games.”
It’s obviously the Patriots’ company line, but Hobbs sounds sincere and loyal even after the end of his tenure in New England.
After acquiring Leigh Bodden and Shawn Springs and drafting Darius Butler, the Patriots felt comfortable parting ways with Hobbs.
Hobbs intercepted three passes last season to tie his career-high, but he was regularly beaten on deep throws.
Plus, the Patriots surrendered 27 touchdown passes last season and allowed a dozen receptions 40 yards and higher.
Hopefully he brings that attitude & loyality to Philly.
The players all seem to respect Belichick… sure they can’t push him around and demand extensions or trades like the Jets used to do with Mangini, but they know they’ll be treated fairly… i.e. Asante Samuel’s agreement with the team not to be franchised.
It may be that in hindsight, Hobbs knows that he’d be looking at reduced playing time in New England this year. That wouldn’t be all that great for his career – and he sees that in making the trade Belichick created a win win for both interests.
Vrabel may not have wanted to leave, or take a drastic pay cut – yet the Pats weren’t about to pay him $4.5 million this season. But rather than cut him outright, which would have resulted in 1/4th the money for Vrabel this season (and allowing a rival to bring Vrabel on the team) Belichick sends him to the one team that can afford to take on Vrabel’s full salary.
Both players likely wanted to remain with the Patriots – but when that wasn’t an option they know Belichick did right by them.
Why wouldn’t he? Belichick’s coaching has made average players good and good players great.
Other than a very few exceptions, just about every player who moves on from the team has good things to say about Belichick and the organization.
That won’t stop the ignorant, mindless bashing here, but who cares? As long as he has the respect of players and ownership, that’s all that counts.
They are all a bunch of something….jerks doesn’t go nearly far enough.
Stockholm Syndrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
where is all the comments?
I’m a Pats fan, but Citizen Strange’s comment about the Stockholm Syndrome is very funny.
Brainwashed. Few more words can be used besides “jerks”
He has learned the adage of ‘Don’t burn bridges’ very well.
Oh c’mon now ‘pats suck, blow and cheat’ tell us how you really feel…
Don’t worry, they’ll continue to win like they always do so you will still have something to bitch about this year.
pats suck, blow and cheat says: “They are all a bunch of something….jerks doesn’t go nearly far enough.”
@pats suck, blow and cheat — ….Champions? Winners? Fantastic football players? Destroyers of your team? Take your pick.
@ pats suck, blow and cheat &
Citizen Strange
You are examples of why the PFT rating system was a good idea. You are both LOSERS.
I have an idea of what your previous aliases were, and your ratings usually reflected what ignorant morons you are. The more things change…
Classic case of don’t know what you have until it’s gone. If Ellis had stuck to the Patriot way when he was here, then he might still be here.
Good riddance 27.
“Few more words can be used besides ‘jerks’”
How about- winners? You know, the opposite of what you are
Not too mention they aren’t there to be an example for the community or do things the “right way”. When its all about winning football games and thats all you care about cheating, lying, being an ass and being unloyal are just part of it. I will always be a loyal Dungy fan because he understood its more than just winning – winning is a huge part but not all.
This isn’t surprising, as most everyone in football has respect for the Pats’ organization. It’s the armchair losers that carry all the hate.
@ Mike Florio’s Stunt Double
You, sir, are an ass.
I think I’d rather have a coach whose top priorities are teaching the game and winning, versus who who cares more about being a hateful, hypocritical bigot who promotes discrimination against gays in the name of Jesus and who also who defends indefensible, sadistic felons.
Oh…and to your “loyalty” point… loyalty is holding a job in one location so that your children aren’t forced to move around while in high school, versus a father who takes a job in another city, leaves his child behind, the same child who commits suicide while his dad is working 1000 miles away. Dungy makes my skin crawl…and if that’s a guy you respect, then so do you.
WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot needs to calm down.
Anyway, Patriots are a great organization and Belichick is the best football mind in the NFL behind Parcells.
Hobbs will be happy he went to another great organization and will have zero regrets.
Ellis Hobbs will be an elite nickel/dime cover corner. He’s very good at defending, just not great at defending elite WRs. The Eagles will have a scary good pass defense.
Also, he’s an extremely dangerous kick returner… so I wonder how NE will recover that.
He will be missed.
Bill Belicheat will always be a piece of crap, I don’t care if he’s won superbowls. He cheated and that’s final, it’s just like steroids in baseball, the legacy is tarnished, he’s no good. He’s a piece of crap, and he always be a piece of crap that cheated. He doesn’t deserve praise for anything, F**K HIM!
Hobbs isn’t stupid he remembers during camp when a player mouthed off about Belichick and and Bill stared and him and said “I find your lack of faith disturbing”, right before the player fell over choking.
gonzolo4-
you must be a charger or shittsburgh fan. i’d be jealous and bitter, too. and news flash: its’ going to be more frustration in ’09. get ready, asshole.
@ WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot
Sounds like you have some pent up anger you need to release.
I urge you to find a friend who’s not a patriot fan that agrees that Tony Dungy is a “Hateful Bigot”. He has the right to not agree with homosexuality as does anyone. I am certain you can find something you don’t agree with about all of your friends so just because he doesnt agree with a particular lifestyle doesnt mean he is a bigot. Why don’t you enlighten us all on how Dungy hates and discriminates against gays? Likewise he does not “defend felons”. He spends time mentoring them – helping them correct their wrongs and prepare for life outside of prison or inside it if thats the case. Again I urge you to find a friend whos not a patriot fan that thinks this is a detriment to society.
Your headline grabbing, name calling self should learn how to present a valid arguement. All you did was call him names based on nothing.
Let the anger release begin!
I forgot to address your “loyalty” claim as ridiculous as it is. Why don’t you cram that same arguement down the throat of every parent that lets their child move away to college or gets fired while their child is in high school. His son was 18 and attending community college when he moved out. How many dad’s in this country let their child go where they want for an education?That is PROPOSTEROUS to think about! God forbid he should get a job that supports his family and makes a decent wage…when the alternative is being unemployed. Shame on him. You are right he should make your skin crawl.
Philly got themselves a nice player.
Did I mention how your beloved Belichick cheated on his wife? How do you know he doesnt disapprove of the gay lifestyle? He hasn’t answered a question with more than a head nod in 5 years. All we know for sure about him is that he is a proven cheater, in his personal life and professional life. But he wins football games too so he’s cool.
gonzolo4 needs a little anger management and a big hug from Bill Belichick to get him over the hump. Maybe Bill will let you kiss his rings. Go Patriots and in Bill We Trust! =)
For as much as I wish that Belichick would just go away and that he has tarnished his integrity to win games, in some twisted way I feel this loyalty is good to see.
Man that was hard to say.
Let the Patriots win a Superbowl without video taping and I will give them the respect they want.
Until then, they cheated.
lovethatdirtywater: your an ass. apparently leaving everything he had on the field, every down, every year, through several painful injuries was how ellis “strayed from the patriot way.” unappreciative dipsh*ts like you are the reason our fanbase has such a negative reputation.
Hobbs is a good guy.
Played hurt, defended against guys almost a foot taller than him, took punishment returning kicks. Never complained. Never made excuses. It took the DC to explain that often when Hobbs got burned it was because someone else blew their assignment – leaving Hobbs without help he expected, or forcing him to cover someone else’s guy. But Hobbs never once uttered a word about it.
A lot of people in NE ragged on him because he wasn’t a shut-down corner like Asante Samuel, and because, well, he did get beat more than a few times. But the Pats pass defense just plain sucked last year and no way was it all his fault.
Philly got a good player, and an even better human being.
Belichick puts on a facade of being a d-bag for the national media – who he can’t stand – especially ESPN. Somewhere on YouTube there’s bound to be footage of him during practice with the players. Totally at ease, cracking jokes, ragging on people – very loose. His pressers with the local media are much more relaxed – though sometimes he wanders off onto tangents of the history of football. Even then, his style and delivery are very dry, which doesn’t translate well to all parts of the country.
i guess i agree with the dunger on something.
actually gays want power, not for others to not discriminate against them. the reason for monstrosities like the pending
“hate crimes bill” isnt to save gays from being punished. it is to keep the majority in a box and unable to verbally or otherwise challenge gays’ lechery upon society.
and if they get free benefits, who pays for all that… you do, mr. taxpayer. the elite doesnt like families and wants to take take take from them. wonder why?
Easy rusH1023. The Pittsburgh fans that I know have great respect for the Patriots and what they have done in this decade. Perhaps a bit of diplomacy on your part and refer to the city by it’s proper name. It’s Pittsburgh and there’s 6 Lombardi Trophies there compared to your 3 and you have a long way to go to catch up.
Figures all the Cheatriot fanboys are in this thread going bananas because people keep pointing out what a sorry team they cheer, with a sorry coach and a sorry owner. I love that you fanboys will see this kind of stuff shoved down your collective throats for years upon years. It ain’t going away fanboys, and people will never forget that YOUR team was the only NFL team EVER caught cheating, was fined, the coach was fined and you lost a first-round draft pick all because of the cheating your favorite team was caught engaging in.
Stunt Double-
‘All we know for sure about him is that he is a proven cheater’
What an asshole YOU must be in your personal and professional life. I know this about him:
Jim Brown’s Amer-I-Can Foundation
Jim Brown to Sports Illustrated: “Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots has contributed more to the work I surround myself with than any black athlete in modern times – financially, intellectually, every way. He’s been in the prisons with me. He’s met gang members in my home; he’s met gang members in Cleveland. He’s put up money. He’s opened up areas of education for us very quietly and very strongly. Imagine what would happen if Michael Jordan did the same thing.”
He can’t be all that bad I guess.
I hope that Hobbs continues to do it for the Eagles too…he sucked!
Jimmy, you don’t have to give them any respect. They don’t even know (or care) that you exist. I think you’re showing excessively high regard for your own self importance.
The Pats secondary was bad last year and BB knew he needed to revamp it. The two rookies from last year have showed strong promise. The 2nd rounder Wheatley broke his arm early and went on IR but showed good things prior to that. The other one Wilhite played quite a bit, is definitely a keeper and looks to be the nickel back moving forward. This year they bring in Springs and Bodden….all of the sudden Ellis Hobbs becomes the mediocre corner who just became the victim of being ‘upgraded’.
Ellis is a decent corner….but that’s it. He’d make some great effort plays on taller receivers but he would also at times get beat badly. I found him to be somewhat inconsistent.
He is a very good kickoff returner.
I liked Ellis because he always seemed to be a high effort guy. He fought through some tough injuries….that I think may have been related to his all out effort.
Ellis contributed solidly for the Pats and is a real good high effort guy. In the end the Pats decided to improve the secondary. With the recent picks, free agent additions and then Darius Butler in this years draft they knew Ellis would be the odd man out.
Good luck with the Eagles Ellis. I think most Pats fans appreciated your efforts.
Several of the above deserve 5′s.
Several of the above deserve 1′s.
I miss being able to rate the comments.
@empty13
glad to see you too made it over to the new site.
Now…”lechery upon society.”
WTF???!!!
“and if they get free benefits, who pays for all that… you do, mr. taxpayer. the elite doesnt like families and wants to take take take from them. wonder why?”
I thought this was PFT, not worldnetdaily…
Hobbs will be a solid nickel/dime back, and a very good return man. Sounds like he doesn’t have an attitude. If that’s the case, as an Iggles fan I’m glad to have him.
Don’t worry olcap we Cheatriot fanboys are wise to this well worn discretidation ploy used by the “suddenly I’ve got an excuse why my team sucked when they played the Patriots” fan lament. Good luck with this going forward though, I anticipate many years of “sorry” excuses from you and others of your persuasion. And thank you Ellis Hobbs, for your contributions to the Patriots success on the gridiron. I only wish for you the best in Philly!
@ olcap
Other than the Broncos being fined for circumventing the salary cap during the years they won 2 Super Bowls, Jimmy Johnson admitting that he videotaped opponents signals during the Cowboys Super Bowl years, the Colts recently retired coach Howard Mudd being considered “the best in the league at stealing signals”, teams ALLEGEDLY piping in crowd noise, not to mention rampant tampering with free agents, as well as players under contract, that the league office turns a blind eye to, umm, yeah, nobody else has ever cheated in the history of the league.
What an outrage.
I heard Hobbs on the radio a couple of days ago, talking about how much fun it is to be in Philly compared to New England.