Don Draper has an idea for how to beat the Patriots.
Is it… cheating?
Good one. God, "Mad Men" ruled. But no, it isn’t.
(Don Draper was Jon Hamm’s character in Mad Men. He cheated on his wife a ton and she divorced him. Then he married Megan, a younger woman to whom he was faithful, but then he started sleeping with his neighbor’s wife, played by Linda Cardellini. Megan left him and to be completely honest I can’t remember what Don’s deal was after that, but he was pretty messed up. It all ends with him coming up with the “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” campaign. I should have mentioned this before, but Don was an advertising executive who worked on Madison Avenue. Watch the show. It’s tough to binge-watch because it moves so slow, but it’s good to have seen and better to be able to say you’ve seen. Plus the clothes are dope.)
Anyway, actor Jon Hamm is a huge sports fan. He’s the guy who presented Tim Thomas with his second Vezina at the 2011 NHL Awards. Although he’s a Chiefs fan, his allegiances are to St. Louis teams, so he saw the damage the Pats did to the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.
Speaking to UPROXX, Hamm voiced an overused and oversimplified method for beating the Pats: Sack Tom Brady often.
“Everybody knows what you have to do to beat the Patriots, and no one can do it,” Hamm said. “And it’s like the only people that have done it are the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, twice, consistently. Like you’ve got to put Brady on his ass, and you can’t turn the ball loose. That’s it. And the Texans did it for one half, and then they just forgot.”
New England Patriots
Hamm, of course, was referring to the Texans’ performance against the Patriots in the divisional round.
“[They were] just like, ‘Oh, well, it seems to be working. Let’s change everything,’” Hamm quipped. “Oh, and what ends up happening is that the Patriots also are so exceedingly well coached that they adjust.”
The Patriots ran away with a 34-16 win over the Texans before using a 36-17 win against Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship to punch their ticket to the Super Bowl.
That’s where Hamm said the Patriots might have their hands full.
“I do think Atlanta’s going to be a tough matchup for the Pats because they’re like a ten-headed hydra,” Hamm said. “I mean, they just have so many, so many weapons. What the Patriots will probably do is what they did against the Rams in [Super Bowl XXXVI] and just hold them. Hold the receivers off the line and make them throw a flag.”