Matt Judon. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
When the Patriots take the field for their season opener, Miami will be staring down one of the meanest defensive lines in recent history.
These Pats’ linebackers are the stuff of Popeye cartoon legends: bulging muscles popping out of shirts, wicked grins, narrowed eyes, and so much assured swagger that the players might as well have smoking corncob pipes sticking out of the side of their mouths.
They stand, taunting and immovable, as if to say, go ahead, try to get past us. The underlying connotation being, you won’t.