Tag: jermaine wiggins

Brockton High names former Patriots TE Jermaine Wiggins head coach

Former New England Patriots tight end Jermaine Wiggins has been named the head football coach at Brockton High (Mass.).

Former New England Patriots tight end Jermaine Wiggins has been named the head football coach at Brockton High (Mass.).

Wiggins offers experience at the game’s highest level as well as an East Boston background.

Here’s what Wiggins had to say about the hiring, per WCVB.

“For me, it was simple. I grew up in East Boston and a lot of these kids out here — even though it’s a different element — look like me, sound like me and I want to try to give back and help them… Let them know that there’s more to the community that they’re just seeing and there’s an opportunity to accomplish the goals that they have.”

Wiggins #85 of the New England Patriots runs against the Oakland Raiders during the AFC playoff game at Foxboro Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, in 2002. The Patriots came from behind to win 16-13 in overtime. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

After splitting his college career between Marshall and Georgia, Wiggins went undrafted and got his start with the Patriots. He couldn’t have come at a better time. Wiggins was part of their 2001 championship team – the first of six rings Tom Brady won in New England. For his part, Wiggins caught 14 passes and four touchdowns during the regular season. He also made a clutch catch against the Rams in the Super Bowl, setting up Adam Vinatieri’s famous game-winning field goal.

Wiggins went on to play a total of 107 games in the NFL, the last of them coming in 2006 with the Minnesota Vikings. He’ll be inheriting a good squad. Brockton’s varsity team went 9-2 last season.

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Jermaine Wiggins believes Bucs-Saints is most important game in Tom Brady’s career

Is this Tom Brady’s most important game?

Tom Brady’s played in some pretty important games during his career, including his nine Super Bowl appearances over the past two decades.

Brady holds the NFL record with 31 playoff wins and 30 of those came during his time with the New England Patriots — where he met and exceeded every expectation that was put on him. ESPN’s Mike Reiss put together a list of his Top 10 playoff performances and No. 10 was a Super Bowl matchup where he threw for 505 yards.

For former tight end Jermaine Wiggins, none of those performances surpassed the importance of Brady’s matchup against the New Orleans Saints this weekend. Brady’s in his first year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and he’s already in the second round of the playoffs.

Here’s Wiggins’ explanation for his comment.

“For Tom Brady, you could say this, that as he sits in his mansion down in Tampa, this is the most important game of his NFL, not even NFL, but his football career,” Wiggins said on WEEI’s ‘The Greg Hill Show’.

“Because it’s all about he’s been tied to Bill Belichick and winning championships and winning big games for his whole career,” Wiggins continued. “Now he’s in a position where he went to a place and the expectations for Brady and that team went through the roof. You are now in a position where it is the divisional game, a game that everybody expects you to have won prior to the season starting. … Now, if you lose in the divisional game against a team that has already beat you twice during the regular season and beat you badly, now you know what the national narrative becomes? Brady can’t do it without Bill Belichick.”

The Brady vs. Belichick conversation will be a lifelong debate and the 43-year-old could cement his legacy with a Super Bowl appearance — but, it doesn’t take away from the greatness already achieved.

This game may be important, but it’s more impressive that Brady’s still on the field and performing at an elite level.

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