Bargain Hunting in Free Agency

With college basketball’s March Madness stealing some of the spotlight from the NFL offseason at the moment, there likely won’t be many more huge NFL stories until the draft next month.  However, that won’t stop me from reporting what news does trickle out of the NFL.  Today we’ll start with a story about free agency bargain hunting, and which players the Patriots may choose to pursue now that more than half the available players have signed contracts.  The Patriots were not extremely active during the first half of free agency, but expect them to do a bit more now.

The Patriots have always been great bargain hunters, and if they can bring back a player like Ty Law for what they feel is a fair price, you can certainly bet they will be looking to improve their team any way they can.  There aren’t many great players still out there, but if the Pats could find a few solid role players to plug into their system, that would be perfect.  Belichick loves smart football players at a great price, so be on the lookout for a few no-names to end up on the Pats roster in the near future.  They may just surprise you next season.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 17, 2008 - Post a comment

A Dramatic History of the AFC East

The Patriots aren’t making a whole lot of news lately.  Choosing to simply lay low until this whole Spygate controversy blows over, the Pats have been fairly quiet in their offseason moves - a situation in stark contrast to their big buys from last year.  With very few moves happening within the Patriots organization, we are forced to look in less obvious places for some Patriots’ stories.  This particular tidbit comes from ESPN.com’s Page 2, where Thomas Neumann has put together a very entertaining history of the AFC East.

Any longtime fan of the Patriots will remember many of these of incidents.  Whether you’re remembering the Bill Parcells defection from Patriots to Jets after the Super Bowl in 1997 or you’re reminiscing about Bill Belichick quitting the Jets only to sign with the Patriots, you certainly don’t have to look far to see how much bad blood exists within this division.  With all the moves the Jets have made this offseason, they should be more competitive in 2008, as should the Bills.  And I hear the Dolphins just hired that Parcells guy to rebuild their team.  Looks like things are going to be getting very interesting again in the AFC East very soon.
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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 14, 2008 - Post a comment

Belichick NFL’s Best Active Coach

ESPN.com has started a new column called Third and Short.  Presumably, this is the offseason answer to John Clayton’s First and Ten.  However, since they don’t really specify, it’s hard to know exactly what they’re going for with it.  The point is that the good people at ESPN.com have found a new way to give me my news blurbs so I can send them along, and so here we are.  In this week’s Third and Short, the pundits at ESPN.com proclaim Bill Belichick is the NFL’s best active coach.  I, not surprisingly, would have to be inclined to agree.

While the haters and detractors will point to Spygate and try in vain to claim that Belichick is a cheater (no more than anyone else in the league), the fact remains that his three Super Bowl victories set him apart from everyone else.  Ask anyone in the league how hard it is to win one football game in the NFL, let alone three Super Bowls, and you will understand just why Belichick is unequivocally the best in the business.  He almost got to number four last year, and if you don’t think he’s going to double his efforts to win a fourth Super Bowl next year, you’ve got another thing coming to you.

You can get all your New England Patriots tickets at www.stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 13, 2008 - Post a comment

Restraining Order Against Moss Dropped

Let’s face it, Pats fans.  Lately, there just hasn’t been a whole lot of good news for New England.  The Spygate scandal continues to loom like a dark cloud that makes a whole lot of thunder but is lacking in lightning and rain.  Meanwhile, the team has lost a few very solid players to free agency, which is never fun.  After being only one game away from making NFL history, it now appears that the Patriots are headed for a let down season.  The media slant has been dark lately, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t good news for the Patriots to report as well.

There is certainly good news, such as this story about the fact that the restraining order against Randy Moss has been tossed out.  If you remember this story, it was the only semi-negative story generated around Randy Moss all season about how he supposedly hit a woman.  Moss denied the allegations then, and now he has been vindicated.  Any and all charges and allegations against Moss have been tossed out, and now Moss can get back to enjoying his offseason.  Hopefully this is a signal that more good news is on the way for the Pats.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 12, 2008 - Post a comment

When Will Walsh Speak?

I’d like to just throw out a blanket apology to any Patriots fans who are extremely tired of this Spygate story.  To tell you the honest truth, I’m not a fan of it either.  I’ve been saying for months that this thing needs to just go away, for the good of everyone involved.  The longer this story is kept on life support by the fans, the NFL, the media and the senate, the worse it’s going to get for everyone.  That’s not to say the Patriots will be found guilty of any more wrongdoing, but it’s just a bad situation for absolutely everyone involved.

Which brings us to today’s story out of ESPN.com claiming that the NFL has yet to set a date to meet with Matt Walsh.  So even if an agreement is reached between the two parties, they have no idea when they’ll actually sit down.  I have no clue what to make of this development.  It seems as though the NFL is only half-heartedly pursuing this lead, mostly to appease Senator Specter, which isn’t even really working.  If Walsh doesn’t have anything to say that needs to be said immediately, then why is the NFL even meeting with him at all?

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 11, 2008 - Post a comment

NFL Nearing Deal With Walsh

According to reports out of ESPN.com, the National Football League is near an agreement with Matt Walsh - former New England Patriots video assistant - that will allow Walsh to tell his side of the story as it pertains to the Spygate saga.  If you recall, Walsh was the man who broke the “The Patriots taped the Rams before the Super Bowl” story.  Though the Patriots have vehemently denied such claims, and the NFL seemed mostly to just want the whole issue to go away, The United States Senate has stepped in and kept this story going.

Of all the stories in the NFL right now that I wish would just go away, this has to be number one.  No good can come of this.  The Patriots have been caught cheating.  This entire experience has most likely soured the organization on any such practices in the future.  The Patriots have already been heavily penalized.  Now we’re stuck watching the NFL treat a guy who was lower on the Pats’ totem pole than the towel boy like he’s the NFL’s version of Deep Throat.  It’s ridiculous.  The sooner all of this gets put to bed, the better.
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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 10, 2008 - Post a comment

Goodell Proposes Crackdown

According to this article on ESPN.com, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is now proposing much tighter restrictions on cheating in the NFL.  After the debacle of SpyGate for the Patriots, rising up then going away only to resurface at the end of the season and into the offseason, apparently Goodell felt it would be best if he implemented a new course of attack on those who choose to bend or circumvent the rules in the National Football League.  I’m sure the recent congressional investigation into the entire matter had more than just a little to do with it.

What does this mean for the Patriots?  Well it most likely means that the electronic malfunctions of communication between the coaches up in the away team’s booth and the sideline will go away immediately.  I think it’s a safe bet that you won’t hear about any more videotaping going on with the Pats.  I also hope that this crackdown turns up a few more teams in the NFL who are willing to go around the rules a little.  I’m 100% certain the Patriots weren’t the only team doing stuff like this.  I simply think they were made into the scapegoats.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 7, 2008 - Post a comment

New England Re-Signs Gaffney

With Randy Moss taken care of, the New England Patriots made sure they had the proper complimentary receiver for their superstar.  According to the ESPN.com roundup, the Patriots re-signed wide receiver Jabar Gaffney to a new deal.  Gaffney played in 16 games with seven starts and caught 36 passes for 449 yards and a career-high five touchdowns. In his career, he has only caught 218 passes for 2,600 yards and 13 touchdowns.  However, with the departure of Stallworth, one can only assume the Gaffney will be seeing more time next year.

This is vintage Patriots.  While Stallworth was a fine receiver for the Patriots, he was honestly almost Tom Brady’s third option in the offense.  Wes Welker and Randy Moss are the two big weapons on the field for the Pats on offense.  Gaffney showed flashes last year of real play-making ability last season, and given more time on the field, he could become a very solid third option for New England.  The Patriots likely got him at a better price than they would have had to pay for Stallworth, and he will likely produce just as well.  Good signing by the Pats.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 6, 2008 - Post a comment

Moss Stayed because of Patriots’ Intangibles

In a story that has provided the Patriots with some much-needed good news this week, we have this to add.  ESPN.com is running a story detailing a few of the reasons Randy Moss decided to re-sign with the Pats.  Moss’s agent lists many “intangibles” that went above and beyond just the monetary reimbursement of his contract as the reasons Moss ended up returning to New England.  Moss has formed many solid friendships on the team, not to mention a mutual respect with the coaching staff.  However, it was apparently the Patriots’ decision to not make Moss their franchise player that really made the difference.

Many people questioned the Patriots when they decided to roll the dice and not franchise Moss.  However, now it appears that move was pure genius.  Randy Moss, whether now more mature and a better teammate or not, has always been a bit of a head case and an egomaniac.  Bill Belichick should be given big props for understanding Moss’s idiosyncrasies as a superstar.  Not only was Belichick able to keep Moss in check for the duration of his first season in New England, but he has also succeeded in keeping the record-breaking receiver with the Patriots for the next three years.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 5, 2008 - Post a comment

Pats Re-Sign Moss

Everyone in New England can breathe a big sigh of relief today.  The Patriots have re-signed Randy Moss to a three-year 27 million dollar deal.  The contract reportedly includes 16 million dollars in guaranteed money, not to mention a 12 million dollar signing bonus, according to ESPN.com.  The deal caps off nearly a week of free agency for Moss, who probably did take a little less money to stay with the Patriots.  I’m sure there was at least one team out there who offered Moss a fourth year, which would have meant a few more million for the receiver.

Due to his high profile, ripples of Moss’s re-signing are being felt immediately in the NFL.  Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre retired, with rumors swirling that he would have returned had the Packers signed Moss.  This only goes to show what a difference-maker Randy Moss truly is in the NFL.  While no one will be calling for the Patriots to go undefeated again next season, they have to be the odds-on favorites to return to the Super Bowl.  As Moss’s agent put it, “[Randy Moss and the Patriots] have unfinished business.”

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on March 4, 2008 - Post a comment


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