by Scott Benson
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Awwww, it’s our one week anniversary today. What’s the traditional gift for a website on this occasion? I know……a whole mess of Patriots links.

Seriously, thanks to everyone that has stopped by over the past seven days. We’ll soon be rolling out some of the regular features we have planned for this fall. If we can find the rest of the staff, that is.

Today also happens to be Tom Brady’s 30th birthday. Wait….Brady’s 30 already? Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday that the excitable youngster was slamming into a startled Drew Bledsoe in the Superdome tunnel, completely ruining Drew’s traditional pre-game coma.

If there’s going to be cake today, Vince Wilfork will take a pass.  John Tomase of the Herald has this morning’s feature link, an expansive story on the formerly expansive nose tackle, who shed inches from his waistline this off-season, mindful of the premature loss of his beloved late parents. The whole defensive line gets some play this morning as the local scribes consider their place among the NFL’s top fronts.

Owner Robert Kraft stopped by camp and spent a few minutes with reporters, deflecting a Bill Belichick contract question and slipping in a line about players who talk winning but mean money. Not that he meant anybody specifically. Like Eddie Levert used to cry, almighty dollah! Money can drive some people out of their minds.

Hey, what’s with the picture that went with the Globe’s on-line version of this story? It looks like Kraft is about to grab the camera of some pesky paparazzi. Was that Jim Davis? The man is a menace with the camera.

In other news, Ben Watson’s been working on his blocking (don’t forget catching too, Ben), Logan Mankins has been a model of consistency, and Karen Guregian has been writing the first hysterical story about Randy Moss’s hamstring. Karen, I was just kidding yesterday. I think.

Birthday wishes for Tom? Recipes for Vince? You know where to put them.

by Scott Benson
[email protected]

Look out….coming through…..red hot links!

Training camp can be kind of an up and down thing, evidently; an often frustrating and grueling two-steps-forward, one-step back experience seemingly designed to test the individual and collective will. Take yesterday, for example.

Randy Moss was having One of Those Days, the good kind, catching one pass after another over the Patriots defense, leaving both teammates and onlookers with vertical visions dancing in their heads.

Then suddenly, he was gone.

Moss left practice quickly after he suffered a tweak to his left hamstring. The injury is not thought to be serious; but Moss’s hamstring might as well be stuck in a well for all the media attention it’s about to get.

Hey, isn’t that what the bed and breakfast guy said? This guy doesn’t like to practice? How do we know Randy isn’t faking it here? I knew it! This is what the Patriots get for compromising their principles! Ron Borges tried to tell us, quite frankly!

Anyway, this morning Mike Reiss of the Globe has a good look at the receiving competition thus far. According to the outstanding Pats beat man, Wes Welker and Jabar Gaffney have joined Moss in pacing the field. Moss is exceeding expectations, it seems; we knew about his uncommon athleticism, but what we didn’t know is how he would blend with the team. Heath Evans’s comments yesterday (“To see Randy get here and dive into this team the way he has, its been special.”) indicate that Moss could not have gotten off to a better start.

Until he pulled up yesterday.

In other news, special teams ace Mel Mitchell got back on the field for the first time since going down for the season last August. On the other hand, neither Kyle Brady nor Garrett Mills has practiced in recent memory. Even with the loss of bellwether tight end Daniel Graham, this year’s group was expected to be strong. But with David Thomas’s broken foot and the absence of Brady and Mills, only Ben Watson and Matt Kranchick remain as the dog days begin in earnest.

Comment to your heart’s content, here.

by Scott Benson
[email protected]

Bob Glauber of newsday.com visited Pats camp on Tuesday, and today offers this compelling look at coach Bill Belichick.

Belichick speaks thoughtfully about recent losses in his personal and professional life, and for the second time in a week, seems to address persistent rumors that he is nearing the end of his reign in New England:

“The situation here is good for me in several ways,” he said. “Everything that goes into the operation I am comfortable with.”

How much longer does he plan on coaching the Patriots?

“I don’t envision feeling differently anytime soon,” he said.

Naturally, this will quickly be dismissed by the conspiracy theorists near and far who, for whatever perverse reason, delight in the prospects of a Belichick departure. They’ll claim that the coach is simply aiming to reduce distractions for his alleged ‘final run’.

At what point will the Amateur Freuds acknowledge that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar? Never, but that’s beside the point.

The point is that, over the last week, Belichick has seemingly told anyone that will listen that he doesn’t plan to leave the Patriots at any point in the foreseeable future. Given the coach’s intent on getting that message out in the first week of camp, it seems evident that the foreseeable future does in fact include 2008.

* Credit Where Credit Is Due Dept.: Thanks to the alert patsfans.com poster who pointed us to this noteworthy link.

Go ahead, Sigmund. Use our comments feature to tell us why we’re wrong.