Game On

by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

The first blow of free agency has been struck, and has been the trend since February 1, the Patriots have taken another one on the chin.

PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM

At this writing, reports that Asante Samuel has signed a first day deal with the Eagles have begun to trickle in. 

The Pro Bowl cornerback has apparently reached a six-year agreement with Philadelphia, though financial considerations have yet to be determined. Early rumors say that the former 4th round pick will average somewhere around $9.5 million a season for the Eagles, with as much as $20 million of the deal guaranteed. 

Given Samuel’s age and the position he plays, this is probably the biggest free agent loss of the Belichick era. Samuel logged significant minutes for the three-time champs from the beginning of his career, and by his fourth season, he had ascended to become one of the better playmaking cornerbacks in the league. Most memorable was his interception return for a touchdown against Peyton Manning in the 2006 AFC Championship, though Pats fans will now likely choose to remember his near-but-not-near-enough interception muff against another Manning in the Patriots’ shocking Super Bowl loss to the Giants just a few weeks ago.

Simply said, I feel bad. This is one of the hardest things about being a sports fan in this player/transient day and age, though we can’t begrudge Samuel for exploiting his CBA-given right to free and open bidding for his services. They same system worked for the Patriots last year, as talented players like Randy Moss and Wes Welker joined the Pats (albeit by trade, but you know that I mean) and helped them to one of the most historic, and controversial, seasons in league history. This time, the Lord has taketh away.

Samuel was a diligent worker and a solid citizen who played hard every week, and over time, developed skills that have now resulted in multi-lifetime security for himself and his family. He owes the Patriots and their fans nothing, aside from a warm handhake and a thanks for the chance. By the same token, we owe him - at the least - a nod of gratitude for meritorious service to the cause.

NO MOSS GATHERED

Drama queen Mike Florio and his little rat-faced three-name lackey Michael David Smith have barely concealed their glee - in between Sprint ads disguised as ‘posts’ to their rumor site - that the Patriots have yet to sign Randy Moss to the new contract that was expected to be executed sometime after midnight last night. Have I mentioned how much I think Florio has screwed up a good thing with Pro Football Talk?

Anyway, Moss talk at this point is nothing more than rank speculation, and I’ll take a pass on that, thanks. Who knows what the deal is, or isn’t? Nobody, I think, other than Moss himself. Pats fans who have worked themselves into a lather because the record-breaker has gone a whole 18 hours without re-upping probably need to get some fresh air or something.

Of course, I may have a dog in this hunt, secretly. I’ll probably get flamed like Jim Carrey’s Fireman Bill for even breathing a word of this, but I guess I wouldn’t be bothered too much if Moss pulled a swerve on the Pats and signed a mega-deal with someone else. Let’s just say that things got a little too “just ****ing sling it” for my tastes last season. Those September-October jump balls tend to peter out when the leaves fall, and when the winter winds start to whip, the high-flying Sling It Kids just end up with getting rolled for their lunch money, left in a heap with a bunch of sparkling 19-0 t-shirts they can’t use.

Of course, if he re-signs, it’ll be the greatest thing that ever happened.

FREE AGENT EMMANUEL LEWIS TO VISIT PATS NEXT WEEK

No, I guess the diminutive former star of TV’s Webster is still locked into his rookie deal or something, because its actually cornerback Jason Webster who will be stopping by Route 1 on Monday. Being perfectly honest here, it took me a good long time to even remember who Jason Webster, the former Bill, Falcon and 49′er, is. I have an exuse, though - he’s played only nine games over the last two years, none against the Pats. The 30 year old is said to be best suited for zone coverage. Oh, great - more 19 yard cushions. You can’t dog the Pats on this, though - they’ve lost Samuel, Eugene Wilson, and quite possibly Randall Gay (set for visits across the country apparently) over the last week. At the very least, Webster would provide experienced depth and competition as things get underway in the late summer. 

STAY TUNED

I’ll be back periodically as developments warrant. I hope you’ll do the same.

Free Agency Period Begins

by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

The NFL’s new year began shortly after midnight this morning and that means the league’s free agency period is underway. The Patriots are already making news.

Asante Samuel, the 4th round pick who became a Pro Bowler, is now poised to become the highest paid cornerback in the league. He’s reportedly scheduled to visit the Eagles today. It is all but certain now that his Patriots career is over, and that New England will be faced with plugging a large hole in their defense this fall.

Secondary mate Randall Gay is another expected to move on to ‘greener’ pasture$ in the days ahead.

The Pats won’t lose everybody - Kelley Washington, the special teamer and reserve wideout, has agreed to return to the Pats, and may now find a role in the offense with the departure of Donte Stallworth. No word yet on the fate of Jabar Gaffney, who also became a free agent overnight.

Veteran linebacker Tedy Bruschi announced last night that he would return for his 13th season with the team.

Finally, there has been no announcement about the elephant in the room. The record setting Randy Moss became the NFL’s prime free agent at 12:01 a.m., but so far, no news. Veteran scribe Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune claims in a Friday column that former Vike Moss is signed, sealed and delivered to the Pats.

We will see. And react, of course. Stop by when you can.

So Long To Rosie, Geno?

WEEI and Mike Reiss are each reporting that linebacker Rosevelt Colvin has been (or will be soon) released. Colvin was due to count $7.6 million against the cap next season, do doubt the main reason for this move.

Ironically, Colvin was a guest on WEEI’s Dale & Holley program this morning, and made mention of his uncertain status, though he stated that he hopes to be with the team next season.

If he is, it will be with a new (and smaller) contract.

Reiss also reported this morning that the Patriots and safety Eugene Wilson are also expected to part ways this offseason.

This move isn’t unexpected, as Wilson saw his playing time cut this season with the emergence of James Sanders as the starter alongside Rodney Harrison and with Brandon Meriweather coming on strong towards the end of his rookie season.

This weekend marks the start of free agency. The Patriots aren’t expected to be quite as active in the opening days this season, but we’ll keep you posted on any moves that they make..

Capers Signs On With Pats

by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

The Patriots have hired veteran NFL coach Dom Capers to be the team’s special assistant/secondary coach.

Capers will replace the departing Joel Collier, but even at first glance, you have to wonder if there’s more to it.  

Like, what’s a ’special’ assistant? Coach Bill Belichick may have answered this one in his team-issued statement, “I look forward to getting to work with Dom and Dean [Pees] immediately.” I understand it’s just a press release, but given that statement and Capers’ history as a defensive coordinator, it may be clearer what’s “special” about him.

Capers is said to have recently turned down an offer to be defensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys; granted, alot depends on the right fit, but DC still seems to be a step above assistant and position coach.

For all the faults of the almost-world-beating offense in the Super Bowl, the fact remains that for two years running, the Pats defense could not stop the winning points from being scored at the end of a championship game. That’s a gradual yet sharp decline from what that defense once was, when it once dominated the best offenses in the league, with many of the same players. Which is probably the biggest part of the problem now, the passage of time being what it is. My prevailing thought on that Sunday night almost three weeks ago was that, most of all, something had to change with this defense.

It’s only an assumption at this point that Capers is the first step in that change, and that the team is moving towards a more aggressive style. My recollection of Capers’ defenses is that he made big stars out of lunatics like Greg Lloyd and Kevin Greene and Carnell Lake, all of them blitzing from every angle, pretty much all the time. A 3-4, but one that was really predicated on its hyper-aggressive pass rush, particularly from its linebackers. Much more so than the Patriots seem to have been recently.

Which would bring further urgency to replenish a defense - with all due respect - that simply isn’t good enough to be depended on anymore, not in the way it used to be. You don’t just stumble across an offense that ends up scoring more points than anyone ever has. There was some planning behind that, and considering the way things have ended in each of the last two years, you have to ask yourself if there are others who reached that conclusion long before us.

Or maybe I’m just getting way ahead of myself. Maybe Capers is here simply to deal with a post-Samuel secondary, and to find the right mix of Brandon Meriweather, James Sanders and Rodney Harrison. Maybe he’s here to chip in with a thought here and there. Maybe he’s here simply to do a good job in a high profile situation, as he often has as an assistant, and hope for his third try as a head coach.

Maybe.

Monday Morning Surprise

by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe has left his local and national contemporaries in his wake this morning with an exclusive interview with Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Vice-President Scott Pioli on the ‘Spygate’ controversy that has swirled around the team since the Patriots were nabbed breaking league rules in September.

For the first time, Belichick and Pioli offer extended comments on the controversy, which found new legs just before the Super Bowl with new allegations of taping improprieties and even the threat of intervention by the US Senate.

Over the past several days, a number of Pats fans have wondered when, if ever, the team would ‘fight back’ against the charges that envelop them. Today, the team responds in surprising, unannounced fashion. The highlights:

*Belichick flatly denies ever authorizing the taping of another team’s walkthrough, or ever being involved in such a practice during his coaching career;

*Pioli says Matt Walsh, the former team employee who claims he has evidence that will further damage the Patriots, was dismissed by the team in 2003 when Pioli learned Walsh was secretly tape-recording conversations between the two;

*Belichick offers his first extended explanation of the taping practices that led to the heaviest sanction in NFL history, denying that tapes of defensive signals were ever used in the game in which they were shot, and asserting they were of minimal impact to the team’s future preparation;

*When Reiss presses Belichick on why he bothered to tape when the impact was minimal, the coach predictably responds “Why do anything?” before acknowledging that it could have all been avoided;

*Pioli details Walsh’s employment history with the Patriots, which seems to contradict previous media reports as to Walsh’s responsibilities with the team.

These are in no way the definitive nor final words to be uttered about this regrettable period of the team’s history, but for many Pats fans this morning, they are welcome words nonetheless.    

No Excuses

by Dan Snapp
dan@patriotsdaily.com

So 10 days past the debacle, and already the conspiracy theories are out. Some fans can’t accept a legitimate loss, and grasp any straw available, even the last one. The claims this time (I’ll spare you the links) are that the refs swallowed their whistles in the waning minutes, and that there was some funny business with the game clock.

Don’t do it to yourselves, people. It’s pointless, it’s embarrassing and it’s wrong. It doesn’t matter what you think you see on video or in still frames; they’re not going to reverse the outcome. The Patriots lost, and they deserved to lose.

ProFootballTalk and Deadspin have already latched onto this one, Deadspin to laugh at the joke “online petitions” are to begin with, and PFT just to laugh at Patriot fans. Apparently PFT thinks all signees - up to nearly 20,000 - are legit Pats fans, in which case I’d like to officially welcome Monty Python, Forrest Gump and Elmer Fudd to the flock.

The petition isn’t unique to Patriot fans, though. After the Patriots beat the Rams in 2002, one sullen Rams fan took it as his mission in life to prove the Rams were cheated of rightful victory. He used still frames from the game to point out in great detail how the NFL and the government were in cahoots after 9-11 to award the championship to the Patriots (”9-11″ and the “Patriots”, get it? Do you see??!!). Because, the thinking must have gone, were the Rams to prevail, well then the terrorists have already won.

Don’t be that guy, Pats fans.

Go through any game with a fine-toothed comb and you’ll find a dozen penalties that get missed, for both sides. Some games are called better than others, and we’re always going to be bothered by the more egregious errors. But Mike Carey and his crew called a fair game in the Super Bowl. And if you’re honest with yourselves, you’d see the Patriots line got away with some holds, too.

Take your cue from the Patriots coaches and players. Not a one has said anything other than the Giants outplayed them. Certainly none have said, “The better team lost.”

The Most Miserable 18-1 Season in History

By Bruce Allen
bruce@patriotsdaily.com

Let me first start by saying that this column was going to be written even if the Patriots had won on Sunday night. The only difference is that the column would’ve been entitled “The Most Miserable Perfect Season in History.”

On the field, this Patriots team was a fan’s dream. They were talented, charismatic and had an obvious flair for the dramatic. They had the highest scoring offense of all time, with the superstar quarterback and ridiculously gifted wide receiver each breaking high-profile NFL records in the process. They had a resourceful defense, which while aging, still had experience and guile unmatched by most units across the league.

Yet, in talking to a number of people, this was the least fun that they’ve had following football that they can ever remember.

What made it that way? Certainly not the games. The games - even the blowouts, were all marvelously entertaining.

It was the coverage of this team. Right from training camp, there was always something to pick at and criticize. Randy Moss didn’t play a single down in the preseason - there was talk that he just didn’t want to work. Some speculated that he wouldn’t even make the team out of training camp. How silly does that notion look now? Others stated that Tom Brady was going to be distracted because of his personal life, having just become a new father, and trying to keep up with his supermodel girlfriend who wasn’t the mother of the child would somehow effect his performance on the field. With all that has happened since that time, these issues might seem like ancient history, but during training camp, we got almost daily reminders of these stories.

It turned out that that was just the beginning. There was Spygate. Then the Patriots were winning by too much and the media complained endlessly that they were running up the scores, humiliating their opponents and that they had no class. Meanwhile, the wins were piling up, one after the other. Teams around the league suddenly figured out that by being the team that handed the Patriots their first loss, they would reap untold reams of media adulation. So they started making games against the Patriots their personal Super Bowl. Teams like the Eagles, Ravens and Jets put everything they could into their games against the Patriots, only to come up short. But since they made the games close, all of a sudden the media was knocking the Patriots because they weren’t winning by enough. Then they might not be able to play in the cold. Then they didn’t have a running game. Then Randy Moss ended up having a restraining order issued against him in Florida. The Patriots were a dirty team that took cheap shots at helpless opponents.

It seemed that almost every day this season there was some drama going on that took away from the football. From the first day of training camp to the last second of the Super Bowl, there the naysayers and finger-waggers were lined up, doing their best to be “objective” in their coverage.

The worst part was that you couldn’t get away from it if you tried.

I think if one word sums up the coverage of the Patriots this season, it is embarrassing.

This season marked a change in a number of ways in which the Patriots have been covered. For one, the Boston Herald went to much more of a tabloid/gossip style of reporting. Fitting because they are a tabloid. It wasn’t always this way. In the early years of the Tom Brady era, the Herald had the best coverage of the team, hands down, while the Globe assigned bitter old men like Nick Cafardo and Ron Borges to the Patriots beat. (To be fair, the Herald did saddle us with Kevin Mannix for many years.)

Even at the start of this season, things were as good as they’ve ever been in terms of beat reporter coverage. Albert Breer was contributing to the Herald through the MetroWest Daily News, and formed a solid 1-2 punch on the Herald’s The Point After blog. When the business relationship between the papers ended, and Breer headed to Dallas, the Herald started sending Karen Guregian to work with Tomase on the beat. While Guregian is a competent reporter, the coverage immediately suffered with the loss of Breer. The Herald started featuring the Patriots in the Inside Track as much as they did in the sports pages, and sensationalistic headlines atop meaningless and pointless articles started to become the norm. The Herald appears to be a New York Post wannabe these days, and that’s not a favorable comparison.

Meanwhile, at The Boston Globe, the day-to-day reporting is in the very capable hands of Mike Reiss and Chris Gasper. They do a tremendous job at bringing us the facts, and analyzing the facts. They stick to football for the most part, and when required to cover issues like Spygate, report in a neutral fashion, not injecting their own criticism or judgments. The problem with the Globe comes when Dan Shaughnessy or Jackie MacMullan sink their teeth into the Patriots. The former always has to defend his paper’s 17% ownership of the Red Sox by putting down the Patriots at the expense of the baseball club, while MacMullan has made a name among Patriots fans for her profiles of a player, agent or competitor with an axe to grind against the organization. The Globe/Boston.com has also been doing more of the gossip-style material on the web as well.

The other papers really weren’t the problem with the Patriots coverage this season. Radio and Television, as well as national websites and publications were what made this a really miserable season. Herr Gregg Easterbook took highly publicized weekly shots at the team in his ESPN.com Page2 column, accusing the Patriots of everything short of being an Al Qaeda splinter cell hell-bent on bringing the free world to its knees. Peter King demanded to know what was the tapes destroyed by the NFL, talked about the Patriots past accomplishments being tainted, and put words in the mouth of an opposing coach (Wade Phillips) about how what the Patriots had done was a “black mark” on the NFL. The other columnists on the national sites lined up to take their shots on seemingly a daily basis. From Bob Cook to John Czarnecki, Michael Silver, Mike Celizic and Dr Z. On TV, Merril Hoge, Marshall Faulk, Mike Ditka, Terrell Davis - they all did the same on the air. The list is endless. Now mind you, I understand that part of the price that you pay by being on top is that everyone wants to take you down. How fun or interesting is it for people just to praise you all the time anyway…but these articles were more than just that, they were personal. They were nasty, and they popped up almost every day.

On the local radio airwaves we had no shortage of the same type of thing. Dennis and Callahan, (WEEI) The Mike Felger Show, (890 ESPN) even the Patriots own pregame show on WBCN all pounded listeners regularly with stupid, pointless speculation and “concern” and moralizing. Very little actual between-the-lines football was discussed. Things were so bad this season that I felt the need to listen to WEEI’s Big Show to hear their incessant sucking up to the team just to get away from the negativity. Even the Patriots own website had Podcasts with the Patriots Football Weekly writers who made needlessly nasty insults about players and insinuated all sorts of things throughout the season.

On television we were treated to many of the same characters, saying all the exact same things on a nightly basis on outlets such as Comcast SportsNet, NESN and NECN. Sportscasters on the late-night news did all they could to tease you into watching their segments by promising the latest scoop on some worry of the day. What’s worse, during the biggest points of the season we were subjected to the regular news folk getting involved with the team, leading their newscasts with misleading, provocative lead-ins, and showing up at press conferences to demand answers from the coach. Those scenes had a very paparazzi-like feel to them. In fact, the whole season did, right down to the final weekend.

The day before the Super Bowl, John Tomase ran a piece citing a single unnamed source stating that an unnamed person taped the walk-through practice of the St Louis Rams prior to the 2002 Super Bowl. This unnamed source did not know what the unnamed cameraman did with the tape, nor if this mystery person did this under instruction or on their own. This story garnered outrage across the country, with even former St Louis quarterback Kurt Warner speaking out. However, it was also reported that a telescope was spotted out of a window observing the Patriots practice, but that fact somehow didn’t generate the same outrage. The fact that the Rams went through red-zone formations in the walk-through and then converted their only red-zone possession into a touchdown in the Super Bowl has also been lost in the chaos.

Tomase took a beating on the Boston Herald comments section for his story. It was brutal, with some readers even threatening him. (The Herald has since shut down comments on the blog.) For a little while I felt sorry for him and even considered sending him a note to hang in there. Then as I noted that the item had been picked up by ESPN, CNN, NPR and every other media outlet known by an acronym, I realized that he didn’t need support. He knew what the local reaction would be, and went with it anyway. A few years back when writing for the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, Tomase had written a piece on Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez, which was not well received by most fans. However, the article made a bigger name for Tomase, who got sports radio appearances out of it, and then eventually a promotion to the Herald, where he ended up on the Patriots beat.

This story could be another stepping-stone for Tomase, as the story received national attention. But really, that’s how it has been the entire season. One person after another, out to break the big story, to make a name for themselves. Congratulations to all who achieved this noble goal this season.

It’s amazing to me that all these outlets truly believe that the type of coverage that we saw this season is what the people really want. Yes, none of this was by accident. They really believe that they’re giving the public what they want.

What they did was almost ruin a fantastically entertaining season - a on-field season like none other in NFL history. Even though it ended in bitter disappointment, the accomplishments of the 2007 Patriots will be remembered for decades. Yet, apparently there wasn’t enough going on on the field to keep people busy. They made a circus out the season, sucking out any joy that could be had from watching this marvelous team. We had it all here in front of us, and too often, we had to look away because someone else wanted to make their own name in front of us. They made following this team a miserable experience at times.

Let’s get something straight here, these are not the ramblings of a person who believes that only good things should be said and written about the team. When they deserve the criticism…let ‘em have it. They deserved criticism for the Spygate episode, but not the massive, belligerent splash-back that actually occurred. People act as though they got off scott-free from that incident, but in reality they received an unprecedented punishment in the history of team sports. This isn’t about legitimate criticism, it’s about the exaggerated dramas and made up “crisis-es” which result in breathless reports “from the scene” and the like.

When we have our Patriots Daily offseason meetings sometime in the next few weeks, I’m seriously considering proposing the idea that the site focus solely on the on-the-field product, and the transactions that affect that product. No more reacting to this media report or that idiot spouting off about tainted titles. Just football. We’d probably have a hard time accomplishing that, but think about it. How cool would it be to have a discussion site where everyone talked about what they say with their own eyes…not about what they heard some talking head mediot spout on his fifth radio appearance of the day. It would be an interesting experiment, I don’t know how far it would go, though.

I just wish I had been able to do it this season.

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