Charm City

I have recovered from the trauma, and now it can be told.

No, not the almost-loss at the hands of the overperforming but ultimately self-destructive Baltimore Ravens.

I speak of a deeper loss, a loss nearly thirty years in the making. I speak of a horror so unimaginable, I shudder to recount it, a loss which will haunt my dreams long after this thus-far perfect season has ended.

To wit I, the PatriotsExPatriot, finally had tickets to a Pats game. We were playing the Ravens, in Baltimore, and I'd bought them in the summer, when the Ravens were supposed to be good. We're talking a couple of bills a piece. Oh, and I went to the game alright. I presented my ticket. I walked up the ramp. I was at the game...

And then, after scoring tickets to a relatively "local" Patriots game for the first time since watching them play the Baltimore Colts, I walked down the ramp and out of the stadium without so much as taking my seat.

Because, dear reader, my blushing bride of four months, surrounded by hootin' hollerin' Ravens fans, suffered a panic attack.

A panic attack. A freaking panic attack. Thirty years I wait for this game, and she gets a panic attack.

But there she was, on the verge of tears and looking like a kid who had climbed the ladder to the high-dive without considering the unacceptable consequences, shivering in the blustery Baltimore wind, while right through the tunnel, past the rail, and maybe a couple hundred feet down, my New England Patriots prepared for kickoff. Not the kickoff for the game, mind you. The kickoff after the first field goal. I'd spent the entire opening drive trying to coax the love of my life up the ramps to our section.

What could I do? This wasn't a made-up drama-queen panic attack. She's not like that in general, and besides, I know the signs. This was a real life can't-cope-gotta-go-never-did-LSD-but-I'm-on-a-bad-trip panic attack.

And so, I parked her in the tunnel between ramp and seats, walked to the rail, got one good look at my beloved team from the rail, and, with a deep sigh, walked her back down the ramp.

We watched the remainder of the game at the James Joyce Pub, where we'd eaten dinner. And, I think to my credit, I have not yet made any serious inquiries about divorce proceedings.

Ravens Game Footnote: We had met a guy I'd cyber-met at Patsfans.com for dinner in said pub, and it was great. Besides being a great guy in general, he was the son of a noted formalist poet. Lo and I both write formal poetry, so it was one of those needle-in-a-haystack, six-degrees-of-separation kinds of surprises. Needless to say, that guy, who was traveling sans wife, got to see the game.

Moving right along, here are some things about the game its ownself, speaking as someone who was there, man:

* Uh, we're still 12-0, so take any of my amateur musings for what they're worth, that is, not much as compared to the finest coach in the history of the NFL.

* Laurence Maroney can run in space. He also won't attack a hole between the tackles unless you zap him with a cattle prod. I love LoMo, and I think the future's only going to get brighter for him, but he needs to learn one thing to truly excel in the NFL: footsteps to the left and right need to occur in the context of simultaneous forward lunges, with very, very few exceptions. You were on national TV, Laurence, but not Dancing With the Stars.

* But back to "Laurence Maroney can run in space": I say call intentional pass plays to him in addition to check-downs, and run a sweep or power pitch every now and again. Outside running is his strength. Between the tackles, not so much. Keep working at that. I am convinced he'll have an "Aha!" moment about downhill running, so don't abandon it. It'll feel so good for all of us once he gets to that place, but for now, at least play to his strengths a bit more often.

* Wind and cold are bad for pass-heavy attacks. With all the drops and bad throws, the Pats were held to the high 20s.

* Everybody will bring their A game every week against us.

* We will not necessarily bring our A game every week against them.

* "The Blueprint" we all heard about in the Iggles game works, sorta. I mean, if you call keeping a team to 27 points "working."

* The Defense. Oy. Here's the thing about playing defense in the NFL: You really have to tackle guys. I mean, you have to get them on the ground, not sort of hug them on their way by you. This is usually done by wrapping up a guy, if tackling in space, or getting lots of guys grabbing (preferably) the lower body, if tackling near the line. Stare at the guy's belly button. You can't fake with your belly button. Okay that's all the tips I picked up in Pop Warner ball, and granted, Willis McGahee didn't play in my Pop Warner league. But you guys are supposed to be good, for Christ's sake. So to sum up: Make people fall down more.

* Just as championship teams, even on off weeks, find a way to win, crappy teams, even in great weaks, find a way to lose. There's a reason for this. Great teams know they're good. If they get calls against them, they don't panic. If things don't go their way, they realize they need to overcome it. Even in extremis, they don't lose their shit. That's exactly what Baltimore did. And here's the underlying ethic that makes it that way: good teams are not allowed to lose their shit. Do you think you'll ever see Tedy Bruschi throw a ref's flag into the stands, with 44 seconds left -- still time to tie the game on a field goal? NO. He is not allowed to play without thinking. He has to be situationally aware. He will be held to a higher standard. If Bart Scott doesn't throw that flag into the stands, the Ravens are playing for the field goal. But he did, and they had to launch a couple of Hail Marys, and call it a day.

* Here is what Bart Scott was entitled to say to the media after this loss: Oh my fucking God. I am so so sorry, to my teammates, to my coach, to the City of Baltimore. My actions took away our last chance.

* Here is what Bart Scott did say... oh, never mind, actually. There's not room. Suffice it to say, everybody but the Ravens were responsible for the Ravens' loss.

* Compare and contrast: Have Belichick or any Pats players ever said they lost because of anything other than being outplayed or outcoached? This isn't about "class." This is about internal locus of control. The Patriots got actual BAD calls (and non-calls) in the Indy game, to the extent that I actually had one of those conspiracy theories running through my mind. I think I might have been right. I think the Pats still might have to beat the refs and the other team sometimes. Certainly, if there was ever such a game, it was this year's Indy game. But that's my observation as a fan. As a player: You do what you have to do to win. We did, against the Colts. Baltimore didn't... but Baltimore was ready with an excuse. That's how you build a culture of losing.

* I'd forgotten what a fun city Baltimore actually is. Washington's so stuffy by comparison, it's hardly even a real city. It's basically an org chart made out of buildings. When you go to Baltimore, you realize most of America's composed of real people... and that's refreshing.

Okay, that's all for now. It's Steelers week, and I've got to stock up on epithets.

For now, I'll just sign out with my nifty new signout,

PxP

Bye bye Indy

Think of it not as adieu, Indy, but as au revoir.

Until we see you again, as in, in January.

It was a game of epic hype, and it did not disappoint. New England came back with two fourth quarter touchdowns to beat Indianapolis -- and the refs -- for a 24-20 victory. Or, for most of the fans I talked to the following Monday, it was a game in which:

- The Colts really dominated the Patriots, but lost the game more than New England won it;
- It was a game in which Joseph Addai alone showed how the Colts should have destroyed New England, if it weren't for factors such as field position; and, my personal favorite,
- It was a game in which the Colts were without a very important wide receiver, Marvin Harrison.

Reality check, Colts fans and apologists: despite the very evenhanded nature of the final stats from the most recent tilt between the two teams, the stats are not important. The Pats scored more points after sixty minutes of football. Not thirty, not forty-five. Sixty.

Football is played with offense, defense, and special teams. If you believe your special teams must improve, you address that through the draft or free agency. Oh, look! The Patriots did just that, in signing Wes Welker. "If it weren't for field position" indeed.

On each team at any given time, 11 players can be active. But wait! That means that even if your special teamers don't play a down on offense or defense (pretty much the reverse of the situation,) you only need 33 guys!!! Hold on though, the roster is 53 guys. Why are there 20 more than the possible number needed to field a first string???

That's right, folks, the NFL knows there will be injuries! In fact, the last time the Pats and Colts played, the entire Patriots' starting secondary was out. They were down to late-season street free agents covering Harrison, Wayne, Clark, et al. This time, the Colts were without one of their pro bowl receivers. And that does it??? Whatever happened to depth???

Right, enough of Excuses That Piss Me Off This Week. In fact, enough of Hatriots talk at all, including by Don Shula. Let's get to the important stuff:

Will this team really go 16-0?

This is looking more and more likely. Still not a lock, of course, but more and more likely.

I find it exhilarating, but just a little frightening. I could see a 16-0 regular season turning into a 19-0 perfect season. It's no longer in the realm of the unachievable. But I could just as easily see us losing in the post-season. I don't know if I'm ready for that kind of let-down.

Somehow -- and I don't know how to rationally explain this -- I'd feel more secure about winning the Super Bowl if our regular season record were 15-1 or 14-2. Perhaps that would take this run out of the realm of "surreal," and into the realm of well-charted territory.

But will I complain if we hit 16-0? Oh hell no.

Of the Pats' remaining opponents, the Steelers will be tough. The rest look eminently destroyable. And honestly, after the Colts game, a loss will by definition be an upset loss, and a big upset at that. And if you want an odds-on Super Bowl favorite, well, that would be us.

But of course, the favorite does not win every game, and 19-0 has never been done before. But then again, this is a perfect storm of a season for the Pats. I would never before have said it was even imaginable. These days I find it hard to visualize an end to this run.

But hey, that's why they play the games.

On "Class"

There has been a lot of blather about "class" and "running up the score" this season. I'll not go on about the 04 Colts, the 98 Vikings, or the fact that a few minutes less of Brady playing might slightly decrease his chance of injury.I'll just go right to the "class" issue.

In the first couple of weeks of this season, the New England Patriots were branded "cheaters" by the pundits, based on Cameragate. This was fine. There was a rule. The Pats broke it. I personally say, hell, if that's not cheating, all we have is a definitional argument. Fines paid, draft pick confiscated.

Asterisks, for those who believed the Camera to be the Key, applied.

There was no disproving any allegation, any assumption. So the fact that you couldn't prove the assumption either, wasn't important.

Hence, we saw Runo Mahe, Donovan McNabb, Jerome Bettis, and others, either saying outright they had "won" games they knew they had lost, or strongly implying it. Everybody we'd beaten for years suddenly came out of the woodwork with the Mother Of All Excuses: we didn't lose because we sucked, we lost because of the CAMERA! Give us our rings!

Well, gentlemen, this terrible, thuggish, loutish, ungentlemanly, inconsiderate point-scoring behavior in 2007, might be interpreted as your proof.

To coin a phrase, we are what you thought we were (until you started with the excuses.)

And the 2007 New England Patriots are leaving no doubt as to whether or not the game was the result of a camera.

Did any Redskins finger the Pats as "big fat cheaters?" No? Tough. They are, then, the victims of their own ineptitude combined with the rest of the league's ill-advised choice of impugning our teams' play over the last six years, based on an infraction that has been proven to be of middling importance at best.

Hate us, hate us, hate us. Revel in it. Embrace your hate. Drink the hateraid, take a vacation on Cape Hate-er-ass. Better hate than never. Hate-of-the-art... knock yourself out. It keeps feeding us....because the 2007 Pats know, and are not forgetting, that the NFL wallowed in their "righteous" disrespect for everything the Pats have achieved through hard work and focus, which those other teams could not achieve. Was it "classy" to write off 6 years' of play, based on an unquantified suspicion?

Not an issue, if the assumptions were true, all around the country, made by players and fans alike. What if the Pats weren't that good?

Well, the rest of the league is learning the answer, game by painful game. The Pats were that good, and it was a grave, grave mistake to extrapolate from the infraction itself, to the kinds of conclusions they were drawing. Because now the Pats have to prove they're that good, all over again.

Know what? I don't think I ever heard Belichick talking about "class."

I have heard him say "it is what it is" dozens of times.

Belichick might be one individual more concerned with the truth -- the truth of what his guys accomplished -- than with bullshit ex-post-facto notions of what "class" means.

He'll never say that, of course, though the new arbiters of "class", from Lady Tom last season to the Redskins last week, will take any opportunity to repeat their allegations of "classlessness" -- oddly enough, after they lose games.

Know what else I've never heard? A team that won a game claiming the team that lost had no "class". It's always the other way around.

And I predict that this year, with very few exceptions if any, team after team will have occasion to pontificate about the relative level of "class" with which the Patriots destroyed them.

Thanks for telling us how we "should" have beat you, guys.

Deal with how we did.

38 Specials

Well, ladies and gentlemen, two weeks have passed since last I blogged, predicting a resounding victory for my New England Patriots against the San Diego Chargers. Gee. They put up 38 against the hapless Bolts, as they did against another 2006 playoff team, the New York Jets. Color me shocked.

The team then followed those outings with -- surprise surprise -- 38 points, this time tacked to the backsides of whatever remained of the Buffalo Bills by the end of last Sunday's matchup.

The Patriots have produced more yardage than any other team in football. The Pats' D has allowed fewer yards against than any other team in football.

And still, the cry goes out from the various Patriot Haters league-wide,

"Wahhhhhh they only won [fill in important game here] because they cheat!"

Hey whiners: Shaddap. First of all, it's becoming readily apparent to all but the losers in question, that they won those games because they were the better team. But more importantly, there is nothing you can do about it now.

No, you can not have a ring for losing, Donovan. By the way, it is also not tougher that you lost because you are black.

No, Hines and Jerome, you didn't lose because the Patriots stole your signals. You got outplayed and outprepared, and you know it.

No, Marshall Faulk. It is not New England's fault that the Rams never became the dynasty they "should" have become. It is the Rams' fault, for declaring "Tonight, a dynasty is born" -- and then losing the game. This silly hubris is only made more obvious by the actual birth of a dynasty that night, that is, the Patriots' dynasty.*

*The Rams' dynasty-proclaimer was Ricky Proehl, who went on to catch a ball that almost got the Rams back in Super Bowl XXXVI. Then he caught a ball that almost got the Panthers back into Super Bowl XXXVIII two years later. Ricky did not, however, manage to help Donovan McNabb lose the game in Super Bowl IXL. His presence on last year's Colts team made me wonder how, exactly, they'd allow the Bears back into Super Bowl XLI, so he could help lose that one.

But I blogged about Those Guys last time. Here's the new part:

Hey, fellow Pats fans? Shut the (Kevin) Faulk up, will ya?

Nobody is "stealing" your first round pick next year. Nobody is "out to get" the Patriots. Well, they are, but not any more so than usual. The league did not "throw the book" at the team.

Just as the national media and other fan-bases are whining that the Pats got off with a slap on the wrist for committing the grievous sin of taping defensive coaches (as I understand it, the case has now been turned over to a war crimes tribunal to determine whether it was also a crime against humanity), Patriots fans are whining that Goodell is the NFL's Hitler, Stalin, and bloody Sauron all rolled into one, for docking the Pats a first in 2008.

I for one am sick and tired of it all. It's time to decide matters on the field, not in the press, the booth, or the chatroom.

Bill Belichick said it best, when he said... oh who even remembers. He said something in a monotone acknowledging that the Pats were following one "interpretation" of the rules, and that the league actually followed another "interpretation", and that he had a football game to prepare for so shut up about it already. But somewhere in there he did say the word "apologize."

I think he did exactly what the league accused him of, and he admitted it to exactly the extent necessary. He did not go into loving detail about his "interpretation." He did apologize. He did move forward.

As for the team? They rallied around him, and have now gone from a super bowl contender to the super bowl favorite. The story line emerging to supplant the "they never were that good in the first place, they only won because they cheated" story, is the "Oh-ohhhh they're pissed now and might go 16-0" story.

At least until the league officially zaps Belichick for the format of his injury report. I note that Tom's still got that sore shoulder for the sixth year running.

Don't get me wrong. It would be a sad thing to praise a man for cheating but apologizing well. I do, however, stand in admiration of an organization disciplined enough to understand the breach for what it was - nothing more, nothing less. I admire Belichick's singlemindedness and detatchment, which allows him to take this year's shitstorm in stride, and focus on his goal.

And of course, completely apart from this whole circus, I admire him for being the best football coach in the modern era. By the time he's done, we might be saying the best in the history of the game.

By the way, I also admire Tony Dungy for being a deeply religious man, and I am fairly certain he helps old ladies cross the street frequently, probably listening to bible verse MP3s on his i-pod. Oh yeah and he faced personal tragedy too.

I admire Bill Cowher's chin, second only to Jay Leno's.

But as a pure football coach, nobody approaches Belichick.

So ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et monsieurs, go out and buy that Hoodie. Wear it with pride: not because your team broke the rules -- and don't get it twisted, we did break them -- but because your coach is one of history's greats, and he's most likely on the road to a fourth ring (just counting the ones he's earned as a head coach.) Wear it because he's a better coach, with his faults, than anybody else in the league, even those seemingly without them.

And most of all, wear it because he plays to win, and gets his guys to win, avoids excuses, and allows the team's performance to do the talking. You will never hear him say a negative word about an opponent before or after a game, and the Pats' locker room is almost as mum as their coach when it comes to smack-talk, excuses, and whining at refs, the league, the media, or other dispensers of perceived injustice.

Wear it because good sportsmanship also includes saying "I lost" when you lost, just as much as "I broke the rules" when you broke them. And sports includes good sports too, not just good sportsmanship.

Or, for you San Diego fans, you can go out an pick up a Tomlinson jersey and proudly proclaim, "If we ain't cryin', we ain't tryin'!"

Blacker Friday

Well, it's been two weeks, gentile reader, and the furor over Rodney Harrison has subsided, thrust aside by the maelstrom that is CameraGate.

Let's start with the obvious: We had cameras. They were found to be in violation of league policy. The league fined us, docked us a first rounder, and said we are bad people. It should be mentioned that although the league had the videotape (confiscated in the first quarter,) the Patriots did not, and won convincingly against the Jets (again,) a playoff team from last year.

That's about it. At least, in terms of the known facts.

Enter the unknowns. To quote Donald Rumsfeld (who really should have been a poet, rather than a secretary of Defense,) "there are known unknowns, and there are unknown unknowns."

The known unknowns include:

- Did any videotape get used to influence the outcome of a game in progress? (we have no evidence leading to the idea that it did. If it did, it was used within a 12-minute halftime window. I don't see it.)

- Was any team beaten in large part because of the use of such tapes as advance scouting tools? Perhaps teams beaten by a field goal may claim the tape study provided the edge -- but it's right up there with saying "we should have beaten Indy, but we had the flu and they turned up the heat in their dome to capitalize on that..."

Woulda coulda shoulda and 3.25 will buy you a large (sorry, vente) mocha latte, bitch.

The unknown unknowns include: WTF else is going to be deemed a fineable/draftpickdockable/suspendable offense in the NFL?

First, let's deal with the known unknowns.

Memo to Donovan McNabb and the Eagles: no, you don't get "your" ring now. You, Donovan McNabb, could not run a two minute offense. You, Donovan McNabb, could not outplay this team leading up to that two minutes. You, Donovan McNabb, have no evidence that the Patriots had an unfair advantage over the Eagles. Period. End of story.

Go eat a big bowl of New England clam chowder with your mommy nearby and get over it.

How about Lady Tom of San Diego fame, he of the infamous post-game crybaby meltdown last winter?

"The Patriots seem to live by the saying 'if you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'," the self-proclaimed epitome of class recently opined.

Ohhhhh it's like that.

Then tell me, Lady Tom, by what maxim does Shawn "Roid Rage" Merriman, your teammate, live?

They've been coming out of the woodwork in droves. Hines Ward, who proclaimed the Steelers to have played in the Super Bowl, when in fact they had lost to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game the previous season, says of that game now:

"Oh, they knew ... They were calling our stuff out. They knew, especially that
first championship game here at Heinz Field. They knew a lot of our calls.
There's no question some of their players were calling out some of our
stuff."

Riggght. The difficulty, however, is that this could also be a result of being out-coached in a way not involving videotape. The difficulty is, Hines, you lost the bloody game, didn't you? You got beat by another team, which stopped your Super Bowl ambitions. Isn't that the case?

And why was Denver able to beat the Patriots in 2005? Why was Indy able to do it in 2006? Why weren't you, in short, able to beat the New England Patriots?

Is it possible, friends, that the Patriots admittedly over-the-top and punishable-by-fines-and-draft-picks scandal, does not, in fact, excuse the failings of every team that could not beat the Patriots? Is it in fact possible, dare I suggest it, that the solid thumping the Jets took at the Patriots' hands this year -- after the camera confiscation, mind you -- explains much more? Is it possible that the Patriots' success in the first half of playoff games dating back to 2001 -- which far exceeds their success after halftime -- puts to rest this notion that "We only lost cuz they're big fat cheaters?"

Yeah, it's possible. It's probable. But these players are banking on the fact that "we'll never know," as some substitute for the glory they've never attained. And coaches are doing it too.

Get a grip, guys. You've got your "asterisk." In my heart, I don't even give it a moment's credence. But in your minds, this can be just like the 49ers only winning because of Carmen Policy's cap crimes, or the Cowboys only winning because Irvin was on drugs all the time, or whatever.

It doesn't help you going forward.

And going forward, you better pray that the Patriots "only won because they cheated." Because if you're wrong, you're looking at a team a couple of flu shots away from another Lombardi last year, pumped full of new talent in the offseason, and -- just in case they needed it -- backed into a corner.

Hey Patriots haters out there: get ready for a big, national "Oh ohhhhhhh," should the Patriots convincingly beat San Diego tomorrow night.

Much love to you all,

The PatriotsExPatriot

Black Friday: Ranting Re: Rodney

I can't even put myself in the "I would"/"I wouldn't" mindset.

I'd like to think not, but it's not my world. Maybe I would. But not everybody would, and there are known penalties for those who do. And that's the key.

I mean, I am as "understanding" of Rodney as I am of Merriman.

If it's cheating, it's cheating, whether you are a young guy trying to dominate the league from the get-go, or an older guy trying to come back.

It either IS or IS NOT something for the league to stamp out. I never got on much of a soapbox about it before, be it Bonds, Merriman, or whoever (oh and yes, HGH may as well be steroids, if you ask me.)

But the point is, I believe it is something to stamp out. Rodney's penalty has to be part of that. As Rodney said, no excuses.

But if Rodney needed HGH to come back from an injury, he might be just one more injury from the end of the line... and I don't mind that a fan favorite might have to leave the game sooner.

These guys don't owe us that screwed up of a mindset. If it's a matter of "heal fast or be cut," it's going to be the same story elsewhere as well. My guess is with Rodney it's not the money driving it, or the couple more years on the field, it's the game and the winning.

So what can I say? I AM like a Bonds fan or a Merriman fan in a way.

I mean, I don't say "It's no big deal." I say "Do the crime, do the time" (a 4 week suspension.) I also say boot his ass if there's any kind of pattern.

But I wish I didn't.

I also say I understand totally that I am no better... only that even the weakest are strengthened when uncertaintly of outcome is removed. So, were I in that position, and were Rodney a higher character guy than me, I might do the higher character thing, because I saw what happened to Harrison (et al.)

That's a fancy way to say that Rodney might be a fantastic "high character guy" who got busted his first time out -- doesn't matter, from that perspective. The game's bigger than him. He's no longer a high-character guy. His record's got a blot.

I hope he spends the rest of his career clean, and this is a one-time, really hugely embarassing eff-up. I also hope (and actually, I think this is the case,) that it's about love of the game rather than a need for the money.

But allow me to speak directly to Mr. Harrison for a moment:

Dude, if it's about love of the game... well, just love it a little less. Especially when Dr. Feelgood is around. So maybe you recover a little slower now. Maybe you don't recover fast enough for the Pats anymore. Maybe you don't recover fast enough for the NFL anymore.

Then that's nature's way of telling you to go home.

Now don't get me wrong, you would be going with the love of every Pats fan who ever saw you pick off Satan Manning, or put a shoulder into a receiver across the middle. But if it/when it does come down to that? Don't do it again on our account. Let us whine and moan on our little fan boards til the cows come home... and just take off somewhere to catch some fish.

Now, if it IS about the money? Come on man. Less love, but same idea applies.

One caveat... I'd like to spend this morning crowing about how our guy Rodney's different, splitting hairs, etc. Don't get me wrong... I just can't.

He did the crime... part of "doing the time" is that guys like us that WANT to sing his praises can't. Just can't, unless we're idiots. It's an awkward position.

HEY, Rodney, here is the deal: I will never know the physical pain you guys go through for the career, the glory, and yes, the money.

You might never get that guys making 25, 50, 100 grand a year... are WANTING to defend you, a multimillionaire trying to extend his career...but we can't. We just can't do it.

I don't want to make a big deal about it, and can't wait until blogs touching on Rodney will be touching on a game-changing hit or interception. But right now, dude, that part - not being able to argue your case? That part kind of sucks.

See you in 5 weeks.

What's the Deal?

Well, Samuel signed his franchise tender. Or, as one reader links below, Asante signed a one-year contract - at this point the terms seem to be used interchangeably in the media, and I, gentle reader, will have to ask my cap/contract mavens whether the tender is in any sense modifiable. This is a very important point. Since Asante's is at $7.79 Million for one year (the average of the top five cornerback contracts in the league,) his "$7.79 Million Contract" sure looks like the plain old franchise tender.

But wait, there's more! In Samuel's case, the franchise tender came with "assurances" that he would not be franchised again next year, if certain conditions are met (such as a number of team wins, or an amount of playing time.) All this according to Adam Schechter, of NFL Network.

Say wha'? I always thought that the tender was basically a cookie-cutter one-year deal. You want to play in the NFL, you play at this amount for this team. Life sucks, you've been franchised. Badda bing, badda boom.

All of which leads me to believe that what Samuel has signed (and looks so happy about having signed,) is actually a one-year contract -- assuming of course that the two are in fact different things (with a one-year franchise tender being essentially a species of contract.)

The deadline for multiyear deals was some time ago, so now the team had the option of signing a single year deal at or above the tag amount ($7.79 M), or letting Samuel go, presumeably for compensation in trade. So I suppose the team did the former, and signed a one-year deal.

Or, it is also possible that Samuel's side is just happy to see it all wind down, and to get down to football, and Schechter et al. think they have the real scoop. If so, we get a replay of all this a year from now. But you'd think Schechter's credibility is more important to him than claiming a scoop, especially if the "scoop" is a wholesale fabrication.

Eh well. We'll see.

What's important is Asante is back, Moss, Stallworth, Welker, and Adalius "96 Tears" Thomas are in town, this team looks scary this year, and Mr. Lombardi's namesake has been too long a-wanderin'.

Two weeks, ladies and gentlemen!

Asante Samuel Signs!!!! (Not!)

Reports that Asante Samuel has signed his franchise tender seem slightly exaggerated.

As of last night, the 27th, the news was...

Asante has shown up in Gilette Stadium
Asante has taken his physical
Asante is back with the team
Asante has signed his tender...

Then we heard...

Asante has not signed the tender
Asante wants the team to promise not to franchise him in 08, and....

most puzzlingly...

Asante has said he would sign the tender Tuesday, whatever the outcome.

All of which leads me to ask the perenniel question,

WTF?

The only sense I can make out if it is that, since the Pats have adamantly refused to promise anything of the sort, Asante's side is offering something in exchange for the Pats not re-franchising him.

One possibility would be that Asante plays for less this year, in exchange for a promise not to franchise him next year. Another possibility is that he signs said one year deal this year, in which a no franchise clause kicks in at certain points usually used as escalators, for example, playing time or interceptions.

I don't think the Pats take the 08 tag off the table, without getting something back.

Well, theoretically, Samuel comes back today (Tuesday the 28th.) If not, bear in mind that Asante Samuel is an anagram for a sealant: me, us; but also for

Satan? Um, lease;
Team anus seal;
and of course,
Emulate an ass.

Welcome

Welcome to PatriotsExPatriot.

This is a blog by a guy who happens to be a rabid New England Patriots fan, transplanted at an early age to Northern Virginia. It also happens to have "sex" embedded in its title, a fact of which I am fully aware. I do apologize to those who accessed PatriotsExPatriot hoping to find important information about human sexuality, but appreciate your stopping in. I also figure that somewhere on the order of 1 in 32 people looking for important information about human sexuality who are also fans of American football, will be New England Patriots fans. If you are one, give your fingers and eyes a break, and stay a while.

I would love to tell you that the author of this blog is a well-known sports writer, whose insights have been widely published, and who is universally known as the Nostradamus of the sports world. But as this would be utter bullcrap, I will tell you nothing of the sort.

The author of this blog, vis., me, does have a tiny bit of publishing history, primarily in the realm of political humor. Said author also has a bit of poetry to his credit. There. Said author said it. You got a problem with that? Okay.

More importantly, said author is inordinately interested in all things having to do with the New England Patriots, the NFL, and their various vicarious fan-boy offshoots, such as Madden and Fantasy Football. Said author never got past Pop Warner League himself, but, like many such sad cases, often imagined for many early formative years that he would score winning touchdowns in the Super Bowl. Said author makes no apologies for the vicarious nature of his fandom, since it is pretty much the same as the fandom of a college football washout, or an ex-NFL journeyman. Knowledge levels vary, but there is nothing more annoying for a fan to hear from another fan that he is a fanboy who never actually played the game. Well, for your information, there was no more feared lineman in all of midget league, except for maybe 20 other guys in a four-county area, than said author. Consider that fact to be said author's football bona fides.

You'll also find here occasional rants about everything from anti-Semitism and Middle East politics, to the sorry state of whatever said author's pet gripe is on a particular day. Said author hopes you'll find said rants as entertaining to read, as said author finds them interesting to write.

And now, if it is alright with you, said author will drop the bloody third-person affectation, and adopt a much more familiar first-person voice.

Welcome again to PatriotsExPatriot, your source for random ranting, football fanaticism, and a ridiculously verbose presentation style.