So long, and thanks for all the fish...

I didn't initially intend to use a Douglas Adams reference as a double entendre in regards to the Pats record against the Dolphins during Mike Vrabel's tenure in a Pats uni, it just happened that way.

I will miss Vrabel, but I'm not going to bitch about the team moving him. At this point I trust that the team knows what it's doing from a personnel standpoint. I will say that, even though I agree with the coffin corner that this deal makes sense for the Patriots, I still think this is an absolute steal for the Chiefs. For the 34th pick in the draft the Chiefs got a quarterback that's got nothing but upside who just led the Patriots to a 11-5 record. I would like to have seen the Pats get a fourth rounder as well - even if it were in next year's draft.

Through the course of the season, Cassel actually put up better numbers than Brady did in Brady's first season as a starter back in 2001. There are those that will be quick to point out that Cassel did it throwing to Randy Moss and Wes Welker.

I'd like to point out that Brady did it behind a healthy offensive line and with healthy starters at the running back position - so that advantage is really a wash. And Brady did it with a healthier and better defense in place than Cassel had.

I'm not saying that Cassel is better than Brady, or will ever be better than Brady. All I'm saying is that at the same points in their careers, the two are very comparable - and what GM...what team's fans wouldn't want to take that?

They are getting set at signal-caller on the offensive side of the ball, which lets Scott Pioli build around a cornerstone. Now they can concentrate on building the offensive line through free-agency and the draft.

On the other side of the ball they get Mike Vrabel whom Bill Belichick has described as one of the smartest players he has ever coached.

I've noticed a lot of the stories about this point out that Vrabel is coming off an off year. None of those stories mention that the entire Patriots defensive front struggled. The vaunted defensive linemen seldom tied up the personnel that allowed Vrabel to run free in earlier seasons.

Even if Vrabel is at the tail end of his career, my bet is that he's still got two good years left, and this gives the Chiefs a much needed leader on what was a pitiful, leaderless defense.

More than anything else, these two players were brought in to change the culture and climate of the locker room. They were brought in to help teach the young players on this team how to win.

Will they this year? It's unlikely, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Chiefs make some noise in 2010.

For Chiefs fans that think this is a bad deal, or that Cassel is the second coming of Scott Mitchell, let's get something cleared up - unlike many of the back-ups that have come before that turned out to be busts, Cassel has a full season under his belt as a starter. Not three or four starts that got some personnel guys all hot and bothered, but a full season, and has been with your personnel guy since he came out of college four years ago. This isn't some guy that Pioli fell in love with over four games of tape - this is a guy that Pioli has seen on the practice field day in and day out for almost half a decade, and then watched pilot the Patriots to 11 wins (could have been 13 if the defensive line could get into the backfield last season). You're getting a player, and the only thing that could be a problem is the team's offensive line.

One last thought - I can't help but find a certain irony that Cassel will be starting for the team next season to which he owes a debt in regards to getting his chance to start.

Matt, Mike, good luck, so long, and thanks for all the fish. It was a fun run.

News, notes and the weekend's meltdown

I'm going to start with Sunday's fiasco.

It was a complete clusterf#@k.

From top to bottom, this was an almost epic failure by the team. Yes, there were two blatant pass interferences missed by Ed Hochuli's crew, but that would have been irrelevant were it not for the the dropped passes, the missed blocks, the muffed kick returns, and the blown coverages.

Yes, Cassel had a bad game, throwing several interceptions, but he was hardly the goat of the game. Two drives ended with blind side strip sacks courtesy Matt Light being tossed around like he weighed one-hundred pounds, giving the Steelers short fields to work with. One drive never started because Matthew Slater coughed up the ball on the Patriots 20 on a kick-off. Then there was Randy Moss dropping three catchable passes - one in the endzone before a missed field goal attempt.

And that was just the offense and special teams.

That doesn't even take into account the fact the defense couldn't get off the field unless they were aided and abetted by the Pittsburgh offense.

Overall, the only player that I can't fault from this past weekend's travesty of a game is Kevin Faulk who accounted for 121 yards of the team's total offensive output of 267 yards. Almost half.

After this travesty, the Patriots are likely going to need to run the table in order to make the playoffs, and even that won't guarantee them a spot as they now have to rely on others to lose.

At this point, however, I'm convinced that even if they do make the big dance, they're going to be done after only one partner.

Hopefully the latest news will help a defense that ha been brutal the last couple of weeks -

On Wednesday the Patriots welcomed linebacker Rosevelt Colvin back to the fold. Colvin, who inked a one year deal with the Patriots, will help to shore up a depleted linebacking corps that now has injuries to Adalius Thomas, Bo Rudd, Shawn Crable, Eric Alexander, and Pierre Woods, and is playing with an injured Tedy Bruschi. Theoretically, if Colvin can get up to game speed, he should also help with the team's lackluster pass rush, which in turn will aid the inexperienced secondary which has been getting carved up as late.

Word is the Patriots have contacted Victor Hobson as well, who was with the Patriots in training camp. With Colvin in the fold, I think Hobson is unlikely to join the team, but it would not surprise me if he did, considering Bruschi is listed as questionable on the injury list.

Trading on the Gridiron for a walk in the Park

As the Red Sox are taking a deliberate approach to shaping the roster for 2009 - exploring trades, feeling out free agents, and offering arbitration - the Yankees are aggressively pursuing free agents like CC Sabathia, offering the pitcher a 6-year $140 million contract roughly two weeks ago.

Curiously, there has been no movement from the Sabathia camp, which begs several questions - Is he waiting to see if Mark Texiera signs with the Sox, freeing up money for a big contract from the Angels? Is he looking for more money? Or is it possible he just doesn't want to play in New York?

If the issue is the last, it begs the question of how effect the Sox chief rivals are going to be - if the big free agents are spurning the money because they don't believe they can win in the Bronx, what does that mean for the Yankees in 2009? Are we looking at a team that will truly have to give in to the philosophy of rebuilding, or is there any chance tat they will be able to buy their way into...well, being competitive as in past years? If that's the case, then what are we looking at? A team that has shifted from overpaying for highly talented players just past their prime, to a team overpaying for mediocre middle of the road players in the prime of their careers (see Nick Swisher).

While I'm not convinced it's happening yet, it is interesting to think we might be witnessing the death rattle of what had been one of the most dominant professional franchises in North America over the last decade and a half (when championships and post-season appearances are considered). If this is happening (and until Sabathia spurns the offer, I'm not sure it really is happening) after the first season in which they missed the playoffs in more than a decade, it makes me wonder if the Yankees, even with all that cash at their disposal, are going to be able to buy their way back into contention any time soon, or if they really are going to have to build from within.

From the Park to the Garden...

Two quick final items...

The Celtics are looking like they're still hungry. So far the team seems to have picked up where they left off after their championship season. I can't say for sure that they are going back to the finals again, it's early for that, but they certainly look like they're favorites to make it back. Even so, I think the Pacers and the Hawks look tougher this season than they did last.

Over on the ice the Bruins are looking pretty good, but they looked good early last season as well. With any luck, they keep the good play up and go deep in the playoffs.

For years they have either been a just miss, or a one and done team. With recent championships from the Sox, Pats, and C's, I think the pressure is on the Bruins to perform.

Blame and team dynamics

It was a good win for the Colts on Sunday night. They did enough to win, and the Pats did just enough to lose.

There was plenty of blame to go around; Jabar Gaffney, Randy Moss, Dave Thomas, Bill Belichick.

Gaffney dropped a sure touchdown pass.

Moss ran a route half speed in the last offensive series when he had drawn one on one coverage, and then cut his route off early, as though he couldn't outrun the corner that was so far down on the Colts depth chart that the man was a player without a team earlier in the season.

Dave Thomas had possibly the biggest boneheaded play of all on a drive that might have ended up compensating for Belichick's earlier blunders, committing a personal foul after the play to turn a third and inches into a third and fifteen.

But some of the other things would never have played into it had Belichick not engaged in some brutally bad choices - the penalty challenge was poor because it really didn't take very long for me to establish with TiVo that not only there were only 11 players on the field, but the one that the Pats coaches mistook for the 12th guy running off the field was player 11. The coaches up in the box should have been able to determine that inside of ten to fifteen seconds.

Then with 11 minutes left Belichick second guessed himself on a fourth down sneak which worked, but the refs granted Bill the timeout and the play didn't count. Belichick eschewed four more chances at the end-zone for the tie. It somehow felt like the Ravens game last season with the Pats in the roll of the Ravens.

The difference in the game - the Colts didn't make the stupid choices - clock mismanagement, personal fouls, drops at key moments. That was all on the Patriots, and it was the difference in the game.

On the plus side, there are some bright spots to take from the game, some of which Peter King noted in his TMQB article where he talked to former Giants coach Jim Fassel -

• JIM FASSEL ON PATS-COLTS. Fassel did the 18-15 Indy win on Westwood One radio the other night, and he loved the game. "Great, great game,'' he said. "You think without [Tom] Brady the rivalry would really suffer, but you can't see a much better game than that one. New England has four 12-play-plus drives. Indianapolis has Manning playing for their season. Either team could have won.

"People thought the Patriots were dead with Matt Cassel playing, but I remember when Brady came in that first year [2001], and he was scrambling and dinkin' and dunkin.' Same philosophy now. Same gameplan. And in this game, I saw stuff out of Cassel I didn't see when I did the Patriots against San Diego a couple of weeks ago. He drops back, and on his fifth step, bang, he hits a receiver right between the numbers with authority. New England will be a tough team to beat in the playoffs.''

And onto team dynamics...

Humans are instinctively pack animals. I have believed this for a long time. We have this need to belong to a group, to something larger than ourselves. I've always felt this was at the root of why we root for sports teams, and we even identify with them using pronouns such as "we," and "my." There is almost always an "us against them" mentality for the fan bases, and it definitely exists within the teams themselves.

It's an instinct that both brings people together and one that pits them against each other.

I bring this up because there's something about fan and team dynamics that's applicable to politics. Historically, political races are run less on the actual issues than they have been run with the philosophy of tearing down the opponent. The us against them mentality is pervasive -

Republicans are fascist pinheads and religious nut jobs.

Democrats are commie pinko socialists bent on the destruction of the American Way.

Republicans are book-banning Nazis.

Democrats can't keep the nation safe.

For my money, it's all boneheaded, but as boneheaded as it was, we saw something new work this election. McCain used the Karl Rove playbook and got badly burned. Hillary Clinton did everything in the primaries that she could to tear down Barack Obama, and it ended up burning her.

Obama, while not total innocent of the "look what they're doing/ they have done" mentality in his advertising campaigns, his general message was that we needed to come together as a nation. He actually avoided some of the issues that could have reflected negatively on McCain which included -

For all of McCain's bluster about Ayers, McCain accepted donations and public endorsements from Leonore Annenberg and Arnie Weber - two individuals who also have ties to Ayers. Both individuals donated the maximum allowable amount to McCain's campaign, and both were involved in the approval of the grant Ayers' foundation received from the Annenberg Foundation. Does this make McCain a terrorist? Certainly not.

Palin, while mayor in Wasilla, asked the librarian how she would go about banning books from the shelves of the public library. She tried to fire the librarian when the same librarian gave Palin the answer that she couldn't.

Little was made of McCain's links to the Iran-Contra affair by the campaign.

Nothing was made about McCain's comments that we supported freedom fighters in Afghanistan back in the 1980's. Considering they were called the Taliban then, were trained by the Republican regime then in place, and had a member of that "freedom fighter" group by the name of Osama bin Laden - it was a comment that Obama could have jumped all over.

This is just the short list.

And please, don't mistake - I'm registered as an independent, have voted for Republicans, Democrats, Green Party, and any number of other candidates. My issue isn't with Republicans, per se. I have issues with party politics and the politics of partisanship and I cast my vote based on what I feel is the competence of the candidate.

What I think is interesting to note here is that while McCain tried scare tactics in regards to executive experience (he has virtually none as well), past associates (he has some pretty shady associates as well - I didn't even mention the Keating Five), incorrectly linking his opponent to a political philosophy that Obama doesn't actually espouse, Obama stayed on message - stressing in stump speeches the need to come together as a nation. I'm not naive enough to believe that this heralds a new day in campaign strategy. I just think the variables just came together for a guy who organized an impressive campaign.

And that's really the bottom line in sports and in politics - the people who win are the ones who run the best campaigns - and from early on McCain stumbled, Obama didn't - and like with the Pats-Colts game, the guy who made the fewest mistakes won.

The defense is still a bit offensive

The Patriots have clawed their way back into a share of first place with their win over the Rams combined with the Bills loss to the 'Phins.

Once again, Matt Cassel was solid in his role as signal caller, and could have been even better if not for drops from Randy Moss (two touchdowns missed, and a deflection of his hand ended as an interception), and normally sure-handed Wes Welker (dropped a sure first-down, and fell in his route leading to interception two). Cassel led the offense to 23 points on 63 percent passing in spite of an erratic and often ineffective running game (although Kevin Faulk did average 4.1 yards a carry and was the Cassel's best weapon, accounting for a combined 107 yards and a highlight reel touchdown reception).

While I believe the offense could have been better - the team needs to do a better job of helping Cassel out - I don't have too many complaints about the offensive performance other than those noted above.

The defense, however, continues to bother me.

Overall, they did what they needed to do, coming up with the big third down stops pretty regularly. What wasn't good was the regularity with which the Rams hit big plays. Three St. Lois receivers had catches of at least 19 yards, two of them averaged more than 20 yards per catch and one, with six receptions averaged more than 27 yards.

These are not reassuring numbers.

They are a step backwards from last week when the Pats gave up virtually nothing deep.

Will they adjust sans Rodney Harrison? I hope so - but this really wasn't the sort of adjustment I was hoping to see, and I don't care what the record says, next week's Sunday night tilt against the Colts looms large. Even a wounded Peyton Manning is dangerous, and I would like to see that the secondary has made the necessary adjustments to win in Indy next week.

And on a separate note, for those of you who missed it, check out my last post on commercial viability. It's a gas.

Fall-out and other thoughts...

Some of the fall-out from the disintegration of Roger Clemens' reputation before our very eyes in the form of an instant message conversation with my wife this morning...

me: evidently a stripper from Detroit went on the radio yesterday claiming an affair with Clemens

Kelly: egad

8:17 AM me: yeah

so

8:18 AM with Clemens

how is it he isn't a syphilis ridden space case at this point?

Kelly: steroids kills stds?

I guess now we know why he didn't want to travel with the team between starts. Maybe no actual skeletons in his closet, but that's an awful lot of T&A in there.

Rolling stones gather no Moss...

But, evidently, really fast cars do.

Moss has announced plans to get into NASCAR as an owner.

I can't say that I have ever understood the attraction of car racing. The idea of watching people drive in circles for hours at a time just strikes me as the pinnacle of absurdity - only slightly higher on the mountain than golf about which Mark Twain famously said, "golf is a good walk spoiled."

However, if this is what Moss wants to do with his bonus money, then more power to him. If he moves forward with this, he joins the likes of Joe Gibbs (car), and Bill Parcells (horse), who are already involved in racing as a side vocation.

One final C-Note...

A happy birthday/anniversary shout out to our seventh inning stretch traditions...

It's not just the 100th anniversary of the Cubs last time winning the World Series, it is also the 100th anniversary of the writing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." At the time of the song's writing, neither the lyricist, nor the composer had been to a baseball game. It would be two decades before one of them finally made it to a game.

I won't spend a lot of words writing about this, as the link to the Wikipedia link above is quite thorough, but I will note that we seem to sing only the chorus during the seventh inning stretch. There are two versions I have included below.

1908 Version Katie Casey was baseball mad, Had the fever and had it bad. Just to root for the home town crew, Ev'ry sou1 Katie blew. On a Saturday her young beau Called to see if she'd like to go To see a show, but Miss Kate said "No, I'll tell you what you can do:"	1927 Version Nelly Kelly loved baseball games, Knew the players, knew all their names. You could see her there ev'ry day, Shout "Hurray" When they'd play. Her boyfriend by the name of Joe Said, "To Coney Isle, dear, let's go", Then Nelly started to fret and pout, And to him, I heard her shout:
[Chorus] Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowds; Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back. Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don't win, it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, At the old ball game.
Katie Casey saw all the games, Knew the players by their first names. Told the umpire he was wrong, All along, Good and strong. When the score was just two to two, Katie Casey knew what to do, Just to cheer up the boys she knew, She made the gang sing this song:	Nelly Kelly was sure some fan, She would root just like any man, Told the umpire he was wrong, All along, Good and strong. When the score was just two to two, Nelly Kelly knew what to do, Just to cheer up the boys she knew, She made the gang sing this song:
[repeat Chorus]

Mythology

It's amazing, the difference between fact and fiction in professional sports. That which is accepted as fact, often by the apologists or those looking to bolster their own arguments in an effort to make a player, coach, or organization look either better or worse. Sometimes the myth is true...or more accurately, the truth is so wild or great that it becomes mythic - the Immaculate Reception, Carlton Fisk's home run in game six of the 1975 World Series, Kirk Gibson, the 1980 Olympic American ice hockey team, and so on. Sometimes it becomes difficult to separate myth from fact.

Let's take a shot at a couple of the big myths floating around professional sports today...

Myth - Bill Belichick was fined $500,0000.00 for filming the Jets' signals. The knock, among fans of other teams, is that Belichick cheated by stealing signals.

Fact - Belichick was fined for filming from the sideline, the fact that he was shooting the defensive signals was incidental. According to the following report from when the story broke -

From reports when the story broke -

As part of the league's investigation, Goodell determined the filming of Jets coaches had no impact on the outcome of the game. Goodell also ruled that Robert Kraft and Patriots ownership were unaware of the filming...The NFL's rules state that "no video recording devices of any kind are permitted to be in use in the coaches' booth, on the field, or in the locker room during the game" and that all video shooting locations for coaching purposes "must be enclosed on all sides with a roof overhead."

In a memo to NFL head coaches and general managers on Sept. 6, 2006, NFL executive vice president of football operations Ray Anderson wrote: "Videotaping of any type, including but not limited to taping of an opponent's offensive or defensive signals, is prohibited on the sidelines, in the coaches' booth, in the locker room, or at any other locations accessible to club staff members during the game."

So...according to the NFL, the issue had nothing to do with them taping signals, and everything to do with where they taped from. According to this, any team can film its opponent's signals as long as the filming location is not accessible during the game - like, say, one of the skyboxes, which is enclosed on all sides with a picture window facing the field.

Myth - "Steroids don't help you hit the ball." This is the favorite defense of Bonds apologists who first will argue that he never used (he did, he admitted it, get it through your thick skulls) and even if he did...(see statement above)...

Fact - No, the performance enhancers largely don't help a person with their natural ability to hit the ball, but they do, in the end, help a batter hit...

To wit, steroids and other performance enhancers in baseball are used in order to recover faster from games, double headers, and other workouts. They also make the player stronger.

Increased strength and faster recovery time results in the following -

• Balls hit harder, thus, the ball travels both farther and faster. Balls dying on the warning track get deposited three rows behind the outfield wall. Balls barely reached by the middle infielder in the hole get by for hits.
• The player using these drugs is fresher at the end of a ten game stretch than the one not using, thus allowing the user to turn on a ball, with the greater likelihood of putting it into play than the tired opponent whose timing might be off enough to make his swing result in a foul ball or strike, instead of a hit. Hmmm...help hitting the ball. Who would've thought. Oh, right, the ball players injecting themselves with steroids.
• Balls get thrown harder by power pitchers losing their power

Myth - Baseball didn't even have a rule banning steroids in 1998.

Fact - MLB had a rule passed in 1971. According to the Mitchell Report a drug policy was written in MLB that prohibits using any prescription medicine without a prescription. From all reports, virtually none of the players named for use of either steroids or HGH had a prescription from a doctor. And those that did had their prescription from less than reputable doctors (see Paul Bird).

So, based on this 1971 rule, steroid and HGH users were in violation of MLB's rules and regulations, and use of those substances, in essence, has been against baseball's rules for the last 26 years.

Then in 1991, just to be safe, then commissioner Fay Vincent added steroids to the prohibited substance list.

Myth - The offensive coordinator of a record setting offense will make for a great head coach.

Fact - Right now 31-year old Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniel is generating interest from both the Falcons and the Ravens for their head coaching vacancies. Recent jumps from record setting coordinator to head coach have included Mike Martz and Brian Billick.

While it can be debated as to how successful Billick was, winning a Super Bowl and making multiple playoffs, one thing is certain - Billick was brought to a Ravens team that already had a solid defense, with the purpose of putting together a championship caliber offense. His offenses, over his nine years with the Ravens, have averaged 23rd. Only twice in the Ravens last six seasons have the Ravens achieved at least ten wins and the playoffs.

He inherited a team that had an improving defense, a slowly improving record, and an opportunity to build the offense he wanted. The offensive guru has been so good at identifying the talent he needed at key positions that he had 12 different quarterbacks start for him during his nine seasons at the helm.

Mike Martz won a Super Bowl ring running the Greatest Show on Turf for Dick Vermeil. Without Vermeil's tempering hand, Martz eventually went pass-happy, let the defense deteriorate, and the team's record eventually suffered in subsequent years.

Under Vermeil, during his last season at the helm, the Rams ranked 4th in points allowed on defense. Under Martz in the first year, 31st. Over the five full seasons at the helm, his defenses finished an average of 17th in points allowed and was fired in a year that the team was again 31st.

Gaudy numbers get you noticed, and there is success to be had with these coaches, but the numbers in a record setting season sets the bar impossibly high. Billick's offense in Minnesota was fueled by a young Randy Moss, just as McDaniels' offense in New England is fueled by Moss.

What is the likelihood that McDaniels will be the solution in Baltimore when they have a scouting office that can't identify a pro-ready quarterback on the collegiate level, or a veteran that still has some gas left in the tank?

Random thoughts on tomorrow's game

I'm guessing that if Brady throws at least three touchdown passes tomorrow that the first two will go to Randy Moss so that he can break the record of 22 in a season, currently held by Jerry Rice. The third I would expect will end up in the hands of Troy Brown, so that the team can break a record it currently shares with the 1987 Rams and the 2000 Broncos - 21 different players in a Pats uniform have scored a touchdown this season. If Brown scores one tomorrow, that will make 22. Other candidates include Ryan O'Callaghan who sometimes lines up at tight end down by the goal line, or Junior Seau who lines up at fullback in the same set.

A note, in fairness to Jerry Rice - his 22 touchdowns came in a strike shortened season, over the course of 12 games. All told, that's a 29 touchdown pace. As good as Moss has been this season, he hasn't been that good, and Rice's pace of 1.8 touchdowns per game needs to somehow remain in the record books. If Moss finishes the season with 23, that's 1.4 per game.

The weather tomorrow in the Meadowlands, according to the most recent report, is for low winds, and low 50's during the day. No bad weather on the docket. That clearly favors the Patriots who have the better quarterback and receivers by far of the two teams.

The Giants do have the kind of physical defense that has given the Patriots fits of late. On the flip side, the Giants have lost to each of the top offenses that they have faced - by an average of 10.5 points to Dallas (10, and 11 points respectively), and by 22 to the Packers. Neither of those team's offenses are as potent as the Patriots'.

What are the chances that the Pats pound the ball on the ground a lot, just to see if they can do it against a better defense than either of the last two that the team has faced in the Dolphins and Jets? 50-50? I think the Giants defense is going to come out hard after the pass because of the records, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the Patriots come out running, if for no other reason than to slow the Giants vaunted pass rush.

Swan song a mostly forgettable tune

The longest tenured Patriot was finally getting in on the act.

Troy Brown would be active.

A career special teams demon, he would be returning punts.

He returned six for 55 yards. A respectable 9.2 yard average, with a physical 28 yard return that brought the ball back to mid-field.

Unfortunately he also had the one that clanged off his face-mask giving the Dolphins the ball back after a sterling series by the defense.

His day fielding punt returns was like the offense's day in microcosm - Laurence Maroney battered the Dolphins for over 150 yards on 14 carries, while Jabar Gaffney hauled in five passes for 82 yards and a touchdown. The stars, on the other hand, failed to shine - Brady while good, still tossed two picks, and both Wes Welker and Randy Moss dropped passes that would have kept drives alive in the second half when the offense put a big donut on the scoreboard. It was the first time all season the Patriots offense was shut out in a half.

Your prolific offense getting shut down in the second half by the Miami Dolphins is not going to put any sort of fear into the likes of the Colts, or the Jaguars come football's second season.

On the positive side of the ledger -

Wes Welker is one touchdown away from breaking the Patriots' record for receptions in a season, currently held by Brown with 101.

Stephen Gostkowski set a new league record for extra points in a season.

The Patriots broke the record for touchdowns scored in a season with 71 and counting. The previous record was held by the 1984 Dolphins.

The Pats are six points shy of tying the mark for most points by a team.

Randy Moss needs two touchdown receptions to break Jerry Rice's record of 22, and Tom Brady needs two TD passes to break Peyton Manning's record of 49.

The team tied their own record of 18 straight regular season wins, and are poised to break that with a win next week.

And with a current passer rating of 119.7, Manning's season record of 121.1 for a season is within reach (although if Brady makes decisions against the Giants like he did against the Jets and Dolphins, it just isn't happening).

Not to be lost in all this is the fact that the Patriots dominated an opponent on the ground for the second straight week, ringing up 196 yards on 25 carries - a 7.8 yard per carry clip that even against the deficient Dolphins is a good sign heading into the post season. The supposedly run-deficient Patriots entered the game with the 12th ranked running game in the league - not bad for the noted weakness of the offense.

Other thoughts...

Tom Coughlin can't be overwhelmed by the Giants mistake filled win over the Buffalo Bills. His playoff bound team got even more dinged up as it did everything it could in the first half to hand Buffalo this game on a silver platter. If New York plays like this against just about any other playoff contender in the post season they will be one and done.

The Browns had a chance to push Pittsburgh's back against the wall and possibly win the division with a win over the sad-sack Cincinnati Bengals and couldn't seal the deal. Ditto for Green Bay in regards to having a chance at forcing the Cowboys to have to travel to the Frozen Tundra for the conference championship game. Instead Brett Favre and the Pack spit the bit, losing 35-7 to a Bears team that is a shadow of its former self.

Minnesota, also with a chance to seal their place in the playoffs also blew it, dropping a game to the Redskins 32-21. The only teams that came up big in keeping their playoff hopes alive were the Titans who squeaked by the Jets to even their record with the 9-6 Browns (Cleveland holds the tie breakers), and the Redskins who have evened their record with Minnesota at 8-7, but now hold the tie-breaker by virtue of this weekend's victory over the Vikings.

So I was wrong - the Lions will go 7-9, not 6-10. I gotta find me some employers like the Ford family. Evidently anything short of blowing the company to Kingdom Come won't get you fired.

One last thought -

Does anyone out there suppose Miami fans watched that game and thought, "why can't the Dolphins get players like Heath Evans, Wes Welker, Kyle Eckel, and Junior Seau...wait...um...nevermind. Dumbass GM."

A Different Beast

Since 2001 the Patriots are a league best 40-8 in post-Thanksgiving games.

Those teams of past years were built to grind games out and run out the clock with tight leads in the fourth quarter with the likes of Antowain Smith and Corey Dillon. They had a punishing defense which got harder to penetrate the closer an opponent came to the goal-line. While the defense punished, an underrated offensive line mauled.

Brady hit the pass plays that were needed to win, and Adam Vinatieri could always be relied on to get the big kick as the weather worsened.

The team was built for the elements - to excell in the harsh winters. There was little finesse in the sledgehammer that Belichick and Pioli built. The team wasn't built for prolific records, it was built to win championships.

Then, last year the season died in a dome on a dropped pass that would have iced the game. Reche Caldwell.

And Pioli and Belichick gave the team a face-lift on offense and created a different sort of beast to play on the new turf in Gillette.

Belichick said that the Pats hadn't done anything different this off-season, but that wasn't really true. He and his right hand (personnel) man assembled on offense that is decidedly un-Belichick-ian.

Suddenly an outdoor stadium is fielding a very dome-like offense. It is a team built for an aerial assault unlike any previously seen in the NFL - Brady is outing the lie to the statement that Manning is the best quarterback in the league, the Greatest Show on Turf now sounds like it violated truth in advertising laws, and Randy Moss is reminding everyone why he was once considered the best young receiver in the league.

Through ten games that Pats have scored 411 points. In 1998, the Vikings led by Moss, Chris Carter and Daunte Culpepper scored a record 556 points. If the Patriots keep up their average of 41.1 per game, they will shatter the existing record, finishing with 658 points scored. Moss already has 16 touchdown receptions on the season. The record held by Jerry Rice is 22 - Moss, if this pace keeps up, will likely break that in the 14th game of the season, and should finish with between 25 and 26 touchdowns on the season.

Brady is on pace for 4895 yards (second only to Dan Marino's 5084 in 1984 - and don't think that if Brady is within 150 yards of that record in the third quarter of the Giants game that Belichick wouldn't keep him in) and 61 touchdowns. Manning finished his best season with 49. In addition to that, Brady is currently on pace to tie Drew Bledsoe for the franchise record for completions in a season with 400 (1994), and annihilate the league record for completion percentage in a season (held by Cincinnati's Ken Anderson - 70.55, 1982) at 73.9.

But all of this is contingent on one thing - can the team keep the pace up?

As previously noted, this offense is built like it was made to play in a dome, rather than in Foxboro, and the weather begins to turn nasty after Thanksgiving in the greater Northeast and four of the Pats remaining six games are at the Razor. The other two are in the Meadowlands against the Giants and in Baltimore. They host the Eagles, Jets, Steelers, and Dolphins.

Of their remaining schedule, only the Giants and Steelers have winning records. Both have solid running games, as do the Dolphins - important in the sleet and snow that comes down in these areas in December.

Watching the team one thing is obvious. None of the teams remaining on the schedule match up well with the Patriots rapid-fire attack. The Steelers have been awful on the road, dropping games to mediocre or substandard teams like the Jets, Broncos, and Cardinals. Baltimore has no offense, the Giants pass defense couldn't keep up with Dallas - it's unlikely to keep up with the Pats. The Eagles, Jets, and the Dolphins are just shadows of their former selves.

The Patriots could stumble - it has been a common occurrence for teams that have seemed invincible this late in the season, but I think it's unlikely.

No. If anything is going to be a problem for the Patriots, it's not going to be the opponent on the other side-line. It's going to be the elements. How does the deep passing attack adjust to the snow and wind of Gillette and Giants Stadiums? Can Wes Welker get in and out of his low, sharp cuts on a wet and icy field?

If the elements are too much to overcome for the passing attack, does Belichick forgo a number of the aerial records, and begin pounding the ball with Laurence Maroney, Heath Evans, and Kyle Eckel? Does this become the fight at the end of Rocky II with Mickey yelling at Rocky to switch back to southpaw?

Weekend musings...

Welcome to the Animal Shelter...

Peter King had it right - the Patriots won yesterday in the fourth quarter on 13 key plays, twelve of them came from the Animal Shelter - Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth, and Randy Moss - the other was a great catch-and-I-won't-be-denied-run by scatback Kevin Faulk.

Welker, Stallworth and Moss all made big plays, with Stallworth and Moss catching deep balls to set up touchdowns from Welker and Faulk. Why the "Animal Shelter?"

Stallworth generated almost no interest in the free-agent market, Moss was had for a fourth round draft pick, and Welker, Miami's leading receiver last year and an undrafted free-agent, was tendered the minimum offer from the 'Phins. Like the dogs at an animal shelter, these were the unwanted, and now they're the best receiving corps in football and an integral part of why the Pats are heading into their bye week at 9-0.

Those top three receivers are likely to account for more than 3,600 yards combined at the end of the season. Moss already has 924, Welker is at 651, and Stallworth is at 453. That translates into a season long pace of 1643 for Moss, Welker projects at 1157 and Stallworth at 805 (a total of 3605). That doesn't include another estimated 1300, to 1400 yards in receiving from the rest of the team.

While it's likely that the aerial show will experience some drop-off as the team begins to fight the elements in Foxboro, the idea of a 5,000 yard passing season is not completely out of the realm of possibility. With struggling teams like the Jets, 'Phins, and Eagles still on the schedule, don't be surprised to see a whole bunch of dismantlings a la the first eight games of the season.

What should bother the Colts when they watch film this week, after handed a loss by the Animal Shelter, is that this is what is going to show up on the film - Brady had an off day, throwing at times away from the open man and into coverage. They will see a game in which at least one of their touchdowns was aided and abetted by a phantom call by the referees. They will see a game in which they had to carry their "more physical" defenders off the field twice in the final minutes. They will see a Peyton Manning, circa 2004 instead of circa 2006.

Anyone else hearing strains of that classic "Welcome Back" by John Sebastion.

See you boys in the Razor in January.

Double Standards...

Isn't it time to drop the modifier "fighting" from the now 1-8 Fighting Irish?

Right about now I would like to hear about Ty Willingham filing a lawsuit against the Irish for his dismissal. To wit - in Willingham's three seasons, the Washington alum was fired with an aggregate record of 21-15, with only one losing record (5-7 in 2003). Willingham was dismissed after a 6-5 regular season. Currently, Charlie Weiss is presiding over a 1-8 regular season, putting his current record at 20-12 with three more losses likely on the schedule.

If they fired Willingham after a winning season just for missing a bowl game, not giving him an opportunity to develop the talent he recruited (does the name Brady Quinn mean anything to anybody?), why should Weiss get the same benefit of the doubt as he guides the team to what is likely to be a one win season?

As much as I hate seeing anyone play the card, personally, I have to believe that race played a part in this with Willingham being the only African-American head coach in the history of Notre Dame.

So, that's what an off game looks like...

Patriots 34, Bengals 13.

Tom Brady had his lowest completion percentage of the season at a gaudy 78.1.

Randy Moss had his lowest yardage total at 102.

The offense put up only 34 points.

For other teams these offensive numbers would increase the respective averages associated with each. On the Patriots its bringing the overall numbers down.

And, oddly, in spite of the 21-point loss, the Bengals defense did appear to slow down the Patriots a little. Of course the only time Cincy really stopped them they had 12 men on the field.

A lot can happen between now and the end of the season, and the Patriots have yet to face their toughest opposition, but could 16-0 really be within reach? Not something I would normally put out there, but with this team you have to wonder.

In honor of Friday the 13th - 13 Thoughts...

1. Halfway house - The Yankees won last night to get to .500 with a 43-43 record. Right now, at ten games behind the Red Sox, they are halfway between first place and last. The Devil Rays are 20 games back.

With 76 games left the Yankees would have to go 47-29 just to get to 90 wins and 52-24 to get to the commonly acknowledged number of 95 for a legit shot at the post-season. That's a .618 winning percentage from now until the end of the season.

To put it a different way - on a team where the starting pitching has accounted for 30 of the team's 43 wins and 30 of the team's losses, the Yankees need their starting pitching to come up with quality starts in three out of every five starts, bare minimum, and enough offense to win those starts. Is there anyone who doesn't have pinstripes seared into their minds that believes the Yankees can do this?

2. Smells like...desperation - The Yankees gave Alex Rodriguez an ultimatum...promise not to opt out of your contract and we'll work out an extension with you. If you don't, we won't be part of the off-season A-Rod sweepstakes. Yeah, I wouldn't have accepted that either.

In essence, the Yankees have told one of the few bright spots in their otherwise moribund season to give up all negotiating leverage. The bottom line is that the Yankees were willing to pay more while Texas was picking up part of the tab and they're not so sure they want to spend gobs o cash on their third baseman.

Unfortunately, they're over a barrel. They have no one in the minors, and right now their other option would be to overpay for Mike Lowell if the Sox don't extend him. Who else will be on the market this winter that the Yanks would be interested in?

3. Fed up - I have been cycling since I was in high school. When I say cycling, I'm talking water bottles, Trek, Cannondale, Biancchi, spandex, and the Tour De France.

I have even followed le Tour with more than a passing interest in a number of years, but this year there's a bad taste in my mouth. That bad taste has to do with the Tour, and the last three American winners which make up, in toto, half the winners of the last 20 Tours - Greg LeMond (2 X's, three if you go back 21 years), Lance Armstrong (7 X's), Floyd Landis (once).

LeMond, who to this day, had one of the greatest single days in the history of sports when he came from almost two minutes down in the final time-trial in 1986 to beat Laurent Fignon of France seems to have his own agenda. Armstrong and Landis have both faced doping allegations - Armstrong from teammates that had nothing to gain by outing him, and Landis with a failed test during last year's Tour.

All might be guilty of something, and it's possible that none are guilty of anything. Let's face it, if the Tour really wanted to clean up the sport, they wouldn't rely on an incompetent lab, and they certainly wouldn't let the rag of a newspaper, L'Equipe, have access to "anonymous" test samples in order to discredit riders. And all this is just a tip of the disorganized iceberg that is the mess the Tour has going, and it makes it hard to take anything that the Tour officials claim as being the truth since the newspaper appears to have an agenda - and treating the riders fairly does not seem to be part of that agenda.

4. Depth Charges - Listening to ESPN Radio's Sports Bash on the way home yesterday, the host made an interesting...and accurate point about the Red Sox this year. Last year the team had a better record and the team had "better balance."

It's hard to argue that the line-up was better last year - Nixon was better last year than Drew has been this year, shortstop has been a down-grade, and both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz have been scuffling at the plate. However, Varitek is having a better season, as is Youkilis, Mike Lowell, and even Coco Crisp, not to mention Pedroia has been an upgrade at second.

The real key, however, has been that last season the team didn't weather injuries to the pitching particularly well, and other than Jonathan Papelbon, had a pretty mediocre bullpen. This season Okajima and DelCarmen have been spectacular on a Papelbon-like level, and others like Kyle Snyder and Brendan Donnelly have been solid. To top it off, the Sox have starters ready for the Pawtucket to Boston express a-la Kasson Gabbard for whenever the Curt Schillings of the world are done.

It's unlikely that the Sox will experience a late-season skid like last year when inning-eater Tim Wakefield went down with a rib injury.

5. The Boomer and Moss- David Wells recent suspension getting him in the news reminded me of what I thought when the Sox signed him. I realized that when I heard the Patriots had traded for Moss, that I emotionally had the same reaction...I really hate this guy, did my team really need him that badly?

6. Just a couple of weeks - While I am a Red Sox lifer, I have to admit, I am first and foremost a football fan. I was that guy watching NFL Europa. I am happy to remind everyone - pads get strapped on for two-a-days in just about two weeks.

7. Predictions - I don't generally like to do preseason predictions, except for in the NFL. However, I did some for bitterfans.com and predicted that the Brewers would finish in first in the NL Central. While they have struggled of late, the team still holds a 4.5 game lead in the division after the All-Star break, and has a legitimate shot of winning what's a fairly weak division.

In all honesty, the Brew-crew was my dark-horse pick. I'm just as surprised as anybody else.

8. Of human Bond-age - Will some pitcher just bean this man already? Nobody outside of San Francisco or ESPN's Connecticut campus wants to see the non-stop Bonds coverage by ESPN.

And on that note, ESPN and their on-air personalities should be ashamed for taking Hank Aaron to task over his choice to not attend the grotesque charade that is Bonds' pursuit of Aaron's record. If anyone has earned the right to do something for his own reasons, it's Aaron, and who the Hell are we to question him? For that matter - why should Bud Selig be present? If the man thinks Bonds cheated, isn't that then just sending the message that he continues to condone the cheating in the sport.

Maybe it is a little disingenuous of him to turn his back on Bonds after years of turning a blind eye to the problem, but wouldn't it be worse if after committing to cleaning up the game he did something that could be construed as condoning one of the league's biggest cheaters?

9. Meet me in St. Louis - I've seen championship teams take a dive following their championship season, and heard all the questions that accompanied the fall, but this one is amusing to me. People are talking like St. Louis has had the precipitous fall from last year, but this team went 83-78 - the third worst record in the history of the sport for a play-off team.

What we had was a team that got hot for the post-season. Think long and hard about the fact that they got quality starts out of Jeff "Let's Throw Some Batting Practice Every Fifth Day" Weaver in the post-season, and then tell me whether or not they were the best team, or just the best at the right time.

This right now is no surprise to me.

10. Hey baby, what's your sign - Can anyone out there tell me what's going on with ESPN and the sexual harassment suits? Anyone?

Who wants to place bets on how long it will be before Isaiah Thomas works there?

11. 20,000 Leagues under the Seahawks - Anyone out there know what the over-under is that Vegas is putting on the two new professional football leagues that are supposed to start up over the next couple of years? With the United Football League already attracting investors such as Mark Cuban, and the fact that they are looking to play ball in the Fall, my money is on the UFL to be the one to show any sort of longevity.

You know...get into the second half.

12. Tennis anyone - Wimbledon has come and gone and the most I saw were some highlights of matches featuring the Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova, and Daniella Hantuchova. All told, I watched less than ten minutes of tennis.

Growing up I used to watch Wimbledon and Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Chris Everett and Martina Navratilova. I even watched when it was Michael Chang, Ivan Lendl, and Boris Becker.

It occurred to me that I couldn't name a single men's player on the current tour without some sort of hint. Yup, I'm one of pro tennis' lost viewers. Oh well.

13. Better for some sports - Throughout the years, Hollywood has often looked to sports to provide storylines. There have been so many sports movies that they are sometimes considered their own genre. I have addressed the movies before, but what I have never asked here is why some sports seem to generate better movies than others?

For example, cycling has produced the classic Breaking Away and the well received Flying Scotsman, but it has also given us American Flyers and little else. Football has given us Remember the Titans, North Dallas 40, and the original Longest Yard but it has also given us Necessary Roughness and Little Giants.

I put it to you, my readers - other than baseball (Field of Dreams, The Natural, The Bad News Bears, Bull Durham, A Soldier's Story, Bang the Drum Slowly, Major League, Eight Men Out, Fear Strikes Out, and Cobb off the top of my head), can anyone come up with a top ten of movies for any given sport? Football? Basketball? Hockey?

Or at least explain to me why sports like basketball end up with more films like Juwanna Mann and Air Bud, than like Hoosiers?

201 - looking back and looking forward...

Well, I had hoped to run an interview here with Boston Herald columnist Steve Buckley about Drew Bledsoe's place in NFL and Patriots history. We have corresponded on the subject several times, and I am still hoping that he will be able to do the interview. That said, I have a Q&A I did with Steve Sabol a couple of years ago hidden away somewhere on a cassette in my hard files that - should I find it, I will transcribe it and post it here.

Let's see - let's do the quick hits before looking back...

*The aging Schilling is continuing his Jeckyll and Hyde-like season, following a good outing with a bad one. However, it is encouraging that it looks like Wakefield might have turned the corner and be on the verge of one of his streaks.

*What has happened to Red Sox hitting over the last week? A pitching deficient team like the Rockies (team leader in ERA 3.81, team ERA 4.51) comes to town and holds the Sox (BA .374) to a combined four runs in two games? Are you kidding me?

*I realize that Coco Crisp played much of last year injured, but this is Crisp's fifth year in the bigs, and it appears that he is going backwards. Maybe he just can't stand the pressure of playing in front of the frenzied throngs at Fenway a la Edgar Renteria, but the one thing that is becoming obvious - Crisp is just not an everyday player for the Sox.

*At least one thing I read about the Patriots training camp this past weekend concerns me about Randy Moss. There has been a lot of fanfare trumpeting his arrival at the Razor, but it seems that some writers have noted that Moss is consistently the last one in his group (the receivers) to finish drills - the last in sprints, and seldom showed anything in practice (but when he did, many members of the press oohed and ahhed accordingly).

If this is what Moss thinks will fly in New England, we have a very interesting game of chicken that's about to start between him and the Patriots brain trust.

*Anybody else curious about what Roger Goodell told Pacman Jones in the meeting that preceded Jones dropping his appeal? I would have loved to have been a fly on that wall.

* Speaking of problem children - is it just me, or does it sound like things are about to either heat up, or fall apart in the federal quest for an indictment of Barry Bonds, heat up for Michael Vick, and am I the only one that heard about Bud Selig maybe considering possibly suspending Jason Giambi if he doesn't cooperate with the Mitchell investigation and thought, "wow, Hell of a backbone you're showing there Mr. Commissioner."

Anyone else think that Selig is the sort of guy at a restaurant that orders one thing, then as he hands the menu back, tells the waiter, "uh...no, how about" something else, and then gives yet another order before the server manages to walk away? Just me?

A quick look back...

I graduated from Emerson College in Boston's Back Bay in the early 1990's with a degree in writing and a minor in film. What does one do with a writing degree?

Well, for a year I worked for the City of Boston's Public Facilities Department in the first time home buyers program. I then moved on to approximately four years working in marketing, moved to Philadelphia where I spent five years teaching (while getting freelance writing and editing gigs, including a gig as the interim assistant sports editor of one of the suburban weeklies just outside of Philly), and eventually ended up in Maryland as the business writer for the Frederick Gazette, a subsidiary of the Washington Post.

I was never fond of business writing and have since moved on from that (I currently am the Maryland columnist for the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News, and the Media Relations manager for the United States Australian Football League), and at the time had been offered a chance to come on board as a sports writer (which I turned down due to the evening hours combined with the fact that I wanted to be able to see my then two-year old daughter grow up). Rather than go through my blog to identify pieces I'm particularly fond of here which I did in post 150, I thought it might be more interesting to cover some of the articles that got into the various papers.

Here are a handful of articles that I am particularly proud of (all of which in my mind bear some sort of blemish, but I think we're always hardest on our own work), and all are sports related -

1. Coverage of the Rick Block Classic memorial basketball game.

2. The first day I was working at the South Philly Review, I was asked to do a story on a school closing, this is what I ended up with. It was not exactly the easiest first day in the world, but still better for me than for the subject. I hope the family and friends are healing.

3. Not my best writing, but I have always liked this piece I wrote about the Philadelphia Liberty Belles women's football team.

4. This time last year, the local bicyclers were heady over the prospect of Floyd Landis challenging in the Tour de France due partially to the fact that Frederick County, MD was where Landis cut his teeth as a mountain biker when younger. It's interesting to watch the way everyone interested in cycling is waiting with great anticipation to see how everything turns out.

5. A rant that I wrote for the folks over at Bitterfans about Hall of Fame voting in the NFL.

There are others I could have posted, some of which, for whatever reason never made it onto the web (I always liked my preview of the Red Sox 1996 season that I did for the now defunct Boston Chronicle, however far off I might have been), but these are some of the ones I am particularly fond of.

As readers may have noticed, I have been much more prolific this year than in past years as I might approach 200 posts in this year alone, not counting my other blogs Gibbering Idiot Press (entertainment, comics, sci-fi, horror), WiredFrederick (local interest to where I live), and In The Ruck (Australian football in the US). If I ever find the tape I made of the interview with Steve Sabol, I will make sure it gets posted...couching it in the year that the interview actually happened (which might have been in 2002).

Peace.

Samuel and a lack of class

I've been debating whether or not to address this for some time...until I read the following by Don Banks at Sports Illustrated, "Moss last week traveled with his new teammates to New Orleans for the wake of Patriots defensive lineman Marquise Hill -- who drowned May 27 after his jet ski flipped in Lake Pontchartrain -- a player he had barely met."

Reports in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald noted Samuel's absence from the funeral. I wasn't thrilled about it at the time, as Samuel had been Hill's teammate on the defensive side of the ball for Hill's entire professional career.

Samuel has repeatedly claimed to understand that the NFL is a business, but it seems to me, when a person spurns a teammate's funeral during a contract dispute, then the dispute is moved into the personal. Maybe he had a family emergency...maybe. Or maybe he wanted to avoid having to face the Patriot front office which attended.

Either way, I think he needs to explain his absence. That event wasn't about team. It was about our connection to each other as individuals - and right now I'm seeing someone for whom money is king over all else. I don't know if that's a teammate I would want back.

Rounding up those stray little thoughts like the sheep they are...

The NYpon Ham fighters...
Okay, so I stretched a little for a pun here, but right now the Yankees seem to be feeling a little hamstrung. Over the course of the first month of the season the Bronx Bombers have lost four pitchers including the latest casualty, pitching prospect and expected phenom, Phil Hughes to hamstring problems. Since spring training under the stretching program instituted by the Yankees new strength and conditioning guy Bobby Abreu, Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Mike Mussina each went down with ailments that could potentially be tied to conditioning and stretching issues. That's four starting pitchers and three starters for those keeping score at home.

According to the NY Daily News - "After Mussina strained his hamstring on April 11, Cashman threw his full support behind [trainers] Miller and Cavalea, saying, 'None of these injuries have anything to do with this new program.'" Yesterday Miller was shown the door, possibly in a move by Cashman to avoid that same door himself. Someone had to take the fall for the Yankees' slow start, and it appeared that the trainer was ripe for the kicking.

If the Yanks have a May like their April, rest assured there will be other heads that roll before the end of the month.

Not exactly waiting for Godot...
Josh Beckett has accomplished something in a Red Sox uni that not even Pedro did...six wins in six decisions to start the season. Only a handful pitchers in Sox uniforms equaled or topped that feat - Roger Clemens and the ole' southpaw, George Herman Ruth are among them. Not bad company to be in.

The early returns seem to be that Beckett is on course, as long as he stays healthy, for a 20-win season, even if he stumbles a bit, and a strong candidate for the Cy Young. Right now he has 6 wins (1st, which could put him on pace for close to 14 by the All-Star break), is 9th in innings pitched (39.2), 8th in strike outs (35), 9th in ERA (2.72), 8th in Walks/Hits per Inning Pitched (WHIP) with 1.06, and opposing batters are hitting only .219 against him (10th).

If he maintains these averages, he has every chance of finishing in the top five in every important pitching category. The big question is, can he do it? As a Sox fan, I sure hope so.

What is truly amazing is that in almost every one of the categories I mentioned, there is another Sox pitcher in front of him - Schilling in innings pitched, Wakefield in ERA and opponent's batting average, and Matsuzaka in strike outs.

I think Sox fans would be hard pressed to find a time in the team's history when four members of their pitching staff were in the top ten of those statistical categories over the course of any one month period of time in any season. Hitting? Sure. But pitching...

Feeling a little drafty...
As readers may have noticed, I'm not much on covering the draft, but I am going to say a couple of things about this past year's draft -

Feeling Patriot-ic - I think some good and some...well let's just say that the jury is out as to what happened here. I honestly don't know enough about Brandon Merriweather to claim he's a bad guy. Yes he was involved in a gun incident, no, the police found nothing illegal in his involvement - the gun was licensed and it was determined that he was indeed acting in self-defense. I'm not happy about it, but to borrow a Belichick-ism - it is what it is...and what it is appears to be an isolated incident.

Then there was the brawl where he was caught on film stomping on a Florida International player's head. I understand that football is a game of great emotion - when in high school I had to be restrained from going after another team's center, but I was 15 at the time, not 21.

Are these red flags? Yes. But people have been comparing this to picking Pacman Jones which I believe is...shall we say a touch of hyperbole. Jones had been arrested for assault in a bar incident in West Virginia and had a history of trouble in high school including suspensions from both school and team, I have not heard the same in the case of Merriweather. Merriweather could easily be heading in that direction, or it's quite possible that there will be nothing else along these lines. He has shown, from what I've read, little indication of following the troubled paths of Jones, Chris Henry, Tank Johnson, or even Washington safety Sean Taylor.

Trading places - The Pats made one pick on day one of what was considered a weak draft class, trading picks for extra places in next year's stronger draft. One of the big coups for the Pats was getting San Fran's number one next year. While the Niners figure to be better next year, I'm guessing it will still give the Pats a pick in the teens.

Rolling stones gather no Moss - There are a lot of positives to the Moss deal. The Pats picked up a talented player for virtually little to no real cost to themselves. The controversial wide receiver automatically makes the offense better. Currently, he's saying all the right things - even lauding Troy Brown as the best receiver to come out of Marshall. I still don't like the deal.

I don't feel they needed him to put them over the top at this point. I have no respect for a player that, "plays when I feel like it," and feel that it's the equivalent of the Red Sox going out and getting Derek Jeter (or in the past, Don Mattingly or Catfish Hunter) to play for them - it just wouldn't feel right.

Formerly PMSing Moss now with New England...um...right...

So, for what appears to be a bargain (potentially just one year $3+ million and a fourth round draft pick) the Patriots landed Raiders' trouble child Randy Moss. There's just something about this deal that feels...well...icky. This guy is about a half step up from Terrell Owens. It's like George Steinbrenner owning the Red Sox. There's just something wrong about this deal.

Does it make the Patriots team better? Probably, but at what cost? Moss is a highly talented and likely motivated player, with a desire to show the league that he is the same player he was before his two years in Oakland. However, he is also a notoriously selfish player. Despite his protests to the contrary this past weekend, his selfishness is well documented, as he often publicly complained that he did not get the ball enough, did nothing to sell routes when he knew running plays were going away from him, and seldom blocks.

How long, in the Patriots team first system, will this guy last before becoming a problem?

It will be difficult for me to root for this guy - too often he has been in the news for the wrong reasons, and that is something that is important.

Generally I'm willing to give the Patriots brain-trust the benefit of the doubt...this move has just left me wondering.

Cleaning out the cobwebs of the mind...

What are the biggest off-season questions in the NFL? I'm not sure - but I think we're looking at...

Who will take over the Chargers, and will they be the same next year? I'm betting that they'll be good, but not the same.

What does Randy Moss think that being a petulant trouble-maker of a child will get him in the NFL? He has killed his trade value, and most scouts seem to think he's too far gone to be the play maker he once was. I'm sure somebody will take a flyer on him - talent always gets a second chance, but he needs to understand that his next chance is probably his last.

Can Ben Roethlesberger resurrect his career? Honestly, I was never that sold on him to begin with.

Same with Eli Manning who spent the better part of last season regressing.

What does the Patriots brain-trust feel is the biggest problem to address in free-agency? I have been reading a lot of pre-draft about the Pats drafting a line-backer in order to infuse the position with some youth, but that hasn't been Belichick's way. Sure, they have drafted five or six during his time, but none have stuck. They like to convert defensive ends or bring in veterans. My bet is that they make a hard run at Adalius Thomas of the Ravens.

Can the Colts repeat? I think there are going to be too many key free agent losses due to the fact that they have a lot of players going to free agency and not anywhere near enough cap-room to keep them (for example, I have a hunch Dominick Rhodes will be on another team come training camp). They'll make the playoffs, but I would be surprised if they made it all the way to the Super Bowl.

Which coaching change this off-season is most likely to result in a Sean Payton-Saints/Eric Mangini-Jets type of season? I'm guessing the Arizona hiring of Ken Wisenhunt - providing he can straighten out the offensive line woes. Cam Cameron has too may questions at line, quarterback and running back, Mike Tomlin is coming to a team that played .500 ball as opposed to the Cardinals .312. Bobby Petrino also enters a better situation than Wisenhunt, although I believe he Cameron, and Wade Phillips in Dallas are the most likely to backslide by a game or two before showing any signs of improvement.

Trouble in Paradise -

Mariano Rivera is lobbying for a new contract from Boss Hog in New York and the greatest closer in Yankee history is not likely to get it. If there's truth to the rumors that the Yanks are positioning themselves to pursue Francisco Rodriguez in the next off-season, then Mo should be ready to follow up on his threat to play anywhere.

With a starting rotation likely to consist of Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte, Chien-Ming Wang, Carl Pavano and whoever they can plug in, Brian Cashman has to be sweating a little. Pettitte and Mussina are near the end of their careers, Pavano hasn't been healthy since Montreal and their ace looks like it might be Wang. Not exactly a front four that will put the fear of the baseball gods into most of the American League.

Basketball and the Rainbow Connection -

Tim Hardaway is an idiot. If he wants to be homo-phobic, fine. I don't even mind that he's upfront about it. Hell, I'll be the first to defend his right to be a bigot. But advocating somebody lose their job due to their sexual preference (which he did) is no better than advocating that they lose their job based on their skin color. Way to set the Civil Rights movement back by about 50 years.

For those of you that missed the report, here's a snippet from the AP story -

"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people
and I don't like to be around gay people," Hardaway said. "I'm homophobic. I
don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United
States."
Hardaway also said if he did find out that a teammate was gay, he
would ask for the player to be removed from the team.
"His words pollute the
atmosphere," Amaechi said. "It creates an atmosphere that allows young gays and
lesbians to be harassed in school, creates an atmosphere where in 33 states you
can lose your job and where anti-gay and lesbian issues are used for political
gain," Amaechi said.
Meanwhile, the NBA banished Hardaway from all-star
weekend in Las Vegas because of his anti-gay remarks.
Hardaway, who played in
five all-star games during the 1990s, was already in Las Vegas and scheduled to
make a series of public appearances this week on behalf of the league.
"It is
inappropriate for him to be representing us given the disparity between his
views and ours," Stern said.