Projo Pats Blog

A NEW BRADY VIDEO: That great source for hard-hitting football news, TMZ.com, has posted what it says is a new video of Tom Brady leaving his New York townhouse without crutches and not looking too bad at all, really. He does, however, have to go through with being mocked by an obnoxious TMZ "reporter" as he follows Gisele Bundchen to his car. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security are no doubt reviewing the tape to determine its authenticity. In any case, it is nice to see that Brady and Bundchen are back together again, since according to The Inside Track there are "no girls allowed" while the Greatest Quarterback of All Time is rehabbing in Foxboro.

NOT SO FAST ON THE FRANCHISE TAG: Sports Illustrated's Peter King doesn't buy the talk about the Patriots applying the franchise tag to Matt Cassel in the offseason with the intention of trading him away. Here's why: "The only way they'll tag Cassel is if Tom Brady's knee rehab takes a major turn for the worse, to the point the Pats don't feel confident Brady will be ready to start the 2009 season. That's it. Because the NFLPA won't allow teams to franchise players if they have no intention of keeping them, the Patriots won't be able to franchise Cassel if they intend to trade him. So, barring a Brady setback, expect Cassel to be a free-agent and end up making $9 million a year with (pick one) Minnesota, Detroit, San Francisco, St. Louis or whatever team Josh McDaniels coaches in 2009, should he be fortunate enough to get a head-coaching job."

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: The future of Cassel is something that a lot of people in New England really care about -- many more people than cared about the same thing a few weeks ago anyway -- as Mike Reiss of The Globe discovered when he opened up his Patriots mailbag.

BUT WILL HE STILL BE SPOTTED HANGING AROUND LOGAN AIRPORT? A lot of people thought it was just a matter of time before the Patriots re-signed John Lynch to bolster their injury-depleted secondary. But now that he has announced his retirement, with a tearful speech in Tampa, you can be sure that the guy you see heading on the Sunday morning commuter rail train for Foxboro must be someone else (Tampa Tribune).

QUITE A SHOW. NOT: I wasn't expecting much from last night's Browns-Bills matchup, but the level of play was indicative of two teams that are going nowhere -- what was in fact what we saw last night at Ralph Wilson Stadium (projo.com). After enduring Tony Kornheiser's impassioned but ridiculous defense of Cleveland's switch from Derek Anderson to Brady Quinn (it basically amounted to: "The fans want him, and what's wrong with that? The fans buy the tickets." Tony Kornheiser, meet Michael Bishop.), we saw Quinn go a lousy 14 for 36 (Kornheiser lamented a Braylon Edwards drop like it was some kind of crime against humanity -- OK, Edwards makes the catch and your guy is 15 for 36), but that was still better than Buffalo's Trent (three interceptions) Edwards, who has no idea how to pull himself out of his swoon. In the end the stud of the game was Browns kicker Phil Dawson, who went 5 for 5 including a game-winning 56 yarder. His Bills counterpart, Rian Lindell, meanwhile, left Buffalo fans with bitter memories of Scott Norwood against the Giants in the Super Bowl. Except that those two teams were good.

THE NEW YANKEES? It's probably a silly comparison, since league rules preclude them from throwing around money with no fear of future consequence, but Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News nonetheless is comparing the juggernaut New York Giants of 2008 to the Yankees of the mid- to late 1990s.

PACMAN'S FUTURE: A league ruling on whether suspended Cowboys cornerback Adam Jones will be reinstated is expected this week, but there's no news to report just yet (Fort Worth Star-Telegram). Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News' Brian Davis is wondering if the Cowboys might have an additional victory under their belts had the team's training staff discovered a little bit earlier that Terence Newman -- who is now back to full strength -- would need surgery on his groin.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WAS THINKING: Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck apologized yesterday for strange and incoherent comments he made about the Arizona Cardinals following Sunday's Seahawks loss. Hasselbeck said he probably wasn't in a frame of mind to answer questions, but also said he did not suffer a concussion of the game. The web site ProFootballTalk.com has some video of the news conference, as well as video of a much more memorable case of Hasselbeck speaking when he should not have.

LEARN THE RULES: Donovan McNabb's admission after Sunday's game against Cincinnati that he did not realize there were ties in the NFL set the Eagles quarterback up for a fair amount of ridicule. He also received some pointed criticism from a former rival. Former Giants running back and current media pundit Tiki Barber told Bloomberg's "On the Ball" radio show that McNabb's comment was "indefensible" and one that he will live to regret for a long time. Really, though, the thing that was indefensible was for the Eagles to tie the Bengals, while running a ridiculously unbalanced offense that used 58 passing plays (three of which resulted in interceptions) and 17 running plays.

NOT LOOKING FOR A REPEAT: After thousands of gamblers who picked the Pittsburgh Steelers to cover the spread against the San Diego Chargers lost out to a bad call that negated Troy Polamalu's last-second touchdown, the NFL's vice president of officiating is calling a snap meeting to discuss rule changes that will prevent a recurrence of such a costly (to some people) embarrassment (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

TURNING THE TABLES: Minnesota head coach Brad Childress had this to say at the end of yesterday's news conference: "I read a great quote the other day. It was author unknown. It read like this: That editorialists and columnists are like men that come down from the mountains after the battle and shoot the wounded. I thought there is a certain something to that." (Minneapolis Star Tribune) Childress' relationship with the media might be considered a little strained.

FIRE UP THE CADILLAC: The news that Tampa Bay running back Earnest Graham is probably out for the season with an ankle injury means that the playoff-bound Bucs might have to speed up the return of Cadillac Williams, who has not played in more than a year. (Tampa Tribune)

 Tags  Football Today Matt Cassel Tom Brady

Comments

Tom said:

If I'm reading your analogy right, you're saying Brady Quinn opponents are stone cold racists, right? Also, Brad Childress could use the Old Yeller treatment at this point.

Link | November 18, 2008 2:46 PM
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