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Pats to play in China?

The Tacoma News Tribune is reporting that the Patriots and Seattle Seahawks will play a preseason game in China next year, which would be the first-ever NFL game in the world's most populated country.

According to the News Tribune report, NFL officials are discussing a plan whereby the Patriots would spend a week in Seattle, with the teams possibly playing an exhibiton game at Qwest Field. The Pats and Seahawks would then travel to China for practices, public appearances and another game in Beijing.

Outgoing NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who is schuled to hand the reins to Roger Goodell on Friday, said earlier this year that the league was targeting China. A game next year could serve as the beginning of the one-year countdown to the 2008 Summer Olympics, which will be centered in Beijing.

Interestingly, the Patriots were the first NFL team to have a Chinese-language team website.

The NFL has not yet made an official announcement. The league has held preseason games in other countries since 1986, though there were none this year. Last October, the first regular-season game was played outside the US, with Arizona and San Francisco playing in Mexico City.

shalise

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 9:22 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Belichick conference call

Patriots' coach Bill Belichick had a day-after conference call this afternoon; here are some excerpts from the chat. As always, he stressed that the team did some things well but still has things to work on as it looks toward its regular season opener against Buffalo on Sept. 10.

Q: Were there certain things that really encouraged you when you were looking at the tape (of the Redskins game)?

BB: There were some things that I thought we practiced and met on and talked about that we executed fairly well and got done. There were other things that weren’t as crisp. Sometimes it was the same play that looked better one time than it did another. So we’re still working for consistency. We played quite a few people in the game, so that adds to a little bit of the overall timing execution as well. There were some things that were good. There were some other things that we need to improve on. There were some new looks from Washington that we can learn from. I think this will be a really good film to teach off of and I look forward to showing the players because I think that they will see things and understand things a little bit better after we’ve had a chance to show it to them on tape.

Q: What did you see from (Junior Seau) overall last night?

BB: He was in on a few plays and is starting to get the communication and playing with guys, the fits in the running game. Playing some drop-back pass responsibilities and stuff like that, built in from the practice reps. That's a start.

Q: How does Johnathan Sullivan look? Is he improving?

BB: Yes, he sure is. He definitely is. I think every game he has played better and he’s practiced better.

Q: Will you be making any roster moves before the cut down date?

BB: We’re probably going to talk about that a little bit later this evening. In any case, it has to be done by Tuesday at four. We’ll just have to see how it goes. I couldn’t commit to anything right now one way or the other.

Q: What do you say to fans that think from watching the game last night that the offense is a juggernaut?

BB: Well, as I’ve been saying, this game was a step in our preparations, it was part of the process. Some things were okay and hopefully we can continue to build on those. Other things were a little less than okay and they need to be corrected and improved and that’s what the process is, so that’s what we’re going to do.

We'll have more tomorrow after Belichick's morning press conference and the locker room access period.

have a nice night,
shalise

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 7:11 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Pats postgame

New England coach Bill Belichick addressed the media after the team's 41-0 whitewash of Washington, as he always does after games.

Excerpts from his opening statement:

"It was good to see some players back out there that hadn't played in a while [safety Rodney Harrison and center Dan Koppen].

We took a step forward, we executed better than last week, but we still have a long way to go. But there are some positives and hopefully we'll continue to build on those."

Belichick finished the statement by saying he'd answer any questions about the game and players that played in the game -- in other words, don't ask about Deion Branch and the statement the team made on Friday that it would allow Branch and his agent, Jason Chayut, to seek a trade or new deal for Deion until Friday.

shalise

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments 0