No Brady at OTA’s Tomorrow
The Boston Herald reported on Tuesday that team spokesperson Stacey James has informed them that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will not be a participant in tomorrow’s OTA (Organized Team Activities) session that will be viewed by the media.
James told the newspaper that this week’s OTA’s were geared toward the younger players and newcomers to give them a chance to get everyone on the same page. However, next week, the full squad will be involved, including Brady. It will be a much anticipated session as Brady hasn’t been seen doing live football drills since he underwent reconstructive left knee surgery back on Oct. 6th of 2008.
ESPN’s John Clayton Mentions Patriots as Possibility for Vick
ESPN’s John Clayton released an article Tuesday afternoon and actually had New England listed as one of the teams that Michael Vick may end up with.
Clayton says, “If [Bill] Belichick is interested, he’d first have to convince his owner, Robert Kraft. That might be tough.”
Or more correctly I’d say highly unlikely. Call me crazy but that would probably be greeted with, “are you serious?” Considering Belichick even opted to forego bringing in a veteran after Tom Brady went down last season, I don’t view this as a possibility.
Update: Add Peter King to the list. King just Tweeted, “Just got asked, ‘Who signs Vick?’ I said, ‘All I can do is guess. But I would guess 3 teams: Saints, Raiders, Pats.’ just a guess.”
Do they secretly know something we don’t?
New Orleans Granted Super Bowl XLVII
The NFL just announced that the 2013 Super Bowl will be played in New Orleans, after the owners voted on Tuesday. This will be the first Super Bowl played at the Superdome in eleven years. New Orleans last hosted the game in February 2002 where New England won their first championship in team history after they beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17.
Patriots About to Be Singled Out For Lack Of Labor Interest
In an upcoming HBO episode airing tonight on Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, a profile of new NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith will be the focus of the episode. Smith, who visited Gillette Stadium back on May 6th, met with several Patriots players and according to ProFootballTalk.com less than 20 members of the team were on hand for the meeting (Tom Brady was there). Smith was there to meet with the team and their representatives as the union gets set to battle with the league over what are considered to be “considerable” labor issues.
The attendence for this meeting, which occurred on an off day for the team, is considered by many to be “sparse” to say the least, and is being construed to make it seem like players simply are more interested in just getting a paycheck than being involved with the labor issues that the union is about to deal with. Unfortunately it looks like we’ll be hearing more mention of this in the coming days.
Goodell’s Press Conference Airing at 12:30pm ET
For anyone interested the NFL Network will air commissioner Roger Goodell’s Press Conference from the Spring Meetings in Fort Lauderdale at 12:30pm, and NFL.com will be streaming it live as well.
Matt Light Being Sued
The Boston Herald reported this morning that offensive lineman Matt Light is being sued for an altercation that took place back on new year’s eve in 2007.
According to the report Jacob Herman II, a 25-year-old interior designer who is now studying in Korea, is suing Light and claiming he broke his nose during an altercation at a nightclub inside Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun.
Herman alleges in court papers that Light left him “badly bruised and with two black eyes”. The Herald reports that Herman underwent surgery to repair a severe deviated septum and depressed left nasal bone fracture.
According to the newspaper the incident is alleged to have happened in the exclusive Blue Room of Ultra 88 on the night in question. Pats players partying with Light included former quarterback Matt Cassel, center Dan Koppen, wide receiver Wes Welker and kicker Stephen Gostkowski, according to a Mohegan Tribal Police report.
Police told the Herald that surveillance footage shows two groups being separated by club personnel, but “does not show anyone being struck.”
Meanwhile Light and his attorney have denied the allegations. According to the Herald, he told investigators that “he may have pushed someone out of the way en route to help his wife,” who’d motioned to him she was having a problem on the dance floor, but he denied fighting with anyone.
NFL and Comcast Reach Agreement
After over a month of tense negotiations, NFL “PR Guy” Brian McCarthy just Tweeted that the NFL and Comcast have reached a long-term carriage agreement to carry the NFL Network.
No details have been released yet regarding the agreement, but it’s good news to fans who look to that channel for their “football fix”.
UDPATE: The Boston Herald reports that Tuesday’s agreement will keep the NFL-owned channel out of Comcast’s premium sports tier of programming, and as a result will now reach 10-million more homes. The NFL said Comcast will begin repositioning NFL Network to its digital classic level of service and have a full launch by August 1.
NFL Intent on Lengthening Season?
It appears that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has every intention of increasing the NFL season from 16 to 18 games, and this argument seems to be gaining momentum.
In a post on Twitter that came through moments ago, NFL ”PR Guy” Brian McCarthy is comparing this move to 1978 where back then everyone felt that 14 games was enough and had no desire to make it longer. In the end the league went to 16 games. Now it appears that the NFL is in favor of increasing the season yet again to 18 games.
After 30 years without a change it looks more and more like we could see this becoming more of a reality. McCarthy also “Tweeted” that the NFL events staff is busily preparing Super Bowl 2013 bid presentations for NFL owners to vote on tomorrow, with Arizona, New Orleans, and South Florida up for consideration.
Most likely we’ll see if the meetings this week also include providing enough evidence to NFL owners that lengthening the season is a good idea. Considering the amount of injuries we’ve witnessed here in New England it’s hard for any fan to feel good about this move. Count me in as one who doesn’t want to see any changes to the current format.
Besides, shouldn’t they work on first preventing a 9-7 team from getting into the postseason over an 11-5 team? Otherwise all they may end up doing is making us witness a 10-8 team getting in over a 12-6 team. That problem obviously won’t go away and needs to be addressed before they decide to lengthen the season.
More Information on Throwback Jerseys
One follow-up note on the Patriots’ plans to wear throwback jerseys in four games during the 2009 season:
Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe reported on Monday that the Patriots will be seen in both their red and white 1963 jerseys during the league’s four AFL contests this season
According to Reiss during the team’s two home games — against Buffalo (Sept. 14) and Tennessee (Oct. 18) — the Patriots will wear their red jerseys. In the two road games — against Denver (Oct. 11) and Miami (Dec. 6) — the Patriots will wear white.
Fans can find some of the red jerseys on sale at the team’s online ProShop.
New Patriots Jersey #’s / History Lesson
Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe posted the jersey numbers for some of the new players Tuesday morning.
Here are the players & numbers:
On a different note, Patriots Football Weekly released their “Ask PFW” edition this morning, and for those who didn’t know the team actually had a slightly different name for a short time in between being the “Boston Patriots” and the “New England Patriots”. According to Erik Scalavino, he checked the records with ’The Hall at Patriot Place’ and for a few weeks prior to becoming the New England Patriots, the franchise went by the name of “Bay State Patriots”. However, after at least one newspaper headline referred to them as the “BS Patriots,” they decided to “rethink” that decision.