Welker is not, "dead to me" (as the Poll puts it), but my answer is "No."
To my mind, enabling a former player who went to another team for financial or other reasons to retire as a Pat should be reserved for a guy who started with the Pats, spent a whole lot of years here, contributed to a Championship and then left for maybe a year or two to pick up a check. If, for example, Brady were to do the highly unlikely and virtually unimaginable and go to another team that needs a marquee player to put fannies in the seats when he is 40 for way more money than he is worth and plays out his last couple of seasons with that team, I would want to see him be able to retire as a Patriot. Ditto would have held for Brewski and a few others.
Welker was here for six years and, if you count his brief stint in San Diego, he is now on his fourth NFL team, but certainly by any reasonable reckoning, he is on his third. He was not part of a championship and arguably (it is debatable) had Bob Kraft's fourth Lombardi in his hands on what would have been a tough catch and couldn't hold onto it.
So no. He is not "dead to me" because the NFL is a business and he opted for the bucks, but he should not be able to retire as a Patriot unless he were to return for next season and play a couple of final years with Brady...which ain't gonna happen.
