Team failed to handle issue quickly, smoothly- Felger

[SVN]

http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=154531

 

[Joker]

Look...not to be a jerk or ********* or anything but Felger is from the mid-west...his big secret is he is, at heart, a Colts fan...which he won't admit...which is fine by me...I'm born and raised in N.E....I know a lying little scumbag jerk from out of town as well as anybody in the six state region...yes he writes an occasional "objective" football article about the Pats but basically this MUTT has written some of the most moronic "the sky is falling!!!!!" posts in the past six years to clog a half a million dollar septic system... he is a HATER... get it through your thick skull...his opinions on anything Patriot are useless , worthless and fundamentally an exercise in tedium.

What you should do is write to his bosses and vent your displeasure at his very existence in this market

Total lying, agenda driven weasel scumbag

 

[zippo59]

In this article Felger criticizes the team for not negotiating deals with players a few years ago, before their full potential came out, their egos becamce enlarged, and their prices went up, such as Givens and Branch. However he fails to acknowledge two things:

1. For a lot of players, hitting the free agent market and getting a big payday is one if the highlights of their career. He acts like it is a given that these players would have foregone their free agency debut to sign a premature extension with the Pats. Add to that the fact that the CBA was coming to an end this year, so both stood a chance of making an even bigger sum in free agency either by the lack of a salary cap renewal or the enormous spike in the salary cap due to the new CBA.

2. Felger says that if the Pats signed Givens and Branch to long term extensions a few years ago, they could have gotten them for cheaper while avoiding the loss of Givens in free agency and the holdout of Branch. He is basically saying they could have signed the two to contracts that were below their current market value, but then later says that clearly neither were/are willing to take a little less to stay with the Pats. Felger inadvertently shows the flaw in his own argument. Had the Pats done what he said they would have likely found themself in a position where not only does Branch holdout but Givens as well. Both players are currently chasing/getting money far beyond what they would have gotten in the hypothetical past extensions. Therefore it is logical to conclude that they both would have still felt underpaid today and taken the common route of holdingout. Especially because in that situation not only would they feel underpaid but would also be years away from hitting free agency, only worsening the effort to get a raise. Branch's demands are so ridiculous, that I don't think a contract of four or five million dollars a year would have kept him from holding out.

 

[Joker]

Remember though...it's not Branch's demands...it's Branch's trust in Chayut's demands...who sees a chance to maximize HIS percentage by marketing a "Patriots star player" to whatever clown GM out there is willing to cut his own throat for. Branch wants to be here but this little greedy jerk will convince him it's in his best interest to take a contract worth slightly more and in the process inflate his own ego as a "hardline player" in the NFL market.


Look....one person...Tedy Bruschi...you don't want to be here because some little punk gets you an extra 500 G's after taxes, then go ahead...screw beat it...have fun catching balls from Billy Volek....like anyone is going to give a crap.


Deion HAS to be stupid....THIS is where he will most definitely MAXIMIZE his career...star wise, reputation wise...who better than Tom freakin' Brady to amke YOU look great....idiocy...plain and simple...and Chayut is a joke...I'm starting to think that maybe it's good if this mutt strikes some clown deal and Branch plays out the contract on a 3-13 team somewhere

 

[zippo59]

Felger is unbelievable. He was on some late nights sport show with Steve Burton and Steve DeOssie and he would find a way to put a negative spin on absolutely everything. He said that we shouldn't get that excited about Ben Watson's performance because the Redskins didn't make adjustments to stop him like teams do in the regular season. If this were completely true why aren't tons of receivers having huge games in preseason. A big game is a big game. When the Steve's said Gostkowski has looked good, being perfect on field goals and extra points and solid on kickoffs Felger said that means little because he hasn't proven himself on bad weather clutch kicks. He gives him no credit for the fact that so far he has done everything he has been asked of. When talking about cutdowns Felger said they shouldn't be very difficult because the team doesn't have very good depth. I along with many others think that in certain areas the team has pretty good depth like OL, DL, DB, RB, and young LB. Burton and DeOssie were so perplexed that he had so many negative things to say after a 41-0 win that asked him if he had ANYTHING good to say about the game and Felger didn't answer. Not a word. He then said "I'm just being objective." It was unbelievable.

 

[patsox23]

Felger should remember the names "Bruschi, Faulk, Light, Vrabel, Neal, Seymour and Brady" - ALL of whom have signed long-term deals in the last 14 months. What a tool.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

Granted the jury is still out on this year's free agent departures. In the Belichick era, in my opinion there haven't been any ex Pats go on to great seasons with their new team, after taking the big money.

The Pat's way got them the recognition, and the big pay day.

 

[DarrylS]

The reality is that these players have excelled in this system, the coaching staff has been able to maximize their abilities by playing to their strengths, this is not necessarily true for another teams. It remains to be seen if Givens, McGinnest, Andruzzi, Hochstein, Vinateri and the rest of the crew will do as well for other teams as they did here. Bottom line many of these former players are worth more to other teams than they are to the Patriots...

Felger is a ratings whore and will stop at nothing to get people to listen to his dribble on ESPN radio...

 

[dhamz]

Look...not to be a jerk or ********* or anything but Felger is from the mid-west...his big secret is he is, at heart, a Colts fan...which he won't admit...

Yeah, sure. All those people from the Midwest are Colts fans - especially those like Felger who are from Wisconsin. Felger is very open about being a Packers fan his whole life.

 

[Bostonian1962]

Felger should remember the names "Bruschi, Faulk, Light, Vrabel, Neal, Seymour and Brady" - ALL of whom have signed long-term deals in the last 14 months. What a tool.

Agree totally. He's a moron. We are thin at quality writers around here.

 

[Water Boy]

http://patriots.bostonherald.com/patriots/view.bg?articleid=154531

Here is some more discussion on this same topic from a few days ago*:

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/showthread.php?t=39828

*Notice how I didn't get all bullsh*t with thread envy. I think more people should try this.

 

[Crowpointer]

I used to to really like Felger but I saw him give this spin this the other night on FSN. There are few things that people want to listen to less than "coulda woulda, shoulda." BB and SP have a philosophy and they stick to . Is it perfect ? No. Is is successful ? YES !

 

[PatsFan37]

Felger has an excellent well-reasoned article that closely reviews the game tape. I don't like his histrionics either, or his continual harping on the same issue. He must have learned both techniques at Ordway's feet. But unlike some of the breathless wannabees at Projo (now that Curran's leaving), he understands football and can write a decent analysis.

So he's still the first Herald writer I read. And he still writes, which is more than I can say for almost all the other live-media types.

 

[Bella*chick]

Granted the jury is still out on this year's free agent departures. In the Belichick era, in my opinion there haven't been any ex Pats go on to great seasons with their new team, after taking the big money.

The Pat's way got them the recognition, and the big pay day.

:rocker:

Thank you for pointing out this ABSOLUTE TRUTH!!!

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Total lying, agenda driven weasel scumbag

If you don't like the guy, don't beat around the bush, just come right out and say so!

 

[patchick]

The headline itself can't be argued with:

"Team failed to handle issue quickly, smoothly"

Since the issue is still unresolved, clearly it wasn't resolved quickly and smoothly. Of course, that doesn't necessarily imply that the Patriots have handled it wrong...some situations are simply hard.

This bit of Felger's seems flat wrong:

"But what was wrong with doing something last year, or even two years ago?
...
He would have been far more affordable in the summer of 2005 than he’s proven to be in the summer of 2006. "


It's been widely reported that Branch's camp rebuffed earlier attempts to extend the contract. That was the absolute right move on their part -- no smart agent wanted to tie up a productive long player long-term when a new CBA (or uncapped year) was on the horizon.

This is just really hard, and it's disingenuous to pretend that there was an easy way out that the team failed to take advantage of.

 

[RayClay]

All contentious negotiations go right to the wire. Chayut has no bargaining position, so seeing he won't come to his senses, BB has called his bluff.

If there was a smooth easy decision, they wouldn't be contentious.

Why do it earlier when another dumb team might have ponied up? Now they've spent their pennies elsewhere already.

Branch was injured a lot earlier in his career. Why would the Pats make an extension years before they have to?

Felger has realized that the media are stars in this town.

Of course they have to be villains as the state sponsored information agency tends to be somewhat dry, (I even sympathize with tub o' goo Tomase asking about Branch).

The rest of that PC was a substitute for Sominex, cliche city.

 

[Garbanza]

....and Felger's agenda has been fulfilled, you're all talking about him.

Listen, I think he's a bit too negative too. However, it is only pre-season. People lose sight of that. The DB's have yet to be tested. Middle linebacker woes could happen. Lack of a #1 WR could prove deadly.

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

In the thread of two days ago on this exact topic, I listed about a dozen players off the top of my head that were all signed early and Pro-actively, or given extensions early and Pro-actively.

Both Branch and Givens were given offers Pro-actively and early.

The Pats front office will always deal with every situation PRO-ACTIVELY AND EARLY! PERIOD!

F*ck Felger and his insane rants.