Today in Patriots History
Brian Dowling's Long and Winding Road
July 2, 2024:
Tavai started 16 games for New England last year
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The Hawaii native enjoyed a breakout in 2023 with five tackles for loss, two interceptions and two forced fumbles. Originally a second-round draft pick of the Detroit Lions in 2019, Tavai spent the first two seasons of his NFL career in Motor City, logging 16 combined starts, primarily at middle linebacker. He signed to the Patriots' practice squad in 2021 and emerged as a staple of the linebacker corps the following year.
The Patriots and LB Jahlani Tavai have agreed on an extension as the emerging star was entering the final season of his 2022 deal, after first joining New England on the practice squad.
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- New England Patriots linebacker Jahlani Tavai, who tied for second on the team in tackles last year while emerging as a key cog for one of the NFL's top-rated defenses, has agreed to a three-year contract extension, league sources told ESPN.
The extension has a base value of $15 million that can be worth up to $21 million, per sources.
Tavai was entering the final season of the two-year extension he signed in November 2022 worth up to $4.4 million. He was scheduled to earn a base salary of $1.625 million in 2024.
The extension continues an offseason trend for the Patriots under first-year executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and first-year head coach Jerod Mayo -- first re-signing many of the team's top unrestricted free agents in March, and now moving on to sign players who still had a year remaining on their deals -- a group including running back Rhamondre Stevenson, center David Andrews, defensive tackle Christian Barmore and now Tavai.
Tavai has appeared in all 17 regular-season games each of the past two seasons, with 28 starts. His 107 tackles in 2023 tied with safety Kyle Dugger behind only linebacker Ja'Whaun Bentley (114).
Tavai's physicality and intelligence, along with his versatility to play inside and outside linebacker and on the punt protection unit, has contributed to him carving out an important niche.
July 2, 2001:
Pats release WR
Scott McCready
McCready was signed and released multiple times. After spending part of the season on the practice squad he would become the first British-born player to receive a super bowl ring a few months later.
July 2, 1975:
The Patriots acquire
Bob Howard from San Diego in exchange for a 1976 fifth round draft pick. The cornerback was a second round draft pick in 1967 from San Diego State and had played in 102 of a possible 112 games for the Chargers from 1967 to 1974. Howard took over as the starting left corner in '75, with John Sanders moving from CB to free safety. Bob was a three year starter in New England, missing just one game while picking off ten passes. Over 13 NFL seasons Bob Howard played in 169 games with 147 starts, registering 37 interceptions and ten fumble recoveries.
The San Diego Chargers wore light blue uniforms trimmed in gold and had lightning bolts on their helmets in 1968 when they played the Los Angeles Rams in an August preseason game. John Hadl was zinging passes for the Chargers, Lance Alworth…
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July 2, 1973:
New England signs
Brian Dowling to a contract. BD had been an 11th round draft pick in 1969 by Minnesota, with the Vikings trying him at quarterback, wide receiver and running back in training camp before releasing him. He played for the Bridgeport Jets of the Atlantic Coast Football League in 1969 at QB and WR while teaching math at Cheshire Academy and serving as an assistant coach at Yale. Dowling was on the Pats taxi squad in 1970-71, then got some playing time in '72 as a backup to Jim Plunkett and holder on kicks.
September 29, 1969:
Calvin Hill, one of the best players on Yale's football team last year, carried 23 times for 138 yards and
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Calvin Hill, one of the best players on Yale's football team last year, carried 23 times for 138 yards and two touchdowns to help the Dallas Cowboys edge the New Orleans Saints, 21-17 on Sunday. Last week Hill was the NFL Offensive Player of the Week.
Meanwhile, Brian Dowling is second-string quarterback for the Bridgeport Jets of the Atlantic Coast Football League. Dowling. who was often compared to the legendary Frank Merriwell and was featured last fall in the CRIMSON's "Making of a Hero" was the starting quarterback for the winless Jets until they acquired an NFL veteran.
November 20, 1977:
Brian Dowling, the former star quarterback for Yale who is now 30 years old, was watching the Minnesota-Cincinnati game on television last Sunday as a temporary resident in the Boston home of his wife's parents. Fran Tarkenton of the Vikings had a broken a leg. So had Lynn ****ey of the Packers, the announcers said, and Bill Munson of the Chargers; Brian Sipe of the Browns was out with a fractured shoulder and Terry Bradshaw had left the Steelers’ lineup with a bruised shoulder.
Dowling's response was less than imperturbable. The pulse may have quickened. Would anyone remember him? Perhaps the telephone might ring for him one more time.
It did.
Dowling had spent eight years since he had left Yale after so much acclaim ? trying to find a place in pro football with little success. He had been with seven teams in four leagues.
The evening phone call was from **** Corrick, the Packers’ director of pro personnel. Would Dowling fly to Green Bay on Monday and join the team?
He would and he did.
The Packers play the Redskins tomorrow at Washington in the weekly Monday night game and in place of ****ey they will start David Whitehurst, a rookie from Furman who has been in two games briefly, attempting five passes, completing two. Dowling will be the backup quarterback for the Pack.
Dowling's recent past is illustrative of the dislocation the marginal professional athletes endure in the add?and-subtract process of the varsity squads. He had been the third quarterback of the Redskins last summer and was dropped when Washington made its final squad cut.
On Oct. 25, the last date the Redskins could re?sign him as a free agent this season under the league rules, came and went as did Nov. 1. So the Dowlings packed up and went home to Boston, moving in with her parents. Dowling began working again with a life insurance company. Short of a miracle or a disaster, the game he had loved to play for much of his life was behind him.
After Yale, where he starred with Calvin Hill, he had spent one training camp with the Minnesota Vikings, the club that drafted him in 1969; one season with the Bridgeport Jets of the Atlantic Coast League; four with the New England Patriots behind Jim Plunkett; one with the New York Stars?Charlotte Hornets of the World Football League, plus a trial in 1976 with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian League.
Corrick and other personnel directors keep lists of free?agent players who might be useful in emergencies like one would of backup doctors or dentists.
“Dowling played against us last summer in our exhibition game with the Redskins,” said Corrick. “We were impressed and remembered him.”
The Packers had two quarterbacks, and after ****ey was hurt Corrick had to move quickly. He reached Tim Temerario, the Redskins’ personnel director, who was glad to help out. Not all rivals are so obliging. Temerario had an inoperative Virginia phone number for Dowing, but there was a referral to a number in Boston.
“It may take some doing,” said Corrick, “but you can almost always track them down.”
Dowling said last week: “I had pretty much considered myself retired. I wasn't going to have an identity crisis if I didn't play again.”
Looking back, he had no regrets about the eight years. “So much of this business,” he said, “is getting the opportunity—being in the right place at the right time. I'll be ready Monday and if I do play I expect to do well.”
•
Reference was made here last week that the television film of “The Godfather” had captured the rating competition on Monday night against the football game, Dallas?St. Louis. When the national figures were available, they showed that the shares of the audience for the movie and the game were almost the same, 42 percent to 40, respectively. It was the highest rating and the largest audience the Monday night game had ever attracted.
2001:
Brian Dowling is an athletic legend at St. Ignatius High School. He led his team to a City Basketball title, sinking four clutch free throws in the title game’s last 34 seconds to turn a 13 point deficit into a 53-50 victory. He also made the state tennis doubles finals as a sophomore and the […]
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Brian Dowling is an athletic legend at St. Ignatius High School. He led his team to a City Basketball title, sinking four clutch free throws in the title game’s last 34 seconds to turn a 13 point deficit into a 53-50 victory. He also made the state tennis doubles finals as a sophomore and the regional singles finals as a senior. But it was as a football quarterback that Dowling achieved bigger-than-life status. In six high school and college seasons he played in just one losing game, when, as a prep junior in 1963, injuries sent him to a hospital at half-time of the City Championship Charity Game. He avenged that loss in the following year’s Charity Game, breaking loose for a 71-yard TD run and passing for four touchdowns in a 48-6 rout. At Yale, his teams were 21-0-1 in games he played and 5-6 in games he missed with injuries. The tie came in his final collegiate game when Harvard scored 16 points in the final 42 seconds to earn a 29-29 draw and a share of the Ivy League title with Yale. The previous year, his 66 yard touchdown pass with 2:16 left had beaten the Crimson 24-22 for the Ivy League Crown. An honorable mention All-American and the Outstanding Player in New England as a senior, he currently lives in Lowell, Massachusetts.
The Pats also re-signed
Reggie Rucker, who started at wide receiver for the team from 1972-74on this date. The former BU Terrier had 126 receptions for 1,884 yards and ten touchdowns in his 43 games with the Patriots.
Former Cleveland Browns wide receiver Reggie Rucker and his wife filed for bankruptcy, claiming they owe hundreds of thousands to the IRS, creditors and the attorney who represented him when he was prosecuted for embezzling from his anti-violence nonprofits.
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July 2, 2024:
Former Patriots director of pro scouting Steve Cargile signs with the Houston Texans. The Pats had let him go in May.
Texans add to personnel department
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The Texans hired former New England Patriots director of pro scouting Steve Cargile as a senior personnel executive and assistant director of pro scouting.
The Texans promoted DJ Debick to director of pro scouting as the replacement for former director of pro scouting Ronnie McGill, whose contract had expired and wasn’t renewed, per league sources.
Debick, like general manager Nick Caserio, is a fellow John Carroll University football alum.
Cargile is a former Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants nad Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety as the 6-foot-2, 215-pound former Columbia University Ivy League standout played in 16 career games in the NFL after going undrafted.
McGill was previously with the Patriots as a scout, including contributing to three Super Bowl winning teams, before joining the Texans.
McGill was a scouting assistant for New England for two years, joining them in 2010, before being promoted to pro scout.
McGill started his NFL career as a seasonal intern for the Tennessee Titans’ scouting department in 2009.
May 14, 2024:
Changes are already happening under Eliot Wolf.
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The New England Patriots officially named Eliot Wolf the team's executive vice president of player personnel on Saturday, and there are already changes coming to the front office under him.
According to Inside the League's Neil Stratton, Patriots director of pro scouting Steve Cargile and area scout Taylor Redd will not be back with the team for the 2024 season.
Cargile, 41, is a former NFL safety who joined the Patriots front office in 2011 and took on the role of pro scouting director in 2021.
