The Verdict Should Be to Keep Milloy

As barristers go, most folks don’t care much for their type.

The New England Patriots are helping to change that perception.

The Patriots’ “Legal Team” will not change that by their yearly salaries. They will make more money than any lawyer out there not named Johnnie Cochran. They will be more than able to afford Barry Scheck, but hopefully will never need him.

Instead, they will change perception by applying their talents and by delivering on their promise. Courtroom lawyers work hard, but the Pats’ Legal Team will do the same and cause you to think the world of them.

If the Legal Team is allowed to stay together.

One half of them is going to be here for a while. Ty Law is locked up for seven long years. He is judged as the best cornerback in football this side of Primetime. He has a Hall Of Fame obsession, and he is barely 25 years old. He worked on speed with Bob Kersee. He wants the other team’s best receiver, gets them, and stifles them.

Oh, and Gov. Paul Cellucci was at Saturday night’s game. When he wasn’t dodging this skunk in the stands (for a change, it wasn’t the game that stunk), he was perhaps sizing Law up for appointment to the Massachusetts SJC. Hey, if Justice Alan Page can do it, why can’t there be a Justice Law? Sounds good, but you’ll forgive Patriot Nation if they make His Excellency wait a few years.

So, Law is legally bound for a good long while. Now, whither the Lawyer?

Law fought the law and the Law won. Time now for his strong safety partner to take the stand. Ladies and gentlemen, the case of Paul Tagliabue and the NFL salary cap v. Lawyer Milloy, Of Counsel, Law & Milloy and Co., Inc.

We know full well that Bob Kraft is plenty rich enough to pay Milloy what he wants. That was the deep Kraft pockets that paid the $14.2 million contingency fee for Ty Law, Esq. Even with a new stadium with all those money-making luxury boxes two years away, there is no doubt that Kraft could make Milloy happier than your average ambulance chaser.

Trouble is, there’s this salary cap. Next year’s cap will run about $60 million. Other folks, including WR Troy Brown, also need to be signed up. And Milloy wants big bucks. He’ll look like Cuba Gooding Jr.’s twin brother any time soon.

Before anyone shows Milloy the money, is he worth it? Is he worth veering the Patriots in the same precarious direction that Jerry Jones did with the Cowboys a few years back when he nailed down Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders to big and long contracts?

Some say no. Strong safties are a dime a dozen. They’re one of the lowest paid positions on the team.

Okay, get rid of him. Then what?

Will a cheaper replacement be better? He could be. Chris Carter is shaping up to be just that. A cheap replacement for Willie Clay. He could be better.

Could be. But he’ll be cheaper.

No worrying over paying too much for Milloy. Feel good about that?

Prosecution rests. Now, let’s hear from Bob George for the defense.

I say the Pats must keep Milloy and try to sign him. And don’t mess with that franchise tag malarkey because Milloy is on record as saying he would hold out if that happened. Sign him up. Get him near the top of the pay scale for strong safties.

First of all, hiring fellow UMass’er Jack Mula (this writer had a freshman rhetoric class at UMass in 1976 with a frosh football player named Jack Mula as a classmate; same guy?) looks like a coup for the Patriots. Fellow Michigan Man Law (got a grad degree there, gang) signed the day after Mula was hired. Let Mula worry about the cap. Let Andy Wasynczuk worry about…well, the other financial worries.

Hmmm. Mula, Law. UMass, Michigan. Ol’ Bob G. feels that good karma all over.

Second, and most overlooked by all folks who live in fear of overpaying Milloy, is the concept of improving by addition versus improving by replacing. This is one area in which the Patriots can look for a good example up at Fenway Park.

Ron Borges of the Globe did a piece last year that focused indirectly on the Red Sox and their insistence on improvement by replacement, coupled with their inability to improve by addition. Roger Clemens and Mo Vaughn have been replaced by Pedro Martinez and Brian Daubach. No slur against Mr. Pedro and the Belleville Basher, but wouldn’t it be great if the Sox still had Rocket and Mo in addition to the latter two? There is no salary cap in baseball, and the Sox remain one of baseball’s richest teams. That could have happened if John Harrington and Dan Duquette would have allowed it.

But the Sox instead choose to improve by replacing, and that is where people will miss the boat with Milloy. Buying into the concept that “safties are a dime a dozen” is just not sound reasoning when you have someone who is of Milloy’s ability. And it makes it even more illogical considering the chemistry and working relationship Milloy has forged with Law.

Milloy played like the Tazmanian Devil Saturday night. He flew at enemy Cowboys on every play. He nearly decapitated Eric Bjornson, and that was on an incomplete pass where the ball was already by poor Eric. You could sense that Milloy has begun his salary drive. This is a drive that hopefully won’t be along one, and that will end up at this stadium halfway betwen Boston and Providence.

The defense will stipulate that the salary cap is an issue. But paying Milloy what he deserves should not be. I’d rather stake my fortunes on a proven star like Milloy, not a “could be” like Chris Carter.

Based upon a preponderance of the evidence, Milloy stays. Defense rests.

Now the jury deliberates. Milloy, his agent, Kraft, Wasynczuk and Mula have big time jury duty here. Let’s hope they render the right verdict.

About Bob George

Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139

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