Tuesday Daily Rundown 6/7: New England Patriots and Notes
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Here’s a quick rundown of today’s news as the team gets set to open mandatory practices this week.
Goodell continues his integrity nonsense – NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was in Buffalo Monday for a charity event and was apparently asked about the Tom Brady situation, leading him to spout his usual nonsense.
Goodell – as usual – deferred to the usual “integrity of the game” and spoke out about the fact that he believes that it shouldn’t be up to the court systems to decide what happens in the league, saying that those decisions shouldn’t be “handed off” to someone else.
“When it comes to the integrity of the game, that’s the responsibility of the commissioner,” Goodell said. “We’re not going to hand the integrity of the game off to somebody who doesn’t have any involvement in the game. That’s for somebody that understands what’s important in making sure we maintain that. Making sure we maintain the competitiveness of the game.”
When asked about the fact it’s gone on as long as it has, Goodell talked about the fact that these things take time, but he’s clearly not happy about it.
“The legal system is deliberate. It’s unfortunate, because it does impact on our game,” said Goodell. “We don’t encourage that, obviously. We’d like to get this resolved and move forward.”
We’ll see if he feels this way if Brady’s legal team is granted a rehearing and they pull off a come-from-behind win in court.
Skipping Minicamp is Expensive – After all the holdout talk in recent weeks, there are plenty of reasons to be at the start of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday as it pertains to the Patriots.
As ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio points out, skipping the three-day session costs $76,580 under the collective bargaining agreement, which is certainly incentive enough for players to be in attendance.
Malcolm Butler’s name has been the one receiving the most attention in recent weeks after reports that he’s not happy about his current contract. However, CSNNE.com points out that the loss of that much money is essentially the equivalent of losing 8.2 percent of what he made in base salary over his first two seasons as a pro.
Needless to say there shouldn’t be any reason why there are any players missing when they hit the field on Tuesday. The team will also practice again on Wednesday and Thursday and since the sessions are open to the media, we’ll most certainly find out if there are ends up being anyone missing.
 Butler is expected to be at the team’s mandatory sessions this week. |
Welker helping out Dolphins – Former Patriots receiver Wes Welker may not have a team right now, but that hasn’t stopped him from scratching his itch for contributing on the gridiron.
Welker reportedly spent some time this week visiting the team during their OTAs and according to ProFootballTalk.com, he may have an informal role advising the team’s receivers.
Welker, who has a home in Miami, has a history with head coach Adam Gase having played in his offense in Denver and so far he’s been pleased with having Welker around.
“He shows up,” Gase said. “I mean he lives like five minutes away. I think we’re a good outlet for him and he’s been a guy that with my history with him in Denver, I love being around him. He’s such a football guy. For him to come out there and if our guys get one thing from him, I think that’s a great, great thing for our guys to have a guy that’s probably one of the best slot receivers of all-time being in the building. The way that he worked, the way he studied, everything he did as far as football . . . just talking to him, it helps our players out.”
Welker played in just eight games last season in St. Louis, catching 13 passes for 102 yards and no touchdowns after signing with the Rams in November. By all indications, it seems like the right time for him to retire, provided he can fill that void somehow. Given the hits and concussions he’s sustained over his career, coaching is certainly the better option and hopefully for his sake, it ends up working out for him.
Talib may have shot himself – Just when you might want to feel bad for former Patriots CB Aqib Talib, you find out that how he was shot on Sunday night may have not gone down as it was originally reported.
According to original reports, the Broncos CB was one of two people shot following an alleged altercation outside a Dallas night club that lead to both Talib and the other victim being taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
However, upon further review Talib’s wound reportedly entered his thigh and existed his calf, which is obviously a red flag and according to Channel 9 in Denver, Talib has told people close to him he accidentally shot himself. The investigation is continuing and Talib provided little details when he spoke to police and it sounds like he may have not been truthful when he spoke with them.
WFAA reported Talib told police he was hanging out at a park with friends when he was shot at about 3:40 a.m. Sunday.
“Everything was a blur and I was too intoxicated to remember what happened,” Talib told police, according to WFAA.
Everyone remembers what happened to Plaxico Burress when a similar event occurred, although the laws in Texas are different compared to New York and the bigger question will also be whether or not anything comes from making a false statement to police.
Either way, it certainly changes the look and feel of what happened. Unfortunately for Talib, while he’s expected to make a full recovery, he may find that the worst of what happened may not quite yet be over depending on how both law enforcement and the NFL react to this news.
Mitchell wins an award – Rookie receiver Malcolm Mitchell has already won over a lot of people before even showing what he can do with his personality and how he carries himself, but he earned a little more recognition this past weekend for a different reason.
The rookie won “Children’s Author of the Year” for his book, The Magician’s Hat, which was published last summer. He was recognized by the Georgia Writer’s association, who gave him the award.
https://twitter.com/Money_Mitch26/status/739259614076755968
We know how good he is off the field after achieving this. Hopefully he’ll experience some success to help him even further in this phase of things this season.
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