Patriots Training Camp Report Featuring Gratuitous Cheerleader Pictures: Featuring LIndsay
*No Pats were taken off the PUP list Friday, but Manny Ramirez was permanently placed on the Red Sox DOG list.
*The difference between Tom Brady and your garden variety future gold sport coat QB is that Brett Favre destroys his team with his stupid year long moral conundrum, Peyton Manning throws his teammates under the Fung Wa every time something goes wrong, and Brady does this: In the afternoon session when a snap between him and Russ Hochstein ended up on the ground, Brady without hesitating, put his head down and took a lap with Hochstein right behind him. The difference between Brady and Hochstein? When Hochstein does it, his feet have to touch the ground.
*One of the recurring themes so far in camp is the high number of passes defensed by the secondary. That might be a concern on most teams, but when you've lost two of your starting DB's from last year and your QB is Superman, this is good news. Starting with Fernando Bryant and including Jonathan Wilhite and Tank Williams, the Pats have seen more batted balls than Josh Hamilton in Yankee Stadium.
*The NFL sent referees to Foxboro to familiarize the Patriots with the new Force Out rule. And after they left, Belichick familiarized them with the Dark Side of the Force Out rule.
*Bryant by all accounts has been the class of the new class of CB's. This shouldn't come as a shock since Bryant has 109 NFL starts under his belt and was originally drafted by Dom Capers. So there was a minor scare Wednesday when Bryant hit the deck grabbing his left knee. He left the field without help and came back to practice later, but not before Troy Brown allegedly was seen with his helmet on, backing down the driveway.
*With the addition of Lamont Jordan, an interesting roster question comes up: whether they'll opt to keep four QB's or six RB's or both. It's way too soon to speculate, but you'd hate to see them pass on the chance to add depth like Jordan can give them. Especially given:
1. The way injuries have thinned out their RB's the last few seasons, and
2. Jordan's got that awesome bald head/sideburns look. Every championship contender needs a guy who looks like "Black Moses" era Isaac Hayes.
*Further evidence John Tomase sucks: He has a headline on his blog that says "Jerod Mayo Meets Chris Hanson" and for one terrifying moment I thought the Pats had lost their 1st round pick in an online predator sting.
*Belichick has made it a point to say the DB's have been as good as any unit on the field.
*More proof that last year was a long season for the Pats is that Belichick is, without being asked, giving days off to different veterans. A 100% healthy Richard Seymour sat out one. Tedy Bruschi another and Brady is generally being treated like he's Bartolo Colon on a Pawtucket rehab start.
*But on Thursday, Belichick went all "Junction Boys", running the team through six plays of full contact, 11-on-11 goal line plays. The offense scored on four of them. Ty Warren made the play of the drill, stuffing Sammy Morris. In the afternoon session, he switched it up again, going from a Bear Bryant type camp to Bill Murray in "Meatballs" and it was back to the shorts & t-shirts. The tally so far is ten full pad practices to three walkthroughs.
*Randy Moss is picking up where he left off, grabbing more balls than a dozen guys on the corner of Hanover St. One on Wednesday was an impossibly acrobatic one as he was in between Williams and Mike Richardson, got a hand up, tipped it, and one-handed it on the way to the ground. What hopefully as the Patriots move forward we can all call "Randy being Randy."
*If I were the king of the world/ tell you what I'd do. Change the 1st Amendment to allow freedom of the press except for no preseason features on kickers. It's binary; the ball goes through the uprights or it doesn't. There's nothing to analyze. Enough already.
*The Pats got the best possible news as Joe Andruzzi visited camp, he looks great and his non-Hodgkins lymphoma is in full remission. And fortunately no Patriots players were swept away by the rising tide of Andruzzi's ocean of testosterone.
