I feel sick.

(pic: Suzy Allman for The New York Times)

Update (9.14.2007): Well, now it's over and I have to say I agree with the King.

The Globe's Christoper Gaspar writes about video games in professional athlete's lives. It sure makes sense to spend your down-time as a wealthy pro to play video games, compared to, oh, say, doing wheelies on your dirtbike or dog-fighting.

Just how realistic is the game?

Caldwell, who said he often hosts his teammates for round-robin "Madden" duels, said that last year -- when he joined the Patriots -- he used the game's create-a-play function to help learn the team's offense.

"That's how I learned our plays," said Caldwell, who led the team in receptions and receiving yards. "I'd design our plays on 'Madden' and run them, and it helped me learn our plays better. I did that in San Diego, too. It's kind of like you're playing and you're studying your playbook."

The team is getting stocked up to go to camp. Expectations have never been higher...

Well, at least the deal is in place, and the cap has risen to $102M for this season with two days left for everyone to digest the deal and sign any of their own players to new deals before free agency. There will be some interesting manuevers, surely, and the Patriots have some deals to make of their own.

Interestingly, the Pats released #55, Willie McGinest right after the new CBA was signed. Why then? Of course, both sides knew that this next year of his contract was inflated at $7M and that a re-do would be in order. But with the cap suddenly higher with the new deal, there was no imminent pressure to release Willie -- is there another deal on the table that needs the space? Deals that wouldn't have been done without the new CBA?

McGinest is the rebirth of this franchise. You can draw lots of lines to various sources to the Patriot's success. The Krafts, of course. Belichick and Brady. But from the depths of the league in the early 90's, with Parcells, Bledsoe and #55, the Patriots began their upward ascent. Battling back from numerous injuries -- playing through 'em all, and now in the latter part of career playing smarter and stronger than anyone would have guessed. And, we're told, a total leader in the locker room.

Watching the footage of the Super Bowl parade in Boston, where on the podium #55's giant arms draped around Belichick like giant bear restraining it's child (then later goading the coach to dance). McGinest is as much a factor in the rebirth of the Patriots as the rest of 'em. And Ernie Adams -- maybe he's really the wizard behind the curtain. I hope McGinest returns for another tour of duty -- although I wonder if taking a 2 or 3 year deal from Cleveland might be too much to pass up.

Save the swap for Corey Dillon a few years ago, the Pats haven't done much in free agency, so I don't expect much again this season.

You know, I wish I could claim to be all worked up about the Dubai deal, or something that's at least more worthwhile than a game of chicken by multi-millionaires (see the quote in the Curran article in the Projo). Or maybe it's a face-off between the millionaires and the billionaires. At any rate the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement standoff, with Free Agency set to start at midnight tonight has got me all worried. At one level it's simply a concern for what happens to the veterans this season, it's a thought about rank-and-file revolt from the player's association, with all the actual drawbacks of an upcapped year. Decertification would be a mess. But even short of that, just having this year's free agency period screwed up at stuck at a smaller cap will make this total chaos.

I think the Boston Herald (Online) has subliminaly sent a message, and one that many football fans echo:

Settle it now, for the difference in money now is not worth the costs to the game, even this season, by messing with what works....or at the very least, the system we've all gotten used to.

And before all those folks at the Globe get smug about typos on the Herald website -- at least they didn't print that error out along with your credit card info and distribute it, actually, more like abandon it, at locations all around town.

So, my beloved Patriots, winners of back-to-back Super Bowls and 3 out of the last 4. With all the talk before the game about "Dynasty", it's pretty clear now that either "Dynasty" or "Dominance" must be mentioned in the same breath when describing Belichick's reign in Foxboro.

Aaron Schatz and the team at Football Outsiders take a good look at the "Dynasty" label, as well as trying to assess the impact of this year's team as one of the greatest of all time. In the end, I totally agree, that the brain-fart of a loss to the Dolphins on Monday Night Football -- with Harrison's interferance in the endzone, and Brady's late picks, seal the deal that losing to such a weak team in a late game comeback is unacceptable, and would pop them out of the running for the "best team of all time".

And perhaps last year's squad would seem less dominant, as well, given the early self-destruction in Buffalo and then a hapless loss in Washington, or perhaps on the basis of weaker offensive stats (compared to this year's numbers with Dillon). But that's it, folks, you can count the losses on one hand for the last two seasons: Buffalo, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Miami. No losses in the post season. Credit for winning goes all across the board: Pioli and the scouts for building a team with quality depth and flexibility, and the coaches for making the most out of all the player's abilities, and, of course, players who can make the play. I suspect, that in retrospect, that these will be the Willie McGinest years, just as much as the Belichick years, or the Dynasty years.

Or maybe we'll look back at this "Dynasty", much as one can point to the pass interferance rules and Steelers balanced attack, and the Patriots and the (re)advent of instant replay. Not only for the "Tuck Rule", but for the many times that use of instant replay somehow miraculously goes the Patriot way. I don't have any misgivings about that -- if instant reply is used right it only gives an advantage to the right call, not to any particular team. Of course, you gotta use the truth to your advantage, and if I recall correctly Dungy didn't buzz once this year for Indy.

And, although the media is doing their appropriate group-speak right now, it's striking to note what a shift this is just from just a few weeks ago in the playoffs. Not to sound like Rodney Harrison, looking for the disrespect, but even Don Banks, who called the Super Bowl for the Patriots before the season even began, didn't include the Patriot's record setting winning streak in his Top Five news items for the season. And, speaking of taking "group speak" to a new level, kudos to Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch, for uncovering more damning evidence on Patriot's beat guy from Worcestor, Ken Powers, and his obvious and embarrasing plagarism. Yikes.

But back to the favorite topic of "no respect" or a "lack of stars". I don't think it's magic that there are "no stars" on this team -- but a core part of the design. Each game is unique, and each gameplan is distinct. The Pats don't smother you with one dominant part of their ability (pass you to death with Manning; eat you with the defense like the Ravens, etc.), but gameplan to attack your weaknesses, take advantage of all of their own strengths, and focus on the details, the situational football, that will turn every game. Seems logical, right? But hard to characterize and hard to pidgeon hole into a single catch-phrase, impossible to diagnose as simply this-or-that. No, the game is more complicated than that, and the team is too smart to play the game on their opponent's terms. The Patriots don't have one way to beat you, they can beat you in a lot of different ways, and most often, find a way to get you to beat yourself.

All of which makes for an unpredictable story, with too many details and too many if-then scenarios for the pundits and writers to cover in a five-second soundbite. Playing harder and smarter doesn't fill out an article, does it?

Three for Three, anyone? I think the odds are clearly against it, but there's one guy I wouldn't bet against, and that's Belichick. What worries me? The coaches leaving; the secondary being young and thin (if they release Ty Law and Ty Poole); linebackers like Ted Johnson and Willie McGinest and Tedy Bruschi getting up there in years (I figure Phifer will retire, right? We got Banta-Cain and Klecko on deck?); depth on the offensive line (I say that every season). That having been said, we're set at wide receiver (unless they botch David Given's RFA status, which I doubt), should be set at tight end with Watson coming back, and deep and young and strong at defensive line. It seems like no matter what happens, this staff can make adjustments and "coach 'em up" like no other staff in the league.

Nobody's figured how to do win three in a row in the Super Bowl era, even pre-salary cap. And a guy who can take a team like the 2001 squad to the big game and win in the biggest upset in recent memory -- could surprise us all. Again.

An interesting article about the NFL and their anticipated growth of mobile/wireless features, with potential profits in a few years projected at $30M. Of course the NFL has a pile of dynamic content to distribute to millions of rabid fans -- the NFL Network is a great example. The rinky-dink combination of current mobile offerings (WML -- which is not updated quickly enough or accurately enough, Palm apps, ringtones, voting for Pro Bowl players or MVP, etc.) seem to be hard-pressed to total the kind of revenue hinted at in this article, but the ever-expected onslaught of 3G speeds may provide highlights or live video coverage to phones.

More likely revenue generators? In the near term the "Gamecenter" would make a perfect and easy port to a Midlet, and up-to-the-minute Fantasy Tools would also generate significant revenue -- who could've anticipated that having control over active/inactive lists at 1PM would be worth so much money?

The NFL's cellphone ventures are growing so rapidly that by the 2006 or 2007 season, some league officials think, wireless could generate as much profit as conventional services delivered through league Web pages and the associated advertising.

...

Pro football's ventures into wireless are "in many ways just the beginning," said Chris Russo, the NFL's senior vice president for new media. "We expect continued growth over the next two or three years, and wireless has the potential to equal or exceed what we're doing on the Internet."

Russo declined to offer specifics, but people familiar with the NFL's online operations estimate they currently gross about $140 million, yielding annual profits of $35 million to $40 million.

The full article is here.

And, hey, if we're talking about what fans would pay money for -- how about selling the coaches film footage? Maybe not each week -- even if just the last season. It's nice having that funky floating Madden-esque camera behind the LOS, but I'd love to see the secondary through the whole play.

Senator Kerry reveals fall campaign strategy by clearly going after those undecided voters who play on special teams (recent polls show undecideds are on teams assignments at a ratio of 3:1, versus strictly offense or defense). In reprising the role of the long snapper for the cameras, Kerry courts the football specialist whose job it is to pass the ball (between his legs) to someone else to punt -- perhaps a move by notable Clinton long snappers McCurry and Lockhart.

BC'04 hails this as a victory, as Kerry is clearly relinquishing courting Offensive players (with Bush's repeated "we're on offense", and the prominent inclusion of Jim Kelly - notable losing quarterback on four Super Bowl teams -- at the RNC and QB Tom Brady sitting beside Hall of Fame halfback Ahmed Chalabi at the State of the Union). KE'04 response to the charge: "We'll play Franco Harris over Chalabi any Sunday."

[Every fall is for football, but there is no greater sport than the election]

I've ignored talking about most of the football offseason since it's been largely uneventful. Okay, that's not really true -- with Gibbs coming back to coach, and with the huge Bailey/Portis deal, and the movements by the Eagles to get Kearse and TO. The only notable Pats info was Ty Law's Hungry Man Tour, and even that's now a wash.

But here we go into training camp, bodies will fall, rosters shuffle, and we'll get to see what depth means. And the biggest offseason story of all can't go without notice here, even if only for schadenfreude for the Phins, is seeing Ricky Williams walk away. Lots of coverage everywhere, and great coverage by the usually unbearable Dan Le Batard (actually, unbearable is unfair -- in recent years, with the Dolphins out of the playoffs, he's been a fun read for me) with the scoop of Ricky finding himself in Jamaica and the reason he failed to pass the NFL pee test, and continued standout coverage by Mike Florio. Mike will be the Matt Drudge of football journalism. Not in the smarmy way that Drudge is Drudge -- just that he will be the one to break the big story before too long.

Training camp starts tomorrow for the Pats. And the worst offseason ever for the Dolphins comes to a close -- reminds me of the post Super Bowl '86 Pats implosion, or heck, most of the Pats years prior to the Kraft salvation. Or that horrible pre-season game when the Pats lost stars Garin Veris, Andre Tippet, and Ronnie Lippet. One of those "I'll always remember where I was..." moments, sadly enough. I was actually standing right about where this picture was taken.

Well, so much for that last post predicting Perry or Jones -- today the Patriots traded for Corey Dillon. Dillon is a powerful and fast back who has regularly put up big numbers for Cincinnati until this year -- and except for the very public and very vocal grousing about wanting out as a Bengal, would seem like a great fit for the Pats.

Curiously, the trade is on the heels of moves by the Eagles and Broncos, which has been speculated as positioning for drafting Jackson, and a strange arrest of Ty Law. Can't help but consider whether concern over Law's situation, either as trade-bait or his ability to play this season, affected the timing of the deal. In fact, it had been public for awhile that the Bengals wanted a second rounder for Dillon -- if Law isn't part of a planned trade, then perhaps the timing of the trade was merely to thwart the Raiders or Cowboys (other rumoured suitors for Dillon).

Dillon's arrival does close the door (I hope) on the 'curse' of Curtis Martin (also #28) to Parcells and Jets years ago. Martin was also a 30-ish back coming off his first major pro injury, and although the spin from the Bobby Grier NE personnel department was that he wouldn't be the same, Curtis went on to have four more great seasons. Drafting, then losing to devastating injury, Robert Edwards was merely a tease -- a karmic jab on the short downward pre-Belichick spiral.

Steven Jackson, the consensus top running back in the draft a week from now, is the subject of a considerable amount of buzz and rumours about his draft slot. From being projected as dropping into the last first round a few weeks ago, draftniks are now guessing that Denver's leap and Philly's leap this past week in the first round are due to jockeying for Jackson in the 16-20 range. Both need backs -- Denver losing Portis, and Philly losing Staley -- and other rumours suggesting even a top 10 slot.

 The Boston press is almost uniformly covering Jackson today, and it's a real wonder that with all of this buzz, across all the papers and sources, pushing up his perceived (at least public) value -- and he hasn't even picked an agent yet. Usually this fury is tied to an agent's weasley action...

 I think the odds are Greg Jones or Chris Perry -- without climbing up. There you go: I'm on the record. San Diego is on the clock.

Otis Smith returns to the Patriots in what continues to be a seemingly humdrum offseason of loading up on veterans. This roster is all about depth -- including a solid showing in Europe by Rohan Davey.

 There's much buzz in Patriot Nation that Otis could play free safety, allowing Wilson to return to corner. Or that Otis is part of a masterplan to ship out Ty Law. I think it's simpler than that at this point. A still solid, trusted vet to play it out in training camp. Nothing will surprise me -- getting cut in camp, to being a starter for #45.


 Felger has it right this morning, Otis isn't part of some big master plan, but a part of the machinery going into camp. Just like the Mike Cloud signing.

Tom Curran of the Providence Journal has a great interview (via cellphone in the car, geez Tom, if you get Coach in an accident, I swear...) about how the Patriots approach the draft. It's been said from a lot of quarters that the Pats really spend the time and money on good scouting, and it seems to have paid off in recent years. Curran writes:

"Great. Not more than 90 seconds into explaining the process and already we had to ask for clarification on some of the terms he was using. But Belichick's a pretty patient guy when it comes to explanations. So we opted to ask the question and run the risk of looking like a moron instead of writing a poorly reported story that would remove all doubt."

Funny -- a couple of Super Bowl Championships takes the edge off -- can't imagine anyone calling Belichick "a pretty patient" guy a few years back.