NFL Does Good

Wonder where all of those millions of pre-made "New England Patriots: Super Bowl Champions" shirts went? Well, I now know the answer and it's a good one.

It seems the t-shirts, hats and the rest of the gear are sent around the world to people in need. As much as I wish the people were wearing Giants garb, it's nice to see that the NFL is giving back and not just throwing away.

Check it out here and check out the ESPN.com video below.

Bye Bye Brown

All sports have salary caps, it's just all in the details.

Baseball has a salary cap, which many don't know, but it is a "soft cap" which means that a team can spend over the cap, but they have to pay a luxury tax on the extra money they spend. Each year teams with a lot of dough like the Yankees and the Red Sox, spend more than the cap. Who cares about a cap when the owners have more than enough money to do so? The cap doesn't mean much to the millionaires that own the teams. Don't get me wrong, there needs to be a brain in the heads of the people with the money and the teams still choose who they want to spend money on, but there isn't much scrambling or deciding who is more important than who if you can pay for everyone.

The NBA and NHL also both have caps, but both include exceptions when resigning a player that is already on the team. So technically, the teams can both spend more if the opportunity presents itself.

And then there is the NFL. The NFL has a "hard cap" in which no team can pay more than any other. There is a set limit, the upcoming season's limit is $116 million, and no team can go beyond it. Never. No exceptions.

That said, it's hard to have a franchise player in football. There is too much shuffling under the cap, trying to figure out who the team can afford and who is worth what. Sometimes good players and hometown favorites go even if they and their fans hope they are there all of their careers.

So why all the salary cap/franchise player talk? According to The Boston Globe, the Patriots are choosing to forgo offering veteran wide receiver and one of the few franchisers in the game right now, a place on the team next year. Brown, who was drafted in 1993 by the Pats, was told by the team that they don't have plans to keep him and that if he plans on playing next year he should begin looking to other teams.

Troy Brown is a class act who has been in the league for 15 years now. He has discussed retiring before, but now with the Pats cutting ties, it looks like the retirement might happen sooner than later. I personally would like to see Brown retire as a Patriot. He is a standout player and human being, who took less money to play in New England a few years back. He belongs in New England and gave Pats fans unbelievable memories.

We will see what Brown does, he could always continue his spectacular career with another team, but it's sad to see him leave the Patriots. Number 80, with his quick feet, versatility and love for the game, will always be a Patriot in my eyes.

Photo (cc) by Barry Chin of The Boston Globe, and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

What Does Your Pats Jersey Say About YOU?

In a previous post, I mentioned how much I love Boston.com photo galleries. Well, check out this fun read. Sports psychologists explain how the Pats jersey that you wear displays your personality.

I wear a Bruschi jersey and I'm not sure that I'm a " blue-collar scrapper who confronts steep odds and is not afraid to get [my] hands dirty." Oh well.

What does your jersey say about you?

Photo (cc) www.topprospectalert.com, and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Pats Take a Gamble

The Pats passed putting the franchise tag on superstar WR Randy Moss. This would indicate that the Pats think that they can sign a multi-year deal with Moss and this should get everyone in New England smiling. I'm all for smiling, but just remember what happened with Deion Branch, the Super Bow MVP who went to the Seahawks after the Pats refused to offer him the amount of cash he wanted.

Bottom Line: The Patriots are known for smart spending and have never spent too much on an individual player. The Pats also don't have too much money to play with under the salary cap. Keep your fingers crossed and in the mean time- here is a much needed Randy Moss fix in a hilarious ESPN clip.

Boston.com Photo Galleries

Like most journalism majors, I am a bit of a news junkie and as a sports fan, a sports news junkie. But even the most diehard of fans can sometimes get a bit worn out and would prefer a quick news brief over a two pager with a jump. Boston.com gets this. They get it more than ESPN.com, which has great features but has yet to really see the beauty in constructing a news article out of photographs and briefs.

Boston.com understands how to do this perfectly. Sometimes I will click on a link thinking it’s a news story and it will bring me to a photo gallery, which is often a pleasant surprise. This means less reading for me!

Now should every story be done like this? Obviously not, but it's a great way to create a countdown or rank importance of things without having to fumble through an article. There doesn't have to be expert commentary, just the reporters’ ideas and it can be done in a really fun way. It is a great way to explore ideas without them having to be hard facts and sometimes I feel like I learn as much if not more from a story constructed like this.

Here is a great example of a story, “10 offseason questions for the Patriots,” that works way better in this format than I believe it would in a standard article.

I really like the way this photo gallery was done. It is a quick read, but it highlights important facts. If you want to learn more about a certain aspect you can do so, but this is a great overview. It also incorporates the readers by featuring a poll at the end asking for the readers’ opinion.

To me this is quality journalism. It isn’t a Pulitzer Price winner, but it does what journalists should do, raises questions and educates readers.

Inexpensive Memories

I remember when the Patriots were terrible. Instead of our now expected double digits in the wins column, it was always double digits in the losses column. Tickets were cheap and available and my Dad and I would make the trek to the old Foxboro Stadium.

I remember walking into the stadium wearing a dark blue Drew Bledsoe jersey under my puffy Patriots winter jacket and taking in the scene with wide blue eyes. At that moment all I could think was that I wanted to come every Sunday.

My Dad and I would sit on the metal bleachers in the end zone and eat Papa John's pizza and peanuts. Because the Pats were on the bottom of the NFL barrel and because of their annual loser status, I got to root for my favorite team in the sticky seats of Foxboro.

Nothing is better than seeing the thing that you love live and in person. Whether it is a play, concert or sporting event, there is something about seeing something you are passionate about play out in front of your eyes. This is especially important for children and the times that I spent with my dad within the walls of that stadium are times that I will never forget.

Boston.com has reported that the Patriots will be raising ticket prices next year. Here are the new prices according to the press release and the post on Mike Reiss’ blog on Boston.com, “Reiss’s Pieces,”

Lower Level Sideline -- $169
Lower Level Corner/End Zone -- $117
Mezzanine Level Corner/End Zone -- $117
Upper Level Sideline -- $89
Upper Level Corner (Rows 1-7) -- $89
Upper Level Corner (Rows 8-26) -- $65
Standing Room -- $49

I literally gasped when I saw the new prices. I can’t imagine having parents spending 100 dollars on two STANDING ROOM tickets. I went to a game last year with my Dad for my birthday and it will probably be the last game I go to for some time.

It kills me to think that some kids will have to miss out on what I got to experience so many times when I was small. Sports are a business and I know that. More people want to go see a good team play than a team where a loss is almost guaranteed. It just hurts me to think that the thousands of little Pats fans may not get the chance to see their role models hit the field because of unbelievably high ticket prices.

I would never want the Pats to do badly and it may never go back to the way it used to be when rows of empty seats could be found cluttering the stadium. But I do know that I much rather see the stands filled with parents and kids, old friends and long time fans all clad in Pats gear, then rows of suits and ties. Hey, maybe I’m cynical, but those suits won’t be coming when the Pats are no longer the cream of the crop.

The End

I have officially popped my head out of my hole of mourning and denial. The New England Patriots lost the Super Bowl. My fingers hurt when I type it. When I think about it my face goes dark and my voice gets quiet. But on Sunday history was squashed and Pats fans will have to wait until next September to see the Pats grace the field at Gillette Stadium.

The worst part about a big loss isn't always just the fact that it happened, but the fact that you will have to hear about it for weeks after.

"I seriously don't think I'm going to be able to watch Sports Center for like two weeks," my boyfriend said to me after the epic loss.

It's funny how we react to the media. We love it when they hype our team for two weeks straight and then despise it when they report the unsettling truths.

I don't think I'll get into the details of the game. We all watched the game and now New England is trying to put it into perspective. Now I'm preparing myself for the backlash. I'm ready for the media to forget the amazing, record-breaking season. The sports media needs something to focus football related and Spygate is just the thing to focus on when teams aren't playing. Besides trades the off-season can be a bit dull, but the media has just the story to keep the NFL in the headlines. Unfortunately, it's a story that should have been dropped after the team was punished months ago. Maybe I'm cynical, but I have a feeling that it's going to be a long off-season.

Separation of Sports and State

Last night I saw a headline on CNN.com about a U.S. Senator that wants to look further into the Patriots Spygate scandal. I ignored it. I skipped over it hoping maybe it wouldn't turn into anything important and perhaps I could look into the exciting future (2 days!) instead of the regrettable past. But this morning I saw this article pop up on ESPN.com and I felt like I had to sit down and read it. The headline read, "Senator wants answers on Spygate tapes from NFL." According to the article, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) wants to know why the NFL destroyed the tapes that the New England Patriots made when they cheated during the first game of the 2007 season. The senator apparently made several attempts to contact the NFL and no one ever got back to him. The article goes on to say, "NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, in a September e-mail to ESPN.com, wrote that the reason for destroying them was "so that our clubs would know they no longer exist and cannot be used by anyone."

So if the league has already explained why they did what they did, why does Specter plan on pressing the issue? I'm not sure what else the league will tell him. There may very well be a more deceptive and mysterious reason why they destroyed the tapes, but what if there isn't and if there is, does anyone really care at this point? Why does Specter, a longtime senator, care about this? Maybe that's what really should be investigated.

It seems we get our answer about halfway through the story. The article says, "Specter, a lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan who still calls sports radio stations on Monday mornings, said he was concerned about the integrity of sports." Hmmm. Is this an issue about the integrity of sports or stale bitterness over the fact that the Pats beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX in 2004? Eagles’ players, including Sheldon Brown, have stepped up and claimed that the Pats win was tainted and now maybe they have the ultimate tool of revenge.

Maybe my conspiracy theory is wrong and Specter truly cares about the league itself and not just his beloved Eagles. I hope I’m wrong. I love sports, but as of late I think there needs to be some separation of sports and government. Obviously as large companies and organizations that pay taxes, they are undeniably linked. But a U.S. Senator starting the investigation of a cheating scandal in the NFL? C'mon! Let the league do what it wants to do. Is this the start of another Mitchell report? We can all see how well that turned out.

Instead of pointing fingers and setting out on personal vendettas, perhaps Specter should do what the citizens of Pennsylvania elected him to do; serve the people of his state and represent them on matters important to them and the country. I say fight for more important issues and keep sports as a discussion topic on talk radio not in Congress.

Super Bowl Media Day

Super Bowl media day was held in Arizona on Tuesday. The sports media, especially media that doesn't get a lot of face time with the teams, made the trip to the dry heat of the southwest and got their chance to ask, well, whatever they felt like. Athletes and coaches are made readily available and reporters have an open forum to ask questions. The tone of the day is very loose. People ask crazy questions and do idiotic things. It isn't the serious tone of the standard press conference and there isn't a game that the reporters have to report on shortly afterward. This is information for fluff stories; at a normal interview would you see a reporter dressed in a wedding gown asking Tom Brady to marry her?

It's all fun and games at Media Day and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. But I found this post on the Sporting News' blog and thought it was an interesting take. No one seems to take media day seriously, but is it just a big waste of time? Do we actually get any real substance out of it? What do you think?

And He Is Back...

Where in the world is Tom Brady? That was the question people were asking after the media reported that he was missing from practice. The “Brady Boot” scandal, Brady wearing a walking boot and limping around NYC, was captured on camera by paparazzi that treated Brady like he was Lindsay Lohan about to fall off the sobriety wagon. It was the hot sports topic of the end of last week and this weekend. Will Brady play? Is he really hurt? What exactly is a high ankle sprain? Is Belichick playing games with the media? The only problem: the Patriots had no intention of discussing or even mentioning the topic.

That is the thing about the Patriots: they don’t talk much and if they do, they all say the same thing. The team is a well-oiled machine that is mum on most topics the media wants to talk about. This drives the media crazy and as a journalist it would probably drive me crazy as well. There are only so many stories you can do about how they don't talk and even large issues like the cheating scandal now coined “Spygate” and Randy Moss’ legal troubles seem to be dropped quickly. Stories have a hard time evolving into more than a guessing game if you have no sources or anyone involved that is willing to talk to you.

And now it's Sunday and Brady has emerged. Just like that the “Brady Boot” scandal is done and Brady and the team are heading to Arizona. No one on the team seemed too worried about the story about which the media started a craze. Now the story is kaput and the hundreds of articles and discussion seem a bit for naught. Will Brady play in the Super Bowl? Is Belichick psyching out the Giants team? It may be hard for us, the media, but it may be time to stop asking questions and just wait and see.

Voicemail Message Boards

Have written message boards already started to bore us? Message boards have been around for some time now and Boston.com has just introduced a brand new kind of message. For their Super Bowl coverage, the site has invited readers to call a number listed on their site and leave a voicemail. They encourage you to leave the most creative, smack talk voicemail intended for the New York Giants or praise for the New England Patriots and they will put the most original up on the site.

Check it out!

The site also has other message boards targeted toward the Super Bowl, but are also looking for photos and videos. Are written messages no longer interactive enough? I'm only 21, but I remember when they were revolutionary.

People love to hear their own voice and maybe seeing their words in the comments section is no longer enough. Boston.com is relying on reader contributions and this means they have to do new and inventive things to have readers participate. As Youtube.com has proven, people like to give their opinions and document them. Photo sharing and video sharing are not necessarily new concepts, but the way the site is asking for so much user generated content is. Boston.com is creating a community and the sports section is the perfect place to have a neighborhood.

Casey's Crystal Ball: A Bit Foggy

I don't think I will be changing my stance on making picks on big games after the results of the Conference Championship games yesterday. Below are my picks, the actual scores and the bottom line:

AFC Championship Game
New England Patriots vs. San Diego Chargers

My Pick: New England 31, San Diego 17
Actual Score: New England 21, San Diego 12
Bottom Line: The New England Patriots are going to the SUPER BOWL for the fourth time in seven years!!

NFC Championship Game
Green Bay Packers vs. New York Giants

My Pick: Green Bay Packers 24, New York Giants 21
Actual Score: New York Giants 23, Green Bay Packers 20
Bottom Line: I was right in some regards. It was a tight one and the winning team won by three points. The only problem, there will be no Cheeseheads migrating to Arizona, just a bunch of New Yorkers.

So it isn't going to be an epic battle of quarterback royalty, but it's still the Super Bowl. Thirteen days until the most important day in the NFL will be upon us. It should be interesting to see what the press does with this match up.

Casey's Crystal Ball

Let me preface my picks for this week’s NFL Conference Championships by saying this: I don't believe in picks. Things can never be surely predicted and maybe I'm too superstitious or just plain nervous, but I would never put money on a game, no matter the spread or what the past match up history may be. You would never see ESPN commentators debating the biggest upsets ever or be able to watch the NFL Network replay classic underdog wins if sports outcomes were predictable. But, alas, I read them anyways because what is more fun then predicting right and showing off to all of your friends? Below are my picks:

AFC Championship Game
New England Patriots vs. San Diego Chargers

Pick: New England Patriots
Predicted Score: 31-17

I would never NOT pick the Patriots. I would pick the Patriots over any team past or present. This isn’t because I necessarily think the Patriots could beat any team past or present, but because I’m at the level of Patriots fan where your blind love and admiration for the undefeated athletes wearing red, silver and blue, makes you trust everything they do. I have already forgotten Spygate and Harrison’s confession of HGH use. I believe the Pats can do no wrong.

That said, this is playoff football and teams do not give up. The Chargers are banged up with two of their most valuable players, LaDainian Tomlinson and Philip Rivers, not 100 percent. But last week they proved they could step up their game and utilize other players to beat the Indianapolis Colts, the reigning Super Bowl champs. This is not going to be some piece of cake, walk into Dolphins Stadium and win with your eyes closed victory, but I pick the Pats to leave frosty Gillette Stadium as winners.

NFC Championship Game
Green Bay Packers vs. New York Giants

Pick: Green Bay Packers
Predicted Score: 24-21

This is going to be a tight one. The Giants are rolling into Lambeau Field with momentum, beating the “team to beat” Dallas Cowboys in Texas last weekend. Eli Manning finally seems confident and ready to lead his team to the Super Bowl. But I just don’t think that is going to happen. I’m prepared to see a lot of Cheeseheads heading to Phoenix in two weeks.

I predict a clash of the titans, two of the best quarterbacks in NFL history playing in the most important game of the year. Brady vs. Favre: the media should have a great time with that one…