Not Going Anywhere

11.27.2008 1:37AM

To Trade Brady, or Not To Trade Brady
Hall of Fame QB Warren Moon, ESPN commentators think Pats should trade Brady
Written by: Boston Sports SID

Before reading this blog please take a minute to partake in brief game of Jeopardy. Please answer in the form of a question: (The answer will be at the end of the post.)
The single, stupid, idiotic, dumbest idea ever proposed by a national media conglomerate.

Bill Belichick has made bold moves in the past, such as trading Drew Bledsoe, releasing Lawyer Milloy as well as letting Ty Law, Adam Vinatieri and Asante Samuel walk when they reached their free agent years. But there is one thing that Belichick does not do. He does not make moves based on whim. Every decision the Patriots make is carefully calculated and bounced off other members of the Patriots staff to assure himself it is what is best for the football team. So to think Belichick would even consider the option of trading Tom Brady, as a big time media conglomerate brought up, is ridiculous.

Many national football commentators and fans outside New England will point to Bledsoe’s week two injury against the Jets in 2001 is what led to the emergence of Brady. Now after Brady went down with his ACL tear in week one, this might be the emergence of Matt Cassel?

Well here is the flaw in their argument. How did the Patriots do with Bledsoe at quarterback? They made it to the Super Bowl in 1996-97 against the Green Bay Packers and lost. With the Brady, the Pats became the first dynasty of the new millennium winning three championships in four years and were minutes away from winning their fourth last year. Plus Bledsoe was at the tail end of his career whereas Brady is still in the prime of his and at least five years left in his career.

To think that Belichick is going change his M.O. just so he can sooth his ego, as some commentators think, is absolutely absurd. Belichick is a CEO and like any CEO of a highly successful multi-national, million dollar corporation, he is going to do what is best for the company. Does he think he can win without Brady? Probably but does that mean he is going to drop the guy who brought him three championship rings and has potential for more?

Yes Brady is coming off a nasty ACL injury but people are making it sound like he contracted gangrene and had his left leg amputated. As of today, there has been a recent report from the quarterback himself telling Boston’s ABC affiliate on Tuesday, he is doing well in his recovery from surgery as well as a staph infection. The television station also noted that Brady appeared to be walking without a limp. This is all fans and media have to go because we know the Patriots treat injuries like state secrets. (Maybe the CIA should hire Belichick for their covert operations?)

What is getting the fans and commentators worked up, is the uncertainty of the future and the question of where is Brady going to be in eight months. But you know what? Brady does not have report to training camp until the end of July. It is not like July is going to come tomorrow. It is eight months away. Eight months is a long time in the sporting world. Eight months is two months short of many internships. Eight months is a baseball season that includes both Spring Training and the post-season. Many things can and will happen between now and the time Brady reports to camp. The future is always uncertain. When it is certain, people tend to call it the past.

Things always have a way of working out. Remember back to Spring Training 2006? The Red Sox had seven starters on their roster heading into Spring Training and they figured seven was too much so they traded Bronson Arroyo to Cincinnati for what they thought was young power hitter in Wily Mo Pena. Well as the season progressed and Matt Clement landed on the disabled list, Josh Beckett was having a hard time adjusting to the American League and David Wells was David Wells. They ended up finishing the season in third place behind the Yankees and Blue Jays with four-A guys making the starts in August and September. The Sox could have definitely used Arroyo at the tail end of 2006. But they learned that you can never have enough pitching because even if you have 20 starting pitchers in spring training, things always have a way of working out.

It is no different than what the Patriots are going through right now. What we need right now is a Rosevelt Colvin “calm down.” The Pats will have bigger questions in the off-season, mainly improving the secondary by stacking the deck with the defensive backs as well as re-signing nose tackle Vince Wilfork. The quarterback comes in third when it comes to the needs of the team.

Eight months is along way away and things have ways of working themselves out.

-- BOSTON SPORTS SID

ANSWER TO THE JEOPARDY QUESTION is:
Should the Patriots trade star quarterback Tom Brady?

Been There, Done That, Bought the Tee-Shirt

10.24.2008

Been There, Done That, Bought the Tee-Shirt
Brady Recovering Nicely from Antibiotics; rehab not compromised

Remember in Spring Training when it was discovered Curt Schilling had a degenerative right shoulder condition and his doctor told the All-Star pitcher that surgery was his best option? If Schilling had the surgery, his season would have been over but the Red Sox team and their doctors decided on a different approach. Instead of having their star pitcher undergo surgery and be lost for the season, the Sox thought rest and rehab would be best. The situation exploded into a front-line war between Schilling and the Red Sox management. In the end Schilling abided by the Sox wishes and ended up having the surgery anyway a month into the season, thus ending his season.

So New England fans, we have seen this before. For Tom Brady, it is a no win situation. He went to the surgeon his family wanted him to go to and wound up with an infection. We like to think things would be different he went with the Patriots doctors but, fans, we have seen this play out just eight months ago. Say he went to doctors the Pats wanted him to have the surgery and still got an infection, we would all be saying the same thing.

Brady going to a different physician does not change the fact he contracted an infection in his left knee. I’m not a doctor nor do I pretend to be one but I do know that infections from surgery are not all that rare. Because it happened like this, you ask the question would it have been any different if Brady stayed in Boston and had the surgery here? It might have but infections are always possibly when it comes to going under the knife.

Like in the Schilling situation, there is no use crying over spilled milk. What is done is done. It is what it is. Now Brady and the Patriots have to move forward instead of dwelling on the past. Brady should fly back to Boston to let team doctors have a look at his knee to decide the next course of action. The Patriots have invested a lot of money into this guy and they want to know what they are up against and which direction they need to turn to.

One doctor out of Cincinnati, Dr. Tim Kremcheck, told WEEI’s Dale and Holley yesterday “that’s not good” upon hearing the reports of Brady’s staph infection in his knee following surgery. He went on to say next season is questionable for the Pats franchise player and possibly, worst case scenario, the start quarterback’s career might be in jeopardy.

“What will probably have to happen is that they will have to go in, remove everything–including the screws, everything—because everything has to be sterile and clean for (the repair) to take,” Kremchek, whose specialized ranges from arthroscopic shoulder scopes to total knee joint reconstructions and replacements, told WEEI.

It may sound grim but the famous orthopedic surgeon, Dr. James Andrews of was consulting on the case with Brady’s surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache. Andrews confirmed what Kremchek told WEEI yesterday that saving the ligament graft from the infection was the most important piece of the puzzle. The renowned Alabama doctor told the Los Angeles Times that from what he heard from ElAttrache, Brady was “winning the battle” and responding nicely to antibiotics and should not compromise his recovery from the injury that occurred in Week One of the NFL season.

Hopefully rehab will go well and he will be back for the 2009 season but if there is a slight blip in the recovery process you know the Patriots and their fans will re-hash the fact Brady went outside the organization for his surgery; thus, will re-create the “Schilling Controversy” all over again. So for right now Pats fans sit back let Brady continue on his road to recovery and root for Matt Cassel to lead the Patriots this season

Don't they ever learn?

What’s this? More material for the Patriots to put on their locker room bulletin board?

Miami Dolphins linebacker and representative loudmouth, Joey Porter finds himself on the Pats bulletin board once again. It seems as if we can not go one year without Porter opening up his big mouth. The Pats are all too familiar with the linebacker’s antics while with the Steelers in the playoffs and after last year’s asterisk’s comment regarding SpyGate. Doesn’t this guy ever learn?

Four days before the Pats host the last-place Dolphins at Gillette, Porter took some time out of practice to take a few cheap shots at quarterback Matt Cassel. He told ESPN blogger Tim Graham, “I just know he’s not Tom Brady. So if it’s not Tom Brady, it shouldn’t be that hard.”

Where to begin? That is the ultimate question. First, where is the logic in Porter’s statement? Secondly, thanks Joey I did not know Cassel was not Brady. Thank you very much for clearing that up for me. I would be lost without you. (Note the hint of sarcasm.)

And third, tell that to the Jets. New York fans were salivating at the idea of facing the sans-Brady Patriots would be a walk in the park and it would be their shot at redemption from last year, but they were harshly snapped back to reality by Adalius Thomas and the defense. If Porter thinks this Sunday’s game is going to be a cake walk, let me remind him that his Dolphins lost to the same Jets in their first game of the year.

According to Porter, the Dolphins are going to “treat [Cassel] like you treat a back-up.” This is their first mistake: thinking of Cassel as a back-up instead of a starter. Bill Belichick did not become a successful head coach treating opposing teams different. In the eyes of Belichick, every team is the Colts, every quarterback is Peyton Manning. Why? Because, it is cliché, “on any given Sunday” anybody can beat anybody.

Miami’s second mistake: letting Porter open his mouth to an ESPN reporter.

The Pats are the best team at playing the “Us vs. Them” card and using these one-liners as motivation. When the entire league accused them of cheating last year, the Pats only became the first undefeated team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins and were one win away from eternal glorification. Now, with Brady lost for the rest of the year, the national media called the Jets the team to beat in the AFC East, thus putting the chip was right back on the beast shoulder.

For the second consecutive year, Belichick does not have to re-create a “Disrespect” straw man like he has done in past years. Already feeling slighted why would a player from a winless team, come out and hurl more insults towards a team that handles it by doing all their talking on the field on Sunday? It makes no sense. So I end this blog with a Brady quote: “Well done is better than well said.”