The Grill-to-Go ... went

TALES FROM THE TAILGATE

Patriots 27, Browns 16 (12/9/'01): "Happy Father's Day!" My daughters Katie (14), Amy (11), and Jenny (9) stood with big smiles around a large present for me. It was by far the largest box I had ever gotten on Father's Day. I had no clue what it could be. We already had a large dog so I ruled that out. I was curious. Upon tearing open the paper with the gleeful help of the girls I saw standing in front of me a Grill-to-Go. A Grill-to-Go! It was the tailgating must-have item and I now had one. Thanks girls!

The Grill-to-Go was a somewhat space-age looking device when folded up -- its rounded, red body a sleek rocket shape. It sure looked ready to go. It was a great replacement for the charcoal and small propane grills that cluttered up all our car trunks. No more bags of charcoal and cans of lighter fluid. Easy to clean. A griddle for making eggs and bacon for the early morning tailgates. It was the hit of the 2001 tailgating season. At least the first three months of it.

Me, Paul, Bergs. and the Grill-to-Go arrived for the Week 13 game against the Browns. The Pats were at 7-5 and starting to ride the Brady wave that would wash them all the way to New Orleans. The wind chill was in the low 20s and there was a threat of snow. We tailgated among the snow banks and dirt piles rising high between the old stadium and the new one under construction. The lot was a mess. When the wind would blow the dirt would cover everything. You could feel it in your teeth. One tailgate Shep left a window open in his car. He was cleaning dirt out for years. To quote Mark: "Welcome to downtown Baghdad, boys."

We set up for the tailgate and I pulled out the Grill-to-Go. It was the first time for Paul. He was impressed. How could you not be? It went together like a dream and heated up quickly and evenly. The only glitch -- just a little one -- was the plastic tank at one end that the grease drained into. It had a little opening like at the top of a water bottle. Somehow you were supposed to get the grease out of there. But if there's one thing grease does, it's solidify quickly upon cooling. So by its seventh week in action the plastic grease tank was filled with old grease. As we sat in our chairs drinking and watching the burgers cook, we noticed the grease tank had caught fire. A small flame rising out of the little opening. I tried to put it out but it just kept burning and burning and burning... "Anything in the instruction manual about it also being used as a torch?" Bergs asked.

We ate and packed up the tailgate to get into the game. I had forgotten to turn the grill off and it was still hot. Too hot to put in the trunk. "How about we put it in the snowbank in front of the car and bury it so no one sees it and steals it," I said to Paul. He agreed with the plan. The Pats beat the Browns in a great battle to improve to 8-5. The highlight of the game was Troy Brown returning a punt 85 yards for a touchdown thanks to big blocks by Lawyer Milloy and Richard Seymour. I can still see the look on the punter's face -- the last man between Brown and the end zone -- as Seymour rumbled towards him to throw the block. One of the best moments of that year. Late in the game the weather turned nasty with a cold, wet snow. As we left the stadium the three of us decided to skip the postgame tailgate and hit the road. Paul and I jumped into my car and made an easy exit.

The next morning I was cleaning the supplies out of my car. Chairs. Table. Cooler. Grill? Where's the Grill-to-Go? Nowhere to be found. I thought back to the pre-game tailgate and an image of me burying the grill in a snowbank flashed before me. I lost the Grill-to-Go. That my three daughters gave me. Ruh roh. I figured I could just go out and buy a new one and they would never know the difference.

Then I heard a voice. "Hey Dad, where's the grill?" It was my always observant daughter Amy. "What happened to the Grill-to-Go?" The scene in the "Grinch" where the Santa imposter conned Cindy Lou Who into thinking he was taking the Christmas tree back to the North Pole to fix it ran through my head. But this turned out to be one of the few times a white lie eluded me. "I left it in a snowbank."

I often wonder if the Grill-to-Go sat in that snowbank till the next day when the snow began to melt and some member of the stadium staff noticed it sticking out. I picture him sitting on his deck at home, beer in hand, smelling his burgers cooking on my Grill-to-Go and watching the eternal flame burn from the plastic grease tank.

Tighten up

The tight end position. NFL teams are always looking for that next great tight end. I am always looking for the Patriots to stop drafting them in the first (or second, or third ...) round. If I hear the words "With the 22nd pick in the NFL draft, the New England Patriots select tight end..." I'm leaving the party.

It's not that I have anything against the guys who play TE. I don't. In fact, some of my favorite Patriots have played the position. Russ Francis. Ben Coates. Jermaine Wiggins.

I grew up watching Francis play the game like a rock star. Long hair, mustache, always a huge grin. His helmet was always off long before reaching the sideline. He was the Tom Selleck of tight ends. But he was a much better football player than Magnum P.I. was an actor. Francis was a big part of the '70s teams that got me hooked on the Pats. He was taken with the 16th pick in the first round in 1975 and the laid back Hawaiian did not disappoint. He and Steve Grogan connected on many big plays and helped make the franchise a winner. Russ Francis was the man. At least that's what I thought after the time I saw him out with a few lady friends while I was having dinner with my parents at the Honolulu restaurant on Rte. 1 in Norwood. I was about 13-years-old and Francis was more than gracious to turn his attention away from his four female dining companions to sign an autograph for a young fan. Thanks Russ. A great role model.

If Francis was the coolest tight end to ever wear a Patriots uniform, then Ben Coates was the toughest. The original Big Ben, he was the opposite of Francis. A fifth-round selection in '91, Coates was mostly an afterthought in his first two pro seasons. Like every good receiver, Coates needed someone to get him the ball. That someone was Drew Bledsoe. And boy did Bledsoe get him the ball. Time and time again. Coates was Bledsoe's security blanket. When in trouble or in need of a big play, Bledsoe would look for number 87. He wasn't hard to find. But he was almost impossible to bring down. At 6-5 and almost 250 pounds, Coates was an unstoppable force. He would often catch a pass 10 yards downfield and then drag several would-be tacklers another twenty yards. Some of my favorite memories at the old Foxboro Stadium are watching Big Ben haul in a pass from Bledsoe and carry defenders (often Dolphins) on his back. In 1994 he set a record for catches in a season for a tight end with 96. Francis was the man. Coates was the beast.

Since Coates retired the Patriots have invested lots of draft picks in an attempt to find the next one. Without much success. First round picks Daniel Graham and Ben Watson were solid players, but not really worth first round picks. And in the last few seasons the tight end has been such a small part of the offensive game plan that I'm ready for the Pats to just chuck the position completely. After all, unlike a quarterback or center you don't have to play with a tight end. I was starting to think Bill Belichick agreed with me on that. The team let both Chris Baker and Watson go this month, leaving them without an NFL caliber TE on the roster. Were the Patriots getting sick of being disappointed as they watched their tight ends drop passes or fumble or miss key blocks as much as me? I guess not.

Today the team signed veteran tight end Alge Crumpler. I had him on my fantasy football team a few years back and he ... disappointed. But he's a good pickup for the Pats. In fact, he's all the tight end the team needs. He's 32 with a lot of wear on the tires but might still have a good season left in him. He'll add some veteran leadership and his work ethic is solid. I can envision Brady and Crumpler hitting it off on and off the field. And he comes cheap. He seems like a good fit for the team that doesn't seem to know what to do with the tight end. So no need to use any draft picks on the position, right Bill?

Happy returns

The Patriots have remained on the inactive list in the first week of the free agent season. Some big names (with even bigger price tags) have been signed, sealed, and delivered to places like Chicago, New York, and Seattle. So far there are no new names for the back of your Pats jersey. But that doesn't mean this hasn't been a very significant week for the team. It has.

First the Pats re-signed their best pass rusher from last year, Tully Banta-Cain. It would be ideal if he was the team's second or third best pass rusher, but that's a different topic. Offensive lineman Stephen Neal is also coming back. He has been a key part of one of the Pats' constant strengths over the past several years. They followed that by wrapping up team leader and All-Pro defensive lineman Vince Wilfork to a much-awaited long-term contract. That had to happen or the franchise could stop pretending they were still trying to really win Super Bowls.



Today the Pats closed out a successful week of retaining their most valuable pieces. First they reportedly signed cornerback Leigh Bodden to a four-year deal. Bodden had interest from several teams and was the type of player (see Deion Branch) who ran the risk of getting an unreasonably big contract offer thrown his way to lure him from the Pats. Bodden, an NFL veteran who had one of his best seasons in his first with the Patriots, would have been a tough guy to replace. The Pats are not deep in the secondary. Bodden, with his five picks and physical play, proved to be a playmaker and the team was in dire need of playmakers in the defensive backfield.

The Pats also announced that jack-of-all-trades RB Kevin Faulk is returning for his 12th year as the team's unsung hero. Again, not a cannonball into the free agent pool that many fans might have been hoping for, but anyone who follows the team knows that Faulk is a large part of the core of this team. He still has many clutch plays left in him. I know I was relieved to see Faulk back. My guess is Tom Brady had the same reaction.

The Patriots have accomplished what seemed to me to be their biggest pre-draft priority: re-signing their most valuable free agents (sorry Jarvis and Ben). That's a good start to ... wait, did someone mention the draft? Just more than a month to go.

The big man

The Patriots signed the Big Man. Vince Wilfork. Clarence Clemons to Tom Brady's Springsteen. One just isn't as good without the other doing his thing. The biggest off-season issue facing the Pats this year has been settled. And unlike previous off-seasons, this time it ended with everyone happy. Hopefully this sets the tone for the 2010 season.

Wilfork and the Pats agreed to a five-year, $40 million deal. The heart and soul of the D is locked up. If he can stay healthy for the length of the contract the team will more than get its money's worth. The Pats had little or no chance of competing with the Jets, Colts, or Chargers in 2010 with a Vince Wilfork-size hole in the middle of their D line. That's one big headache the team -- and the fans -- won't have to worry about.

The signing of Wilfork certainly flies in the face of the prevailing sentiment that the Patriots don't take care of their players. The thing about that prevailing sentiment? It's been wrong in most cases.

The team has lost some key players over the past decade. All teams do. Some of them were big contributors to the championship run. Some of them left because the Pats weren't interested in keeping them at the asking price. Some of them because another team wanted so badly to steal away some of the "winning chemistry" that they were willing to overpay.

David Givens and Deion Branch fall into the latter category. Givens was clutch for the Pats, especially in big games. The Pats made him a solid offer but Tennessee made an over-the-top one that even if he had stayed healthy he would have had a hard time justifying. Same goes with Branch. Super Bowl MVP and the best weapon Brady had to that point in his career. He (along with Givens) was key to the offense taking the next step. But, like Givens, the Seahawks were willing to overpay him AND give the Pats a first-round pick in a trade when Branch held out. He also battled injuries and has come nowhere near the elite WR status that he was being paid at. Both Givens and Branch landed huge paydays thanks to their play with the Pats but also largely due to the fact that they were part of a championship organization. That raised their profile and their value. Yes, the Patriots didn't reward their contribution to the team with big contracts. And that was seen as the team mistreating or not -- in the players' parlance -- respecting them. But it was neither of those. In both cases it was a business decision. It turns out they were the right decisions.

Of course the player that the Pats "mistreated" the most was Asante Samuel. The Pats drafted him in the fourth round (we need to start making some picks like that again and soon) and he proved to be a steal. Samuel was a playmaker -- plain and simple. Those are few and far between at the cornerback position. The Pats knew it and tried to sign him but ended up franchising him and "insulting" him with an $8 million, one-year deal. Samuel held out. The team agreed to let him go to free agency after that. Samuel had a great year in the 16-0 season. Oh, all except that little matter of the perfect season bouncing off his hands at the worst possible time. The Eagles threw a stadium-load of cash at him and he was gone. Belichick and the Pats misplayed that one for sure. They should have ponied up the money for Samuel before the relationship soured. It wasn't a matter of not wanting to pay him his due, it was a matter of not wanting to overpay him. Which the Eagles did. Which team has won more games since then? Eagles or Pats? That would be the Pats.

The Pats also let Super Bowl heroes Adam Vinatieri and Willie McGinnest go. Decisions I still don't agree with. But they have to make the decisions. And you can't keep everyone. The key is to keep the right guys at the right price at the right time. For the most part they have done that. Tom Brady. Ty Law. Tedy Bruschi. Matt Light. Ted Johnson, Mike Vrabel. And on and on. Even Richard Seymour was paid when he was due. The Pats traded him last year because, rightfully so, they knew his next contract would be a big one and the reality are his best days are behind him now. The sentiment that a team should pay a player for what he has done for the team just doesn't work in the NFL reality. That's how you end up with old, overpaid players. In other words, that's how you end up like the Redskins.

That's the difference with big Vince. He has a lot of great football left in him. And it will be in a Patriots uniform. A very good start to 2010.

Let freedom ring

The NFL's free-agent superstore is open for business as of today. The 2010 football season has officially begun! It's been about a month since the Saints beat the Colts in a thrilling Super Bowl. Four weeks without much football news. That was a long enough break for me.

This year's free agent shopping season takes place under the shadow of the "uncapped year" that Nostradamus predicted back in the 16th century. For someone without an economics or law degree -- or a physics degree -- I think I have a good grasp on what the uncapped year means and the even more ominous sounding "Final League Year!" But here's a good Q&A on the subject http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d815da1d2&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true

I don't expect the Patriots to land any of the big names out there. There's been lots of talk about Julius Peppers of the Panthers coming here for more than a year. He'd bring the pass rush the Pats badly need but he'll be too costly. Way too costly. But there are some players I'd like to see the Pats add to their roster (which certainly is in rough shape as of this moment) that would not break the bank. After all, they need that money in the bank to give to Vince Wilfork and Tom Brady. At least that's what I hope they do with all the money they have not spent on players recently.

Free agents that I'd like to see the Pats make a run for:

• Darren Sproles, RB, of the Chargers. He could replace Welker as a kick returner and can bring a new dimension to the offense similar to what Reggie Bush brings to New Orleans. He's a weapon that Brady would sure know how to use. Worried about our receiving corps? How about Moss, Edelman, Faulk, and Sproles.
• Jeremi Johnson, FB, of the Bengals. Get a fullback! Johnson is a load at 275 pounds. Put this guy in front of Maroney (who showed he might still become the player he was in college) and Fred Taylor and you give your offense a whole different attitude. I don't like football teams without fullbacks. Never have.
• Aaron Kampman, DE/LB, of the Packers. A two-time Pro Bowler with the proverbial great motor. He would make a solid replacement if the Pats lose Jarvis Green. He can play the end in the 4-3, a formation I'd like to see the Pats play more of.
• Darren Sharper, S, of the Saints. What are the odds the veteran will leave after winning a title in the Crescent City? Probably pretty small. But Sharper is the kind of player the Pats are in desperate need of. A veteran leader who can still make plays. He's what Rodney would still be if Rodney hadn't suffered all those injuries in the last three years of his career. Belichick should call Sharper and offer him a good chunk of that money in the bank.

Those are just a few names of guys that could fill holes -- and then some -- for the Patriots. We'll see just how deep the Pats wade into the free agent pool. Before they even put on their trunks they need to take care of their own business. Namely... Vince Wilfork. If they let Wilfork walk away then this blog could go dark for a while. It would be a big mistake. A nose tackle-size mistake. The guy has busted his back for this team for six years. He plays the game hard. He forces the offense to commit two, sometimes three guys to blocking him. He's a leader and a solid citizen. Make him the highest paid guy at his position and do it fast.

And then take care of guys like Leigh Bodden, Kevin Faulk, Tully Banta-Cain, and Stephen Neal. That would be a very good start to the 2010 season. Which has finally arrived!