This one goes to 16

The NFL owners have had a busy off-season so far. First they changed the rules for overtime games in the playoffs. (Yesterday they decided not to change the rules in the regular season as well). They decided to play a Super Bowl in New Jersey in 2014. They continued to move towards labor talks with the players to see what they can do about this "Final League Year" thing. And they spent a lot of time talking about expanding the regular season from 16 games to 18.

A Super Bowl next to Manhattan, a fairer OT system, a plan for labor peace. They all seem like very sound decisions by the league that leads pro sports in very sound decisions. But when they starting talking about playing two more regular season games, as a nearly 20-year season ticket holder I have to say, simply, DON"T DO IT!!

The dreaded 18-game regular season continues to gain momentum. Funny thing is I have yet to meet a fan who thinks it's a good idea. The players seem to be against. So do the coaches. Even Roger Goodell, when he's promoting the concept, has a hard time coming up with positives. I've yet to read a story that explains why it would be good and the few I have read, well let's just say the writers didn't sound like they have done much tailgating.

So why is an idea that seems to be largely unpopular not only breathing but getting stronger? It all started because the media began complaining -- on behalf of the fans they said -- that charging season-ticket holders full-price for two preseason home games was an outrage. That's certainly an easy complaint to make. But as someone who's been paying for preseason games for many years it's not that big a deal. Ideally I think preseason games should not be force fed to season-ticket holders but made available to the rest of the fan base for between $35 and $65. That would be a great deal for people who don't usually get to go to the stadium and see a game. I think people would snap those tickets up. I know I would.

Yes, yes. That would be a loss of income for NFL teams so it won't happen. But it would be a worthwhile cost. A great PR move that would solve a perceived problem.

Why would people want to go to a preseason game if Tom Brady was going to only be in for four or seven or ten plays? Because it's fun. Different than a regular season game of course. But still fun. You get the spectacle of the stadium. The weather is usual very warm. (Football in shorts: the best). All the players are there whether they are playing or not so at least you can watch Tom and Randy hanging out with their helmets off. You get to check out rookies and free agents to see how they fit in. You get to watch players compete for key spots. You get to see the team try new formations and plays. If you enjoy pro football you can find lots of things to like about preseason games. I won't even get into fantasy football lovers getting a chance to do some scouting in person.

I've always thought four preseason games was a perfect number. For years it was. Now it seems it is two too many. "It's clear the fans don't want four preseason games," the commissioner said the other day. It is? Here's one fan that doesn't feel that way. Seems to me that four preseason games -- two at home, two on the road -- is just right.

Everyone knows how the preseason plays out. The first game is the warm-up game to get the rust off. Is that exciting to watch? Not usually. But whether you have four preseason games or two or eight the first one will always be the warm-up game. The second game is when players take what is happening in training camp and sharpening it at game speed. This is the game when a rookie or role player has a chance to step forward and stake a claim for a starting role. The third game is the simulated real game. The starters get most of the snaps. The action is close to regular season level. The teams want a victory to build some momentum for the season. The fourth game -- the one season-ticket holders have the hardest time moving -- is the extra game. Starters almost never play. The key is to get through it healthy. The fourth game is also the game in which the ten or so players battling for the last five or six spots on the team get a last chance to make an impression. For that reason it's actually one of the key moments in the preseason for the team. Depth is almost as important as talent in the NFL.

If you look at the first week of the NFL you will see some great games. Many players are already in regular season form. The pace is high right out of the gate. Why? Four preseason games. It gets the teams ready. Would I rather watch four preseason games and 16 very good regular season games or two preseason games, two mediocre regular season games, and then 16 very good games? What the heck's the difference? Just because you call a game in the middle of August a regular season game doesn't mean it is one.

The players worry about increased injury risk. They should be. The coaches worry about the longer season grinding their teams down. Another legitimate concern. I worry that what is currently a near-perfect sporting experience will begin to get watered down. Sixteen games works best for a 32-team league. It has created great division battles and rivalries. To dredge up one of the oldest cliches around: More is not always better.

Screen play

At last! Mr. Kraft and the Patriots announced today that they are replacing the 1950s black and white televisions they have in the end zones at Gillette Stadium with state-of-the-art video screens. Welcome to 2010 Patriots fans. It's about time.

Gillette is a great stadium. I love it. There are bars, restaurants, and lingerie stores. Everything a football fan needs. When Shep and I took a tour of the half-finished structure back in 2000 -- Patriot Place was just a glimmer in Kraft's eye -- we looked at the end zones and tried to imagine how big the video screens would be. Would they wrap across the entire end zone? Would they rise above the stadium facade? They don't call them Jumbotrons for nothing. The possibilities -- and dimensions -- seemed limitless. When we arrived for opening night the next fall we learned the possibilities were indeed very limited. You can't have a video screen wrap around the entire end zone if you have a McDonald's logo blocking the way. Or a giant ad for Bank of America. Why didn't we realize that?

What's so important about a video screen you ask. Aren't we supposed to be watching the game on the field? Of course. But 1) not everyone sits as close as we do to the field and 2) watching replays and highlights from the Pats game and other games are part of the experience. For the price I'm paying to go to the games is it too much to ask that I get to see what fans sitting at home see? And in HD? It was too much too ask for years. In fact, Shep asked every year since 2001.

Every season ticket holder account gets to fill out a survey at the end of each year and gets to ask questions and make comments. Shep would ask Mr. Kraft for three things. 1) Keep parking prices the same (ha!), 2) Replace the video screens with ones big enough to see, and 3) Build scented misting tents that you could walk through after the post-game tailgate so you wouldn't arrive home smelling of beef and beer. He still hasn't heard back on that one. But finally our video screen prayers have been answered.

Here are the facts and figures: The screen on the South side will be 41-feet wide and 164-feet high. 164-feet high! Now that will make marching out into the cold and snow a little more worth it as I get older. The screen on the North side will be a tad smaller. There is a bridge and lighthouse on that end so that limits the available real estate.

The press release from the Patriots states that the new screens will allow more replays from the game to be shown in the stadium. Now that will be a huge change. Those who have been to games at Gillette know that there are almost no replays shown during the game. It is maddening. We always assumed the Krafts didn't want the fans to watch controversial plays over and over again and get them riled up. Turns out they didn't have the technology to show replays. I look forward to seeing a 164-foot Randy Moss hauling in TD catch after TD catch.

I can't wait till the first preseason game to get a look at the newest members of the Patriots. The two giant video screens.

The veteran quarterback

A quote from Peter King's latest must-read column at SI.com: "This is the best I've felt in a long, long time." Who said it? Tom Brady.

Tom Brady will be 33 when the 2010 season begins in September. He's been the team's starter since 2001. His career record is 111-34. He has led the franchise to three championships and several very near misses for Lombardi number four. He is, for me, the greatest Boston athlete in my sports-watching lifetime. I was too young to appreciate Russell or Williams but I grew up on Orr, Cowens, Yaz and have marvelled at Bourque, Bird, Clemens, Neely, Bledsoe, Pedro, Ortiz, and Rice. Brady tops them all mostly because he delivered what I never thought possible. Super Bowl parades.

But it isn't just that he lead the Pats to three championships. It was the way he did it. He was Bourque, Bird, Neely, Ortiz -- and a lot of Terry O'Reilly -- all wrapped in one. He is simply one of the all-time greatest sports stories. Don't let his posing with goats or hiding from the paparazzi make you forget just how amazing his career with the Patriots has been.

Drafted in the -- everyone -- sixth round in 2000, Brady was an interesting mix of raw talent and, as Kramer would say, unbridled enthusiasm. He had some great games at Michigan so he wasn't quite an unknown. But he was no Peyton Manning. He wasn't taken with the first pick and he wasn't able to dictate which team he would play for. I like Manning. He's a regular guy. His commercials are often very funny. Oh, and he's one of the best QBs to ever play the game. I've grown to enjoy watching him (when not playing the Pats) because he almost always does something impossible to turn a sure loss into a victory. Manning has carried the Colts on his back by almost sheer will these past few seasons. I get why he is loved.

I don't get why Brady is not. I know, I know. Giselle. Cover boy. The West Coast mansion. Bridget and the baby. That's the other side of Brady. Brady the football player hasn't changed from when he was headbutting Bledsoe before the Super Bowl in New Orleans. He may be a reluctant celebrity, but he still looks driven to me. He still plays like he is trying to earn his starting spot.

Manning was the sure thing. Brady was the underdog. Manning started out as NFL royalty. Brady started out as NFL working class. Today they are both future Hall of Famers. Who'd a thunk it back in 2001. The two now enter an interesting phase of their careers. The veteran quarterback. Actually, Manning entered it a few years ago while Brady was on the sideline rehabbing from knee surgery. The role starts in earnest this year for #12.

Brady joined a team that had a strong nucleus of veteran leaders. Some -- like Brian Cox and Roman Phifer -- were former Parcells/Belichick guys who were brought in to bring attitude. Others -- like Law, Malloy, Bruschi, McGinnest, Johnson, Brown -- were part of the '96 team that went to the Super Bowl and were entering the peak years of their careers. Brady quickly fit in with that group and almost always played with the poise of a veteran. It was a perfect marriage. Now all those veterans are gone. All of them. Brady is the link between what is quickly becoming the past and what is now the future.

Will he have as much success in this phase of his career (which he says he hopes will last 10 more years)? Go to a training camp practice and watch Brady. He's still practicing like he's a 6th-round pick. One second he's yelling at the offense to pick it up, the next he's firing a bullet to Moss or Welker. He makes everyone around him better. He sets the tone. Veteran quarterback is a role Brady seems ready for.

Brady's contract will be a big topic of discussion during the preseason. And into the season if it is not taken care of by then. There's no doubt that Brady won't let the contract become a distraction for him. But Mr. Kraft and the Patriots can't let their QB's focus on the team make them lose focus of the most important moment in the franchise's history. Signing their Bobby Orr. They better get it done because we saw what can happen when you don't.

That's how you answer your critics

TALES FROM THE TAILGATE
Pats 38, San Diego 14 (9/16/'07): The Patriots released linebacker Adalius Thomas a few days ago. Much was expected of the big free agent signing from Baltimore. The only thing he delivered was disappointment.

I won't go over all the gory details of his three years in New England. Suffice to say it didn't work out. He didn't really produce. The coaching staff really didn't seem to know how to best use him. And the bond that he and Belichick made at the 2006 Pro Bowl seemed to only work when the two of them were wearing Hawaiian shirts. It just didn't work out. But for one glorious night at Gillette it did.

September 16, 2007. It would be difficult to find a better regular-season home game in all my nearly 200 games tailgating. Why? One word: Spygate. The week before, the opening week of the season, the Patriots went into New York and stomped on Mangenius' Jets 38-14. The Pats were loaded. Randy Moss. Wes Welker. Junior Seau. Donte Stallworth. These players, added to what was mostly the roster that had won three Super Bowls already, made for -- what we would later learn -- the greatest regular season team ever. Almost the greatest team, period.

The day after the Pats destruction of the Jets in which Moss toyed with the defense, it came out that Mangini (a.k.a the Rat) had tipped off the league that the Pats (which he was once the defensive coordinator for) were taping opponent's defensive signals. This is against the rules. League officials took the guy off the field and confiscated his camera. The camera contained video of the Jets defensive coaches sending in the signals. I repeat, it's against the rules. But this is not a blog post about the validity of Spygate. The Pats broke the rules, were caught, and were stripped of a first-round draft pick. All in a matter of three days.

The season, which started out with such promise, had turned into a nightmare. The team I rooted for was now the object of mocking and derision and hatred. Well they were always hated. When your team wins three out of four Super Bowls they are going to be hated. How do you think New England fans feel about the Steelers? I can't print it here. Decency rules you know. The Pats were the whale and everyone had their harpoons sharpened. There were boxes of "Cheaties" made with Belichick's face on it. New York Post headlines of "Gotcha!" Comparisons of the coach in his hoodie with Emperor Palpatine in his robe. Congress was considering setting up a special commission to investigate. Congress! It was ugly.

But a few days later the team had their home opener to play and a season to save. Against one of their biggest rivals the San Diego Chargers. If there's one thing Belichick's teams have done better than anyone it's put distractions, defeats, and disasters behind them. The Spygate scandal sure qualified as a disaster.

The tailgate before the game on a beautiful early fall Sunday evening was a lot of eating, drinking, and digesting the events of the week. Why was Belichick making tapes and what was he doing with them? We didn't know the answer to those questions that night and we still don't. I'm waiting for Sports Illustrated or another real sports journalism organization to give me the detailed story behind Spygate. Still waiting. As we walked into the game that night we knew the players would be fired up. Say what you will about the video taping and Belichick's ethics or lack of the same. Anyone who watched the Patriots championship teams knows that the reason they won three Super Bowls is simple: Brady, Bruschi, Vrabel, McGinnest, Brown, Law, Dillon, Harrison ... and so on. They had great players. Spygate shed doubt on the accomplishments of that group. Accomplishments achieved through work, work, and more work. As we watched the team on the sideline before the game it was clear to see they were ready to make a statement.

What a statement it was. The Patriots jumped all over the Chargers. Gillette Stadium was rocking. The Pats held a 17-0 lead late in the first half as Philip Rivers tried to rally his team, moving them across midfield. On a third and short he looked to make a quick pass to his right for a first down. He stumbled as he threw and Adalius Thomas stepped in front of it. Thomas raced down the sideline, leaving receivers and running backs in his dust. "Look at the big man go!" bellowed Gil on the radios playing throughout the stadium. Thomas scored to give the Pats a 24-0 lead. He was mobbed by his new teammates. The signing of Thomas looked like it would reap large rewards at that moment. Some things change.

One thing that doesn't change is the players commitment and belief in their coach. It was on full display that night. Many analysts, experts, and columnists predicted the team would collapse, that the players would resent Belichick for giving their Super Bowls a black eye. A reasonable assumption. Unless you've been watching. The leaders of the team -- Bruschi, Harrison, Brady -- are Belichick guys through and through. As the game came to a close one-by-one players came over to their coach and embraced him. Adalius Thomas may have ended up not being a fan of Belichick. But he's among a very small minority.