The David who was a Goliath

The Ed Westfall of the New England Patriots retired today.

Wide receiver David Patten reduced the logjam at the position just a bit by deciding he had played his last game. That's good for a young WR like Matthew Slater. But it's a bit of a bummer for a fan. Patten has always been a clutch player. Hopefully Tory Holt will be 2010's David Patten. He's going to have to make some memorable plays to qualify. Patten was the quiet guy who always had a smile on his face and always made the big play. Like Easy Eddie Westfall, you could count on Patten to be there when it mattered.

Most fans will remember Patten's almost identical touchdown catches in both the AFC title game against the Steelers and the Super Bowl against the Rams in 2001. I'm not sure there is a bigger catch in Patriot history than either of those. The images of Patten leaving his feet and coming down with the ball in the corner of the end zone -- twice -- in the biggest games in team history are everlasting. But Patten had many other great moments.

He was everywhere in the Snow Bowl game against the Raiders, catching eight passes for just over 100 yards in conditions that made simply running difficult. I don't know what his yards-after-catch were, but it was probably more than 20 and that's amazing in that weather. Earlier that season he had a game like few other players in the history of the NFL.

The 2-3 Patriots went into Indy in October and put a 38-17 beating on them. It was the game that gave Brady and the team a look at just how good they could be. They lost only two games the rest of the season. In the rout of the Colts, Patten ran the ball in for a 29-yard touchdown, then caught a 91-yard touchdown pass from Brady, and then completed the trifecta by throwing -- throwing -- a 60-yard pass to Troy Brown on the option pass. He ran for a TD, caught a TD, and threw a TD. Few Patriots have had a greater single game.

The accomplishment Patten has that no other player in the history of the league has? Catching a ball while technically being unconscious. The 8-5 and suddenly playoff hopeful Patriots went into Buffalo in December needing to beat the woeful Bills. Instead the Pats found themselves in overtime tied 9-9. It was an ugly game. But David Patten probably doesn't remember it. Late in overtime, the Pats desperate for a score, Brady threw a deep sideline pass to Patten. He caught the ball just as he was hammered by a Bills defender. An unconscious Patten fell to the ground, the ball rolling off his body and onto the field where a Bills player recovered it. It looked like the Pats were going to get stuck with a tie at best. Maybe a loss. But the refs ruled that while the ball was still touching Patten, his unconscious head touched out of bounds, thus making it a dead ball (how appropriate). The Patriots kept the ball, kicked the winning field goal a few plays later, and went on to win the division and move into the playoffs where they won it all. It was one of those moments in that year where you realized the breaks that went against the Patriots for so long were starting to go their way.

Patten is one of the players that made the Patriots such an easy team to root for, such a fun team to root for. He was a true underdog. After a great college career he kicked around doing odds jobs before playing in the Arena Football League. He made enough plays in the AFL to attract attention from the NY Giants. He joined the Patriots in 2001 and made play after play in that improbable season, which was fitting because his was an improbable career. One that he always played with a smile on his face.