Tedy Bruschi Will Retire From The New England Patriots

Al Michaels just announced on NBC's Sunday Night Football telecast that New England Patriots LB Tedy Bruschi will announce his retirement tomorrow.

New NBC analyst Rodney Harrison, a former Patriots safety who also retired this off season, had this to say about Bruschi on the telecast: "A terrific football player, a great friend of mine, one of the hardest-working guys that I've ever been around, a tremendous leader in that locker room, a guy that was an integral part of that 2003-2004 Super Bowl run that we had."

These are all true things about this intense leader on the football field. A true player to admire - a play maker.

However, in my humble opinion the New England Patriots will be better off with out him from this point forward. And the only reason I believe that is his age and thus lack of strength, and speed. Even the most intelligent player in the world can only play for so long.

As for character and class - no player shows more. Always have my respect because of his character and class - he will.

Lets hope more leaders like him rise up to improve this season for Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

But missed in the locker room he will be!!

The New Englan Pat's Looking A Little Better

The New England Patriots and Tom Brady played a tough team Friday night. The offense as usual looked proficient and were able to almost move the ball down the field at will with Tom Brady steering the ship. Although he did look less comfortable to me in the pocket then he usually does. And after the big hit he took - who knows?

The Patriots defense looked a little better than I expected against a really solid Redskins team. But the Redskins were not sharp and did not execute well racking up several penaltys, missing passes and some other miscues.

In order for the Patriots to win the Superbowl, their Defense has to be able to shut teams down, not merely confuse them. Because eventually the Patriots in the playoffs will run into a team that will all but shut them down like the Giants did in the Superbowl last year.

Just some food for thought.

Penn State Should Be 3-0 No Problem

The First Three games of the Penn State Football season should be relatively easy games for the Lions and Joe Paterno. After that however, nothing is for certain.

The Big 10 conference is no longer a 3 or 4 team show. Teams who were once inferior year after year like Illinois are now anything but walk overs and can on any given day surprise what appears to a much stronger opponent. Lucky for the Lions their veteran coach is fully aware of this fact - but he was last year also at Iowa.

All this being said, the schedule looks very promising for Penn State especially because they are playing Ohio State in PA!!!

But if they do run the table, will they be ready for other conferences? Could they stop the likes of a Tim Tebow? At this point I don't think they can, but first things indeed remain FIRST - win the big 10!!!!!

Penn State Football Schedule

September 5	Akron	Home	12:00 p.m.
September 12	Syracuse	Home	12:00 p.m.
September 19	Temple	Home	12:00 p.m.
September 26	Iowa	Home	8:00 p.m.
October 3	Illinois	Away
October 10	Eastern Illinois	Home
October 17	Minnesota(2)	Home	3:30 p.m.
October 24	Michigan	Away
October 31	Northwestern	Away	4:30 p.m.
November 7	Ohio State	Home
November 14	Indiana	Home
November 21	Michigan State	Away

Still Concerned About the Patriost Defense.

Pre- season football is nothing like the regular season, but I'm still concerned about the New England Patriots Defense. The Bengals are hardly a great offensive team and yet they were anything but "shut down"

The score looked impressive for the New England defense, but the Bengals had several impressive offensive plays. Hopefully I'm just getting too excited too soon!!

Tom Brady and the New England offense also showed they once again could move the ball and they did that. I thought the play calling was fantastic against a quick defense like the Bengals.

But once again, it's only preseason.

Tedy Bruschi Returns - Good or Bad?

Absent since the first practice of camp at the end of last month, linebacker Tedy Bruschi returned to action Sunday afternoon.

“It was just … you get a little bit older and you’ve gotta mend some aches and some pains. That’s why it took longer for me to get out here,” the 14-year veteran explained to reporters after practice.

I love the plays Tedy USED to make. I just think he is too old now to dominate the game and as much as I like him believe the New England Patriots would be better off without him. The game requires more than intelligence at a linebacker position.

But for the Patriots sake, I hope I'm wrong and I hope he will have the best season he ever had!!!

Bad News For Penn State

I was worried about their defense before this!!!!!

Late last week, Penn State head coach Joe Paterno told reporters his football team was in good health as the first weekend of August camp approached.

Then came Sunday's scrimmage and promising sophomore linebacker Mike Mauti ripped up a knee. Penn State athletics released a small statement on Mauti's injury on its football website, gopsf.com, announcing Mauti had torn the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in one of his knees. He will undergo surgery shortly and the expected rehab time is nine months.

Mauti played as a true freshman last year and can redshirt in 2009.

Mauti's loss is huge. He was Penn State's best young linebacker and was pushing for a starting spot. Mauti has the size (6-2, 230) to play inside or outside but was ideally suited to play outside.

With Mauti out, PSU's starting linebacker trio is Sean Lee, Navorro Bowman and Josh Hull. Another young linebacker to watch is Nate Stupar.

Tom Brady CLearly Needs Some Work

Tom Brady Clearly Needs some football work though he readily acknowledge it after the first preseason game against a good Eagles team.

I'm just glad he played. I did not expect to see him at all to be honest and if he played I only expected one series. So I was happy to see him get so much work. It will make him ready for the regular season.

He did not look like the calm, cool and collected Tom Brady we are used to seeing, but once again he admits to being "nervous".

I'm very excited about Michael Vick joining the Eagles who I also like very much. As I stated before Andy Reid is one if not thee best coach in the league.

If he had a Tom Brady, he would have at least 2 Superbowl rings by now and maybe 4.

As usual my concern for the Patriots is their defense. I'm sure if he stays healthy that Tom Brady will be fine by the regular season..

Will Tom Brady Play VS The Eagles?

Don't expect to see much of Tom Brady against the Eagles in the preseason opener. And if you miss the first Patriots offensive drive, you might not see him at all.

Even though he is full of fire, I don' think he will play more than one series so that he does not get hurt. The again, with Bill Billichech, who knows? But Bill said that there is no time line for Tom Brady. So we shall see.

Tom Brady Jogs Onto The Field Again

A thick, black brace hugging his surgically repaired left knee, Tom Brady jogged toward the 15-yard line to take part in individual drills. And the crowd erupted.

The Patriots quarterback offered a quick wave, his subtle gesture acknowledging at 9:57 a.m. yesterday what the 4,024 in attendance at Gillette Stadium’s upper practice fields came to see.

Two years after his record-setting offensive show and a perfect regular season, and less than one year after tearing knee ligaments in the team’s opening game, Brady was back leading the Pats. To teammates, nothing had changed besides the calendar.

Although Brady has appeared at mini camps and other organized activities this off season, teammates saw him in full pads for the first time in just less than a year. If the Michigan product was trying to make a renewed impression, consider it done.

Late into the morning practice, as sun turned into a downpour, Brady never relented.

With 14 days until the preseason opener against the Eagles, Belichick said there is no schedule for Brady and cautioned the QB may need an acclimation period. That may have been evident in the afternoon, when he under threw several deep passes.

“The lag time between passing camp and training camp, it takes everyone a while to get to where they want to be,” Belichick said.

Don’t tell that to Brady or his teammates, though.

What to learn how to compete? Watch Tom Brady and the Patriots!!!