Tom Brady is to skip offseason workouts for boxing training

According to latest reports, the New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady is not going to attend the team’s voluntary offseason program as he will be busy with some other jobs like boxing and visiting families.


On Saturday, pictures emerged of Brady training at a Beverly Hills boxing gym, the Boston Globe reports, via the blog Faded Youth. However, Brady isn’t training to take on Manny Pacquiao. He’s adopting the Chad Ochocinco program for offseason conditioning, working on his footwork and hand-eye coordination in the boxing ring. All of these seem necessary to the quarterback, who is still recovering from multiple injuries.

Besides, Brady is also reported to visit wife Gisele Bundchen’s family in Brail to show the newly born boy. Well, it’s just reasonable for the new farther to miss team works to enjoy such kind of family life. Just hope that he would wear back his Patriots jersey in time for preparation for the new season.

Faulk re-signed with Patriots with plan to retire as a Patriot

Having spent the entire of his 11-year career with the New England Patriots, running back Kevin Faulk thinks that he should just begin and end his NFL career both as a Patriot, just like All-Star shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, who chose to re-join the Boston Red Sox, the team drafted him in 1994 be he retired the next day. So, Faulk decided to re-sign with the Patriots.


“I might have left and gone and it might have been successful, but it wouldn’t have been the same if I would have been here doing it,” Faulk said Thursday in a conference call with reporters, a day after Garciaparra made his awkward, one-day return to the Red Sox for the purpose of announcing his retirement. “What happened with Nomar Garciaparra—it’s great he came back and retired a Red Sox, but at the same time if he would have done it here it would have even been better.”

Being picked by the Patriots as a second-round draft choice in 1999, Faulk became an unrestricted free agent earlier this month. He is the longest-tenured member of the Patriots and played in all the Patriots’ three Super Bowl victories along with Tom Brady, Matt Light and Stephen Neal. His numbers in last season included 335 rushing yards, 37 pass catches for 301 yards and 3 touchdowns. Since putting on the Patriots jersey, he has totally had 3,505 yards rushing and 418 receptions for 3,605 yards along with returned kicks and punts.

Pro Bowl NT Wilfork gets franchise tag from Patriots

As negotiation on a long-term contract is still going on and there are only two days left for deadline to designate franchise and transition players, the New England Patriots and nose tackle Vince Wilfork comprise to a franchise tag that will keep Wilfork with Patriots for one year.


“A long-term agreement with Vince Wilfork has been the team’s top contractual priority for some time,” the Patriots said in a statement. “Unfortunately, despite numerous conversations and proposals, the goal has not yet been realized. Vince is a tremendous player for our team and remains a significant part of our future plans.”

Actually the tag Patriots placed on Wilfork is a non-exclusive tag that gives the Patriots the right to match any other team’s offer or let Wilfork go for two first-round draft picks. But this kind of tag will also cause the Patriots to pay Wilfork $7 million for 2011 season if a long-term deal is still not reached by then.

Wilfork said last month that he would rather take off Patriots jersey to leave than remain a Patriot with a franchise tag, but his tone changed Monday, saying that the tag is applied for its true purpose. The true purpose refers to the purpose of allowing more time for both sides to continue negotiations about a long-term contract.

Rumors about Patriots planning to trade two-time Pro Bowl LB Thomas

The New England Patriots did not use the two-time Pro Bowler linebacker Adalius Thomas in last Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans although the linebacker was healthy enough to play a full game. Thomas’ being inactive caused a lot to guess the Patriots might have plan to trade him.


Thomas wasn't even at the stadium on Sunday although he was not hurt and it was the first time he's been a healthy scratch since he joined the NFl by putting on the Baltimore Ravens jersey as a rookie in 2000. It really looked like the Patriots treated the linebacker as an irrelevant player and a trade would be welcomed.

NFL Network analyst Deion Sanders told viewers of NFL Game Day on Sunday that the upset Thomas will work it out about his role in the Patriots with Coach Bill Belichick soon. And Belichick has said that Thomas, who was signed by the Patriots two years ago with a $35 million deal, did not play because of lacking performance.

We should not put all blame on Brady for Patriots’ lackluster 3-2 start

With quarterback Tom Brady returning from knee surgery and wearing back his No.12 Patriots jersey, the New England Patriots still failed to become one of the unbeaten teams, and after the 20-17 loss to the Denver Broncos, it seemed that Brady became the 2009 poster boy for the team’s lackluster 3-2 start. He has been blamed for not playing at pre-surgery level.


But what the Patriots are lacking is more than a perfect Brady. The defense lacks a vocal leader after the retirements of Rodney Harrison and Tedy Bruschi, and the offense lacks a reliable third receiver. What is more, the play-calling has become more predictable to the Broncos, whose head coach Josh McDaniels was formerly Patriots offensive coordinator. As everyone counted on Brady to perform his best, the quarterback is also counting on everyone to do their job at certain level.

Brady, the 2007 NFL MVP, simply has not regained his form after the knee injury, which ended his 2008 season in the first game. Although he is healthy enough to play after surgery, it just takes time for him to reach the pre-surgery level. It takes time for the body to react in the same way before it got hit.

NFL will not fine Ravens players for sharp words against Tom Brady

The NFL executive Ray Anderson had made the decision on Tuesday not to fine the Baltimore Ravens inside linebacker Ray Lewis and Ed Reed after the two had some sharp words against New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.


In the wake of Baltimore's 27-21 loss at New England, Lewis and Reed, the leaders of the Ravens' defense felt that the Patriots signal-caller got special treatment and had some sharp words while questioning roughing the passer calls against Tom Brady.

No matter how controversial the decision not to fine is, it is glad to see the league make a good move with the non-fine. Anyway, Lewis and Reed were just expressing their frustrations from another close loss to the Patriots. Please understand, for the Ravens has never won over the Patriots in NFL history.

Former Patriots RB John M. Stephens was killed in single-vehicle accident

The 1988 Offensive Rookie of the Year for the New England Patriots John M. Stephens was unfortunately killed in a single-vehicle accident after he lost control of his pickup truck and ran off a highway, striking some trees head-on.


According to the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s office, Stephens wasn’t wearing a seatbelt while traveling at a high rate of speed and was thrown after the truck hit the trees. The only thing could be said as lucky was that no one else was killed or injured in the crash.

The death of the former NFL player was said to be a sad loss. Being selected 17th in the 1988 NFL Draft, Stephens reached the Pro-Bowl as a rookie with 1,168 yards of running. He played the first four seasons with the Patriots and split another two seasons with the Green Bay Packers, the Atlanta Falcons and the Kansas City Chiefs before he retired with 440 career yards and 18 touchdowns.

He also broke the school’s career rushing record previously set by Joe Delaney, topping it by 10 yards with 3,057, and became the school’s second running back who went on to be Rookie of the Year winners after Delaney.

Former NFL player pleaded guilty to raping girl student

Daniel Villa, 44-year-old, spent six year in the NLF and played six seasons for the New England Patriots. The former NFL lineman was sentenced to two years in jail on Wednesday. He has pleaded guilty to raping a 15-year-old girl who attended the high school where he was a football coach.


According to prosecutors, Villa sent the girl text messages after committing the crime and was arrested in December last year.

Villa said that he pleaded guilty because he was “thirsty for a clear conscience” and wanted to avoid further pain to the victim and her family. Norfolk Superior Court sentenced him to seven years of probation after he pleaded guilty. The court also banned him from working with children under 16 years old and ordered him to register as a sex offender.

Tom Brady gets ready for better performance

For the New England Patriots, it is really important to have quarterback Tom Brady play in his top form. As for Brady himself, the NFL’s 2007 MVP is working his best to correct mistakes like the one he made in the 7-6 preseason loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.


“If I make a poor play, I never have thought, ‘Well, I wonder if it was because of my injury last year?”’ Brady said Tuesday. “I think, ‘Well, I’ve got to make improvements,’ just like every year where things don’t really go your way.”

Brady unfortunately tore the left knee in the first quarter of last year’s regular-season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs. That rarely happened-his presence was automatic for seven seasons after he joined the NFL. So this year he did not want miss another season. He has participated in every practice and walkthrough in training camp. By so far he has played a total of three quarters in the first two exhibition games and is ready to play more in Friday night’s exhibition against the Washington Redskins.

Patriots signed DE Burgess from the Raiders

The New England Patriots made an announcement on Thursday that they have signed defensive end Derrick Burgess by a trade with the Oakland Raiders. In a recent statement, the Patriots said that they will give the Raiders“undisclosed draft considerations” after the signing.


Burgess will be 31 years old next week. He has spent eight years in the NFL. His first four seasons was spent with the Philadelphia Eagles. He joined the Oakland Raiders in 2005 as an unrestricted free agent.

In 2005, Burgess made an NFL record of 16 sacks and earned the first of two spots in the Pro Bowl. But he was placed on the ‘Did Not Report’ list before the trade because he did not appear at the Raiders’ pre-season training camp.