Patriots go for it and Mr. Ellsbury

Attention, if you haven't heard yet, the New England Patriots are going for gold. Having acquired Albert Haynesworth in the morning they went out and stole Chad Ochocinco from the Bengals for two draft picks over the next two years. Everybody is writing/saying that both of these will be just like Corey Dillan/Randy Moss pickups for the Pats. Both will be expected to contribute and keep their attitudes in check (at least for a while) and help the team win a SuperBowl.

Who knows what the new look NFL will be like with salary basements (minimums teams have to spend) and all the player movement still going on. What I would guess though is that if they stay reasonably healthy the Patriots have a good shot at getting very deep in the playoffs.





Switching to the Baseball side of things, Jacoby Ellsbury was written off by many in the media and fanbase last year for being "soft". He suffered through rib injuries all season after colliding with now departed Mike Cameron. Many questioned Ellsbury's toughness. I don't think there is anything you can challenge with a professional athlete that would upset them more. With the arrival of Carl Crawford over the winter, further speculation was that the Sox would deal Ellsbury. Everybody should be glad they didn't. In a few days he will be named AL player of the month (write it down). He is playing as well as anybody in the game including his teammate Dustin Pedroia. Ellsbury has hit .325 so far with 17 homeruns and 60 RBI to go with 29 stolen bases. For July? Just .413, 8 hr, 20 rbi. You'll notice in the banner above on my site I have a picture of Ellsbury. All the pictures in the banner are things I like. I never gave up on Ellsbury, I saw the injuries for what they were, unfortunate. Kind of like every time Mike Greenwell used to get run into by the human injury creator, Ellis Burks. Remember Ellsbury's steal of home against Andy Pettitte and the Yankees a couple years ago? Awesome.