You wouldn't pick him out of a crowd. At 5' 8" tall and tipping the scales at 202 pounds, there are punters and kickers bigger than he is.  A ten year veteran, his wheels aren't what they once were, either.  He has no breakaway speed.  On the street -- heck, on the sideline -- he just isn't all that impressive. 

But give him the ball?  Hold on to your jockstrap if you don't want to lose it.

With both hands.

Kevin Faulk was the 46th overall pick in the New England Patriots' 1999 draft.  It was a long way down.  Faulk was coming off one of the most remarkable college careers the south has ever seen.  A four year starter at LSU, he revived that moribund program in the middle 90's -- a homegrown talent from Carencro, just a few miles up the road from Lafayette.  Faulk was the most sought-after Louisiana schoolboy recruit in a generation.  Electing to stay close to home and don the gold and purple, he led the Tigers to three bowl games.  In the storied history of the SEC, the only back to out-gain him was Herschel Walker.

On draft day, however, he fell to the second round.  Too small, too slow over the open field, he was projected as a third down specialist (accurately, as it turns out).  At the time, no one was going to waste a 1st round draft pick on a third round specialist.  The Patriots scooped him up by trading two picks to Tennessee.  The 1999 draft was one of the strongest in history.  The first round featured Donovan McNabb, Daunte Culpepper, Fernando Bryant, Damien Woody, John Tait, David Boston, Champ Bailey, Tory Holt, Ricky Williams and a guy y'all might know: Edgerrin James.  In terms of production for the dollar, however, no one of those fellas can equal Kevin Faulk.

And he just might be the most "clutch" of the bunch.

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Yep. Right here in River City. Ladies and Gents, SBNation is now a going corporate concern. Welcome to the big time.

Former AOL executive vice president of consumer and publisher services Jim Bankoff has secured a "mid-seven-figure sum" of venture capital for SB Nation, a startup network of sports blogs. We already mentioned this briefly in an earlier post on competitor Bleacher Report raising $3.5 million, but it’s worth taking a closer look.

The round of funding was led by Accel Partners, the Silicon Valley private equity firm best known for its backing of Facebook, and joined by Allen & Co as well as a number of digital media executives and angel investors. SportsBusinessJournal got the scoop and features the complete list of investors.

OK, to be honest I have no idea whether there's an actual incorporation here--though I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least an LLC or something similar.  Nevertheless, without the pun (ok, with it), we are pwned:

SB Nation (short for SportsBlogs Nation) operates with a network model, in which more than 150 local, team-based sites are linked together with a common visual template but remain written and programmed by local writers. Rather than strike affiliate relationships or simply represent sites for national ad sales, Bankoff has structured equity swaps for each of the sites in SB Nation in which the company acquires all the content, URLs and related assets, and the bloggers then share the ad revenue.

Now, about that revenue sharing...

In what I hope will soon be the conventional wisdom of the league (with credit to me, of course), this is the season where mediocrity has become the new parity.

OK, so I'm not the only one who's noticed.

As the Pats and the Colts come back to the rest of the AFC pack, it looks to this fan like the AFC title is truly up for grabs. On a good day, anyone on this side of the aisle can beat anyone else. Most of the time, no team really looks competent in winning, either. A lot of football played this year has been pretty disorganized, error-filled stuff. I really miss the artistry our guys put out last year--that was some beautiful ball, no matter how you felt about the laundry that was pulling it off.

To date, the Titans have been the lone exception. They're whole, and they're the only team who, so far, has been playing with any kind of consistency or conviction from week to week. The loss of Vince Young has been a clear case of addition by subtraction--as was the jettisoning of Pacman (as Dallas duly discovered). I don't usually see the Monday night game--it's past my bedtime and on cable (which requires me to visit a bar and at least nominally patronize it). But I will be making an effort tonight.

(more below the fold)

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For this fan, the defining image of Rodney Harrison will always be a scene from the aftermath of the 2003 AFC Championship.  The Patriots had just defeated the Colts.  Peyton Manning had been picked off 4 times, and  Harrison had led off that string in dramatic fashion.  After the Patriots took the opening lead, the Colts drove the length of the field.  It was beginning to look like the game might be a shootout—not something you wanted to engage the Colts in that year.  But on 3^rd and 5 from the Patriots' five, Rodney stepped in front of a Manning pass in the endzone to snuff the drive.  Manning never found a rhythm after that, and as we all remember, the Pats went on to victory, 24-14.  It was a monster game from the Patriots' defensive backfield, from Eugene Wilson’s crushing hits to Ty Law’s three interceptions.

In the confusion and clamor of the post-game field, NFL Films caught Belichick and Harrison in a celebratory hug.  "Great game, great game," Belichick was saying.  Rodney, eyes red and bathed in emotion, pulled back from his coach and said, "Thank you.  Thank you." 

Not,  "Thank you for the compliments."  Thank you for believing in me.  Thank you for snatching me out of the trash and bringing me here: to New England, to the AFC Championship.  Thank you for putting your defense in my hands.  Thank you for turning me loose.  Thank you for bringing me back to a place I never thought I’d see again, on the doorstep of NFL history. 

For a brief second, the curtains Belichick keeps drawn parted very slightly, and a sliver of the man shone through.  "Thank you," Rodney said.  "You bet," Bill replied, and in the tone of his voice and the look on his face, you could see what makes men into coaches.  In just two words, Belichick was saying: I chose you because I knew you were the vessel I needed.  I always knew it was there and you proved me right.  Don’t thank me.  I’m thanking you.  You are my soldier, you are my safety.  Thank you.

Then the curtain snapped shut: "One more, now."  The Super Bowl, of course. 

And Rodney said, "Yes sir."

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Well no kidding.

The classic broker's warning (PP is NG of FP) works on two scales:  We were great last year, but that's no guarantee of greatness today.  On the other hand, our poor play so far is also no guarantee that we'll be poor all year.  But it won't be easy.

I had no idea Duane Starks had changed his name.  Deltha O'Neal does sound better.

tm from Cleary the Elder, 10:38pm, Sunday

More tasty goodness inside.

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The day started off poorly for the Patriots, with two good returns wasted. The first drive went three and out.  After the defense earned a punt from Miami, the offense gave it right back. In the second start of his career, Cassel showed poor pocket awareness and bad decision-making, forcing a terrible interception on a screen pass -- a gift to Dolphins defensive end Randy Starks that hit him in the belly. Miami took the invitation and went 74 yards on 8 plays, capping their drive with a gadget-play TD run.  With quarterback Chad Pennington lined up in the slot, Ronnie Brown took a direct snap, faked an end-around hand-off to Ricky Williams and followed his pulling guard into the endzone, untouched.  Dolphins 7, Pats 0.

It was a harbinger of things to come.  Game summary and open post-game thread over the jump.

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The Patriots and the Jets will renew their rivalry this weekend in the Meadowlands, with a late afternoon tilt.  You may have heard that New Jersey has added a certain gunslinging geriatric who, nevertheless, can still wing it with the best young guns in the league.  Since everyone already knows about him and what he can do, I'm going to focus on some of the other sub-plots in this drama.

This rivalry used to have more of a family picnic feel to it--at least among the fandom--as the legacy of the old AFL fostered some solidarity.  With Namath, the Jets struck the first blow against big brother, and the intervening years saw the shared misery of mediocrity (and worse).  No more.

As we will be constantly reminded this week, the Tuna made great waves, first by raising the Patriots from Patsies, then shopping himself down I-95 when he should have been preparing for the Favre-led Packers (one of Brett's two wins v. NE).  That lit the fuse and the intervening years have been a pitched battle for AFC East dominance.

Although the Patriots have had the upper hand of late, rarely have we been able to take the Jets for granted.  When we lost the back end of the yearly series in 2006, there were even rumblings that Belichick had been outcoached by his protege.  It was not a pretty sight, as the Patriots were outplayed on both sides of the ball.  The Jets were no match for New England last year, but with our key man down they look to regain the advantage, starting this Sunday.  Here are some guys in green to keep your eyes on:

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Legends of the Game: In Trading Places, Jim McCabe takes a longer look at the many greats who refused to fade away on the team where they made their name and took the show on the road. Favre certainly isn't the first.

Uncomfortably intimate:

"It's a different feel with different quarterbacks," said the Patriots' Pro Bowl center. "It's kind of hard to explain. It definitely feels different when you're rotating guys in there, but if you work enough with a guy, ... you just get comfortable."

Too much?

Chris Gasper notes the importance of the running game this week--especially considering that the Jets picked up big ol' Kris Jenkins from Carolina in the off season.  At 6-4, 350, he's going to absorb some pounding and pose a big challenge to the Patriots still-struggling offensive line.

Phil Simms chimes in on Pats v. Jets, while in the locker-room it's Jeff Hostetler with a relevant take for Matt Cassel, who gives the first extended interview of his career. Both in Reiss' Pieces.

ProJo's Shalise Manza Young has put that interview with Cassel into a nicely digestible column.

Former and current teammates step up to the plate to assure Chris Gasper that Randy Moss will continue to be a positive force on the field and in the locker room. Still, the piece has a "definite-maybe" feel to it.

"You know, they just don't stop having the mafia down in Providence." They've come up with a thumbnail game preview, which I'm "compelled" to say is worth checking out. We'll have our own "what to watch for" segment later. Karen Guregian paints a rosy picture of Matt Cassel's reception by the team.

Adalius Thomas has a lot in common with Bret Favre:

"We went to the same school, had the same agent (James ‘Bus’ Cook), yeah, I know Brett pretty good," said Thomas. "I saw him in the offseason a couple of times. We were actually at Disney World with our kids at the same time and I saw him, about the time he announced his retirement."

I hope they get a lot of time together on Sunday.

Newsday's Bob Glauber has his own rehash of the "Cassel is ok" meme.

Peter King picks your Patriots to win this weekend--barely.  Dr. Z drops them only one slot in his power rankings--from1 to 2.  He's big on the proof of head-to-head matchups.  And Don Banks believes Brady will continue to have a significant impact as Cassel's study partner.  How long before the question, "Is the continuing tizzy about Brady starting to piss you off?" is asked and answered by Cassel, "Yes, I've been out of diapers for some time, and can actually wash and dress myself in the morning--all by my big self."

Ross Tucker, basing his knowledge of Matt Cassel on one 2 minute drill, thinks the Patriots will win about half of their games. You have to wonder...how some people get paid.  It's not just that I disagree with him; it's that his column is basically mental diarreha, recorded.  There are lots of ex-players out there writing.  Not many of them are working at becoming writers, though.

News from New Jersey:

Mike Lombardi at the National Football Post claims the Jets are locked in, moneywise:

The Jets are win at all costs this year -— all costs.  If this team does well, they will all be back.  If the Jets don’t do well, guess what?  They will all still be back.  They are in cap hell based on the guarantees.

Laveraneus Coles is still moping about having a Bret instead of a Chad.  The Bergen Record sings along, with a similar story.

Justin Terranova with a throwaway piece on raised expectations in greenland.

Ian O'Connor of the Bergen Record takes what is sadly becoming a broken record and plays it well, with a column on the physical travails of former Jet standout Wesley Walker:

Wide awake at 3 a.m., his battered 53-year-old body raging against the hits taken and the needles absorbed over 13 years with the Jets, Walker often asks his maker for relief that never comes. Devastating NFL injuries were all over the news this week, from Tom Brady’s to Shawne Merriman’s, reminding that generations of predecessors are out there suffering in relative silence, men who played a game packaged and promoted as a simulated exercise in war.

I remember watching WW as a kid.  How many of our childhood heroes are out there right now, like this?  It's like Superman has gone homeless, huddled on a park bench somewhere, wrapping himself in a road-stained cape.  The League and the PA need to step up and fix this.  The money's there--it's the will that's lacking.  Shame.

The Pats will be sure to challenge rookie corner Dwight Lowery on Sunday.  After reading this article, it sounds to me like the serious, studious Lowery might've made a decent New Englander. 

Oh well, maybe we'll pick him up when he's ready to win a championship.

Sorry for the late post--we had a last-minute situation on the editorial end of things today.

So, I guess people thought pretty highly of this Brady kid, eh?

The gnashing of the teeth and wringing of hands in Patriots media-land just won't seem to stop. Yesterday's slop-fest of overwrought emotionalism included a parade of luminaries: Dan Shaugnessy and Bill Simmons each wallowed in veritable pig-sties of hair-tearing self-flagellation.  Shaugnessy in particular seems to enjoy this type of thing--it's given him column material for at least the next three months.

Simmons, on the other hand, proves what can happen to a New England sports fan when he moves to LA, gets paid and starts getting mixed up in fantasy football, acting like a junkie who lost his needles.  Embarrassing.

Most of the rest of the world has moved on--just like the team, by way--looking forward to both this Sunday's tilt with the New Jersey Favres and the divisional implications of a now seemingly assailable Patriot team.

So, if you're not satisfied by MaPatsFan's analysis of Bill Belichick, or my take on what the new-QB Patriots will offer for the next months, and need to have it verified by "real" sportswriters who get "paid" for their work, you can check it out here:

Close to home, ever-reliable Mike Reiss takes a look at the coming Cassel interregnum through the eyes of Doug Flutie.  Flutie thinks Cassel has all the tools, but notes that the learning curve from practice field to Sunday stadium is a steep one:

"That is a huge part of their offense, a huge part of football today, and Tom always amazed me with that - making the calls to pick up blitzes," Flutie said. "The speed in which you recognize and change protections and get the offense into the right play is very important.

"Matt gets all that, he understands how to do it, but the thing is [getting the repetitions], and being in that position when that play clock is ticking down. The more you do it, the more comfortable you get. That was frustrating for me when I came to the Patriots. I remember staying late, especially during training camp, to walk through mentally on my own."

Reiss talked to Flutie and Dan Reeves for that piece.  Karen Guregian talked to just about everybody else, including Jim Miller, Matt Light, Logan Mankins and Pete Brock (!) and came to the same conclusions:  The Patriots offense is what it is.  Different every week.  Cassel will run it--though perhaps with less aplomb than Brady.

Reiss and Chris Gasper team up in Notes to celebrate the return of both Kevin Faulk and the Champions Belt the d-line award internally for superior play.  Also: Mayo is making an impact:

The 10th overall selection in the NFL draft went wire to wire at the weak-side inside linebacker spot in the 3-4 alignment while also staying on the field in sub packages.

He finished with six solo tackles and received positive reviews from coach Bill Belichick.

By unofficial count, he was the only defender to play every snap.

The Herald reports (along with several others -- many others in fact) that Vegas has dissed the Pats chances in the wake of ACL-gate.  Vegas must read ESPN, since the worldwide leader dropped the Pats from 1st to 9th in their power rankings.

Also at the Herald, John Tommasse points out the need for the defense to step it up:

Give credit to defensive end Richard Seymour [stats], who noted Monday that the Pats defense made Brady’s job a lot easier in 2001. That defense is pretty solid again in 2008.

Whether it’s championship-caliber remains to be seen, with lack of depth in the secondary a particular concern, but they’re going to do their best for Cassel.

In case you're having trouble sussing out the implications for the rest of the league and our team, not to mention world peace and the national elections, Don Banks has a run-down of the obvious.

This week I'm enjoying the Tuesday edition of Peter King's MMQB for all the reasons I usually can't stand it: specious and/or superficially positive arguments about a particular team--in this case, the Patriots.  PS: Peter, stop reading my stuff:

 Will Randy Moss go in the tank now that his sensei, Brady, is gone? Very important question. Brady raved to me in August about the player and leader and worker Moss has been with the Patriots. My guess is Moss will see this as a time to mirror what Brady would have been had he been playing, and work as hard as he's been, and pump up Cassel and take on the attitude Belichick pounds into his team -- that you've got to have the next-guy-up philosophy when you play on a Belichick team.

Seemingly the sole voice of reason in medialand is that of Chad Finn at the Globe who writes:

The Patriots, even without the best player in the NFL, are still going to be a tremendous football team this season. They may not light up the scoreboard, and they may not dominate from the first minute to the 60th, but more often than not - much more often than not - they will win.

Shots from New Jersey:

From the land of the bookie comes these nuggets wisdom:

"Brady's injury is worth about a full touchdown," Gardner said. "For a line to move that way on one player's injury is really unheard of. It really is that big a deal."

Gardner said before the Brady injury, on the future market the Patriots were a 7-2 favorite to win the Super Bowl and the Jets were 25-1. Now, he said, the Patriots are 20-1 and the Jets are 15-1.

"On a neutral field, the teams would be about equal," he said. "There are a number of things that impact the line. Most of the time, you try to get into the psyche of the bettors. The sports fan out there is going to say that Cassel did nothing to impress them and then you've got the mojo that is Brett Favre."

Apparently Curt Schilling gets under everyone's skin--in this case Jets fans, with a predicted Patriot win on Sunday.

Gang Green Nation is up and already getting buzzed by equal-opportunity shit-stirrer finsxfactor. Pay a visit; represent with dignity and intelligence.

The Bergen Record anticipates a physical game:

Pace, Jenkins and the rest of the Jets will have to set the tempo again Sunday when they face New England and untested fourth-year quarterback Matt Cassel, who will be making his first start since high school. The Patriots certainly will try to pound the Jets on the ground with Laurence Maroney and Sammy Morris (and maybe even former Jet LaMont Jordan), and the Jets’ defense must again be ready for smashmouth tactics.

In other news, Shawne Merriman has reconsidered his choice to play and will go get that surgery.  I blame myself.