Patriots Flag Football Returns

I'm not going to lie - it was touch and go there for a while. Sponsors were wary andTV ratings were fluctuating. However, after an intense week of negotiations and maybe a few backdoor shenanigans, I'm pleased to announce that Patriots Flag Football is returning for an unprecedented third season.

In what has become something of a tradition here at Pats Pulpit, my fellow contributors and I use the slowest time on the NFL calendar not to take a break from football, get outside and enjoy the weather, and spend time with friends and family, but to draft flag football teams to pit against each other in a hypothetical game to see once and for all who should assume Bill Belichick's throne when he finally decides to hang up the headset. Training camp is getting closer by the day, but it isn't here yet, so what better way to fill the hours than picking teams for a game that will never actually happen and talking all kinds of trash about how much better we are at drafting than everyone else?

The rules are pretty simple: Greg, Rich and I will be drafting members of the New England Patriots as if we were team captains in a 7 v. 7 flag football deathmatch. To keep things fair, Tom Brady will be all-time quarterback, and rookie Dominique Easley will be all-time defense. Everyone else we pick, however, is going to have to play both ways as well as embrace multiple roles. Thus, each selection we make has to take several factors into account: will the player be able to contribute on both offense and defense, does his skillset translate well into flag football (a very, very different game than tackle), how will he match up against other players on other squads, etc. For this game, we're also going to assume that everyone is healthy or has at least rehabbed enough to be a strong contributor should he get picked.

We will be drafting NFL style, with six total rounds, one selection per round. Trading draft picks is allowed, but I assure you we are all far too lazy to take advantage of that. Once each GM has made his selection, he will present it to the community, along with a justification for why he will for sure be losing to me that pick made the most sense at that particular time. Once the teams have been selected, we'll put it to a vote, and it will be up to the Pulpilteers to decide who had the best draft. The first year we ran Patriots Flag Football, I won in a landslide. Last year, however, despite the fact that I clearly had the best team, somehow Greg inexplicably managed to pull ahead and won on a late surge of votes. I have heard from several sources that Greg not only went to every Kinko's in the greater New York area in order to vote for himself on all available computers, but he also got his unruly band of cohorts to vote for him as well by making false promises that he had no intention of keeping. However, since said sources are unreliable and I have no actual proof of Greg's tomfoolery, I have no choice but to give him the nod and accept his title as current champion - for now. Because of that, Greg gets the first pick, followed by me, and then Rich. We'll be drafting over the weekend, and should start posting picks at some point next week.

Enjoy your time at the top, Greg, because it isn't going to last long.