New England Patriots links 7/04/16 - Rookies report to Gillette Stadium July 24

For your July 4th reading pleasure: The Declaration of Independence. /Enjoy the holiday!

TEAM TALK

• Erik Scalavino and Paul Perillo continue PFW's position-by-position breakdown of the roster: Linebacker and Defensive line.
• Lauren Williams gives us a look at how the Patriots spent the last month, as seen through their very own photos.
• Angelique Fiske notes Logan Ryan is celebrating one year of helping dogs find homes.
• Patriots Top 3 Trick Plays of all time. (1.46 min. video)

LOCAL LINKS

• Mike Reiss shares some quick-hit weekend thoughts: The time Bill Belichick, Buddy Ryan had their teams meet for practice.
• Ben Volin Sunday Football Notes: Why Andrew Luck did more for NFL quarterbacks than Brady, Rodgers, Wilson or Newton.
• Steve Balestrieri (PatsFans) Sunday Patriots news & AFC East notes: Jabaal Sheard, Rob Ninkovich, Chris Long, Trey Flowers and Geneo Grissom give them plenty of options to set the edge, rush the passer or kick inside.
• Jim McBride begins a series that analyzes the Patriots' status at each position: Quarterbacks.
• Mike Reiss wonders which players might catch the Patriots' eye in 2016 joint practices.
• Adam Himmelsbach reports the Celtics pull out the big guns: Tom Brady helped recruit Kevin Durant.
• Juliet Pennington caught up with Rob Gronkowski to talk all things travel: 'I prefer the window with either no one next to me or a friend next to me and falling asleep.'
• Tom E. Curran continues his countdown of the top 100 plays that shaped the Patriots' dynasty: Nos 43-50.
• Christopher Price counts down the 20 most important members of the Patriots heading into 2016: No. 20 Cyrus Jones - No. 19 Matthew Slater.
• Russ Goldman (PatsFans) Patriots Fourth and Two Podcast: Why the Pats will need to create more cap space and how they can do so.
• AP Report - Hall of Fame locker room: A holographic experience.

NATIONAL NEWS

• Jared Dubin (CBS Sports) Danny Amendola compares Patriots offense to driving without street signs.
• Oliver Thomas (247 Sports) Patriots rookies report to Gillette Stadium on July 24.
• John McMullen (Today's Pigskin) Intangibles set Tom Brady apart in Boston.
• Frank Schwab (Yahoo! Sports) Tom Brady's Boston legend grows with Kevin Durant recruitment.
• Alysha Tsuji (USA Today) Tom Brady is at the Boston Celtics’ Kevin Durant pitch meeting. 'Update: If the Celtics don’t wind up getting KD, at least everyone got to meet Tom Brady.'
• Jackson Alexander (ESPN) Patriots' Julian Edelman pitches Boston Celtics to Kevin Durant.
• Jeff Smith (Cheat Sheet) 3 Bold predictions for New England Patriots in 2016.
• Oliver Thomas (247 Sports) Jabaal Sheard graded among NFL's top run-defending edge players.
• Doug Farrar (SI) The NFL’s best slot defenders. No. 5 Patrick Chung.
• Dan Schmelzer (NFL Kickoff) Countdown to kickoff: Profile on Patriots No. 66 Bryan Stork.
• Tyler Dragon (NFL.com) Watch top 5 'fireworks' games on NFL Network on Fourth of July.
• Andrew Bucholtz (Awful Announcing) Amazon’s "All or Nothing" follows ESPN’s OJ doc in attempt to change user habits.
• Josh Alper (ProFootballtalk) Six players declared eligible for supplemental draft.
• Jake Plummer (The MMQB) Guest MMQB: Jake Plummer’s plan to alleviate pain for players.
• Dieter Kurtenbach (Fox Sports) NFL teams need to stop overpaying quarterbacks.
• Michael David Smith (ProFootballTalk) NFL announces 96 classic games to go on YouTube.
• Melissa Jacobs (SI) Week Under Review: Comparing the NFL to the cast of Hamilton.
• Eric Robinson (NFL Mocks) Prediction for each AFC East team.
• Dieter Kurtenbach (Fox Sports) The reasons why NFL players make less than their NBA counterparts.

DEFLATEGATE, DUMPSTER DIVE

• Daniel Wallach (Sports Law Blog) The new Deflategate math at the Second Circuit.
• Michael Hurley out-snarks himself writing this tribute to the NFL commissioner -- a human beacon of integrity -- and how he managed to earn a $32 million salary in 2015.
• MIke Florio (ProFootballTalk) Goodell pay not significantly impacted by #Deflategate, either.
• Josh Alper (ProFootballTalk) NFL still looking into Aqib Talib shooting.
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) NFL dismisses Charles Sly’s recanting of PED allegations.
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) Second painkiller lawsuit survives early effort to end it.
• Bill Reiter (CBS Sports) Celebrating and sharing Johnny Manziel's rise gives us all a role in his collapse. /Uh.. no.