Long time New England Patriots fans are dumbfounded to learn that Mike Patrick, former punter for the team, has died early this week at the age of 55. Official sources within the New England Patriots have reported that Patrick passed away peacefully on Sunday, surrounded by family and close friends in his Biloxi, Mississipi hometown. His cause of death was not known at this time. Patrick’s professional career as a New England Patriots punter began early 1975 when he was signed on as a free rookie agent, and lasted till the year 1978, amounting to a grand total of four seasons. He was a commendable player with great talents and a wholesome personality, and was ranked fifth in the Patriots’ list of great punters. His record was 8481 yards performed on 225 attempts spanning 43 career games.

Fans and former New England Patriots team mates are expected to attend his funeral service this Wednesday.

The New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli will be in their ninth NFL Draft weekend since they took over the coaching reins in 2000 and this will be the 73^rd draft for the league. The Patriots have so far selected 70 players in the Draft since 2000, much to the delight of the fans, and have chosen players in all the different positions except the punter position. There are a few spots on the Patriots side that the two coaching staffs’ feels that needs a look in and they might be able to do so during this weekend’s NFL draft.

The Pats coach Belichick feels that this year’s NFL Draft will not be an exciting one as there is no clear-cut number one player at the draft. The first round picks to the New England Patriots team during the NFL Draft were running back Leonard Russell and offensive tackle Pat Harlow. There are no superstars to be picked during this weekend’s NFL Draft

The New England Patriots have just signed on senior punter Scott Player and the contract will be effective from May 1. No official announcements have been made regarding the terms and conditions of the contract, including how much it took for Player to join the New England Patriots. Before the announcement was made, Player and his agent, Vann McElroy were seen visiting the Gillette Stadium, home to the Patriots. Prior to this, the 38 year old Player was a free agent. He worked hard to establish his 10-year career in the NFL in which nine years were spent as a member of the Cardinals and the rest with the Cleveland Browns.Previously just mere weeks ago, the Patriots have awarded similar contract to linebacker Victor Hobson. This is in tune with the New England Patriots’ goal of acquiring fresh blood as their talents have begun to be quite advanced in age as time goes by.

The New England Patriots are having one of the toughest schedules of the 2008 season that has frequent road games which includes regular back to back West Coast tours and also have several prime time games. The Pats are slated to open the season with a home game against the Kansas City and their owner Robert Kraft who wished the same would be in cloud nine after hearing the team’s schedule. The Pats get their week off quite early in the tournament, in fact in the first month of the tournament.

The month of October is reserved for road games as the Pats head westwards to play games in San Francisco, San Diego and finally will visit the Colts. In between these games they play St. Louis Ram in their hometown. The Pats will not be playing at home during the holiday season of December and the faithful Patriot fans are really upset that their team will not be playing in front of them during the holiday season.  

For the third year in a row, the New England Patriots’ player Tedy Bruschi will support his very own Tedy’s Team of runners in the Boston Marathon. He was the Patriots’ linebacker who gained stardom after being a resilient stroke survivor.

Known fondly as Tedy by both fans and team mates, he is confident that his runners will meet their goal to finish the 2.6 mile run and at the same time, raise awareness about being a stroke survivor. An enthusiastic Tedy will be tracking their progress via the Internet and adds that “We have goals, from three-and-a-half hours all the way to completion. We’ve stayed out there until they were breaking down the stands. I’ll just be very supportive that day.”

Tedy’s Team was created to create more stroke awareness amongst the public and he hopes to make a difference although he is not confident that he will be able to run another marathon. He was at Foxborough training for the 2008 for the past three weeks and participated in the Patriots’ offseason strength and conditioning program.

The Nashville City paper have come out with the story that the New England Patriots are interested in acquiring Adam “Pacman” Jones from the Tennessee Titans.

This came about recently with the celebration of Pacman Jones’ one-year suspension anniversary has passed. According to the paper, they reported that the Patriots have secretly contacted the Titans and are in hush hush discussions to get Pacman to join their team. Formal negotiations have yet to materialize but Pacman is said to be eager to be part of the Patriots.

The claim came after the Patriots’ agent Manny Arora casually mentioned that the Patriots might be interested in getting Pacman but ex-Patriot reporter Albert “Einstein” Breer hastily reported that the Patriots will not pursue this interest. Although Pacman is a talented cornerback, he was nonetheless banished from the NFL after a series of incidents that include “unsatisfactory conduct away from the field”.

Free agent Victor Hobson was signed in today by the New England Patriots. The head coach of the team Bill Belichick said that Victor is a young player and has considerable experience in the field and the team is enthusiastic about his inclusion.

Victor has played a total of five NFL seasons. He has been with the New York Jets from 2003-2007. He has so far played in a total of 76 career matches with 58 starts. He has totaled 343 tackles, nine passes, three fumble recoveries, 11 sacks, two forced fumbles, and three interceptions. In the last season with his previous team he started as linebacker in a total of 14 games and totaled 62 tackles. His contribution also included two sacks for a total of 21 yards.

 He was drafted by New York Jets at the second round in the 2003 NFL draft. He made one start and totaled 50 tackles as a rookie in 2003. In 2004 Hobson started 11 of the total of 12 games that he played. In 2006 he totaled a career best 100 tackles.

As the New England Patriots preseason opponents were announced, the fans were thrilled to hear that they will be able to see a rematch of the Super Bowl XLII game against the New York Giants sometime in August in East Rutherford, N.J, as the date for the match is yet to be announced. The Patriots will also be taking on Tampa Bay on August 17th that will be televised live throughout the nation through the NFL network. The Patriots will be first in action against the Baltimore Ravens at their home turf Gillette Stadium during the first week of the preseason on August 7-11.

The Patriots after playing their second week game against the Tampa Bay will take on Philadelphia Eagles in their third week preseason game from August 21-25 in Foxborough. Finally, they will be playing their revenge games against the giants on August 28-29. The timing and the specific match dates except the one against Baltimore Ravens is yet to be announced.