The New England Patriots dream of making it to the NFL final stages this season received a very early jolt as the team lost their opening exhibition game against the Baltimore Ravens at the Gillette Stadium last Thursday night. Tom Brady, their in form player, was not able to play in the 16-15 loss game to the Baltimore Ravens. It was the rookie players like O’Connell who outclassed the experienced players of the Patriots tam on Thursday and the Patriots will have to get their act very quickly in order to feel confident entering into the new season. The Patriots fans who had already bought tickets to the season opener game are a disappointed lot after this defeat. 

The New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison, who will be featuring in his seventh NFL season for the Patriots this year, has been taken off from the physically unable to perform list and has joined his patriot teammates during the evening practice session on Tuesday. Harrison was pretty happy to be in the thick of things again and is hoping to make it big this time around. Rodney Harrison played college football for the Western Illinois University for three years from 1991 to 1993 and has recorded a career high of 345 tackles. His NFL career began with San Diego Chargers in the year 1994 and was with the team till 2002. Then he was traded to New England Patriots and proved his worth in the year 2004. The Patriots fans are rushing to book their tickets in advance in a bid to watch this safety in action.

Joey Porter, who is a linebacker with the Miami Dolphins, have gone public with his claims that the Patriots are a bunch of cheats. He slams the team for taping the Pittsburgh Steelers’ game play and implied that they won the championships through dishonest means. Porter was also quick to accuse the NFL for destroying the Spygate tapes and thus, eradicating the evidence. He was angry because prior to joining the Dolphins, he was a loyal Steelers team player and was not happy that this controversy that happened during the 2002 AFC tournaments. The NFL refused to comment about his accusations.

The result of the three hour meeting between Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner and former video assistant Mat Walsh is that there would be no further punishments that the New England Patriots will have to face for their involvement in the camera gate scandal. Matt Walsh had provided over eight tapes from 2000-2002 and Goodell said that the tapes did not provide any new information and hence no further action will be taken on the Patriots as they have already been punished for the scandal in September. The Patriots fans are happy that this scandal incident is done with and are looking forward to see their team perform well in the season ahead.

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 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”.

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.

The New England Patriots defensive lineman Vince Wilfork is organizing a draft day fund raiser party at Milford’s Pinz Entertainment on April 26th. The Patriot fans can meet Vince Wilfork and his teammates who will assemble at the Draft day and fans will get to see the players who are selected to play for the Patriots. It was in 2004 that Wilfork came up with this novel concept of allowing fans to come and watch the first round pick of the NFL Draft and thereby raise money for diabetes research for University of Miami’s Diabetes Research Center.

Both Wilfork and his wife Bianca have been organizing the First Day Draft party since 2004 and they have raised a sum close to $90,000 in the past four years. A silent and live auction of the Patriots goodies and merchandise will take place during the event and the proceeds that are collected from these auctions will benefit the Diabetes Research Institute.