Bill Belichick is Lying

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick addressed the media today in Foxboro, telling media members that a “combination of factors”, not conduct or contract matters, lead to the trade of WR Randy Moss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Said Belichick, “”There was never any incident or discipline problem with Randy, there never has been one with me in four years.  It certainly wasn’t about contract and money, I think Randy showed and proved from the first year he was here what that was all about. He re-did his contract and made the whole trade from Oakland work. I think you can eliminate those two things.”

This may be so, but Moss had a track record of always behaving well upon arrival.  Also, I’m pretty sure anybody playing for the Raiders would bend over backward to restructure their contract and play for the Patriots.

Belichick also shot down rumors that he had refused to talk to Moss after the Patriots most recent Monday Night Football win, saying the story was completely fabricated and calling Moss “a pleasure to coach”.

He may have been a pleasure for Belichick to coach, but the report is that the confrontation was with QB Coach Bill O’Brien.

Belichick said that in the end, the decision to trade Moss was in the team’s best interest.  “I have confidence in our players, that if they continue to work hard and improve that we’ll be competitive and be able to win games. That’s what we’re here to do — win games. We’ve won more games than any other team in the last decade. Hopefully we’ll continue to win them going forward. That’s what we’re here for.”

I don’t know why the Patriots traded Moss, and honestly, I don’t think anyone will truly know with the exception of Belichick.  I have a hard time though thinking that this was purely a trade for football reasons.  Even when Moss didn’t have a catch, he draws double teams and opens up the short field for Welker and Edelman.  Without that deep threat, the entire defense collapses to the middle of the field.  How does that make your football team better?  Something had to be going on behind the scenes with Moss.

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Moss Heading Back To Where It All Began

Wide receiver Randy Moss is heading back to the place where his career began.  The New England Patriots  are close to completing a trade with the Minnesota Vikings to send the dynamic receiver back to the team that made him a first round draft pick back in 1998.  As compensation, the Patriots will receive the Vikings third round pick in the 2011 draft.

The trade comes after the Boston Herald reported on Tuesday that Moss wanted out of New England after their week 1 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.  Moss has not kept his feelings a secret so far this season, citing on multiple occasions that he didn’t see himself in New England past this year and voicing his feelings of not being wanted.  Before the season began, Moss said “When you have done so much and put so much work in, it kind of feels like I am not wanted.”

Moss did not have a catch in the most recent Patriots win over Miami, his first game as a Patriot without a catch.  For the season, he has nine catches for 139 yards and three TDs.

The Vikings have been searching for a deep threat for Brett Favre all season since the injury to WR Sidney Rice, and after failing to land Chargers WR Vincent Jackson, turned their attention to the former Viking WR Moss.  The move should help QB Brett Favre, who lobbied hard to the Green Bay Packers to trade for Moss back in 2007, his last year with the Packers.

The deal was first broken by FoxSports.com.

I can’t figure out the motivation for this trade.  I don’t necessarily have a problem with moving Moss.  I think the Patriots know that they aren’t good enough to win a super bowl with their defense in 2010.  But was a third round pick the best they could get?  They likely would have gotten a third round compensatory pick in 2012 for his departure anyways.  All they do with this trade is move that pick up a year.  My hunch here is that there is more to this situation than we know.  I think details are going to leak sometime this week that Moss’s situation was a problem for a few weeks, and that Monday night’s performance was the boiling point.  Stay tuned.  This story isn’t even close to being over.

NFL Coordinators Can Be Bad Too

Proving they aren’t only after Chad Ochocinco’s money, the NFL Monday fined Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Chuck Cecil $40,000 for his obscene gesture at game officials in Sundays loss to the Denver Broncos.  Television cameras caught Cecil flipping off referees after a penalty was called against the Titans in the 2nd quarter.  The penalty gave Denver a first-and-goal, and Kyle Orton threw a 2-yard touchdown pass on the next play to give the Broncos a 7-0 lead in a game they eventually won 26-20.  The league said Cecil violated a rule that prohibits use of abusive, threatening or insulting language or gestures to game officials.

During his Monday press conference, Titans head coach Jeff Fisher called the league punishment ‘swift and appropriate’, adding “Clearly, I’m speaking on behalf of the organization that kind of conduct on the sideline, any place for that matter, is inappropriate. The league has already dealt with the issue.”

Cecil made his own statement Monday night saying, “I want to apologize to the NFL, organization, fans and my family for my gesture yesterday. It was inappropriate, and there is no excuse for that type of behavior under any circumstance.”

Feel free to catch Cecil’s gesture below:

Well that was fast

Less than 12 hours after getting blown out at home on Monday Night Football, the Miami Dolphins have fired special teams coach John Bonamego, according to the team.

The Dolphins lost to AFC East foe New England last night 41-14, with the special teams unit being largely to blame.  New England blocked a punt and a field goal attempt, running back the field goal block for a touchdown, and scoring a touchdown a few plays after the punt block.  The Patriots also ran back the 2nd half kickoff 103 yards for a touchdown.

After the game, Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano called the team overall performance “a mess”.  When asked about the special teams execution, Sparano said “Next Question.”

While last night’s performance was especially bad, the Dolphins special teams unit has struggled long term now, having four punts blocked over their last eight games, including a punt block in last week’s home loss on Sunday Night Football versus the New York Jets.

Assistant special teams coach Darren Rizzi will taken over for Bonamego.  Miami has a bye week next week.

Bonamego is the second NFL coordinator to be fired after a unit’s poor performance this season.  Earlier this year, San Fransisco 49ers offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye was fired one day after a 31-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Chad Ochocinco does charity

In a situation that could only involve Chad Ochocinco, a recent cereal fundraiser for ‘Feed the Children’ has taken an interesting turn.

From ESPN, “Charity-minded callers are getting intercepted by a sex phone line because of a misprint on Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco‘s namesake cereal boxes.  The phone number is supposed to connect callers to Feed the Children, which benefits from sales of “Ochocinco’s”. But because the box has the wrong toll-free prefix, they get a seductive-sounding woman who makes risque suggestions and then asks for a credit card number.”

I know that this shouldn’t be funny.  It’s an athlete trying to do some nice work for his community by having his own cereal.  But come on, how can you not just laugh a little bit at this?  This could ONLY happen to Ochocinco.  Also, this creates a new story.  Which fan will be the first to use this picture as part of a sign at the next Bengals away game?