The Patriots officially placed Rodney Harrison on injured reserve yesterday, officially ending his 2008 season. To replace his spot on the roster, the team activated safety Antwain Spann from the practice squad. No move to bring a veteran such as John Lynch or Ty Law appears to be in the works.
On Patriots Daily, Tyler Carter looks at the return of the big play to Foxboro.
Mark Farinella has the Patriots players paying tribute to Harrison yesterday. David Brown has more from Harrison’s teammates on what he means to them. Christopher Price has the team trying to get used to life without Rodney. Shalise Manza Young says that Harrison is a mighty big loss to the team, both on and off the field. Rich Garven has the team already trying to move on and put Harrison’s injury in the past. Andy Vogt says that the injury to Harrison is no ordinary loss to the Patriots defense. Chris Kennedy has Brandon Meriweather sliding into the safety role left open by Harrison.
Meanwhile, the offensive backfield is dealing with its own set of injuries. Mike Reiss has this unit trying to carry on with Laurence Maroney out for the season and Sammy Morris’ status uncertain for this weekend. Karen Guregian reports that Tom Brady has had to have two more procedures on his knee to attempt to clean out infection from the ACL surgery. Robert Lee says that while the Patriots are battered, they’re not broken. Kerry J. Byrne on WEEI.com says that everything for the Patriots this season has been feast or famine. Glen Farley has Heath Evans talking about his personal commitment to his Heath Evans Foundation.
Kennedy’s notebook has Matt Cassel winning AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Broncos on Monday night. Farinella’s notebook has more on Cassel’s AFC honor. Reiss’ notebook has more on the safety spot, where Meriweather will take over, but several players will need to fully fill Harrison’s role on the defense. Guregian’s notebook has more on the team trying to soldier on without Harrison. Young’s notebook looks at the suddenly red-hot Rams. Farley’s notebook has the focus now shifting to Meriweather at safety. Garven’s notebook has things looking grim for both Sammy Morris and Stephen Jackson of the Rams this weekend.
Celtics
On the BSMW Full Court Press, Kevin Henkin says LeBron James needs to show Gabe Pruitt a little respect.
Paul Flannery assesses the point guard position for the Celtics, which has gone from being a question mark last season, to a strength this year. Mark Murphy has Eddie House more in control this season when he’s called on to run the point. Mike Fine has GM’s around the league picking the Lakers to beat the Celtics in the NBA finals this season. Frank Dell’Apa has more on the Lakers getting the love from the league GM’s.
Marc J. Spears looks at whether Larry Bird can bring the Pacers back to being a contender.
Michael Holley will be the new host of the weekly Celtics magazine shot on Comcast SportsNet.
Red Sox
Rob Bradford talks to Josh Beckett to find out just how much pain the Red Sox ace was in during the postseason. Michael Silverman has a postseason report card for the Sox. Tony Massarotti says that the Red Sox are not afraid to be bold, and looks at some moves they could make this offseason. Joe McDonald has the Red Sox bringing back five of their coaches for next season.
Sean McAdam says that this season has proved that the Red Sox have a lot more than just the Yankees to worry about now. Ron Chimelis asserts that the Red Sox need to figure out what to do with Manny Delcarmen. Bob Halloran says that life has changed for Sox fans. Steve Buckley has Curt Schilling still talking to anyone who will listen.
Adam Kilgore has Scott Boras already going on the offensive and making the case for Jason Varitek, Boras states that he doesn’t feel that Varitek’s offensive woes are “anything that’s permanent.” Has he watched Varitek at all the last few seasons?
McAdam’s notebook has Luis Alicea out as first base coach for Terry Francona.
Bruins
Matt Porter has Zdeno Chara working hard on his off day. Stephen Harris says that the shootouts are the true hole in the Bruins game right now. Mike Loftus has a look at Manny Fernandez, who has split time with Tim Thomas in net thus far for the Bruins. Loftus’ notebook has the Bruins shoring up their defense in front of the net.
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I’m pretty dismayed by the ’sky-is-falling’ reporting I’m hearing over at the Herald regarding Tom Brady. Now isn’t the time to proclaim this is a ‘Big Deal.’ Next spring is when this whole infection issue will be seen as a Big Deal or much-ado-about-nothing. But too many people are ‘playing doctor’ and fans are surmising over on the ESPN message boards that Brady won’t even be back NEXT year. This is journalistic malpractice, to go along with what may be medical malpractice in several months. But like I said, now is not the time to proclaim that.
Any paper that employs Ron “Those are my quotes” Borges and John “What’s confirming a source” Tomase, is always leading the charge into sensationalism. They know that the Pats won’t say anything about this.
The Herald’s moves in regards to the Pats have been completely inexplicable: The Tomase sourceless wonder, the Borges hire, the “Belicheat” headline, Mazz’s “Pats fans are idiots” article, Howie the WRKO Hostage’s gloating over the Brady injury… just a calvacade of excrement. Not even Fredo Corleone was this stupid.
The Globe was renowned for giving the Pats short shrift by being Red Sox obsessed. Now the Herald is doing everything in their power to burn bridges with the team? Do they have a clue what they’re doing over there?
Is it a coincidence that the Herald sports department is in the shape it is, and the size of the newspaper has been shrunk down to roughly the size of a TV Guide? Sometime soon I suspect the paper will be renamed the Boston Digest.
With the Tom Brady story the main one on yahoo.com, There is a link under that story to another one titled “Was Harrison injury Belichick’s fault?”. I simply have no words. Apparantly Harrison was supposed to leave the game at halftime, since we had such a large lead.
On a completely unrelated topic, did anyone else notice Theo Epstein’s quote in Rob Bradford’s story on Josh Beckett? Theo describes Beckett’s injury as a “torn oblique.” I have two questions: 1. Why was that quote buried in the story. 2.)) Didn’t Francona vehemently deny it was torn? Liar!
I guess I’m out of step on this one. I was going to give KG credit for some good reporting on this one, regardless of what paper she works for. I’m not aware that any of the other outlets had the ‘infection/more surgery’ before she did.
As far as I’m concerned the fact that she works for the Herald is secondary to her being a fair and honest reporter who works hard.