It may sound ludicrous to even fathom the Patriots trading away a legend like Tom Brady.  However, it might not be as crazy as it sounds.   This season, Brady was injured in the first game of the year with a torn ACL.  The aforementioned injury could mean that he will have to sit out some games to begin the 2009 campaign.

Matt Cassel has done more than an adequate job filling in for Brady.  In fact, Cassel figures to be the most highly coveted free agent quarterback in 2009.  The only way New England can retain Cassel is if they slap the franchise tag on him.  If the Patriots elect to franchise him, it will cost them somewhere between $10 and $12 million.  That seems a bit steep for a backup quarterback.

New England already showed that they were willing to part with a veteran in favor of an unproven young quarterback when they decided to part with Drew Bledsoe and anoint Brady as their future signal caller.  Therefore, if it is determined that Brady will have to miss significant amount of time in 2009, or if the Patriots don’t think he will ever be as good as he was prior to his injury, then don’t be surprised if they elect to shop Brady for multiple draft picks.

Another thing to consider is that Brady will turn 32 years old in August, and Cassel is only 26 years young.  There isn’t any reason to believe that Brady can’t play for another handful of seasons, but there is now an increased risk that he will become more susceptible to getting injured. 

No matter what New England decides to do, they clearly have a lot to think about this off-season. Will they trade Brady to get some much needed young talent in return?   Will they keep Brady and let Cassel go elsewhere via free agency?  Will they franchise Cassel and keep him as their backup to Brady?

Obviously, it is impossible to know the answers to these questions right now, and we all know that coach Bill Belichick won’t tell us what he plans to do until a month after they have already made their moves.  If I had to guess, I would say they will likely keep Brady and let Cassel leave town.  New England will then either trade for McNabb and convince him to backup Brady, or they will just take a quarterback late in the draft and once again prove that anyone can succeed in their system.

The talk around the NFL is centered around whether or not Brett Favre will remain retired, or if he will decide to play again.  If Favre does come back, will he be able to start in Green Bay, or will the Packers release or trade him?

Personally, I think Favre will come back, but will not take another snap for the Packers.  It will be another case of watching Michael Jordan playing for the Washington Wizards, Emmitt Smith playing of the Arizona Cardinals, and Joe Montana playing for the Kansas City Chiefs. 

In other words, if Favre does come back and play for another team, it will not hurt his legacy, but it will be difficult to see him in another uniform.  I mean, could you imagine Favre staying in the division wearing a purple jersey?

1. New England Patriots
2. Jacksonville Jaguars
3. Indianapolis Colts
4. Dallas Cowboys
5. San Diego Chargers
6. Pittsburgh Steelers
7. New Orleans Saints
8. Philadelphia Eagles
9. New York Giants
10. Cleveland Browns
11. Minnesota Vikings
12. Green Bay Packers
13. Seattle Seahawks
14. Denver Broncos
15. Carolina Panthers
16. Houston Texans
17. Arizona Cardinals
18. New York Jets
19. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
20. Washington Redskins
21. Cincinnati Bengals
22. Baltimore Ravens
23. Detroit Lions
24. San Francisco 49ers
25. Buffalo Bills
26. Oakland Raiders
27. Chicago Bears
28. Tennessee Titans
29. St. Louis Rams
30. Miami Dolphins
31. Kansas City Chiefs
32. Atlanta Falcons

1st Round 

1. Miami Dolphins-OT Jake Long, Michigan
2. St. Louis Rams-DE Chris Long, Virginia
3. Atlanta Falcons-DT Glenn Dorsey, LSU          
4. Oakland Raiders-RB Darren McFadden, Arkansas            
5. Kansas City Chiefs-QB Matt Ryan, Boston College                                                          
6. New York Jets-DE Vernon Gholston, Ohio State              
7. New England Patriots-DT Sederick Ellis, USC  
8. Baltimore Ravens-LB Keith Rivers, USC        
9. Cincinnati Bengals-DE Derrick Harvey, Florida
10. New Orleans Saints-CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Tennessee 
11. Buffalo Bills-WR Devin Thomas, Michigan State 
12. Denver Broncos-LB Jerod Mayo, Tennessee      
13. Carolina Panthers-RB Rashard Mendenhall, Illinois
14. Chicago Bears-OT Jeff Otah, Pittsburgh               
15. Detroit Lions-DE Phillip Merling, Clemson 
16. Arizona Cardinals- CB Leodis McKelvin, Troy
17. Kansas City Chiefs-OT Branden Albert, Virginia 
18. Houston Texans-OT Ryan Clady, Boise State              
19. Philadelphia Eagles-CB Mike Jenkins, South Florida
 20. Tampa Bay Buccaneers-DT Kentwan Balmer, North Carolina 
21. Washington Redskins-S Kenny Phillps, Miami
22. Dallas Cowboys-RB Felix Jones, Arkansas
23. Pittsburgh Steelers-WR James Hardy, Indiana
24. Tennessee Titans-WR Limas Sweed, Texas
25. Seattle Seahawks-TE Dustin Keller, Purdue          
26. Jacksonville Jaguars-DE Calais Campbell, Miami       
27. San Diego Chargers-OT Chris Williams, Vanderbilt       
28. Dallas Cowboys-WR Malcolm Kelly, Oklahoma 
29. San Francisco 49ers-WR DeSean Jackson, California      
30. Green Bay Packers-CB Aqib Talib, Kansas           
31. New York Giants-CB Antoine Cason, Arizona

The NFL owners met this past week to discuss possible rule changes.  One of the proposals was to re-seed the playoffs.  The idea was to seed the teams based on their record, and not whether or not they won their respective division.  This rule would reward the good teams that finished with an outstanding record, but didn’t win their highly competitive division.  It would also give teams a reason to play in the final week of the season.

I think that rule is worth discussing, but isn’t necessarily the answer.   If a division leader that already clinched their division was 9-6 going into the final week, and a wild card team was 11-4, neither team would have anything to play for in this scenario as the wild card team would have already earned the better seed.

The league really wants to implement a rule that will give the teams something to play for in the final week.  In my opinion, if they would reward the teams that win on the last week of the year with a compensatory draft pick the next season, I believe that would give them a reason to want to win that game.  Perhaps, that would be enough to entice coaches to play their key players, which in turn rewards the fans for paying the price of admission to see a quality game.

Does anyone else have any ideas that might work besides re-seeding the playoffs and offering money rewards for merely trying to win a scheduled game?

If you were a general manager in the respective sport, and you were forced to sign either Barry Bonds or Pacman Jones, which player would you sign?

Barry Bonds is the homerun king with an on-base percentage higher than some people’s credit scores.  Bonds is a polarizing figure that brings fans to the ballpark.  The career of Bonds is nearing its end, but he is still capable of putting up more than respectable numbers.

Pacman Jones is an aggressive cornerback that opposing quarterbacks are scared to throw the ball against.  Jones has the ability to make interceptions in traffic, and once he gets his hands on the football, he has a nose for the end zone.  There is little doubt that Jones would instantly improve any secondary that he joined.

Now comes the inevitable negative attributes about these players…

Bonds has been nominated as the poster man for performance enhancing drugs.  In fact, I think Barry Bonds has only been able to convince himself that he has not used banned substances. Conversely, the rest of the general public believes Bonds is nowhere near innocent from these allegations.

Pacman Jones has spent more time recently in strip clubs than he has trying to strip the football from opposing players on the field.  Jones has a lot to learn in terms of priorities and what company he should surround himself with.  Not to mention, it is not certain if Jones will even be reinstated into the NFL.

If I had to sign one of the aforementioned players, I would give the nod to Pacman Jones.  The reasons are simple as Jones is just now in his prime, where Bonds is at the end of his career.  I could force Jones to restructure his contract to lower his salary and protect my team if we needed to sever ties, where Bonds is still going to demand the kind of money people dream of winning in their local state lottery. 

One thing is for certain, similar to the lottery, there is a one-in-a-billion chance that Bonds and Jones will be able to escape extensive media coverage anytime soon.