The New England Patriots signed free agent running back Tony Fiammetta who formerly played for the Dallas Cowboys.
Fiammetta, a 6 foot 4, 242 pound fullback went to college at Syracuse and is a former fourth round draft pick of the Carolina Panthers.
No terms of the contract have been released at this time.
The Patriots also released RB Lousaka Polite who was a late season signing after the Miami Dolphins had released him.
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The NFL announced today that 15 teams will receive a total of 32 compensatory draft picks in the upcoming NFL Draft.
Under the rules a team losing more or better compensatory free agents that it acquired in the previous year will receive a compensatory draft pick. A team can receive as man as 4 compensatory draft picks.
Teams receiving compensatory picks will get them at the end of Round 3-7. Teams with additional picks in the draft are:
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If you follow me on Twitter at all on occasion you see me mention the different books I am reading. I love to you read and always have from an early age. I recall as a child of about 7 or 8 years old sprawling out on the living room floor in the house I grew up in with the sports section of one of the local papers.
As I’ve gotten older my love of reading has continued and I regularly devour books at my local Barnes & Noble. In 2011 alone I read nearly 50 books from cover-to-cover.
As you also know by being a follower of this blog, I am tried and true Red Sox fan having seen my first game at Fenway in 1973. I remember some of it like it was yesterday as they played the Detroit Tigers.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw the Green Monster in person; the park from outside as you walked toward it and the excitement upon seeing the light stantions or how big the players seemed.
Fenway Park has played a major role in my life. For nearly a ten year period I saw between 30-40 games a year there and then when you throw in the other odd years of times I went to games with family or friends I’d say I’ve been to Fenway nearly 500 times.
This year marks the 100th Anniversary of Fenway Park. On April 20th at 3 p.m. they will play the New York Yankees on the exact date and time and with the same opponent that the fabled ball yard opened with.
To mark the occasion there are several books and magazines out to celebrate the milestone anniversary. The one you need to get as a Red Sox fan or as a baseball fan or as a history fan is “Fenway Park: A Salute to the Coolest, Cruelest, Longest-Running Major League Baseball Stadium in America”.
To continue reading, please click on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.
Written by Boston Globe staffer John Powers and former Globe copy editor Ron Driscoll and published by the Boston Globe and Running Press, the book is amazing travel through the history of Fenway. It is a published as a large format, hard cover book and is nearly 300 pages of Fenway Park goodness and costs $30 US/$34.50 Canadian and is available where you buy books.
The book contains a special introduction by Benjamin Taylor with a foreword by former Red Sox pitcher and Cy Young winner Jim Longborg and includes a poster of rare blueprints of Fenway Park itself.
The book is full of photos, both full color and black and white, and many stories about not only the players but some of the fans and the people who have made Fenway Park what it is over the last 100 seasons of baseball.
“Fenway Park: A Salute to the Coolest, Cruelest, Longest-Running Major League Baseball Stadium in America” takes you inside the Green Monster with Christian Elias and outside the park with the vendors. The historical photos take you back to Fenway Park through each and every decade from the Royal Rooters and the opening of Fenway through “Smokey” Joe Wood and Babe Ruth’s time with the team.
Each decade breakdown also has it’s own timeline laid out in addition to stories and features written about that decade.
Some of the great features of this wonderful book are the stories about the fans, the owners from Harry Frazee to John Henry. They relive the fires at the park; the return of “The Babe” and the first football game ever played at Fenway.
There are sections on “Williamsburg”, Mrs. Robinson, the longtime Fenway switchboard operator, and the players who went off to war. In addition “Mr. Red Sox” Johnny Pesky is featured as is local boy and two-sport star Harry Agganis and the first night game in the Fens.
As you continue to go through the book and the wonderful history of the park you will learn that they had boxing matches there in addition to football games, concerts and hockey games.
Other features of “Fenway Park: A Salute to the Coolest, Cruelest, Longest-Running Major League Baseball Stadium in America” include sections profiling organist John Kiley, John Updike’s recollections of Ted Williams, the teams first black ball player, Pumpsie Green, and the first Patriots game.
Powers and Driscoll document the start of Red Sox Nation, the enduring symbol of Fenway, the Citgo sign, and they remember Tony Conigliaro along the way as well.
Even longtime groundskeeper John Mooney gets a feature, as the pair leave no stone unturned in chronicling the life of the park. The flashback to the 1975 World Series, Carlton Fisk’s homerun, Fred Lynn, 1978 and Bucky “Effin” Dent.
The managers are featured too with sections of Don Zimmer, Morgan Magic and Terry Francona. Hall of Famer Jim Rice gets a section alone on how he helped the child hit in the head by a ball one sunny afternoon at Fenway.
They cover Ted Williams day, his funeral, the final games of Yaz and Ted, Buckner’s redemption, “The Rocket” bursting onto the seen, the oddness of “Oil Can” Boyd. Mo Vaughn’s departure, a possible new park, the 1999 All-Star game and the once in a lifetime domination of Pedro Martinez are all recalled as well.
The book wraps up with the championship years of 2004 and 2007, the rebirth of “The Standells”, the Sox fans love of Jerry Remy and the Idiots as well as Neil Diamond’s appearance for “Sweet Caroline” and the NHL Winter Classic.
I can honestly tell you that Powers and Driscoll leave absolutely no stone unturned as they traced the history of “America’s most beloved ball park”. They left out nothing; there is no chance if you own this book of being disappointed because some aspect of the park is missing.
There are a lot of books about Fenway’s history and by far “Fenway Park: A Salute to the Coolest, Cruelest, Longest-Running Major League Baseball Stadium in America” is the best of them all.
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Spencer Larsen has signed a two-year deal with the New England Patriots. Larsen, formerly of the Denver Broncos, is a fullback and linebacker, who also plays special teams. He once started a game on special teams, at fullback and linebacker for the Broncos.
Pretty safe to say he is a Bill Belichick type of player.
The Mesa AZ native went to the University of Arizona and was Denver’s 6th round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.
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The New England Patriots, who have been signing free agents like Bill Belichick had a Groupon, have dipped into the well and come back with one of their own as they re-sign WR Deion Branch.
Branch, long one of QB Tom Brady’s favorite targets, is in his second stint with the Patriots after returning in a 2010 midseason trade with Seattle. He originally was with New England from 2002-2005 before leaving for Seattle in a contract dispute for the 2006 season.
He played his college ball at Louisville and was taken by New England in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft. The former Super Bowl MVP received a one-year contract to remain in Foxboro.
In other news, it’s been learned through NFL sources by Mac’s football blog that Brady restructured his contract to free up another $7.2 million in cap space. Brady reduced his salary for the 2012 season by nearly $5 million and combined it with his roster bonus as a signing bonus that will be prorated over the remaining three years on the contract.
At a guaranteed $975,000 salary for the season Brady is the best deal in the entire NFL.
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Ron Erhardt, head coach of the New England Patriots from 1979-81, has passed away just three weeks after his 80th birthday.
Erhardt took over the Patriots after Chuck Fairbanks fled for Colorado following the 1978 home playoff loss to Houston.
In his first two seasons the team was a combined 19-13 and the 1980 team scored a then franchise record 441 points (not broken until 2007) but the team tanked in 1981 and finished 2-14. Owner Billy Sullivan thought Erhardt “was just too nice a guy” and he was fired two days after the season ended.
After he left the Patriots, he was hired by Ray Perkins and the Giants to be their offensive coordinator. He stayed on when Perkins left for the University of Alabama and, Erhardt’s former linebacker’s coach with the Patriots, Bill Parcells took over. He helped lead the Giants offense to two Super Bowl titles.
Erhardt also coached with the Pittsburgh Steelers (offensive coordinator), New York Jets (offensive coordinator) and he was an assistant coach, then head coach and athletic director for North Dakota State University in the 1960’s and early 70’s before coming to Foxboro as backfield coach in 1973.
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If you’re a New England Patriots fan and you‘ve ever said anything bad about Logan Mankins, I am now going to make you feel about yay high.
During the Patriots AFC Division Playoff Game win over Denver, Mankins hurt his knee and left the game. He later returned and played the remainder of the game and not much was thought about it.
The week of the AFC Championship Game against Baltimore Mankins never really saw the practice field, he could barely limp never mind walk. The training staff and the team doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with his knee. So Mankins played against Baltimore.
He pretty much repeated the process the two weeks prior to the Super Bowl against the New York Giants. He was listed on the injury report and was limited in practice yet he played in the game.
After the Super Bowl players were getting their check out physicals and clearing out the lockers and Mankins knee was still too swollen to truly tell what the issue was. After the swelling subsided, it turns out he had a partial tear of his ACL.
Now we all know the story of San Diego QB Phillip Rivers playing against the Patriots in a playoff game a week after having his ACL surgically repaired a few years ago. Mankins actually played about 2 and half games with the injury before undergoing surgery a few weeks ago. He is expected to be ready for training camp.
I know he is one tough bastard, he’s mean and ornery, but to play like that really takes something especially at his size (6’4”, 310) and that he basically does hand to hand combat 60-70 times a game against someone just as big.
I guess it’s safe to say “The Legend of Logan Mankins” continues to grow in Foxboro.
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The New England Patriots signed free agent defensive back Will Allen on Wednesday. Allen, a former Dolphin, got a reported one-year deal for just under $1 million. He is expected to help bolster the defensive backfield, which had issues all through 2011.
Allen, a Syracuse product, was a 1st round draft pick (22nd overall) in the 2001 NFL Draft by the New York Giants. After four seasons, he moved onto the Dolphins as a free agent for 2006.
There was also some not so good news for the Patriots today as the Buffalo Bills signed DE Mark Anderson to a four-year $27.5 million contract after one season in Foxboro. It calls for $9 million in guaranteed money. It’s pretty safe to say that New England wasn’t going anywhere near the parameters of the deal offered by Buffalo.
Anderson led the team in sacks with Andre Carter as both registered 10 on the season.
The team also lost out on its top rusher BenJarvus Green-Ellis today as he signed a three-year contract with the Cincinnati Bengals. The Lawfirm, was the last Patriots 1,000-yard rusher, which he did in 2010, and he also had back-to-back seasons of at least 10 TD’s when he had 13 in 2010 and 11 in 2011. The 24 rushing TD’s were second in the NFL for the two-year period trailing only Arian Foster who had 26 for Houston.
Green-Ellis had 29 touchdowns in his Patriots career, 7th most in franchise history, he had six career 2 TD games and the team was 22-1 in games in which he had a TD.
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Bill Belichick opened his desk drawer a few moments ago and found more money for another free agent, his 4th of the day.
Former New York Jets corner back Marquice Cole is shedding his green and white for red, white and blue. He was undrafted in 2007 out of Northwestern and spent time on the practice squad for the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee Titans and New Orleans before making his NFL debut in 2009 with the New York Jets.
In addition to his defensive back duties in New York, Cole was a part of the special teams unit as the gunner on the squad.
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The way the New England Patriots are going about the off season so far, I am beginning to think someone either has a free agency sale, a Groupon or maybe they really are “free”.
On Monday afternoon Bill Belichick proved once again he is either a mastermind or a nutcase by signing two more free agents. First he brings back WR Donte’ Stallworth, once a target of Tom Brady, who was with the Patriots in the unbeaten season of 2007.
Stallworth, who since leaving New England, hasn’t been the same guy he was in previous Foxboro days. He first signed with Cleveland, then coached by Eric Mangini, in 2008. Then in the off season in Miami FL he hit and killed a pedestrian with his car while he was intoxicated. He spent 30 days in jail, 2 years of house arrest and 1,000 hours of community service. He also received 8 years probation, a lifetime suspension of his Florida drivers’ license. Stallworth was also suspended for the 2009 season by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and in order to avoid a civil trial he paid the family a lump sum monetary settlement.
After he was reinstated to the NFL he worked off one-year contracts with the Baltimore Ravens in 2010 and with the Washington Redskins in 2011. Prior to coming to New England, the former Tennessee Volunteer was a first round draft pick (13th overall) of the New Orleans Saints in the 2002 NFL Draft. After 4 seasons in the Big Easy he was traded in August 2006 to Philadelphia.
The team also picked up former Oakland Raider and Seattle Seahawk offensive lineman Robert Gallery.
Gallery, who plays tackle and guard, was the first round pick (2nd overall) of the Oakland Raiders in the 2004 NFL Draft out of Iowa. After seven seasons in Oakland, he left as a free agent in 2011 for a 3-year deal in Seattle but he was released just days before signing with New England.
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Photo credit: IndyStar.com