According to the Washington Post, New England Patriots defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth pled no contest to one count of simple assault today, one day before he was scheduled to go on trial for misdemeanor sexual assault.

As part of the plea agreement, Haynesworth agreed to an alcohol abuse assessment as well as a psychological assessment.  He also has to stay away from the alleged victim and perform community service.  If he completes this in 18 months, his record will be cleared.

Haynesworth was accused of touching a waitress on February 13 at the W Hotel in Washington D.C. when he is alleged to have swiped his credit card between her breasts and fondled her.  Haynesworth plead not guilty to the original charges.

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Photo credit: AP Photo

Saturday was the final day of Patriots training camp and tomorrow the team will revert to a regular weekly schedule for the last two weeks of the preseason as they ramp up for their Week 1 match up in Miami against the Dolphins on Monday Night Football.

Owner Robert Kraft was at practice today and he once again mingled with the players and staff.  He was seen talking with Albert Haynesworth towards the end of the session.

Haynesworth, who made an appearance at the light walk through like practice, did not participate in any drills or conditioning runs.  He spent much of the time standing with head coach Bill Belichick who said after practice that the defensive lineman remains “day to day.  He’s been day to day, he’s still day to day.  When he’s ready, he’ll be out there.”

DL Shaun Ellis also watched practice today and participated in the stretching and running.  Belichick said he is officially off the PUP list and eligible to practice with the team.  After the session, Ellis said he felt good and there wasn’t anything that took him by surprise saying, “ I was born into this family with (Bill) Parcells and being drafted by him, going through that period my rookie year, and then going through it with (Eric) Mangini.”

Also dressed and on the field for the last training camp session were Julian Edelman, Brandon Tate and James Sanders.

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There is no update on the status of RB Danny Woodhead or LB Dane Fletcher, both sustained injuries during Thursday’s game in Tampa Bay.  Fletcher hurt his thumb on the second play of the game and did not return.  Woodhead got popped while covering a Zoltan Mesko punt in the 4^th quarter and appears to have suffered a head injury; he did not return either.

It is being reported that DB Bret Lockett who was carted off the field on Thursday night has a torn groin and abdomen and is done for the season and will be placed on IR.  This is similar to the injury Nomar Garciaparra suffered with the Cubs in 2005.

Among those not seen on the field were rookie RB Stevan Ridley, rookie RB Shane Vereen, WR Taylor Price, CB Leigh Bodden, CB Darius Butler, LB Brandon Spikes, LB Jermaine Cunningham, DL Ron Brace and DE Mike Wright.

RB Kevin Faulk and rookie CB Ras-I Dowling were observers.

As we noted in earlier posts in the last 24 hours the team has signed former New York Jets S James Ihedigbo and former Oakland Raiders LB Ricky Brown.  Both players were at practice on Saturday.

The Patriots were one of 17 teams watching former Ohio State QB Terrell Pryor work out at his pro day today at a Pittsburgh PA area high school.  The other teams were reportedly Pittsburgh, Washington, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Dallas, San Diego, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Oakland, Miami, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Kansas City and San Francisco.  Also present were Colts president Jim Irsay, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel.

The teams that have been rumored to have interest in Pryor are Oakland, Buffalo, Miami and Cincinnati.

With the closing of training camp there will no longer be an practice sessions open to the public.

The team has tomorrow off and the players return for a regular week on Monday.  Sox & Dawgs thanks you for following us during training camp and we will have a more regular weekly schedule for Patriots information.

As of now the plan is to publish an “In The Red Zone” feature with lots of notes and links those will generally run on Tuesday.

On Friday we will publish our information packed game preview.  The game previews include team breakdowns, depth charts, rosters, injury reports and game notes for the Patriots and their opponent.  It also has the Vegas line, a getting to the game section, a tailgating section, how to find tickets, radio and television broadcast information and the history of the series between the two teams.

Then following each game we will have a game report that includes a look at the game, the stats, a game recap from the mainstream media, turning point of the game, defensive and offensive players of the game and lots of game notes.

Plus during the week we will also have any breaking news regarding the team as it happens.

Ian and I hope you enjoy the Patriots season and that you get your information here from us at Sox & Dawgs.

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On Saturday morning, the New England Patriots added some depth to their linebacking corps by signing free agent Ricky Brown.

Brown, a 27 year old from Cincinnati, played his college football at Boston College.  An undrafted free agent in 2006 he signed with the Oakland Raiders where he had played his entire career.

The 6’2″ 235 pound Brown is expected to add some more depth to the Patriots defense and special teams.

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Photo credit: AP Photo

Well the day after the game was kind of busy as the New England Patriots reportedly worked out WR Mark Clayton, former Washington and Denver RB Clinton Portis and former Oakland and Boston College LB Ricky Brown today.  There is no word yet if any of the players were offered a contract with the club but word is that Portis showed up seriously out of shape and that was after losing 25 pounds the last two weeks.

Also this afternoon free agent S James Ihedigbo has reportedly signed with the team per his Twitter account.  The Northampton MA native and UMass product signed with the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent in 2007 and played with them through last season.  He is seen as a back up safety and a special teams player and will basically replace Bret Lockett who got hurt in the game on Thursday.  He adds depth to safety, which the team has been searching for the last few weeks. Oh and yes he grew up a Patriots fan.

The team also announced that undrafted free agent LB Christian Cox, a rookie out of Utah, has been placed on the season ending IR with a neck injury.

The Patriots will hold their last open to public training camp session tomorrow at the training field outside Gillette Stadium.  The practice will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. and the Patriots experience will be from noon to 4 p.m. For all the latest training camp information go to patriots.com/trainingcamp or call 508.549.0041.

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Head coach Bill Belichick had his day after post mortem conference call.  A few of the nuggets from it include talk about the offense in the red zone.  “ Overall we had a pretty good night in the red area and on third down.  I think the score is a little bit deceiving I think in the first half we still made a lot of…there’s a lot of things we need to do better.  In the second half, I think there were a lot of good things out there but a lot of those were negated by a few bad things.”

“The first half probably wasn’t quite as good as it looked the second half probably wasn’t quite as bad as it looked.”

On the pressure on the Tampa Bay quarterbacks he said that, “They had about three different groups on the offensive line.  A couple times, when we pressured, it looked like they just had a breakdown in the assignments.  They just didn’t block a guy.”

On the injuries to Lockett and Danny Woodhead and whether they would miss any significant time Belichick said, “No, I don’t have any updates.”

One NFL executive said at half time last night, “That was one of the biggest beatdowns I’ve ever seen in a preseason game. Yeah they’re pretty good.” Another executive for a NFL team said, “If they stay healthy they’re going to be tough to handle, absolutely.  They’re better right now than they were last season.”

If you could see the grin on my face right now.

This team is deep, scary deep.  At most nearly every position, the second and third team players could be starters on a lot of other teams.  And this is a team that has not only overhauled nearly the entire defensive line but they’ve basically switched from a 3-4 base defense to a 4-3 base defense and have done it seamlessly.

Oh and I noted in the game recap last night defensive end Andre Carter was virtually unblockable and because of that there’s a really good linebacker named Jerod Mayo who was able to run wild.  I mean “bitches be running wild”, kind of wild.  Mayo’s line from last night while playing the Will (weak side) linebacker were 5 tackles, 2 sacks, 3 quarterback hurries and 3 passes defensed.  And that was pretty much just the first half.  That folks is Andre Tippett-like.

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Some much for lines on preseason games huh?  This one was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers giving two points to the New England Patriots.  The only problem was New England didn’t need them as they scored plenty of their own in their Preseason Week 2 win 31-14 over Tampa Bay at Raymond James Stadium.

Most of the starters played in the first half including reigning MVP Tom Brady who threw a pair of TD passes, one each to Aaron Hernandez (16 yards) and Chad Ochocinco (8 yards).  BenJarvus Green-Ellis ran for a pair of one-yard TD’s and Jerod Mayo who played on the outside had a pair of 1^st half sacks, both on the blitz.

Hernandez had 3 catches on the night for 42 yards and a TD, Wes Welker grabbed 5 for 56 yards and Ochocinco had a pair of catches for 14 yards and 1 TD.

Danny Woodhead had a big 1^st half as well rushing 5 times for 63 yards with runs of 29, 14 and 12 yards.  Green-Ellis ran the ball 11 times for 51 yards and the two scores.

New England outgained Tampa Bay in the air (124-79) and on the ground (117-8) and outscored them in the half 28-0.

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Tampa Bay QB’s were under a lot of defensive pressure the entire half and Andre Carter who was pretty much unblockable created a lot of it.

Not all was good for the Patriots in the first half as LB Dane Fletcher got hurt on the second play of the game and did not return with a thumb injury.  DB Bret Lockett hurt his thigh or groin and was carted off the field after covering a Zoltan Mesko punt.

In the third quarter rookie Ryan Mallett replaced Brady, who was 11 for 19 for 118 yards and 2 TD’s, and he promptly threw a pick 6 to DB Elbert Mack who went 69 yards for the TD to cut the New England lead to 28-7.  Mallett even got leveled on the play.

Mallett was off all night, even his completions they weren’t sharp but the coaching staff wanted to see how he would respond to a tough situation.  And they were able to do that Thursday night. Mallett finished the night 9 of 14 for 71 yards and 1 INT.

Rookie RB Stevan Ridley, who last week had three TD’s, lost a fumble, but other than he had a good performance rushing for 84 yards on 14 carries.

Late in the 3^rd quarter Stephen Gostkowski converted on a 51-yard field goal to make it 31-7 and close out the scoring for New England.  It was his 3^rd made field goal of the preseason all from more than 40 yards.

Brian Hoyer saw limited time at QB playing two plays in the first half, relieving Brady and then temporarily relieving Mallett in the 3^rd and coming back in for a bit at the end of the game.

The Bucs cut the lead to 31-14 with 9:28 to play when they mounted an 84 yard, 12 play drive that was capped by an Allen Bradford TD run of 2 yards.

Woodhead was returning punts in the second half in the 4^th quarter he got lit up pretty good by Devin Holland and he was wobbly coming off the field.  The team trainers took his helmet from him and he didn’t see any further action on the night.

Defensive New England was very good all night.  CB Kyle Arrington had an interception and 3 tackles, newly acquired LB Niko Koutouvides had a sack and 3 tackles, Mayo had a pair of sacks and 5 tackles and LB Tracy White had 5 tackles.

As a team the Patriots were 8 of 16 on 3^rd down and 0 for 1 on 4^th.  The three quarterbacks combined for 21 of 37 for 183 yards, 2 TD’s, 1 INT and 2 sacks. The team rushed for 200 yards on 36 carries, last season they ran for 200 yards twice in 16 games both against Buffalo.

Next week the Patriots play in Detroit when they take on the Lions on Saturday at 8 p.m. during a nationally televised game on CBS.

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Photo credit: AP Photo

The New England Patriots will work out free agent WR Mark Clayton in Foxboro on Friday.

Clayton, a 2005 first round pick by the Baltimore Ravens out of Oklahoma, played 76 games over 5 seasons with Baltimore and in 2010 he played 5 games for St. Louis.  The 29 year old has 16 career TD’S.

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Photo credit: Reuters Pictures

Check out New England Patriots QB1 Tom Brady’s newest Under Armour commercial.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vqETm5tF9R4?rel=0

Also, check out the behind the scenes video with Brady and Cam Newton.

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The Patriots had a pregame walkthrough for the game on Thursday at Tampa Bay against the Buccaneers.  It saw the first team offense get a bunch of reps meaning the Tom Brady, Chad Ochocinco, Wes Welker and the other starters will probably see some playing time this week.

The defense used a lot of 4-man fronts in practice with Vince Wilfork and Kyle Love playing the defensive tackle spots.

Meanwhile the jobs at safety appear anything but safe. They recently brought free agents Dashon Goldson and Darren Sharper to Foxboro for workouts.  They reportedly offered Goldson a contract but he decided to resign with San Francisco.

The Patriots worked out the other safeties because according to league sources they are not happy with Brandon Meriweather, despite the fact he made his second Pro Bowl last season, they felt his play was suspect.

The general depth at safety is also kind of thin right now with James Sanders only having participated in four practices, so with the injuries and how they feel about Meriweather, former Notre Dame defensive back Sergio Brown is seeing a lot of reps with starter Patrick Chung.

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The team announced this afternoon that they have released veteran OT Mark LeVoir today.  LeVoir, who signed with Chicago in 2006 as an undrafted free agent and was later claimed by New England off waivers from St. Louis has been with the team since 2008.  Last season he played in 6 of the 16 regular season games, he was inactive (did not dress) 10 times.

The New York Jets have reportedly signed DE/OLB Aaron Maybin the former Buffalo Bills first round draft pick.  It appears to be a low risk, high reward deal for the Jets.

The Patriots announced that the team Hall of Fame ceremony will be held at 5 p.m. at the Hall at Patriots Place on September 17^th.  Former Pats players Jon Morris and Drew Bledsoe will be the 17^th and 18^th members of the Patriots Hall of Fame.  The only non-player is former owner, Billy Sullivan.

Rubin Carter, the father of Patriots DL Andre Carter, played 12 seasons in the NFL with the Denver Broncos.  He is now a coach with the University of New Mexico and talked a little bit about his son.

Andre “has always been committed to whatever he decided to do, that’s where it starts.  Then just having a great work ethic, he always worked hard to develop his skills.”  The elder Carter should know, he took was an undersized defensive line player who made good with a long pro career and now his son is following successfully in his footsteps.

The NFL fined Jacksonville Jaguars DB Mike Lockley $20,000 for his hit on Patriots WR Taylor Price in the game last Thursday.  Since then Lockley has been cut and because he is no longer in the NFL  the league can not collect the fine.

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New England Patriots DT Vince Wilfork has had no comment on the “U” situation involving former Hurricane’s booster Nevin Shapiro since it broke yesterday.  That’s been mostly due to the fact that there was no media access to the Patriots players today before or after the walkthrough. 

When asked for an interview on Tuesday, Wilfork declined to talk.  He spent most of the Wednesday walkthrough talking to fellow Miami alum Brandon Meriweather.

According to Yahoo! Sports, Shapiro allegedly spent millions of dollars on 72 current or former Miami players over eight years on cash gifts, dinners, rides on his yacht, in game bounties and hookers among other things.

He allegedly paid Wilfork $50,000 in his junior season to ensure that Wilfork would sign with Access Sports, Shapiro’s sports agency who ended up negotiating Wilfork’s first pro contract.

Wilfork is also alleged to have accepted thousands of dollars in gifts, $1250 in bounty money, a washer and dryer set as well as VIP access at several clubs in South Beach.

Update: Wilfork released this statement via his Twitter account in three separate tweets earlier.

“I am aware of the report that has claims that involve me while at the U. While the NCAA and the U conduct their investigations @Mrs75 and I believe that it is not appropriate for us to comment. Thanks for your continued support and confidence in me.”

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Photo credit: Getty Images

The defense attorney for New England Patriots DT Albert Haynesworth, A. Scott Bolden, has filed a motion seeking to force the prosecution to turnover statements and/or evidence that will help the defense.  They reportedly are seeking a copy of a written statement and affidavit from prosecution witness, W Hotel security guard Ramon Davis.

In an affidavit, Davis said that Haynesworth asked the waitress if he could place the credit card in her shirt or bra because her hands were full.  She reportedly said yes initially actually appearing “playful” before telling him to “stop, for real.”

He added that he never saw Haynesworth fondle the woman’s breast.

Davis says in the affidavit that he was approached in April by the waitress and a man in a suit claiming to be her attorney, he then offered Davis $50,000 to help her with his testimony against Haynesworth.

The guard said he “was shocked and ignored the man’s offer”.  He says he never asked him for a card or contact information and he has not seen him or heard from him since the initial offer.

Haynesworth’s misdemeanor sexual assault trial is scheduled to start in Washington D.C. next Tuesday.

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Photo credit: AP Photo