In The Red Zone

The Patriots have placed 2011 draft pick OL Marcus Cannon on the active/non-football injury list.  Cannon, who was drafted out of TCU, is recovering from a form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and currently is not expected to practice.

If he were to start practicing the team would remove him from the list and place him on the active roster.

Tight End Aaron Hernandez who was sporting a new uniform number on Friday has been activated from the PUP list. He had his first practice session on Saturday.

Newly acquired WR Chad Ochocinco had his first session with the Patriots media members today after practice.  Ochocinco promised to be a chameleon and lay low and just be Chad.

Ochocinco also confirmed that Hernandez wanted nothing in return for #85 though he did say he would let Hernandez drive his Toyota Prius on the weekends and give him some McDonald’s coupons.

Hernandez said he’d rather drive Ochocinco’s Lamborghini.

After he spoke, Chad asked reporters for a group hug.

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The NFLPA is now officially re-established as a union.  This was one of the points of the new CBA that needed to finalized by August 4th.

Head coach Bill Belichick spoke on newly acquired DT Albert Haynesworth saying that the deal with Washington was finally complete.  I originally reported this week that Haynesworth was in the group of players who couldn’t practice with the squad until August 4th because he was restructuring his contract.  Apparently that isn’t so and Haynesworth is eligible to practice.

When asked when he expected Haynesworth on the field Belichick said, “he will be out there when he was ready.”  And that’s all he would say leaving that statement up to interpretation.

So does that mean Haynesworth is running into the same conditioning issues he had in Washington?  Or is because he has gone so long with out football contact that Belichick wants him to decide when he is ready to go full bore?  Here’s hoping this is a non-issue.

So far there is nothing further to report in signings of the three remaining draft picks, Nate Solder, Ras-I Dowling and Shane Vereen, other than that there is some haggling going on but I hear there’s progress being made

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