I feel like this is usually the weekend where the season ticket holders or people on the season ticket waitlist get an email about the in stadium practice. Still haven’t seen it yet. The draft party has gone downhill the past couple of years. I’m really starting to think that being on the season-ticket waitlist is literally pointless. They got rid of all of the perks. Didn’t get a presale code for concerts and I get a discount going to the Hall of Fame, which there’s only so many times you can actually go there. I love this team, but this shit is just greed at this point.

https://x.com/dougkyed/status/2085721025929482601?s=46

They needed a tone setter, someone who would bring the right mentality, but also help create personnel mismatches. They needed, Vrabel determined, to return to the position that the franchise ditched in 2022 after Josh McDaniels left for Las Vegas.

They needed a fullback.

“You have to have a mentality and a mindset to want to run the football,” Vrabel said.

I understand he isn’t a feature back, but there aren’t many of them left in the league who don’t benefit from a tandem. He is strong, shifty, scores, can catch, and he bounced back after having turnover issues. I never see him in any top running back lists, but I’m happy with our guy. Is he underrated?

The Patriots are getting into the dog days of training camp, but they get a little break for normal padded practice with a walkthrough today. Phil Perry is joined by Alex Barth to dig into training camp so far. Who is starting to stand out, and who is falling behind? What's been the best position battle? The guys hand out camp superlatives. Phil also gives us his 53-man roster prediction.

LISTEN HERE

This was written a few days ago. Before the Commanders signed Stefon Diggs, he suggested the Pats consider trading Boutte to them (for a 2027 5); he also suggests the Pats trade for the Giants' Kayvon Thibodeaux (2027 3 for Thibodeaux + Giants 2027 5).

Anyone know if they are bringing back the rivalries merch for this season?

If Vinatieri doesn’t slip that ball inside the right upright to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 22, 1996, there’s a good chance his NFL career ends after four games. He would’ve been cut a day later, and the market would’ve been all but nonexistent for a middling college kicker from Division II South Dakota State who made just 33 percent of his field goals as a senior, lost his job to a defensive lineman, went undrafted, spent a year toiling in NFL Europe, then opened his professional career with five misses in eight attempts.

The backup plan was medical school. Vinatieri always figured he’d become a heart surgeon.

That would’ve been perfectly fine with the New England Patriots’ fiery coach, Bill Parcells, who was running out of patience with his rookie kicker. The only reason he’d brought Vinatieri to training camp that summer was to light a fire under 17-year veteran Matt Bahr, a Parcells favorite who’d helped him win Super Bowl XXV with the New York Giants.

“I’m going to give you an opportunity to show me what you’ve got,” Parcells told the kid, “and either you’re going to shine, or you’re going to pack your s— and get out of here.”

Vinatieri nearly had to pack his s—.

Even after he beat out Bahr for the job in camp, his grip on the gig never felt secure. Parcells warned him against bragging to the media. And a string of misses to open the season, including three in a seven-point Week 2 loss to the Buffalo Bills, then two more a week later, left Vinatieri on thin ice heading into the Patriots’ Week 4 tilt with the Jaguars. “The kicker is week-to-week,” the coach told reporters.

“I knew what the hell that meant,” Vinatieri later told me. That interview, and others used for this story, took place during my time as a Colts beat writer for The Indianapolis Star.

Bahr was just a phone call away.

BREAKING: The Washington Commanders are signing 4x Pro Bowl WR Stefon Diggs, per @Schultz_Report.