Projo Pats Blog

June 22, 2008 - June 28, 2008 Archives

A reminder that voting for this year's inductee into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame closes at midnight next Friday, July 4.

This year's nominees are TE Ben Coates, OL Jon Morris and RB Jim Nance.

There is a one-vote-per-computer-IP-address limit; you can vote at patriots.com.

Pete Prisco of cbssports.com has done his annual ranking of the top 50 players in the NFL, and five Patriots have made the list, topped by Tom Brady at the number one spot.

Prisco seems like he reluctantly elevated Brady to the top of the list (Peyton Manning has occupied that spot for a few years), but writes that Brady "earned it" with his 2007 MVP-winning season.

The rest of the Pats' Prisco chose, as well as the comments he wrote on each:

4. Randy Moss, WR, New England Patriots: Talk about resurrecting a reputation. He wasn't on many top 50 lists a year ago. Now he's a top 10 player.

30. Richard Seymour, DE, New England Patriots: He played hurt last season and wasn't the same player as in years past. But he's still one of the best when he's healthy.

41. Vince Wilfork, DT, New England Patriots: He was the best front-seven player on the Pats defense last season. He's a load in the middle. Moving him off the ball is tough for any center.

48. Wes Welker, WR, New England Patriots: Yes, he belongs on this list. He had an amazing season as a slot receiver in 2007. Even when teams knew he was getting the football, he made plays.

Former New England corner Asante Samuel, now with the Eagles, made the list at number 37.

Saturday morning we plan to upgrade the active projo blogs to a new version of the Movable Type software. All blogs will remain available during this process. Afterwards you’ll see a new look and some new features, and we’ll welcome your comments about them.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A federal judge has given a New York Jets season-ticket holder more time to amend a lawsuit that seeks millions from the New England Patriots and coach Bill Belichick for "deceiving customers" by videotaping opponents' signals.

The lawsuit by Carl J. Mayer, filed in September, was due to be dismissed June 30 because of a lack of activity.

Mayer and his co-counsel, Bruce I. Afran, this week asked U.S. District Judge Garrett E. Brown Jr. for more time because Afran has been ill and because of unspecified "revelations" from an investigation into the taping launched by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania after the lawsuit was filed.

They asked permission to amend the lawsuit and serve notice on the defendants by Aug. 30.
Garrett, who sits in Trenton, approved the request in a handwritten note dated Monday at the bottom of Mayer's letter.

A message seeking comment from a Patriots spokesman was not immediately returned Thursday.

Mayer's lawsuit maintained the Patriots' secret videotaping violated the contractual "expectations and rights" of Jets ticket holders "to observe an honest match played in compliance with all laws and regulations." It sought class-action status.

But Mayer and Afran, who have collaborated in legal actions against New Jersey politicians, failed to serve the defendants with copies of the complaint.

As a result, the court clerk advised Mayer in early June that the lawsuit would be dismissed June 30 unless he gives a federal judge a reason it should continue. The clerk's notice cited a court rule allowing dismissal if no proceeding had occurred for 120 days.

Until Mayer's recent letter, no public action had been taken for nearly nine months.

Mayer has not specified what other defendants or issues might be included in an amended lawsuit. But he has said the new allegations relate to the efforts of Specter, the Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican and a critic of the NFL's response to what has been called "Spygate."

The Patriots were caught taping signals by Jets coaches, a violation of league rules, during the opening game of the 2007 season. New England won 38-14 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell fined Belichick $500,000 and the team $250,000 for that incident, and stripped New England of a first-round draft choice.

Goodell in May essentially declared an end to Spygate after meeting with former New England video assistant Matt Walsh, a central figure in the scandal, saying there was no new information that would warrant a further penalty against the Patriots.

Mayer's lawsuit asserted that because other teams found illicit videotaping by the defendants, Jets ticket holders should be compensated for all games played in Giants Stadium between the Jets and Patriots since Belichick became head coach in 2000.

The suit calculated that because customers paid $61.6 million to watch eight "fraudulent" games, they're entitled to triple that amount - or $184.8 million - in compensation under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.