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Ryan Claridge Sitdown

FOXBORO -- Some excerpts from an interview with Patriots inside linebacker Ryan Claridge, who missed all of his rookie season in 2005 after having shoulder surgery. Claridge, 25, is still dealing with the death of his older brother Travis in February. Travis Claridge was 27.

WHAT HE MISSED THE MOST LAST YEAR AND WHAT HE'S LEARNED...

"Being a part of the team. That’s what I need the most. Just being around the guys – (Tedy) Bruschi, (Larry) Izzo, Don Davis – just seeing from a distance how they do things, I’m an idiot if I don’t follow those guys (so closely) that I run into their backs. What they do works. They know everything and I can take information from them every day.

Had surgery back in Las Vegas. Did first rehab there coming here so figured follow the same protocol because I came back 100 percent from the other one so same thing.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNLV'S 3-4 and NEW ENGLAND'S

"It’s like apples and oranges. I'm just trying to learn a new system and it’s taking a lot of time. There’s a lot of stuff to it but it boils down to playing football and in the end, you have to react. The hard part is translating it from the board to performing it on the field.

ADVICE HIS BROTHER GAVE HIM DURING HIS INJURY

"He (said) keep your nose clean because you don’t have a lot going on. Your job is to get healthy. That’s it. You have no other job but to get your body in shape and be healthy. And I think that’s pretty good advice."

Posted by   at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Flutie announces retirement

New England's own Doug Flutie has announced the end of a professional football career that spanned 21 years. Flutie, the 43-year-old former Heisman Trophy winner from Boston College, had spent the offseason deciding whether to come back for one more season as Tom Brady's backup quarterback. Instead, he said he will begin a second career as a college football commentator on ABC and ESPN.

Born in Maryland, Flutie moved to Natick, Mass., when he was 6 years old. He retires as one of the best-loved sports figures in the region. His Hail Mary touchdown pass that gave Boston College an improbable Black Friday victory over Miami in 1984 remains one of the most iconic plays in football history.

At a news conference today at Gillette Stadium to announce Flutie's retirement, Patriots chairman Robert Kraft lauded Flutie's work raising money for autism research, a cause Flutie took up in honor of his son, Doug Jr., who has autism. Kraft announced a $22,000 gift to the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation -- an amount picked because Flutie wore number 22 in college.

Flutie said he always looked at the sport as fun. "I just love playing football," Flutie said. "I love competing, I enjoy playing and it's still a game to me." Flutie later added that he is still a "big kid."

Although he was a college superstar, Flutie was dismissed by some in the NFL because of his relatively small stature; he stands 5 feet 9 inches tall. Flutie started his pro career with the New Jersey Generals of the now-defunct United States Football League. He entered the NFL in 1986 as a backup with the Chicago Bears. The following year, he joined the Patriots, where he played for three seasons, appearing in 11 games in 1988. But after sitting most of the next season, Flutie left for the Canadian Football League, where he was Most Outstanding Player for six seasons.

Flutie's NFL career took off when he returned, a decade later, to play for the Buffalo Bills. Flutie thrilled Buffalo fans for three years with his exciting style of play, before being bumped for the starting job by the Rob Johnson. The next stop for Flutie was San Diego, where he played for four years, seeing gradually less playing time with the emergence of young quarterback Drew Brees. Flutie returned to New England last year to serve as Brady's backup. He saw little game action, but he did give fans an enduring memory when he dropped-kicked home an extra point during a game at Gillette Stadium against the Miami Dolphins.

Flutie appeared in 91 NFL games, completing 1,177 of 2,151 passes for 14,715 yards, with 86 touchdowns and 68 interceptions. His best season came in 1998 with Buffalo, when he threw a career-high 20 touchdowns and led the Bills to the playoffs.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

Brady speaks

Like the groundhog that pokes his head out one February morning to play meteorologist then goes into hiding, Tom Brady made himself available to the media Thursday. And, like Punxsatawney Phil, he drew a crowd.

The All-Pro signal caller has been all over the world this offseason, and the team's media department said it receives too many interview requests for Brady for him to fulfill them all. So the word went out that the two-time Super Bowl MVP would be available Thursday after his workout, and about 50 media members showed up to hear Brady speak about a variety of topics.

On the losses of veterans Adam Vinatieri, Willie McGinest and David Givens, who signed with other teams as free agents:
"I mean, what can you say about their careers here – three time Super Bowl champs for Adam and Willie and two for David, David’s starting receiver on two Super Bowl teams, with the success all those guys had in the playoffs, you know, we’ve lost a lot. There’s a lot of value in those guys. So it’s tough; you’re sitting there at home, it’s the offseason, you see other guys getting signed other places, you’re lolkking and you’re seeing some of your core guys getting taken away."

"The Super Bowl team in 2001 was different from the team in 2003 and the team in 2004 and each year it changes, it evolves. As much as you’d love to keep everybody, when you have success, people are going to say, let's go get that guy. Who wouldn’t want David? Who wouldn’t want Willie? Who wouldn’t want Adam? We’d love to have those guys, but when you become free agents, there’s other teams that are out there to offer you that value of what’s on the market. Those guys found value in other places and the Patriots chose to look in other directions."

On the Patriots' 27-13 playoff loss to Denver in the AFC semifinals:
"It was tough. It was tough. It was so funny . . . I don’t watch a lot of TV, so before I went to bed I was watching TV and I was on On Demand, I went to Patriots On Demand, [and] I was like, 'Oh, let me flip through some of this stuff.' So I watch the press conference before the Denver game, and the last thing I say, last question, was on [Broncos cornerback] Champ Bailey, and I think I said, like, `Yeah, every time I throw over there I’m really going to make sure I’m careful when I throw in his direction'. I walked off. I’m sitting there laying in bed like, you've got to be [joking]. Of all the things to say. And sure enough, Champ [intercepted a Brady throw to the end zone and returned it] 103 yards."

On his March trip to Israel with New England owner Robert Kraft and his wife, Myra:
"Mr. Kraft called me up and said, `What do you think about going to Israel?' And I said, 'When?' And he said, 'Tomorrow night.' I said, 'Yup, I’d love to, I’m not doing anything, let me pack some stuff up.' So, 24 hours later, I'm in Jerusalem. It was a great experience. I really enjoyed being over there and being with him, and we have a pretty special bond. He’s a person I really look up to and admire and he’s a very trustworthy, honest person and I think I’m very fortunate to have him not only as my boss but as a great friend, someone that I can experience that with. That’s those `once in a lifetimes' where you go, 'Man, you can never duplicate anything like this,' and I’ve been lucky to have a lot of those."

On life without football:
"I don’t want to imagine life without football. I mean, like Brett Favre, all this talk about his retirement, I’m thinking, what the [heck] is he going to do? He’s a football player! Sure, there are other things he will do that he’ll probably enjoy, but there’s nothing that’s like running out there, and we’re warmimg up before games and that feeling you get for the competion and being with your teammates and winning games."

The Patriots will hold their first mini-camp of the offseason next weekend.

-- SHALISE MANZA YOUNG

Posted by Art  at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments 0