early this morning my cousin (BC/ foxboro high grad) got a call from foxboro native tom nalen (broncos) and he puts the call on speaker phone so I can hear they've been good friends for almost their whole lives. so anyways the discussion turns into nalen playfully razzing my cousin about the patriots lack of moves and losing good players. my cousin then asks him "as a player how are the patriots viewed by freeagents " and he says something like "football players from every team are like a fraternity so we talk to eachother about whats going on, and honestly, nobody I've talked to wants to go to new england because they have no clue what the heck is going on down there ." there was a brief pause and my cousin asks "thats it?"
nalen without hesitation says"a certain degree of loyalty gets franchises a long way and the patrots are looked at as a cold hearted team. " so my cousin asks him "why havent the pats talked to many freeagents when they have $20M to spare?" the answer kind of shocked me. his answer was "Trust me they've talked to tons of freeagents you've just havent heard it because thats how they operate, I know of 4 or 5 great freeagents that have been contacted by the pats front office one way or another and they've turned down the pats over the phone and didnt even bother flying into foxboro to hear what they have to offer. players are reluctant to even bother with the pats this year because you cant use them as leverage because they undervalue you and you dont want to play there because of their unwillingness to pay" so to end this part of the discussion my cousin asks him "If you were a free agent would you consider the pats " his answer "I'll tell you this much, as much as I would love to be back in my hometown , they wouldnt even be in my top 10 places to land"
WOW!
so the question I ask you is have the pats lost their ability to attract quality players?
nalen without hesitation says"a certain degree of loyalty gets franchises a long way and the patrots are looked at as a cold hearted team. " so my cousin asks him "why havent the pats talked to many freeagents when they have $20M to spare?" the answer kind of shocked me. his answer was "Trust me they've talked to tons of freeagents you've just havent heard it because thats how they operate, I know of 4 or 5 great freeagents that have been contacted by the pats front office one way or another and they've turned down the pats over the phone and didnt even bother flying into foxboro to hear what they have to offer. players are reluctant to even bother with the pats this year because you cant use them as leverage because they undervalue you and you dont want to play there because of their unwillingness to pay" so to end this part of the discussion my cousin asks him "If you were a free agent would you consider the pats " his answer "I'll tell you this much, as much as I would love to be back in my hometown , they wouldnt even be in my top 10 places to land"
WOW!
so the question I ask you is have the pats lost their ability to attract quality players?