Tom Nalen speaks on why patriots wont attract any quality freeagents

Tylaw24

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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?
 
Tylaw24 said:


so the question I ask you is have the pats lost their ability to attract quality players?

so the question I have for Tom Nalen is:

are you a Shlemiel or no Shlemiel
 
My first reaction was...

Who is your cousin? I graduated from Foxboro as well. ;)


Anyway, it is one player's opinion. There may be some truth to it, there may not be. There are some of examples that are opposite to what he says. The Patriots certainly paid Brady, Colvin, Light, and others market value.

I tend to think they haven't courted too many free agents, because Belichick has NEVER made a big splash at the beginning of free agency.
 
Interesting comments from Nalen, but he is a guy who is probably on his last contract, already has a couple of rings and would have to go for the biggest payday he could get.

I could point out several guys that came here (such as Rodney Harrison) who cited their desire to win a Super Bowl as a big attraction in signing with New England and we can still offer that as a very big incentive to guys that have more on their mind than just the cash.

To suggest the Pats are now a pariah to free agents is a bit of a stretch in my mind.
 
i think it's probably a bit overstated, but i can see his point.

pay aside, do you want to be "just another part" of a good team, or do you want to feel appreciated and viewed as a reason the team is good.

meh, i would think the winning would overshadow that, but i guess the worm has turned a little bit.
 
I dont neccarily feel that we have to go out and pay every player that wants to be PAID but we have a universal financial reputation that we need to shake off.
 
I've had this discussion many times. I don' see why they can't do both. Pay players what youfeel is their value, but at the same time treat them as though they are valued (ie. not 'cold hearted').

I'm not privy to how Belichick & Co. deal with these guys behind close doors, but the feeling I get is very business like. No real harm in that, but if you could just infuse a bit of humanness into it, it may go a long way.

Look at the Bruins, they've been doing the whole "robot" routine for decades, and not one free agent looks to the Bruins as a destination of choice unless it is strictly money.

I will be the first to admit I don't know how the Pats actually operate, but if it is strictly robotic that would be a shame.
 
Dirtywater said:
Look at the Bruins, they've been doing the whole "robot" routine for decades, and not one free agent looks to the Bruins as a destination of choice unless it is strictly money.

I will be the first to admit I don't know how the Pats actually operate, but if it is strictly robotic that would be a shame.

Well said.

I don't know if you ever stream WEEI radio to keep tabs, but it appears that some Pats fans are drawing a comparison between the Bruins and the Pats.

Which isn't a positive analogy.

Of course, the Bruins haven't won a championship since there were only a handful of guys that wore helmets, so it ain't quite the same thing.
 
Hawg73 said:
Well said.

I don't know if you ever stream WEEI radio to keep tabs, but it appears that some Pats fans are drawing a comparison between the Bruins and the Pats.

Which isn't a positive analogy.

Of course, the Bruins haven't won a championship since there were only a handful of guys that wore helmets, so it ain't quite the same thing.

I do infact stream it (thank God for the internet & DirecTV) and I haven't yet heard that , but it is true.

And the longer we go from winning championships, the harder it will be to point to them and ask that they take a reduced salary in exchange for winning.

I am not making any direct comparisions between the two organizations, just pointing out that you need a mixture of both business & human element to secure the best team. I hope we don't tip the scales in either direction.
 
Tylaw24 said:
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?

OUCH!!!
 
Dirtywater said:
I'm not privy to how Belichick & Co. deal with these guys behind close doors, but the feeling I get is very business like. No real harm in that, but if you could just infuse a bit of humanness into it, it may go a long way.

Lavin shined a little light I thought on this exact subject a few days back.
 
When did winning become secondary? Why has the game slipped into a MLB mentality even though everyone thinks it is the shining star of the sports world? Too much money to guys that have become primadonnas. Too much peer pressure to grab all you can for your family because you never know which drug-addicted son or daughter will have you all pan-handling. It is friggin' sickening to hear these guys talk like they do more than play a game for their livelyhoods. I spend more of my time and money watching the sport of football than many of these guys are willing to. They get paid for every single thing they do relating to football and it is still not enough??? THIS IS WHY THE PATRIIOTS HAVE BEEN HATED. They spend wisely on MEN THAT LOVE THE GAME AND WOULD PROBABLY PLAY FOR FREE! Everyone else acts like the Patriots are expected to play for free and now many fans are buying the same book of sad tales. If it came down to it, BB would field a team of second stringers and come out victorious. In fact, for a few years now, he has.....and it pisses some off to no end.
Stand firm BB and F them all.
 
StoneWalled, if you are implying that sports are a reflection of society, then I wholeheartedly agree with you. If you are implying that someone else should "live to work" as opposed to "work to live" then I do not.
 
Wandering Athol said:
StoneWalled, if you are implying that sports are a reflection of society, then I wholeheartedly agree with you. If you are implying that someone else should "live to work" as opposed to "work to live" then I do not.

Absolutely not the latter. I think maybe someone should remind these guys that there is still some fun to be had in all of it and losing just isn't fun. Even Milloy couldn't understand how someone could put being rich and winning above being richer and losing. Idunno, maybe I'm nuts.:confused:
 
StoneWalled said:
Absolutely not the latter. I think maybe someone should remind these guys that there is still some fun to be had in all of it and losing just isn't fun. Even Milloy couldn't understand how someone could put being rich and winning above being richer and losing. Idunno, maybe I'm nuts.:confused:

Unfortunately, for many of these guys, they are surrounded by hangers-on and paid-on-commission agents telling them non-stop, 24 hours a day, "go for the big bucks, these owners are exploiting you," when in fact most times it's "go for the big bucks, we still need to exploit you a little more."

A lot of the players just don't have the smarts, the family support structure and backing, or the gumption to stand up these sycophants.
 
Wandering Athol said:
StoneWalled, if you are implying that sports are a reflection of society, then I wholeheartedly agree with you. If you are implying that someone else should "live to work" as opposed to "work to live" then I do not.

I don't know.
I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a player to love his job especially when he's playing in the NFL.
 
Lots of speculation and very little substance to that article.

I can name ten players the Pats have shown plenty of loyalty to.

Now a few leave and its time to panic?

It makes for good chatter with the non-believers.

As for me, Im not very worried. The next run starts in 5 Months.

:thumb:
 
WV-Colt said:

pay aside, do you want to be "just another part" of a good team, or do you want to feel appreciated and viewed as a reason the team is good.


Funny thing is, when your team wins the Lombardi Trophy, you Do appreciate each and every player, and view them as a reason the team is good.

And I would bet that the players on a championship team appreciate the fact that each player has contributed to the collective excellence. I mean, on the sb36-winning Patriots, from J.R. Redmond, to Mike Compton, to Bobby Hamilton, they Were all appreciated, I would think.
 
Steve1 said:
Funny thing is, when your team wins the Lombardi Trophy, you Do appreciate each and every player, and view them as a reason the team is good.

And I would bet that the players on a championship team appreciate the fact that each player has contributed to the collective excellence. I mean, on the sb36-winning Patriots, from J.R. Redmond, to Mike Compton, to Bobby Hamilton, they Were all appreciated, I would think.

i completely understand what you're saying, and that's they way i viewed the pats as well...despite my efforts to the contrary. however, i don't believe that is the general consensus for the rest of the football world (read fans). it matters to these guys how they're viewed.
 
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