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May 22, 2007
By Ryan Wilson
It's easy to hate the Patriots. They have won three Super Bowls in six years, have arguably the league's dreamiest quarterback, the smartest coach, and the best front office, and just wrapped up an off-season that already has every media bobblehead anointing them XLII Super Bowl champions.
But as a fan, I'm able to separate the game from the players -- at least during the summer, when there is no chance New England will beat the crap out of my team on their way to another postseason appearance. Plus, with all the ridiculously inane headlines NFL players have been making lately, this seems like a nice respite from killer dogs, money-raining strip clubs, and moonlighting pimps:
Marshall athletic director Bob Marcum ... was touched when he saw Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel at the annual football camp sponsored by Troy Brown and former Patriot Mike Bartrum this past weekend in Huntington, W.Va. Marcum saw Vrabel pushing a camper in a wheelchair from drill to drill. "He stayed with him most of the time, looking out for him," Marcum said. "I just thought it was a tremendous thing and you could see the happiness in the young boy's face. It was a great thrill for him."
This paragraph was buried in Mike Reiss's Patriots notebook in today's Boston Globe. Obviously, this is a much more important story than New England re-signing 38-year-old Junior Seau, or Vinny Testaverde Larking it around the locker room as he contemplates his next move in between games of Mahjong. But it's not salacious enough to be newsworthy, I guess.
Maybe if the kids got lap dances as part of their tuition the story would've garnered more attention, but that kinda defeats the purpose. Whatever, good for Vrabel. If I'm the NFL, I might want to make a bigger deal of this to distract fans from all the other silliness.
