Patriots pull a stunner with release of Milloy

By Nick Cafardo, Globe Staff, 9/3/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- It seemed fitting that on the day Lawyer Milloy was cut by the Patriots, former New England great and Hall of Famer Mike Haynes, now an executive with the NFL, visited with players in the locker room.

Once it was thought Haynes, a defensive back like Milloy, would be a Patriot for life. But as in this case, things changed rapidly and Haynes was traded in 1983 to the Los Angeles Raiders, for whom he excelled for years. Milloy, a four-time Pro Bowl selection, now finds himself looking for that new beginning.

Milloy got the news of his release yesterday morning from head coach Bill Belichick, though it appears he knew for the past week that his days with New England were numbered after he steadfastly refused to take what one associate of Milloy's termed "a ridiculous cut" in pay.

Milloy's agent, Carl Poston, negotiated with the team over the weekend, and Belichick said at one point in a long conference call Sunday he thought the sides were close to a resolution.

But faced with a deadline of 4 p.m. today to be under the $74.6 million NFL salary cap, the Patriots elected to release Milloy. According to a person close to the negotiations, the team asked Milloy to take a pay cut of more than $1 million.

Milloy will now try to recoup some if not all of that money with a new team. That team could be the Buffalo Bills, with some prodding from their quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, a friend and former teammate of Milloy's.

"When I heard the news this morning, I told anyone around here who would listen that we had to go get Lawyer," said Bledsoe from his Buffalo-area home last night. "I was as surprised as anyone because, as a former teammate and a friend, I understand as well as anyone what Lawyer brings to a team. I don't know the circumstances of what happened, but being his teammate and playing against him last year, this is a guy who is the heart and soul of your team.

"I've never played with a better teammate. I've never been around a guy who can get a team as juiced up as he can. I've never been around a guy who has the respect of each and every one of his teammates. That's why it was so surprising to me and that's why I told our guys, `If you can get him here, he'll make such a difference.' I know we were working hard to make that happen."

With the season opener coming up Sunday -- against the Bills in Buffalo -- Milloy's ex-teammates in New England were, for the most part, shocked over the loss of their defensive captain. Many players echoed Bledsoe's comment that Milloy was the heart and soul of the team.

The Patriots had been trying for five months to reduce Milloy's $5.9 million cap number, according to Belichick. With this move, they will save Milloy's $4.4 million salary and take a $1.4 million cap hit this season; the hit will be a whopping $4.4 million next season, according to one of the league's top cap executives.

One alternate solution may have been a guarantee of all or part of his Paragraph 5 salary, which would have saved the Patriots a huge amount of cap space. The portion guaranteed would have been switched from salary to signing bonus, and that amount could have been prorated over the remaining three years of the contract, according to the capologist. If the Patriots had reduced Milloy's salary to the minimum of $650,000, for example, and used the remainder as prorated bonus, the team would have saved more than $2 million in cap money.

"What it tells you is the Patriots believed that Lawyer Milloy wasn't worth the money they were paying him," said the cap man. "It tells you that they didn't believe he was that important a player on their team."

It was obvious Belichick did not like the job done by his secondary a year ago. He traded Tebucky Jones to the Saints, did not re-sign Terrell Buckley or Victor Green, waived Otis Smith, and now has released Milloy.

Belichick said four-year veteran Antwan Harris and veteran free agent pickups Chris Akins and Aric Morris will compete for the starting free safety job.

Veteran strong safety Rodney Harrison, who was signed as a free agent this offseason, was asked whether his role would change and said, "It probably will. It probably means I would need to take more of a leadership role around here."

The most visibly upset Patriot was cornerback Ty Law, who could be the next big-name player in jeopardy, because he carries a large cap number that he has been unwilling to reduce, and he is represented by Poston.

"If you look at it as anything other than a business, you're crazy," said Law. "As much as you try to have fun in this game, it's scary.

"There's a difference between good business and bad business. I don't know what category this falls into. This late in the game, I'm quite sure something could have happened a long time ago."

Belichick said, "This is a player and a person that I have immense respect for and means a lot to this team and this organization. It is just unfortunate that this was kind of a casualty of the way the system is right now.

"In the end, the timing is obviously not good, not what we would be looking for. I think it is a reflection of the fact that we tried. Both sides tried all the way to, truly, the 11th hour, to try to find a way to make it work. But in the end we just weren't able to get to that point. That is basically the situation there."

Milloy, 29, didn't have impressive numbers on the stat sheet, but his teammates say his impact was great nevertheless. Milloy often said he was wearing many hats in Belichick's scheme, and things he did went unnoticed.

One thing that did not go unnoticed was that his speed had declined somewhat. In last season's final game, against the Dolphins, Milloy picked up an apparent fumble and ran with it but was caught from behind by Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler.

Whatever loss of speed there is, Bledsoe doesn't believe there's any loss of impact.

"I saw Lawyer from one side as his teammate for so long, and then I got to see him as an opponent," said Bledsoe. "I'm sure happy he's not with the Patriots from that point of view. He was a player that created big problems for us on the field."