Camp a fundamentally sound idea
Having completed a pep talk on attitude and leadership to a gathering of teenage boys at Hartford's Bulkeley High School and returned the megaphone to Football Fundamentals Minicamp cofounder Eric Mangini, Bill Belichick turned and approached the camp's other founder, Tebucky Jones, who was sitting on the grass behind his former coach. Belichick, wearing a wide grin, leaned over and, with both hands, pulled Jones to his feet. It was a symbolic moment. Because, for more than 150 volunteers and some 70 "coaches," June 5 was all about coming together in spite of their differences and different backgrounds and lending a hand to nearly 600 eighth- through 12th-graders from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The one-day camp, which benefits the Carmine & Frank Mangini Foundation and the Tebucky Jones Youth Foundation, drew the most participants in its three-year history and featured a coaching staff that included Belichick, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, Patriots assistants Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis, and New England linebacker Rosevelt Colvin.
Colvin drove from Indianapolis to coach the linebackers, with the help of Andre Tippett and Bryan Cox, who traveled from Atlanta. So accomplished were the linebacker coaches that Patriots linebackers coach Dean Pees was assigned to the running backs. Cox and Lewis spoke to the group before Belichick. Antwan Harris, though not re-signed by the Patriots, came from Raleigh, N.C. Bobby Hamilton, now a Raider, came from Atlanta to instruct the defensive linemen, along with Crennel, Rick Lyle, who also was not re-signed, and Ravens defensive line coach Rex Ryan. Richard Seymour was unable to attend but purchased 70 jerseys for the winners of a seven-on-seven touch football tournament.
Scott Pioli and Dante Scarnecchia tutored offensive linemen. Weis was in charge of quarterbacks, Mark Bavaro tight ends. Belichick, Jones, Shawn Mayer, and ex-Patriot Corwin Brown coached defensive backs. Mike Woicik handled conditioning.
"I was really happy with the amount of kids, the diversity of the kids, and quality of the coaching staff," said Mangini, the Patriots' defensive backs coach and a Bulkeley alumnus, who named his nonprofit foundation in honor of his late father and uncle. "I'm always amazed at how good the pro guys are with the kids. Everybody's taking huge chunks of their time. In such a selfish industry, it's good to see guys being selfless."
"Each year we just want it to grow," said Jones, a New Britain, Conn., native, who was traded by the Patriots to New Orleans last offseason. He would like to extend the camp beyond one 12-hour day. "We don't want to go backward. We want to have it go as far as it possibly can."
Jones's foundation has been awarding college scholarships and giving away Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas toys to needy families since he entered the NFL in 1998. The CFM Foundation started with Mangini and his brother, Kyle (who flies in from Australia every year for the camp), purchasing gym equipment for Bulkeley High. Then Mangini and his wife, Julie, "adopted" a group of New Jersey siblings, one of whom was attending school in his pajamas, and since then CFMF has awarded mini-grants and scholarships to underprivileged children.
The $45 entry fee, which included lunch and a T-shirt, was waived for most of the campers.
"If someone doesn't do anything for them, how are we going to change anything?" Mangini said. "A lot of people talk about wanting to do something and wanting to effect change, but if you want to effect change, don't you have to start with the kids?"
Mangini said he starts getting heavily involved in planning for the camp once the season ends. He estimates the cost at $10,000.
The staff gets three squares, and the "coaches" took home portable grills and sweat suits. Close to 600 boys took with them a priceless athletic experience.
"If they can take one positive thing from the day, whether it's something they heard in the talks or a skill or whatever," Mangini said, "then that's great.
For more information about the Football Fundamentals Minicamp, visit www.buck34.com, www.cfmfoundation .com, or call 860-635-9081.
Inside information
Tedy Bruschi has walked in Dan Klecko's shoes and knows it isn't comfortable at first. "It's the toughest thing I ever had to do," Bruschi said of the move from defensive lineman to inside linebacker. "To have my hand down in the dirt and then be asked to stand up 4 yards off the ball, it reads a totally different way. I know what he's going through. And it was tough for me. Unfortunately, it took me over a year to get used to it. I'm just trying to help him a little bit in meeting rooms and on the side, just trying to give him pointers that will help him get along a little faster than he would normally." Klecko's view of the action is abnormal compared to what he is accustomed to as a defensive tackle. "When you're down in a three-point stance, you're seeing two guys, maybe three," said Bruschi. "You're a middle linebacker standing up, you've got to see the whole thing. You've got to recognize formations and make adjustments. You've got to recognize entirely different blocking schemes." Klecko, who said he is down to 270 pounds from his listed weight of 283, said, "Tedy helps me a lot. I'm trying to be in his hip pocket as much as I can. He's been helping me with every little thing." Belichick said putting Klecko at linebacker may not be a long-term experiment. "He has the athleticism to play at that position," Belichick said. "He'll definitely play down in some situations as well, maybe all situations." The thing about Klecko is, he knows how to play football. "When the pads come on and everything starts happening a little bit faster and the contact comes, in the past that has always been one of his strengths," Belichick said. "Dan is a guy who probably looks a little bit better when the pads are on relative to other players. Some guys might look a little bit better athletically and moving around. Dan has got the motor and the power." . . . Jones knows a thing or two about position changes. He also knows the Saints' defense better now that he's going into his second year in coordinator Rick Venturi's system. The problem last season was that he was one of several newcomers to the defense. He didn't live up to the expectations that came with the $30 million deal New Orleans gave him after acquiring him for third-, fourth-, and seventh-round picks, and he struggled with tackling and nagging injuries. Five weeks ago, he had bone spurs removed from his right ankle, and he said he played most of last season with partially torn left and pulled right groin muscles. He also was a bit overweight, he acknowledges -- 228 pounds as opposed to his playing weight of 218-220 in New England. "It's that food down there," Jones said. "I had to learn not to eat all that food." He'll have plenty more time to sample Cajun cuisine, as the Saints picked up their option on Jones for the 2008 and '09 seasons. As for this season, the hard-hitting free safety expects to make more of an impact since he won't be playing at 80 percent and can cut effectively. "I expect every year to get a Super Bowl ring," he said.
No time like present
Tom Brady's agent, Don Yee, like Belichick and Pioli, doesn't discuss contracts publicly. Well, if they aren't discussing Brady's among themselves, perhaps they should be. And not just because the two-time Super Bowl MVP and cornerstone of one of the league's marquee franchises deserves to be among the game's highest-paid players. As Brady said Friday, he's under contract for three more years, so the Patriots aren't obligated to do anything. But it wouldn't hurt them to be even further under the salary cap, and they could use the room to, say, sign soon-to-be free agents such as Joe Andruzzi, Jarvis Green, Larry Izzo, Matt Light, Adam Vinatieri to extensions, or reward Seymour with a new deal. Brady counts $8,374,350 this year -- second most on the team to Ty Law's $10.2 million figure, which the Patriots have said they're going to carry. Doing a new deal with Brady now would allow the Patriots to reduce his base salary this year from $5.5 million to the minimum ($535,000), rather than guaranteeing most of his base and inflating future cap numbers with prorations. Brady is scheduled to be the league's No. 8 quarterback in terms of salary from 2004-06, behind Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Steve McNair, Michael Vick, Jeff Garcia, Drew Bledsoe, and Joey Harrington. Brady sneaks into the top this year in terms of cash compensation (salary and bonuses). Manning heads the list with $35 million, followed by Marc Bulger ($9.4 million), Mark Brunell ($9.3 million), Bledsoe ($8.7 million), Favre ($8.5 million), Rich Gannon ($7 million), McNair ($6.2 million), Vick ($6 million), with Garcia, Brad Johnson, and Brady in the $5.5 million range . . . Perhaps in Law's mind, asking the Patriots for an extension (seven years, $63 million, $20 million to sign) larger than the contract he received five years ago (seven years, $51 million, $14.2 million) isn't asking for more money. As he said, he has money. At the end of this season, and going back to 1999, the Patriots will have paid Law $37.7 million, the ninth-highest total in the league behind Manning, Michael Strahan, Donovan McNabb, Bledsoe, Favre, Brunell, LaVar Arrington, and McNair. If Law makes it through this season with the Patriots, in 10 years in New England he will have made $41.2 million. Only 17 players (six defensive) will have made more in that time. No wonder he called New England's $26 million offer a "slap in the face." . . . On the other hand, there's Troy Brown, whose $2.25 million base for this season the team recently guaranteed. Asked Friday if he's been compensated fairly, Brown responded, "Compared to the rest of the world, I have been."
Tuna surprise
A day after using an ethnic slur in reference to surprise plays, Dallas coach Bill Parcells got into an altercation with third-year receiver Antonio Bryant Tuesday, which ended with Bryant tossing his jersey in Parcells's face and having to be escorted from the practice facility. Bryant hasn't been back, and ex-Jet and ex-Patriot Dedric Ward was brought in Friday. Several teams, including the Texans, reportedly have inquired about trading for Bryant, the 63d overall pick of the 2002 draft. The Cowboys are old and thin at receiver, so they may be reluctant to part with a talented 23-year-old, even a mutinous one. Crazy as it sounds, Dallas needs Bryant, just not the drama . . . In this age of parity, the Texans may have the toughest road to the top of their division. In the Colts and Titans, the AFC South may feature the second- and third-best teams, respectively, not only in the conference but the league. And then there are the Jaguars, one of the league's up-and-coming teams. At the end of last season, 18 of Jacksonville's 22 starters were former first- or second-round picks. The Texans are going to start both their first-round picks, cornerback Dunta Robinson (Marcus Coleman is moving to free safety) and linebacker Jason Babin, immediately . . . One team's trash is another's treasure, so to speak. Two years ago, the Chargers beat out the Patriots for free agent guard/center Bob Hallen. After a 4-12 season, the Chargers had no use for Hallen (and seven other offensive linemen) and New England got Hallen the second time around. Last week, San Diego traded the first of its two fifth-round picks in 2005 (it picked up an extra fifth in the Eli Manning trade) to Tampa Bay for Roman Oben, the starting left tackle on the Buccaneers' championship team two years ago whom Tampa would have released anyway. The Chargers thought they had finally gotten their line together with the Oben acquisition, until center Jason Ball and guard Toniu Fonoti didn't show for the start of this weekend's mandatory minicamp. Fonoti reportedly checked himself into a weight-loss clinic . . . Ball, who went from an undrafted free agent out of the University of New Hampshire to the anchor of the San Diego line, was holding out for a multiyear deal rather than play for the third-year minimum ($380,000), but now reportedly wants to be traded. San Diego won't talk with Ball until he comes to work, but he's in no rush because he can't be fined since he isn't under contract. Ball's situation offers a stark contrast to the Patriots' dealings with exclusive-rights free agent David Givens, with whom New England has been nice enough to even discuss a long-term deal even though Givens, like Ball, can't negotiate with anyone else. Come to think of it, why is there even such status as an exclusive-rights free agent when, if you are one, you aren't free to take anything but what your team offers you? . . . If David Patten and/or J.J. Stokes doesn't make the Patriots, they could receive interest from the Chargers, who remain in the market for a veteran receiver. A Chargers source said general manager A.J. Smith had his eye on Brown's situation, in case he were cut because of what had been a large cap number. Who will be throwing to San Diego's receivers is still in question, as the Chargers don't seem committed to starting top pick Philip Rivers from Day 1, even though he supposedly was the most-prepared QB prospect in the draft . . . With Cleveland's release of Tim Couch last week, three of the five members of the famed quarterback class of 1999 don't have a team: Couch (No. 1 overall), Akili Smith (No. 3, Cincinnati), and Cade McNown (No. 12, Chicago). Meanwhile McNabb (No. 2) and Daunte Culpepper (No. 11) are franchise quarterbacks.
