QB knows receiver's pattern

Drew Bledsoe is about to have his first encounter with his newest and loudest teammate, the mercurial Terrell Owens. Although he knows Owens only by reputation, Bledsoe believes he's dealt with him before. Or at least guys like him.

``I haven't met him, but we've talked on the phone a couple of times," the Cowboys quarterback said from his home near Bend, Ore., where he was before an upcoming minicamp in Dallas.

``I'm excited to have him on our team. I've played with a lot of great wide receivers, and a lot of them are kind of high-strung. It comes with the position, I think. If they don't get the ball, they get upset. That's most great wide receivers. You've got to go to them and explain what you saw on the field if you missed them. I'm used to that.

``Against certain teams, you may need to talk with those guys before the game if you think a team is going to give them a tough time and try to take them out of the game. You explain what we're going to be trying and tell them to stay with you because their time will come.

``I really don't have any reservations about playing with T.O. I'm looking forward to it. We all know what T.O. can do in a game."

True, but in San Francisco and Philadelphia, they also know what he can do to a team, which, to be polite, is to divide it. His one-way personality clash with Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb last season destroyed the defending NFC champions' season and nearly did the same to Owens's career after he was suspended and then shipped out to the Cowboys.

Yet Bledsoe believes he'll be no more of a distraction than most high-speed, high-maintenance wideouts he's seen during his 14 years in the NFL.

``The only difference between T.O. and some other guys I can think of is he seems to go on television and talk about how he feels," Bledsoe said with a laugh. ``But Bill [Parcells] keeps it pretty simple. You do your job, you do what you're supposed to, and there's no problem. You don't, and he takes care of it.

``I don't think T.O. will have any problems here. I spoke with friends of mine who played with him in San Francisco and Philadelphia and they all said they loved the guy. Not one of them said they wouldn't want to play with him again. They all said he works hard, practices hard, wants to win, and makes you better. We all know what he's capable of when he gets the ball. I'm looking forward to seeing that."

If Owens plays the way he did in his first season in Philadelphia, Bledsoe and wide receiver Terry Glenn should be the beneficiaries. That year, Owens had 77 catches for 1,200 yards and 14 touchdowns despite missing the final two games and most of the playoffs with a broken leg. He came back in time for the Super Bowl and had nine catches for 122 yards in the Eagles' 24-21 loss to the Patriots. It is that kind of game-breaking brilliance Bledsoe believes could bring him closer to his third Super Bowl.

``We were a few field goals from being 14-2," Bledsoe said of last season. ``We've got a real good defense, the line will be better now that [left tackle] Flozell [Adams] is healthy again. [Jason] Fabini will help us at right tackle along with [Rob] Petitti [who started every game last year as a sixth-round draft choice]. We can run the ball. And T.O. should really help Terry and our passing game.

``They can't double-team Terry every play now, and I don't believe there's a guy in the league who can cover Terry one-on-one. I haven't seen anyone who could do it yet."

Bledsoe said Glenn has matured greatly since leaving New England and will understand when he doesn't get the ball because it's going in Owens's direction. Whether his new teammate does the same will have a lot to say about how things go in Dallas . . . and how many aspirin Bledsoe has to swallow this year.

``Guys say things," Bledsoe said. ``I understand that. Fortunately, I've always been the kind of person who doesn't remember that stuff for very long."

That trait may be as important as any skill he brings to the Cowboys this fall.

Taylor gets a business lesson

Apparently, Jacksonville Jaguars running back Fred Taylor has never watched the movie ``North Dallas Forty."

If Taylor had watched the scene where John Matuszak rails at team management, saying, ``Every time I call it a business, you call it a game, and every time I call it a game, you call it a business," he wouldn't be upset about whatever he's upset about at the moment. Which no one in Jacksonville is quite sure about.

Taylor, who at 30 may feel he's being slowly pushed out of the backfield, recently made it clear he was less than pleased at the response of coach Jack Del Rio when Taylor informed him he would not be participating in the team's offseason conditioning program. Instead of working at the Jaguars' complex with his teammates, the oft-injured Taylor decided to work independently at a place called Perfect Competition, and Del Rio let him know he wasn't happy about it.

``It's an unloyal business," Taylor said, as if this were a revelation. ``If they say something, it doesn't necessarily mean you mean it a week later. It's all hot air until it happens. Sometimes you've just got to deal with it. It's a business and they make it a business first.

``There are 31 other teams in this league and I'm good enough to play for somebody. I'm going to do what I need to do to take care of myself and they're going to do what they have to do to take care of the organization. It's a business. If somebody were to fall into free agency that was better than me, they would snatch him up in a heartbeat and I would be on the street.

``I'd love to end my career here. I know how it goes. Emmitt [Smith] wanted to end his career in Dallas, but it doesn't always work out. What someone says can be a lot of hot air, so I'm going to take care of Fred first."

That sounds like a plan.

Quarterbacks take matters into their own hands

At least 20 NFL quarterbacks were involved in the effort to change the way game balls will be handled next season, with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning instrumental in a minor change that all of them felt was important to offensive football.

The home team's quarterbacks have long been able to work on the balls that will be used in games but the visiting quarterbacks had no such luxury. Although that never seemed to hurt Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, Johnny Unitas, or John Elway, today's quarterbacks were willing to organize to get an equal break for visitors.

``We sort of helped lead the charge on getting that rule changed, we had a little petition going around," Manning said. ``Tom Brady and I kind of teamed up and got 20 quarterbacks to sign the petition. We tracked Steve [McNair] down in Mississippi.

``Everybody faxed their petition back pretty much the next day. It was pretty much a no-brainer on trying to get that changed. Because it just makes sense. You throw your footballs at home, you ought to be able to throw the footballs you want on the road as well. Nobody wants to see a receiver wide open and the ball two-hopped to him because the ball is slick."

At this year's owners meetings, the Competition Committee said it didn't get the quarterbacks' petition but did receive a letter on the subject and found it a reasonable request, so the rule change was approved.

In the past, the home team provided 24 balls for plays from scrimmage to game officials who approved them before the game, then gave them to the sideline officials, who put them in and out of play. Eighteen other balls are used exclusively on kicking plays and go to the officials the night before the game at their hotel, where they prepare them.

This season, each team will bring 12 balls that will be stamped with the team name. Officials will get them before the game, inspect them, and if approved, the ball will be given to the sideline officials before the game. The team on offense will use the appropriate team footballs. The kicking balls will still be prepared and put into the game as in the past.

The biggest concern of quarterbacks is the slickness of the ball. The quarterbacks and equipment staff will prepare the footballs to bring on the road, though they will not be allowed to deflate them.

Etc.

Jeff Webb had better hope Herman Edwards doesn't hold a grudge. The new coach of the Chiefs has a particularly good idea of the kind of wide receiver Webb was at San Diego State. That's because Webb, a sixth-round pick, kept Edwards's son, Marcus, on the Aztecs' bench. Webb was eighth in the nation last year with an average of 7.18 catches per game and has the size the Chiefs like in wide receivers, whom they often employ as blockers in the running game. Webb stands 6 feet 2 inches, weighs 211 pounds, and runs a 4.4 40, facts Edwards hopes will allow him to get downfield. If Webb manages to do that, Edwards will forget what he did to his son in San Diego.

Jets coach Eric Mangini will host his fifth annual youth football camp June 3 at his alma mater, Bulkeley High in Hartford. Participation has grown from 250 kids to more than 650, with 75 NFL coaches and players, as well as college and high school coaches, working with campers on fundamentals. But Mangini claims the camp's real goal is to teach decision-making, competition, and teamwork. ``As a student, I saw a lot of good kids make bad choices simply because they didn't have any positive options or positive role models," Mangini said. ``I promised myself that if I had the opportunity, I would help provide good opportunities for these kids who are looking to do the right thing." Although swamped trying to rebuild the Jets, the first-year coach continues to make his camp a priority. This year he is even inviting media members to serve as coaches in the morning session.

At least one NFL personnel man has doubts about both Reggie Bush and Vince Young, and is willing to make them public. At the NFL combine in February, Browns general manager Phil Savage said Bush wouldn't be effective as an every-down back in the NFL. ``I think when you get in a situation at his size, 200 pounds or so, when you're carrying it 20 or 25 times a game for 16 games, I think that's almost an impossibility for somebody to do that the way the game is played right now." A month later, at the owners' meetings, Savage was equally skeptical of Young's ability to adapt to playing under center. Savage was less concerned with Young's throwing motion than most scouts but questioned his ability to go through multiple reads of the constantly changing NFL defenses. ``I think the question on him, at least in my mind, is the fact he's operated in a shotgun offense with pretty vanilla reads, and if those reads weren't there, he could take off and run with it," Savage said. ``You can do that in the NFL to a degree, but there does seem to be a little more structure in the league than in the college game. And every college team right now has some form of the shotgun spread offense, but every NFL team doesn't necessarily do that."

NFL supervisor of officials Mike Pereira has spent part of his offseason visiting NASCAR tracks to review that sport's top-of-the-line replay system. Pereira said the NFL will spend between $8 million and $9 million to upgrade its replay system by the 2008 season.

New Green Bay cornerback Charles Woodson has expressed interest in returning punts. Once a game-breaker at Michigan, Woodson returned only 12 punts in eight seasons with the Raiders. He fielded punts at a recent minicamp and says he wants the chance. New Packers coach Mike McCarthy has made no decision on it.

Apparently, Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden's planning is benefiting young wide receiver Mark Clayton. After a spectacular 2004 rookie season in which he caught 80 passes for 1,193 yards, Clayton was a disappointment last season. He was often missing from offseason workouts because of knee surgery, he came to training camp overweight, and he never found his stride. By season's end, you needed an APB to find Clayton on a pass route. Concerned about his future in Tampa, Clayton went to see Gruden soon after the season ended and was presented with a ``contract" that outlined Gruden's offseason expectations for him. Clayton signed it, and is now 13 pounds lighter and completely healthy. Whether that translates into a season more like his rookie year remains to be seen, but no one, including Gruden, can accuse him of not going with the program.

Eagles guard Shawn Andrews also has taken to an offseason weight loss program after admitting that he weighed nearly 400 pounds. The need for change was reinforced last month when he went home to Camden, Ark., and spent a day with a boyhood friend who had a similar appetite and waistline. Later that day Andrews received a call telling him his 23-year-old friend had died of a heart attack. Andrews said weight has long been a battle for him, so he is closely following a diet that has helped him lose more than 35 pounds. He was listed at 340 last season but never played at that low a weight. This year he's hoping to get down to 345-350.

Just thinking about the heavy hits by former Patriots All-Pros Andre Tippett and Steve Nelson forced yours truly to drop the ball last week. The third annual Linebacker School at Curry College is set for July 9-11, not next month. For additional information, contact Skip Bandini at 781-942-4521 or go to www.MastersFootballCamp.com.

Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.