Mutual respect

I see a winnable game for the Patriots at Denver Monday night. I know it's in Denver and the problems the Patriots have had there, but with Denver's QB situation and their interior linebackers being out, all things favor New England once again. I will say that this is one of Bill Belichick's biggest challenges. Every week, it seems, he looks across the other sideline and it's as if he's coaching against tremendously inferior coaches. Not the case with Mike Shanahan. This is a great NFL coach. Aren't too many of them, but he's surely one of them.

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"Yeah, I see us being very similar," Shanahan said this week in his conference call with the New England media. "We've been knocking heads for a lot of years. It's close to 20 years. It is 20 years. We've had a chance to really study each other. We know how each coach really has a game plan for each opponent. It's really been some great battles through the years. It's a strong respect level from my standpoint because I know how hard it is to beat a Bill Belichick team and how hard they play and the type of schemes you have to get ready for. You really don't know what you are going to get until game day and you have to make adjustments on game day. So it's a great challenge. I can't say it's fun, because so much work is involved, but there is much respect."

Great story, Danny Kanell, the Broncos QB. Last year, he was out of football playing baseball in the Atlantic League.

"Baseball was great," said Kanell. "I had a good time doing it. I was basically just trying to keep my competitive juices flowing. I wanted to do something where I was actively competing everyday. Football teams weren't calling. It was tough finding a job. So, I decided to go out there to stay busy. I was lifting a lot of weights, but you can only work out so much in a weight room all day. I wanted to try something a little bit different. I really had a good time playing up along the eastern seaboard."

Kanell played first and third for the Newark Bears. He took Jose Canseco's spot on the roster, hit about .250.

I get a kick out of how public sentiment turns, or should I say, how those laying in the weeds for several weeks are now popping up. For the first few weeks we were besieged with letters about how awful it was that the Patriots let Lawyer Milloy go right before the start of the season and then the double-whammy of him signing with rival Buffalo and the triple-whammy of the Bills crushing the Patriots, 31-0 on Opening Day. We heard the phrase "Buffalo Patriots." Now, the other side is having their day. Now they're bashing the Bills. And of course the Drew-Bashers are back! Didn't hear from too many of them the first couple of weeks of the season, but now Drew is the worst quarterback on the face of the Earth. He sure did look like it Sunday night against Kansas City, which is really an unbelievable team. Good to have the Drew-Bashers back. I missed you guys.   Continued...