When I heard that the Patriots had traded Mike Vrabel, I just loved the idea. I hadn’t heard to who or for what, I just loved the idea. The “it’s a business” line that pro athletes rely on so much works both ways.
Yes, “it’s a business” when they get huge rookie deals without playing a snap. Yes, “it’s a business” when they go hog wild during a contract year. Yes, “it’s a business” when they get to free agency and go the highest bidder.
What Bill Belichick understands is that it is also “a business” when you are a top earner, being paid mostly for past production. He knows that he squeezed the absolute best there is to get from Vrabel. The combination of age and injuries is catching up to him. I wish Theo Epstein had the same attitude with Big Papi. We’ve gotten the best out of him, and age and injuries are catching up to him. I wouldn’t have minded seeing him dealt this winter.
As the mighty Hub Blog said,
Professional sports is a brutal business with no room for sentimentality.
Amen.
Dan Shaughnessy says Cassel trade is a loud statement
Intellectually and strategically, the deal makes sense, especially if the Patriots come away with another player like linebacker Jerod Mayo in the draft. They can get younger and they have new money to spend.
But emotionally, it’s asking Foxborough fans to swallow a gummy hairball.
Boo freaking hoo. Remember, “it’s a business”.
The fact that they gave up Vrabel and Cassel for only a second round pick? Surprising, yes. I’ll give the final word to a guy I have enormous respect for, the most underappreciated sports reporter in Boston, the Globe’s Mike Reiss,
In the end, the feeling here is that the Patriots turned a 2005 seventh-round draft choice — a player many felt would be cut at the end of training camp (me included) — into a valuable 2009 second-round pick.
It hurts to lose Vrabel, but that’s the risk the team took in placing the franchise tag on Cassel in the first place. They knew that if the market didn’t generate, there would have to be some sacrifices.
So in the end, the Patriots adjusted well to what the market dictated.
This isn’t the mega deal some were hoping for, perhaps even the Patriots themselves. But it’s still a solid trade.