I don't think you're putting your starters at risk... you can get hurt on anyday, any given practice... what I thought was strange however was that its a major change in Belichick's philosophy of evaluating players to playing starters. If I was Haz, I wouldn't worry about 'agreeing' to play starters for 3 quaters I would just do it. Its preseason... its what it is. Teams approach it differently.

I don't know that Haz is ever quoted as saying that he and Bill agreed on this. They said that they had agreed to it on NFL live, but they did not say who said it. Haz is quoted as saying that this was the plan before the preseason, so it may be that ESPN got it twisted.

But, hey, strange things happen with this team. Maybe this is just part of our early move to wrench the Lombardi trophy from their hands this year :wink:

Sounds like we'll see what happens when it happens... tonight.

My point exactly, yasoon.

No sense in stirring the pot unless there is complete evidence that Haslett said this. Often times, some people are so eager and so quick to believe something negative about Haslett, and the end result is compromising their common sense in an effort to spew questionable propoganda about a potentially innocent victim.

I was not accusing.

I was pointing out that an agreement of that nature would have been odd in the extreme from the viewpoint of the Pats.

Can you blame Saints fans for jumping the gun on Haslett? Probably not.

After the past four season, I don't blame people from dogging Haslett if they were.

The interesting part of this story is that it may only be part 1 .

Commentators were commenting last night that Haslett appeared desperate for a win , It was commented on that the Patriots coaching staff was tired of getting pushed around on 3rd downs and the Patriots were starting to blitz to stop it .

While Hasbeen gets a win in preseason , the Patriots may be looking for some payback during regular season for Hasbeens little stunt .

That may well be the case. Season ticket sales have been abysmal hovering somewhere around 20,000. But they're picking up after the win in Foxboro. I wouldn't be surprised if someone made Haslett a little ultimatum before they hopped on the plane.

Possible, I noticed an increase in blitzes. I wouldn't be surprised. They were in front of the home crowd in their home opener, after all.

When I heard about this, I thought Has was bui9lding in an excuse to play his best guys longer than the Pats... So they could win the game.
I still think that's the case.
Has wanted to win.
Plus, it was something new.
And when you're doing something new the best way to have people not question it, is to bring in someone with a proven track record who bacs you up
IE Belichik