10 Sports Thoughts For A Friday...

Again, it's like Twitter, only not. Here are 10 things to get you to the weekend:

-Brady looked much better than expected in last night's preseason game. It's always tougher mentally to come back from an injury than it is the physical side, cause after a year without getting whacked Brady probably feels the best he has in years. It's that little part of his brain that will freak out anytime a lineman falls by his legs that he's going to have to get over and so far, so good. He was sharper than I expected and other than the one pass that turned into an interception, he wasn't hesitating to step into throws. The biggest moment of the night for me, however, was when he dove for the first down on 4th and short. Shows confidence in the knee and that's a play the Patriots need to know they can pull off.

-I guarantee, of those Patriot fans who already had their fantasy football drafts, half tried to claim Chris Baker this morning.

-You know who no one will be lining up to draft? Laurence Maroney. As he ran into the pile again and again for no gain I was reminded of how nice it was to have a guy like Corey Dillon who ran into the pile, but still managed to push it so that it was 2nd and 8 instead of 2nd and 10. The Patriots' running game is a big question going forward.

-While you can assume that teams in Cleveland, Denver and Kansas City are lining up to claim anyone that the Patriots waive, it seems like the Patriots are going to see who Oakland gets rid of. Seriously - Moss, Walter, Burgess all brought over from the Raiders. Belichick must just think if he can wash the Raiders off of them then he can turn them back in to productive players again.

-Perfect example of another a guy another team would scoop up is Julian Edelman. He does a good job of acting just like Wes Welker, but when you have the actual Wes Welker on the roster, do you also need his doppelganger? Not really, so he may not make the 53 man roster. However, he would be a nice insurance policy. But if the Patriots cut him and try to sneak him on the practice squad you'd have to imagine Denver would love for him to sign with them and fill the Wes Welker role in their offense.

-I don't get the Vick-to-the-Eagles signing. I get why a team would sign Vick - this is a land of second chances, he's paid his debt to society - all of that. I just don't get why this team signed Vick. You've got one guy who's always been on shaky ground with the fans (McNabb), who the crowds will be calling to replace the first time the team loses, and another guy (Kolb) who's the heir apparent. You wouldn't bring in Vick and all the PETA headaches that come with him just to stick him on the bench as the third guy, so where does he fit?

-So, there are new batting helmets designed by Rawlings, which allegedly can withstand the impact of a baseball up to 100 mph. The current helmets only have tolerance up to 70 mph. Some major league players don't want to wear them, cause they look a little strange. Now, I'll ignore the stupidity of that for one second (actually, I won't - I'll just ask: how stupid will you look when you have to drink all your food through a straw?) and instead focus on this - what major league pitcher is only throwing 70 mph? Even Wakefield gets into the 80's with his fastball. How were these batting helmets allowed to stick around for this long?

-Most of the time, when a team is having trouble getting people to sign up for season ticket packages, they go out and trade for a big-name player. The Nets are going a different route - they'll just give you the jerseys of good players from other teams. Nothing says "We're rebuilding... slowly" quite like giving away reversible jerseys so fans can switch allegiances at halftime.

-While we're on the subject, the reversible jersey might be the worst invention in fandom of the last 15 years. I bought one when I was young and stupid. It was Curtis Martin on one side and Terry Glenn on the other. I missed twice.

-Normally, one crappy NBA player's expiring contract getting traded for another's wouldn't even catch my eye. Except for two things:
1.) It's Quentin Richardson, getting traded for the fourth time in less than three months.
2.) He's getting traded for Mark Blount's hideous contract. Fun fact: when Blount signed that deal with the Celtics, I wrote an article for InsideHoops.com defending the deal. It led to the first time I ever Googled myself and found an entire blog post, written by some random fan, dedicated to how much of an idiot I must be. Big moment in my writing career.