Putting it in perspective

Debate rages over Patriots' release of All-Pro Milloy

Three days or so after the shocking turn of events surfaced, two different perspectives on the Lawyer Milloy situation in New England have emerged. And with the benefit of a little time and hindsight, portions of both seem to make their share of sense.

One take on Milloy's stunning departure from New England and subsequent acquisition by Buffalo goes something like this:

• As poorly timed as Milloy's release was, the reality is that the Patriots shifted to a 3-4 defense this year, and that means Milloy's once-significant role at safety had been lessened. The 3-4 is a linebacker-driven defense, and Milloy's $4.4 million 2003 salary could no longer be justified in light of New England's new emphasis. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick came to grips with that fact long ago and was determined somehow, some way to bring Milloy's price tag into line with his reduced level of responsibility.

Though New England still had respect for Milloy's talents and his team leadership, the economics of each position has to fit in today's cap-driven NFL, and the Patriots simply couldn't overpay Milloy that drastically. Thus, having backed themselves into a corner in terms of the calendar, they had to make a very unpopular move for all the right reasons.

As one veteran personnel man told me this week: "The reality is, Milloy can still play. He's a good player. But his cap number [which was scheduled to be $5.85 million this year] was high for a position that doesn't always impact the game. That's a lot of money to have tied up in a safety. My sense is Belichick didn't want to spend that kind of money on that position.

"He's not a defensive end, a pass rusher. He's a safety. I never leave the stadium and say, 'Oh, man, that safety really beat us today.' The Patriots took a calculated risk that they could get him to take a pay cut, and it didn't work out. But I don't know if it really shifts anything within the division.''

Furthermore, proponents of this perspective add that given Belichick's well-earned acumen in personnel matters, you have to give the Patriots the benefit of the doubt on this one. It looks bad to lose Milloy five days before the season opener, and it may hurt the Patriots in the short term, but New England remains a talented and resilient team capable of going all the way this season. After all, losing Drew Bledsoe to the Bills didn't hurt the Patriots last season. And Milloy's presence on the other sideline Sunday in Buffalo won't be a difference-maker, either.

There are tons of valid points in that argument. Now here's the opposite view:

• Belichick is one smart coach, and his track record is proven. But he might have miscalculated this time. Once they went down the road toward a pay cut with Milloy, the Patriots had to know where it might come out and how it might impact both their locker room and the AFC East race. New England officials were smart enough to figure out that Buffalo would be Milloy's likely landing spot, given the Bills' lack of play-making at safety last season, and they could not allow Buffalo to poach a key Patriots player for a second consecutive year.

Yes, Milloy is less vital in the 3-4 defense, but he has been a loyal soldier and four-time Pro Bowl player, and the message you send to the rest of the roster by whacking him just before the real bullets start flying is not the one you want your team to have in mind as it prepares to sell out for the cause over the next five months.

After a positive, successful preseason in which the Patriots went undefeated and gained the look and sheen of a Super Bowl favorite, New England created a problem where there seemingly wasn't one except on the salary cap ledger. No matter how the Patriots and Milloy handled the salary issue, New England shouldn't have let it get to the point where one of its best players could walk out the door and join the team most likely to push the Patriots for the division title. Especially just before the two teams open the season against each other. The risk doesn't fit the gain.

Milloy's departure is a loss in New England's locker room, no matter how you frame the circumstances of his exit. Cornerback Ty Law, who was being shopped around the league last week by New England, NFL sources say, is Milloy's best friend and knows it very well could have been him leaving town. Will he and the rest of the Patriots be able to put Milloy's treatment out of their minds at any point this season?

"There's like a black cloud around here,'' said new Patriots safety Rodney Harrison, a salary-cap casualty in San Diego this offseason after years of exemplary service. "Everybody wonders about the timing, with the first game coming up this weekend. This is supposed to be about winning games, and I can't say we're better without Lawyer Milloy. You have to be an idiot to think you'd get better by losing an All-Pro safety like him. I'm still kind of shocked.''

See what I mean? Both sides of the Milloy debate build a very respectable case. I lean toward believing it was too risky a move for the Patriots to make at this point in the season, but give Belichick a wide berth when it comes to thinking through every decision.

Will it backfire on him like the Bernie Kosar release initially did in Cleveland in 1993? No, it won't have anywhere near that impact. One was a beloved quarterback, and the other is a standout safety. And remember, after going 7-9 in 1993 as the Kosar controversy raged, the Browns went 11-5 and won a playoff game in 1994 under Belichick.

Still, I don't feel quite as confident about making the Patriots my Super Bowl pick as I did five days ago, when Milloy was still wearing New England's version of the red, white and blue. Chances are good that they can still deliver. Buffalo might not have enough to overtake New England. But on Sunday, we get to start finding out. The guess is, we won't know the real effect of Milloy-gate for quite a while yet.

Guess we know who the boss is in D.C.

Weeks ago, I mused that Steve Spurrier having Danny Wuerffel around in Washington was like the guy trying to stick to his diet but buying a box of Twinkies and hiding it under his bed just in case. So I think Redskins owner Daniel Snyder was correct in removing that particular temptation from his head coach's line of vision.

But Snyder's big-footing of Spurrier does beg the following question: Why are you paying your head coach $5 million a year if you don't trust him?

Scenes from a Mall

Speaking of Washington, how about that over-commercialized monstrosity of a pregame concert Thursday night on the National Mall in D.C.? As if the NFL just can't wait for the schlock of Super Bowl week. Only in America can you add fireworks and badly lip-synced music and get away with calling it "entertainment.'' In terms of significant national events at that proud venue, it wasn't exactly the March on Washington, was it?

Coming soon: An exposé on the Redskins playbook

And here's my favorite Redskins note of the week, courtesy of the Washington Post's "Style'' section: It seems Snyder's renovation plans for his $10 million estate overlooking the Potomac weren't quite as confidential as he thought. The September issue of Washingtonian magazine had a six-page spread detailing the new layout of the almost 30,000-square foot Snyder manse, including where his DVD rack will stand and the position of the popcorn machine in the 18-seat movie theater.

Snyder, of course, flipped out when he saw the magazine, but the publication got all the details from public records, which supersedes the confidentiality agreements that Snyder had his architect and building contractor sign.

The renovation is ongoing, but you wouldn't know it from the magazine's spread, which included aerial photos and computer generated graphics showing what remains to be done.

Said Redskins spokesman Karl Swanson to the Post: "He was stunned when he read the magazine. It's a serious invasion of his privacy. He has a wife and kids!''

And a 12-car garage on the way.

Gruden on Davis: You can him Al, but he'll call you Butch

Everybody loves Al Davis stories, and Bucs head coach Jon Gruden has a bunch of them in his upcoming new book, Do You Love Football?! Winning with Heart, Passion and Not Much Sleep, which is scheduled for a Sept. 16 release.

In his book, which he wrote with NFL.com national editor Vic Carucci, Gruden reveals the Raiders owner's presence precedes him everywhere he goes.

"Al wore distinctive cologne that I can smell to this day,'' Gruden wrote. "I knew he was coming down the hall before he ever got to my office. Al called me by a nickname, too, but it wasn't 'Chucky.' It was 'Butch,' although I never knew why.''

Gruden also recalls the four separate interviews Davis conducted with him before his hiring as Oakland's head coach in 1998.

"Al Davis might be the one guy I've met who loves football more than me -- or at least as much as I do. Football is all he does. The Raiders are all he cares about. A lot of people like golfing, they like going to the beach, they like sitting in the sun, they like going to concerts. Al just involves himself with football and he doesn't want to do anything but win. BIG!

"There really was no way I could make sure I was any better prepared than I had been for our other interviews. You can't prepare for an interview with Al Davis. There are no self-help books or seminars that can show you how to make a favorable impression on him, because he has his own way of doing things and it just isn't something that can be communicated in a textbook explanation. One way or another, Al's going to find out if you know football. He's also the only one who is going to determine whether you do or you don't.''

It's good work if you can get it -- and keep it

So you want to be an NFL head coach, do you? Sure, the money's great these days, but you better get it while the getting's good. Only five of the league's current 32 head coaches (or 15.6 percent) have been in their jobs longer than five years. That means 27 of 32 teams have changed head coaches since the close of the 1998 season.

The fortunate fivesome is: Pittsburgh's Bill Cowher (1992-present), Tennessee's Jeff Fisher (late 1994), Denver's Mike Shanahan (1995), Atlanta's Dan Reeves (1997) and the Giants' Jim Fassel (1997). Only four other coaching tenures pre-date the turn of the century: Baltimore's Brian Billick, Philadelphia's Andy Reid, Seattle's Mike Holmgren and Chicago's Dick Jauron all took over in 1999.

While the pressure on coaches to win now has grown substantially in the past decade or so, it might surprise you to discover that the attrition rate in some respects has not changed all that dramatically. Thirty years ago, at the start of the 1973 season, the NFL's 26 teams featured just seven head coaches who had been with their clubs longer than five years, a modest 27 percent.

And of that group, only four -- Kansas City's Hank Stram (1960), Dallas' Tom Landry (1960), the Jets' Weeb Ewbanks (1963) and Minnesota's Bud Grant (1967) -- had more than five full seasons under their belt in their current position. Of course, in 1973, names like Don Shula, Chuck Noll, John Madden, Chuck Knox and George Allen were only entering their fifth or fewer season with the teams they would go on to lead for many more years.

Bears still waiting for a place to call home

I sure hope this Soldier Field renovation winds up being worth the trouble. It has already caused the Chicago Bears to play their entire 2002 home schedule in Champaign, Ill. -- an inconvenience that had to play some role in the team's desultory 4-12 season -- and both of this year's preseason home games were a bus trip away at the University of Illinois as well.

Consider also that the Bears will be the last team in the league to open at home this season, with a Week 4 Monday-night date against Green Bay to open the new Soldier Field. That means Chicago will have gone from Aug. 16 to Sept. 29 without playing in front of a friendly crowd. The Bears travel to San Francisco and Minnesota in Weeks 1 and 2, and then have their bye in Week 3. Oh, yeah, and one more thing. From the reviews I've heard, the new Soldier Field has been royally panned.

Giants eager to say so long to summer

Between Jeremy Shockey's mouth (and ribs), Michael Strahan's toe and the lingering questions on the right side of the offensive line, it hasn't been the smoothest of preseasons for the Giants. New York finished 1-3 in the phony-game department, avoiding a winless August only by coming back from a 17-0 first-half deficit to win 30-24 last week at Baltimore.

Remember that grand offseason overhaul of New York's special teams units? Only half of it came off as planned. Kicker Mike Hollis and long-snapper Ryan Kuehl -- both of whom were free-agent hires -- are on injured reserve and lost for the season. Punter Jeff Feagles and return man Brian Mitchell were the other two big special teams acquisitions, and they are still on duty.

The Giants opened training camp talking Super Bowl, but that line of conversation hasn't been heard much lately. When asked what the preseason told him about the state of the Giants, New York's leading receiver Amani Toomer said:

"It tells me that we don't know what we've got yet. On paper we look pretty good, but that really doesn't mean a whole lot when it comes down to it. That's why you play the games, so you can see if the paper is right and how your team turns out.

"We're still optimistic, but you definitely have got to be a realist at the same time. Our offense looked good against the Jets [in a third-week preseason loss], but we didn't really look too good [against Baltimore] in the first quarter. We're going to have to see how this all turns out once the season starts.''

NFL gets another dose of Arena talent

If you're keeping score at home -- and it's pathetic if you are -- five more veterans of the Arena Football League made NFL rosters this season: 49ers defensive back Dwaine Carpenter, Packers kick returner/receiver Antonio Chatman, Chiefs receiver Chris Horn, Rams receiver Mike Furrey, and Browns fullback Kevin McLeod.

Furrey helped bump the likes of veteran receiver Troy Edwards off the Rams' roster, and Horn did the same thing for Marvin Minnis in Kansas City. And there are a couple more nuggets on Furrey worth passing along: He totaled 108 receptions for 1,574 yards and an AFL record-tying 46 touchdowns -- yep, 46 -- in just 13 games this season for the New York Dragons. He's also played collegiately at Northern Iowa.

If I remember correctly, the last ex-AFL guy from Northern Iowa worked out pretty well for the Rams. What is Kurt Warner doing these days?

Dorsey, Wallace prove QB beauty is in eye of the beholder

If you listened to their critics at the NFL Scouting Combine in February, you'd have thought quarterbacks Ken Dorsey and Seneca Wallace had virtually no shot of sticking in the league. Dorsey's poor passing performance and weak throwing arm were the talk of the quarterback drills, and Wallace was strongly urged to give up his dream of playing quarterback in favor of working out with the receivers, where he would be a Slash-type player.

Houston general manager Charley Casserly advised Wallace to get with the program and adapt to a multipurpose future, and he was also known to be less than enamored with Dorsey's NFL potential.

But football scouting is a subjective art, and both Dorsey in San Francisco and Wallace in Seattle were draft picks who have found NFL homes as their team's No. 3 quarterback. It's far from the starring role they played in college, but they're employed and still winging them for a living. Even if it is scout-team duty for now.

Redskins' Betts rushes to stake his claim as No. 1

Hey, Redskins fans, want to get ahead of the curve with regard to your team's suddenly ground-oriented offense? I'd say it's a decent bet second-year veteran Ladell Betts will be in the lineup next week at Atlanta, ahead of first-week starter Trung Canidate.

Both running backs had their moments in Thursday night's season-opening win against the Jets, but Betts ran noticeably harder and consistently hit his holes, giving Washington's ground game real traction from the final play of the first quarter on. Playing basically three quarters, Betts finished with a game-high 77 yards on 18 carries, 48 of those on 10 second-half rushes.

Canidate finished strong, with 27 yards on his four second-half carries, but his 46-yard, 10-rush night didn't leave as favorable a impression as Betts' performance. Canidate looked indecisive in gaining just 19 yards on six carries in the first half, and the Redskins offense seemed to get a spark when Betts entered the game. Washington finished with 160 yards rushing on 34 attempts, a 4.7 average gain.

"We figured we needed to mix it up,'' Redskins head coach Steve Spurrier said of his team's stronger than expected run game. "That's what we're going to need to do. I guess we ran more than we threw [34 to 23].''

In reality, Washington probably needs both Betts and Canidate for its running game to prosper, and the two likely will continue to split time. The Redskins were the only team in the NFL to lose its top two rushers from 2002: Stephen Davis with 820 yards, and Kenny Watson with 534. Both players were released.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.