Said Burress: "I really like Baltimore. Look what they've done in the offseason. Adding Derrick Mason and Samari Rolle gives them two great players, and they were already really tough. Samari, if he's healthy, can be a shutdown corner, and they're already really good on defense. I don't know who I'd pick, but I like New England, too. Belichick will find guys who fit what he wants to do.

That's what it comes down with New England. The rest of this league figures Belichick find some way to hold LaMont Jordan to 21 carries for 59 yards and hold Randy Moss to four catches for 53 in the Sept. 8 opener against the Raiders.

'I have so much respect for Bill Belichick and his ability to make up for what he's lost,'' Giants GM Ernie Accorsi.

Join the club. Now we'll see if his current guys are good enough. Or if he has to go out and pull a Roman Phifer out of retirement. Or if he figures he has to play clockball on offense more than ever, to keep his defense off the field. The Patriots are the most interesting NFL story of this summer.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"We're not defending anything. We're not repeating anything. We're just trying to put together some good practices and get a competitive football team out there to compete in a 16-game regular season schedule and to be ready for the opener against Oakland.''
 -- New England coach Bill Belichick, asked about the Patriots' chances to repeat.

STAT OF THE WEEK

Ahman Green rides a fan's bike from practice to the Packers locker room. AP

At the Packers' camp on Friday afternoon, when practice ended, I counted 97 bikes lined up with kids on them, ready to hand over to the players to drive the 300 yards across the street to the locker rooms at Lambeau Field. Such a cute tradition. I'd estimate that about 40 players grabbed a bike, with kids mostly running alongside and some riding on the back of bikes.

FACTOID THAT MAY INTEREST ONLY ME

I'm in the lobby of the Ravens' team hotel here in Westminster on Sunday night and two 40ish men are sitting at a table a short spiral away with fabric samples and big binders. One of the guys was David Corbitt, who tells me he makes men's suits. He's Deion Sanders' tailor.

We get to talking, and this might be the stat of my summer. Deion, playing beyond the twilight with the Ravens, has 1,900 suits. His closet at home is 2,500 square feet.

Which compares to my sartorial stats: I have two suits, and my closet is, I'm guessing, 25 square feet.

AGGRAVATING/ENJOYABLE TRAVEL NOTE OF THE WEEK

I keep hearing these stories about what a nightmare summer it's going to be in the air. I haven't seen it, even though I've been on heavy flights in the first week of my training-camp trip. On Saturday, I ran to make a Northwest flight from Detroit to Albany; I had no right to make it, but I got to the airport early and saw a flight to Albany leaving in 10 minutes. By the time I got to the gate, I said, "I know it's hopeless, but any chance I can make this plane?'' the door was closed, and the agent was getting ready to leave her podium, but she looked at her watch -- 'it was exactly 1:51, which was flight time -- and she said, "Sometimes it's good to be in the right place at the right time.'' She got me on.

Southwest Airlines is so human. Flying in from Albany on Sunday on a totally full flight, I didn't get the cattle-car feel, mostly because the crew kept explaining it was a full flight. Take any seat, say hi to your neighbor and blah-blah-blah. And if I didn't know better, I'd think the inflight magazine actually was a freebie, because it had some neat features. I'm waiting to get abused and it will happen. But so far, so good.