EXCELLENT Bob Ryan column on the harshness of pro FB

I thought that was an excellent column. It's what I expect from Ryan.

I think he made his point incredibly well. But the hard stance Belichick & Co. took with Branch is nothing new. There was probably more outrage when they let Lawyer Milloy go, for example, than there is over Branch, even though they are weaker now at receiver than they were in the secondary then.

Thing is, management there has three super bowl rings. That should buy them an awful lot of benefit of the doubt. I know on the face of it, they look crazy to have let Vinatieri, Richard Seymour and now Branch get away this year, but they let guys go every year, and every year they are still competitive.

The Patriots take a long view of every move they make. Their choices were to overpay Branch or let him get away. They don't overpay players. Period. It's why they always have cap room, they have a stockpile of draft picks every year from trades and they have remained a playoff team. Branch is a fine receiver, but on many teams he is the number two guy. He may be the best the Pats had, but most people would agree he isn't worth the kind of money he wanted. A lot of teams will overpay a guy like that, because he means a lot to them relative to what they have behind him and because he has given a lot to the team in the past. The Pats won't. If you look at their offense, it isn't like they rely on a big-play receiver. Brady spreads the ball around to six or seven receivers every game. They can probably still do that pretty well without Branch.

Maybe Branch was really necessary to open-up the field for them. He was their only receiver who could create consistent seperation. But obviously Belichick thought he can game-plan pretty well with a very good offensive line, two very good running backs, a decent tight end and the quarterback who makes the best decisions in the league. My bet is he can. And they won't be paying a price for Branch that eats at their competitiveness for years to come.

The only caveat to my "his way has shown it works" argument is that if I was Brady, I'd be sore as hell right now. Brady left at least $50 million on the table to help them keep a winning group together. And the Pats have let a lot of those guys get away and are under the cap now. If I was Brady, I'd probably feel like I had been suckered. I get the sense that he does from some of the comments he's been making.

As far as the "football is a brutal sport" part of the column, well yeah. I thought Ryan did a good job with this. I wish more fans who watch it on TV like they are watching Hollywood special effects, actually thought about how brutal it is and what players go through.