After the Patriots 11-5 season without quarterback Tom Brady, high hopes prevail for the 2009 season in New England. The Patriots were just one win away from playing in the playoffs, and the way the playoffs are going, New England may have won the darn thing!
We are excited for next season! Hope to see a healthy Brady and the Pats back and dominating!

Tis the season for treason.You know, switching your NFL allegiance.

That’s what you’re faced with when the National Football League leaves you a lump of coal for the playoffs: your team sitting where you sit — on the couch, watching digital images, a drink in one hand, a sheet of college prospects in the other.

But die-hard fans — the ones who love mouthpiece-jarring tackles and 50-yard flea-flickers, along with reasons to eat, drink and watch sports — know that if you want to make the three remaining NFL weekends worthwhile, you pick a team each week and you go with it.

Sometimes, it’s the underdog. Sometimes, it’s your dad’s team.

Or sometimes, it’s your bartender’s squad.

That’s what New England Patriots fans at Cim’s Tavern have vowed to do since their beloved Patriots failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2002 season.

The Bill Belichick-coached squad finished 11-5 this season, becoming the first team with that record to miss the playoffs since the Denver Broncos in 1985.

“We’re supporting our favorite bartender now,” said Mark Kerwood, 67, a retired telephone company employee and a Cim’s regular.

Kerwood said Danny Reddy, Cim’s Sunday bartender, is a fervent Carolina Panthers fan. In the back of his car sits a stuffed Panther. Each week, he sticks a stuffed animal, in the likeness of the Panthers’ opponent,

into the stuffed Panther’s mouth.On Saturday night, it was a Cardinal.

The regulars said they were getting behind Reddy’s team because he’s a good guy, their team is out of it, and “it gets us good service,” Kerwood said.

It helps that most Patriots fans “hate the Giants.”

That’s the Giants, as in New York, the team that beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl last year.

“They can’t lose by enough points,” Kerwood said. “Anyone who plays the Giants is automatically our team. So Philadelphia is also our team this week (today).”

In an informal poll conducted on The Eagle’s Web site last week, 30 percent of respondents said they weren’t interested in the playoffs since the Patriots were out. Nearly 40 percent said they remained interested.

New England missed the playoffs despite winning its final four games behind Matt Cassel, who took over for star quarterback Tom Brady after Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury during the first game of the season.

With the Patriots gone, Rich Asher, 48, owner of the Sideline Saloon, said he noticed that the crowd at his bar last week during Round 1 of the NFL playoffs paid less attention and was quieter than usual.

“If the Pats were on, it would’ve been a lot louder,” Asher said.

Like many in the Berkshires, Sideline patron Pete LaChapelle, 52, a U.S. Postal Service employee, is a fan of both the NFC’s Giants and the AFC’s Patriots. He’s been a Giants fan since 1962 and a Patriots fan from “the early 1980s.”

“The Giants are my NFC team, so I’m definitely rooting for them,” he said. “You gotta pick a team in the playoffs. It’s more football. Who doesn’t like more football?”

That’s the same sentiment uttered by Pierre Mercier, 62, a retired truck mechanic and a Patriots fan.

Is he bummed that the Patriots fell short this season?

“Yes,” he said. “But I’m not going to crawl under my bed and cry. Everybody usually finds a team in the postseason and gets behind them. Maybe it’s because of a player or a good story, or an underdog.

“Hey, you wouldn’t enjoy the playoffs if you didn’t root for somebody.”

Matt Cassell has done just fine filling out for All American STUD Tom Brady. Sure, the Patriots aren’t 14-0, but at 9-5 and tied for the lead in the AFC East, New England is doing JUST fine. The Patriots still have a shot at making the playoffs even without Brady in the lineup. With games left with Arizona and Buffalo – win both and the Patriots are IN! Sure the Jets hold the tiebreaker, and the Dolphins are red hot. But win both games, and playoff bound!!!

Now don’t get us wrong, we want Tom Brady back in 2009, but 2008 hasn’t been THAT bad, has it!?!?

Tom Brady is back in Foxborough working out in the New England Patriots training room.

New England’s star quarterback has undergone two surgeries on his left knee that was injured in the opener against Kansas City, ending his season. He has battled an infection that set in after the operation, which was done in the Los Angeles area.

Brady has been in Foxborough for at least a week and his teammates are happy to see him. Running back Kevin Faulk said Tuesday that Brady is “doing good.” Defensive end Jarvis Green said it was good to see Brady hanging around and smiling.

Matt Cassel is no longer just the caretaker for Tom Brady’s team.The former New England backup broke out with the best game of his career Thursday night, passing for 400 yards and running for another 62 in an overtime loss to the New York Jets. He also flashed a little of the Brady style, leading the Patriots’ offense to touchdowns in the final minutes of both halves in regulation.

“We were down and he brought us all the way back. We had a chance,” said New England receiver Jabar Gaffney, who caught a touchdown pass and a 2-point conversion from Cassel as the Patriots rallied from a 24-6 deficit before losing 34-31. “It kind of looked like No. 12 was back there.”

After playing behind Heisman Trophy winners Matt Leinart and Carson Palmer at Southern Cal, Cassel seemed to be a stretch for the backup role when the Patriots picked him in the seventh round of the 2005 draft. But when the reigning NFL MVP was lost for the season in the opening week, Cassel stepped in and had the Patriots right where they were in all those years under Brady: first place in the AFC East.

Thursday night’s loss left the Jets atop the division, but at the same time it quieted talk that Cassel was just a glorified backup keeping Brady’s seat warm.

“Matt established his personality,” defensive lineman Richard Seymour said. “He’s confident in what he’s doing. He played great.”

Make no mistake: Brady will get his ob back as soon as he is healthy. But Cassel has probably made himself too valuable to return for another season holding clipboards. He is eligible to become a free agent after the season, and he may have already earned a chance to start elsewhere in a quarterback-driven league.Cassel completed 30 of 51 passes for 400 yards and three touchdowns and ran eight times for 62 yards — career highs across the board and more than that, too.

He was the first player in the league since the merger to have at least 400 yards passing and 60 yards rushing in a game; Steve Young threw for 449 and ran for 50 in 1992. He had the most yards rushing for a Patriots quarterback in 30 years and the most yards passing for New England since 2002.

Only one other time since coach Bill Belichick arrived in 2000 has a Patriots quarterback led the team to touchdowns in both two-minute drills. It wasn’t Brady, the two-time Super Bowl MVP; nor Drew Bledsoe; nor former backup Doug Flutie, who has a history of heroics himself, who managed it. It was Cassel, back in his second career game in 2005, when he filled in for Brady for a meaningless regular-season finale for his only extended playing time before this year.

“He made plays all night,” tight end David Thomas said Friday. “He put the team in position to win, and that’s all you can ask for.”

The Patriots trailed 24-6 with 1:44 left in the first half when Cassel led them 68 yards, helping himself out with a career-long 19-yard scramble before hitting Gaffney for a 19-yard touchdown with 15 seconds left in the half. In the fourth quarter, Cassel took over with 64 seconds left, 62 yards to go and no timeouts; he delivered with a perfectly thrown 16-yard pass to Randy Moss — who made an equally perfect catch — for the tying touchdown with 1 second left in regulation.

His only two incomplete passes of the final drive were spikes to stop the clock.

“Any time you can come back from a 24-6 deficit, it’s a building block and something every team should be proud of,” he said. “I hope I’ve earned the confidence of these guys on the team throughout the course of the year. That was a situation that we’ve practiced a lot, to go down and be able to execute and score that touchdown when we needed to. I think that is a confidence-builder for us offensively.”

In case you were getting the itch for football, here in late June. Yes, we know- training camps a month away. We thought we’d throw out Tom Brady’s career stats to you. A little something to MUNCH ON.

• 112 games
• 92.9 QB rating
• 2294 completions
• 3642 attempts
• 63.0% success
• 26370 yards
• 235.4 yards per game
• 197 touchdowns
• 86 interceptions
• 276 rushes
• 533 rushing yards
• 5 rushing touchdowns
• 28 fumbles lost

CAN YOU SAY HALL OF FAME?