Asante Samuel is now a former New England Patriot, having agreed to a reported 5-year, $47.2 million deal with the Philadelphia Eagles, with likely at least $25 million of it guaranteed, something the Patriots would not commit to. It's an example of how players are valued differently from team to team; the Patriots were not about to commit that much money to a player, despite his production, came into the league as a mid-round draft choice and feel there are other ball-hawking cornerbacks out there in the draft.

Tedy Bruschi, of course, is back in, along with Kelley Washington, Eric Alexander, Lonnie Paxton and Pierre Woods, and Jabar Gaffney should be soon to follow.

Randy Moss? No word yet, but there is also no word that he is visiting any other teams at this point, either. Expect a deal to be reached soon.

-- TOM KING

The Patriots release today of linebacker Rosevelt Colvin was curious, and then again, it wasn't. It's not immediately known if the team was trying to restructure the final year of his deal, but the contract as was was going to cost the Patriots $7.6 million on the salary cap.

On the flip side, Colvin was the best pass rushing linebacker the Patriots had, and despite his injury problems, linebacker is a spot the club could be paper thin at, especially if Tedy Bruschi and Junior Seau decide not to return. Some feel both will, because they want that one final shot at a ring and don't want to go out with the memory of Eli Manning beating them. My guess is Bruschi comes back and Seau does not. Either way -- the team also released the promising Oscar Lua,whose rookie year never materialized due to injury -- linebacker is a pressing issue for the New England Patriots.

Stay tuned.

-- TOM KING

Eight years ago, when they were searching for a head coach and possible general manager, the New England Patriots were looking as a backup plan if they couldn't reach an agreement with the New York Jets for Bill Belichick, to hire former Steelers (and future Bills GM) Tom Donahoe to run the personnel department and Dom Capers as the team's new head coach.

It never happened, but tonight Capers was announced as the Patriots new secondary coach, also given the title of special assistant. He's been coach 22 years in the NFL, 16 of which have been as defensive coordinator (Miami this past season) or head coach (expansion teams Carolina and Houston).

"I have known Dom for a long time and respect him tremendously as a coach, particularly defensively," Belichick said in a statement. "To add a coach of his caliber is an outstanding opportunity for us. I look forward to getting to work with Dom and Dean (Pees) immediately."

Also, the Patriots hired Bill O'Brien as wide receivers coach, replacing Nick Caserio, who was promoted to director of player personnel. Caserio had worked in the personnel department for three years prior to last year. O'Brien was an offensive assistant last year.

-- TOM KING

Now the plot thickens, possibly, in the New England Patriots' attempt to keep Randy Moss. News that the team declined to use the NFL's safeguard, the dreaded (from the players' point of view) Franchise Tag, on Moss. That means they have a week to try to lock up a long-term deal with the heralded wide receiver prior to his becoming an unrestricted free agent. Their inability to come to any agreement by Feb. 29 would create a free-for-all that may certainly see Moss move on to greener -- literally -- pastures. It's quite possible the team has a deal already done with Moss, and reportedly by rule aren't able to officially announce anything until Feb. 29

If they had at least applied the tag to Moss, one of two big free agents they have (cornerback Asante Samuel being the other), the Patriots would have been on the hook for one year between some $7 million and $8 million, but at least would have had time (until mid July) to work out a long term deal. This likely means they feel confident they can get a deal done with Moss (or already have one done)  that spreads the money out over a few years. A Franchise tag would have had some salary cap implications otherwise.

-- TOM KING

The University of Phoenix Stadium is mass of confetti right now, What happened tonight was shocking, simply shocking, as the New York Giants took a page right out of the New England Partiots playbook.

For all of their success, the 2007 Patriots will now go down in history as being a team that couldn't take that next step. All they had to do was stop the Giant offense one more time, but the New England defense, which had escaped danger in the past several times and was not nearly as dominant during the year as its offense, couldn't do it.

"We knew we were one stop (away) and we just couldn't get that stop," Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi said. "...It's a tough way to finish. Not even what was on the line, or anything like that. It's the Super Bowl. The winnoner is the World Champion and the loser is just grouped into the other 31 teams."

One wonders just what will happen now with Bruschi, and linebacker Junior Seau, and even Randy Moss. Moss is even money to re-sign, but Seau will likely retire, the guy who loves to say "We have a chance" probably out of chances. Bruschi? No one knows. He seemed close to calling it quits a year ago but decided to come back, and if the Patriots had won tonight, he'd have certainly said that's that. He still may, although you wonder if he wants a Super Bowl loss to be his last game.

Meanwhile, NFL Network people are getting a platform ready in the middle of the stadium. Some corporate types and helpers are tossing the football around. The Patriots are sequestered somewhere likely in Scottsdale. Teams usually have post game parties win or lose because of all the planning involved, but this one is probably going to be the quietest party of them all.

It's too bad, 18-1 is such a huge difference from 19-0, when that "1" is a last minute loss in the Super Bowl.

To the victors, the Giants, go the spoils.

--- TOM KING