The health of Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi is in the news today after some relatively surprising developments have surfaced in the last 24 hours. According to reports by **Scott Thurston** of* The Boston Globe, as well as **Laura Crimaldi** and **O’Ryan Johnson** of *The Boston Herald, a Tucson, Arizona television station has indicated the popular Bruschi will undergo heart surgery in the near future. The reports allege Bruschi suffers from a small hole in his heart that will be repaired in surgery. It has been suggested that the hole in Bruschi's heart is what precipitated the minor stroke he suffered in February. We will continue to follow this developing story as more information becomes available.
Tom Curran of The Providence Journal has a rather thoughtful piece regarding the Tedy Bruschi situation, in which he discusses the difficult tension between wanting to respect the privacy of such a respectable athlete, while also being asked for information considering his role as a reporter.
In some personnel news, Jerome Solomon of the Globe reports the Patriots have resigned offensive tackle Tom Ashworth, who was a restricted free agent. Ashworth missed the last ten games of the season, as well as the playoffs, with a back injury. As a restricted free agent, Ashworth could have taken offers from other teams, that is until the Pats locked him up yesterday.
Kevin Mannix of the Herald discusses today's franchise-related deadline. As Mannix writes, today is the last day the Patriots can agree to a long-term contract with franchised-kicker Adam Vinatieri before July 15th. If the team can reach an agreement today, they will retain the right to franchise another player. If, however, a long-term deal is struck with the Pro-Bowl kicker between now and July 15th, the Patriots would lose the right to franchise a player throughout the duration of Vinatieri's contract.
In his Patriots Notebook, Curran indicates it is unlikely Vinatieri and the Patriots will reach a long-term agreement by the 4PM deadline. Curran also relays what drew new Patriot Tim Dwight to New England, and updates the Ty Law job search.
