SACKED
Flags are at half-mast and black mantillas draped over heads at Casa Diablo after the New England Patriots announced their blockbuster deal with the Kansas City Chiefs. And no, we are not so much mourning the departure of Matt Cassell, but deeply grieving the loss of one of Phillipe and Jorge's favorite players, Mike Vrabel.
Anyone who has followed the Pats with any real interest knows what Vrabel brought to the team. Not only was he an excellent linebacker and pass rusher, he was extremely versatile (scoring TDs as a makeshift tight end in goal line situations), an incredible athlete, had one of the best senses of humor on the team, and gave good interview. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that the three-time Super Bowl winner be a lock for the Patriots Hall of Fame down the line, despite most likely wrapping up his career in a Chiefs' uniform.
Here's how coach Bill Belichick spoke of our Mike, despite letting him go in the trade. We imagine Capt. Icewater wouldn't be as complimentary of his wife:
"Mike Vrabel epitomizes everything a coach could seek in a professional football player: toughness, intelligence, playmaking, leadership, versatility and consistency at the highest level. Behind the scenes, Mike's wit and personality is one of the things we have all enjoyed about coming to work every day . . . Of all the players I have coached in my career, there is nobody I enjoyed working with more than Mike. He is one of the very special Patriots champions."
Nuf sed. Send daylight saving time and Pulitzer-grade tips to p&j@phx.com.
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Red all over, The Journal gets a facelift, Short-sighted?, More 
- Red all over
If there's one group of professionals whose job insecurity rivals that of the Detroit auto worker, it's the men and women who make America's newspapers.
- The Journal gets a facelift
Metropolitan newspapers have been moving toward über-local coverage for some time now.
- Short-sighted?
There may, in the end, be no way to save the American metropolitan newspaper. Plummeting advertising revenue and competition from the Internet often seem forces too daunting for even the savviest of publishers.
- Newspapering the hard way
Tom Heslin, executive editor of the Providence Journal , does not say much in public about the broadsheet. And little surprise. The ProJo , which demands transparency elsewhere, has issued a long string of “no comments” about its own affairs.
- News worth paying for?
The Providence Journal , offering a rare window onto its own affairs, recently reported that the newspaper could start charging for access to large swaths of projo.com as early as the first quarter of next year.
- Local news blues
There has been plenty of hand-wringing, in these parts, over the decline of the local broadsheet. The Providence Journal is the paper of record, after all, the agenda setter. And the agenda is decidedly thinner these days.
- As the Pro Jo turns
A full-page advertisement that ran on page A7 of Monday's ProJo featured an illustration depicting a workshop of flinty Amish craftsmen busily building what the headline called an "Amish mantle and miracle invention" that helps "home heat bills hit rock bottom."
- Former editorial writer says his last column got spiked
An unidentified editorial writer was among those laid off when the Providence Journal eliminated 30 news jobs in October.
- Exit Mr. Excitement
How many people remember that John Ghiorse was reportedly the first $100,000-a-year weatherman in Rhode Island when he was lured away from Channel 10 to crosstown rivals Channel 6 in 1983?
- Living Colour, Michael Madsen, and Rhody's new media
The travails of the Providence Journal are the stuff of coffee house and talk radio chatter. And the troubles afflicting the local newscast fill the pages of this week's Phoenix .
- Weakened watchdogs
The ongoing crisis at the Boston Globe shouldn't be troubling just to devotees of the sports pages and "Coupling." Citizens who prize strong coverage of the Massachusetts State House ought to be fretting over the paper's fate, too. With its four-person State House contingent, the Globe has a stronger presence under the Golden Dome than any other major Boston media outlet.
- Less
Topics:
Phillipe And Jorge
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