Thinking out loud: Lots to talk about with Patriots

Thinking out loud…while wondering whatever happened to Michael Bishop?

• Pats camp opened this week, thousands of fans show up on the practice field at Gillette, defending Super Bowl champs and all – and all anyone wants to talk about is Danny Etling moving to wide receiver?

• C'mon man.  Then again, the Patriots really might not have more pressing issues than whether to keep a former 3rd string QB around, or not. 

• Or, whether Tom Brady might be a free agent after this season?  Look, if you think that's really a possibility, that Robert Kraft would let that happen, come over here a bit closer.  Let me slap you upside your head.

• Biggest question marks as I see them today:  1) Can N'Keal Harry be a contributor out of the gate? 2) Is Michael Bennett's gas tank half full, or half empty?  3) How confident is the team with Isaiah Wynn or Joe Thuney at tackle?

• Oh, and maybe 4) Will the NFL ever release Josh Gordon from double-secret purgatory?

• Ex-Pat linebacker and end Rob Ninkovich will join ESPN this season to lay some knowledge on them, and on the rest of us.  Another Patriot in a house full of haters isn't a bad thing for New England.

• Ninko is just the latest former Patriot to be working in the media these days.  It's an extensive one.   Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, Troy Brown, Christian Fauria, Randy Moss, Willie McGinest, Scott Zolak, Jermaine Wiggins, Damien Woody, Matt Chatham and Ross Tucker will all be on various platforms and airwaves.  Who'd I miss?

• Forbes Magazine released its' yearly sports franchise valuation(s) this week – with the Dallas Cowboys as the world's most-valuable sports team, coming in at $5 billion.  The Patriots are ranked 7th overall, #2 in the NFL, worth $3.8 billion…up 3% from last year.

• As for our beloved others…the Red Sox are 12th overall, 3rd in baseball (behind the Yankees at #2 and Dodgers at #10) with a worth of $3.2 billion.  The Celtics are 22nd overall (5th in the NBA) at $2.8 billion. 

• Not a single NHL team cracked the Top 50 in value.

• But for the first time in planetary sports history, every NFL, NBA and MLB team is worth more than $1 billion.  So, if you're looking for a team to buy in Filene's Basement, try the ice rink.

• The Kansas City Chiefs say they're comfortable having Tyreek Hill back on the team.  Of course they are.  But no one else is, however.

• Seattle's Jarran Reed gets a six-game suspension for an alleged domestic assault.  The details of what transpired aren't pretty.  Tennessee's Taylor Lewan faces a four-game suspension for unknowingly taking a banned substance.  Hill goes scot-free for his alleged abuse issues, including but not limited to his 3-year-old son's broken arm.  With damning audio proof. 

• Can the NFL be any more obtuse?  It ain't a good look.

• Our look this week at the USA Pan Am Games hoop team, fortified by Big East all-stars, was interesting.  While the talent is there, they didn't show much of it in the opening few minutes of Wednesday night's scrimmage against an East Coast all-star team at Alumni Hall.

• A tough start shooting the ball was concerning enough, then Seton Hall all-American-to-be Myles Powell went down in a heap under a basket and had to be helped to the locker room.  USA assistant and SHU head coach Kevin Willard's heart had to be in his throat over that one.

• Powell later returned, as did the USA/Big East's shooting touch.  But that switch will always need to be turned on in order to medal next week in Lima, Peru.  The USA has taken bronze in the last two competitions in 2015 and 2011, played largely against professionals.

• But they haven't won silver in 20 years, or gold since 1983.  Guys like Michael Jordan, Waymon Tisdale and Sam Perkins led that team.

• PC's Luwane Pipkins won't make the trip, thanks to a sore knee.  It's not thought to be troublesome, but why take a chance?  Club before country on this one.

• He still has trouble finishing, but the Friars' Nate Watson showed he is more demonstrative around the rim.  If his defense has improved, he may very well be the best low-post player in the league as a junior next season.

• I really don't get the impending DePaul probation and the Dave Leitao suspension.  North Carolina can run fake classes for student 'athletes' and have teaching assistants do the work, players can get paid at places like USC or Arizona…and the NCAA puts the hammer down on DePaul?

• Basically, Leitao is guilty of a lack of institutional control – his assistant coach accused of impropriety lied to him about what he was doing.  Huh? 

• Like he's gonna admit to anything, or tell his boss, and Leitao is guilty?  Please.  C'mon NCAA.  Stupid is as stupid does.

• But hey, recent Blue Demon grad Max Strus could earn his way onto the Celtics' roster with his newly-signed a two-way deal.

• Former Friar Kyron Cartwright switched Euro Leagues this week, signing with the Leicester Riders of the British Basketball League after playing in Turkey last season.

• So incredibly sad to learn of Cathy Inglese's passing this week, at age 60 after suffering a fall and sustaining severe head trauma.  Coach Inglese coached basketball at Vermont from 1986-93, then moved to Boston College from 1993-2008 with seven NCAA appearances, a Big East title and 239 wins.  She also coached at URI from '09 to 2013.

• Commissioner Joe Bertagna will step away from his post atop Hockey East at the end of next season, but he doesn't want to retire.  Bertagna is 68 years old and says he was hoping to renew when the league athletic directors decided they didn't want him to. 

• Why?  Too old?  Last I heard, that's called age discrimination. 

• UConn's return to the Big East will officially begin in 2020-21, as the Huskies reached a deal late this week with the American Athletic Conference on a buyout – reportedly for $17 million, to be paid out over six years. 

• Why so high?  Getting out earlier than the 27-month notice required by the AAC.

• But as of yet, still no home for football.  Independence beckons.

• Tip o' the cap for the math help from the Globe's Pete Abraham, but the Red Sox only need to go 51-7 the rest of the way to match last season's record.  Just sayin'.

• The Sox' debacle in Baltimore – scoring 17 runs in one game and being shut out the next, losing two out of three to arguably the worst team in the majors – was beyond describing.  So, I won't.

• Tweet of the Week I, from @GregABedard, on Nathan Eovaldi's rehab: "A one inning rehab assignment. Brilliant. Must have wanted to make Eovaldi feel like he had the same spring training as the other Sox pitchers. Whoever designed these throwing 'programs' needs a new job."

• Not for nuthin', but what he said.

• And not the best move Nate, big-timing the Rhode Island media after that lousy, one-inning rehab stint in Pawtucket.  He did speak to Boston media once he returned to Fenway, but only after he was shelled, of course. 

• Karma has a strange way of biting the hand that feeds it.

• Did anyone see Providence municipal court judge and TV star Frank Caprio throw out the first pitch at the Sox-Yankees game Thursday?  Thrown in Boston, but Caught in Providence?

• Thank you, I'll be here all week.  Try the veal.

• Tweet of the Week II, from @PeteAbe: "The @BaseballAmerica minor league organizational talent rankings now have the #RedSox 22, up from 30. One spot behind the Yankees."

• Pay no attention to the 19 runs scored by the Sox against the Yankees Thursday night at Fenway…the most they've ever scored against the Yankees. You may pay attention, perhaps, if the Sox manage to score 19 runs combined in the next three games against the Yankees and win at least two of those.

• Is New York pitching in worse overall shape than Boston's? 

• A shout out to Rafael Devers, who deserves one.  Maligned for his fielding, his improvement has been radical this season – not perfect, but definitely on an upward trajectory.  Like his swing. 

• 31 RBI's in July thus far makes him the youngest Sox player to do that since Ted Williams did it in August of 1939.  Whoa.

• I worked with Jayson Stark while at ESPN in the 2000's, and always found him engaging, ultra-informative and just a flat-out good guy.  Last week, baseball pretty much agreed with that assessment, adding "great writer" to that mix as he received the J.G. Taylor Spink Award from the Baseball Writers Association of America – for his meritorious contributions to baseball writing. 

• Basically, it's the sportswriters' equivalent of enshrinement in Cooperstown's Baseball Hall of Fame.

• Stark wrote for the Providence Journal in the '70's after graduating from Syracuse, some may recall.  He currently plies his trade for The Athletic, and he's still going/writing strong.

• How did you feel when corporate logos worked their way onto NBA uniforms?  That "GE" logo on the Celtics' jerseys?  They're coming to major league baseball uniforms.  Possibilities for the Red Sox?

• Excedrin?  Advil?  Preparation H?  Too many to name, and they all make sense right now.

• Speaking of naming rights…as college football season approaches, have you heard what Rutgers' new stadium name is?  SHI Stadium, named for an IT company.  S – H – I.

• I SHI* you not.

• My buddy "Big E" sez he was teaching a group of five and six-year olds in Sunday school last week about the Ten Commandments.  After he explained the commandment to "honor thy Father and thy Mother," he asked if there was a commandment that "teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?"

• Without missing a beat, his grandson chirped, "Thou shall not kill?"

• Did you see Mark Sanchez decided to retire from the NFL?  He is moving onto the college game as an analyst for ESPN.  Can't wait to see him analyze his first buttfumble.

• Cooler – and smarter – heads prevailed Thursday night in Warwick, Rhode Island.  The City Council voted to appropriate almost $4 million to the budget in order to restore school athletics and other activities for the upcoming school year.

• Those funds will apparently come from eliminating other line items within the budget.  Someone won't be happy, of course.  But that's the adults' problem.  It's not the kids' problem, and that was the problem with this whole charade in the first place.

• Best wishes to one of the good guys, long time WJAR-TV anchor Frank Colletta, who is retiring after almost 41 years at the station.  Frank helped launch Channel 10's morning show back in 1985 and has been its' main anchor ever since.  Some may recall his work on all-news WEAN Radio back in the '70's as well.  Dependable.  Solid.  Trustworthy.  They don't really make 'em like Frank anymore in this biz.

• Wait a minute.  It's been 20 years – Twenty Years – since Michael Bishop was the "next big thing" at QB for the Patriots?  In the pre-Tom Brady days, Bishop was selected in the 7th round of the 1999 Draft out of Kansas State, and was known for his flashy, dual-threat ability to run and pass.

• When TB12 was drafted the next year in 2000, Bishop was initially seen as the better prospect.  As fate would have it, however, it didn't quite turn out that way.  Bishop had some big plays when he played, especially in the 2000 exhibition opener with a 25-yard TD pass and a 22-yard TD run, which only served to whet the appetites of rabid fans whenever it came to considering OAB – Options After Bledsoe. 

• A poll on Patriots.com at the time revealed that an astounding 76% of respondents preferred Bishop as Bledsoe's eventual replacement.  He may simply have been a bit too far ahead of his time, as 'mobile,' dual-threat QB's came into vogue soon afterward with Michael Vick, Cam Newton and others. 

• That, and his passing accuracy was barely more than 50%.  Little did anyone know that Bill Belichick's magic touch or spell over Brady would soon take hold.

• The Patriots sent Bishop to play in NFL Europe in '01, where he failed to impress for the Frankfurt Galaxy.  Brady moved ahead on the depth chart, and the rest – as the saying goes – is history. 

• After a pro career that saw him play for 13 different teams in six different leagues, including Arena Football, he retired after playing in the CFL for Winnipeg and Calgary in 2011.  The one-time Heisman runner-up (to Ricky Williams) lives outside of Houston. 

• @smallbizcap sent a Tweet this week on the Pan Am scrimmage at PC: "Great game today…they have the team this year, man.  Nate's the right anchor for a deep run – as a junior & even more experience w/Pan Am?!"

• Biz Cap:  Nate looks ready to take charge.  He still has some trouble finishing at the rim (nothing wrong with a solid dunk, Nate), but his ability to score with either hand is improved.  If his consistency can stretch out to 15-16 feet, he'll be a weapon few other teams will own an answer for.  And, he needs to shoot a minimum of 70-75% from the line, because he'll be there.  A lot.

• Interested in having your questions on local Rhode Island sports (and yes, that includes the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics) answered in a somewhat timely fashion? Send 'em to me! It's your chance to "think out loud," so send your questions, comments and local stories to jrooke@weei.com. We'll share mailbag comments/Facebook posts/Tweets right here! Follow me on Twitter, @JRbroadcaster…and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/john.rooke ...

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