Alllen: On Bill Belichick's secret service

If the 2007 New England Patriots were a James Bond movie, they'd be On Her Majesty's Secret Service. This 007 adventure movie had a quite a different ending from most of the Bond epics you might be used to seeing. In this one, (starring the immortal George Lazenby in his one and only turn as 007) after Bond goes unscathed through his long adventure, complete with narrow escapes (Think the Baltimore Ravens game), at the end, he seemingly defeats the villain, and is ready to reap the rewards of the mission with his new bride. Suddenly, the villain comes back and shockingly kills his bride, stunning the audience and breaking 007's heart.

However, the closing credits of the movie contained the familiar words of comfort: James Bond will return. And return he has, well over a dozen times in new adventures, all with much more enjoyable endings. In fact there is yet another Bond movie slated to debut this fall.

If we can take anything from OHMSS and apply to the heartbreak suffered by Patriots fans following the stunning Super Bowl comeback by Eli Manning and the Giants in the Super Bowl, it's that The New England Patriots will return. We can count on it.

They're already retooling and preparing for their next mission. This week marked the start of the offseason conditioning program for the team, and it's good to hear stalwarts like Richard Seymour talking about putting last season behind them and moving on to the 2008 season. Seymour is able to fully participate in the program for the first time in the last three years as he is finally healthy enough coming off the season to be able to do so. A big return to form by Seymour would mean a lot to the Patriots chances in 2008.

Free agency has mostly been about re-signing Randy Moss and adding depth to the secondary. None of the new names will make you sit up and take notice, but there are some solid veterans in the list, such as Tank Williams and Fernando Bryant. It appears that the Patriots will be putting a lot of their offseason focus on the draft, and with the 7th overall pick in the first round, this is a great chance for an 18-1 team to add an impact player to an already talented roster. They'll also be looking to score with a second round pick and two picks in the third round, one of which is from the Oakland Raiders, meaning that the Patriots second round pick and this pick will be very close together.

Like James Bond's trusty armorer, "Q", Scott Pioli and his personnel department will be working hard this offseason to provide the Patriots with the best possible weapons and gadgets as their new assignment looms. Bill Belichick as "M" (More Bernard Lee than Judi Dench) will send his troops into battle well prepared, but with seeming cold-heartedness. This time, we're hoping for a more traditional ending to the Super Bowl for the Patriots, one that will allow us to leave the theatre charged up and feeling good, rather than crushed and broken.

 

Bruce Allen is the creator of Boston Sports Media Watch, which has recently been recognized by SI.com as one of the best non-corporate sports web site's on the Internet.