They're primed for their time

Practices finished, Brady and the Patriots are set to go

By Nick Cafardo, Globe Staff, 2/2/2002

EW ORLEANS - It was Friday. The final practice.

Oh, there will be the usual Saturday walk-through this morning and perhaps some last-minute tweaking before tomorrow night's Super Bowl XXXVI against the heavily favored St. Louis Rams at the Superdome.

But the major work is done.

Tonight the Patriots will move from the Fairmont Hotel to an undisclosed location to get away from the scrutiny of the public and the media, as well as from Super Bowl and Mardi Gras hoopla.

With the temperature dropping more than 30 degrees from earlier this week, quarterback Tom Brady had another thumbs-up day at the team's Tulane University practice site, moving fluidly in the pocket and showing no signs of being hampered by his sprained left ankle, according to the team's pool report.

''I feel good,'' said Brady as he walked off the practice field. ''My ankle's extremely strong. On Sunday night, I expect to be 100 percent.''

The Patriots worked on special teams, red zone, short-yardage, and goal-line situations amid a security scare that developed midway through the practice.

According to the pool report, inside linebackers coach Pepper Johnson got the attention of team official Berj Najarian and pointed to an open window on the third floor of a nearby brown Colonial, one of five houses just to the west of the field. These houses had concerned the Patriots when they first saw the practice field on Tuesday, but through the first few days of practice, those fears were quelled.

A telescope was clearly visible in the window. According to the pool report, 15 minutes later a person appeared at the window, then vanished. League and team officials watched the house with binoculars as the Patriots continued practice, and no one appeared at the window for the session's remaining 45 minutes.

If there was a spy, he didn't see much. Coach Bill Belichick took it easy on his players. No pads, no hitting. And practice was just 1 hour 54 minutes.

Asked if he thought the Patriots were ready to play, Belichick said, ''They'd better be. I have a lot of confidence in this team, a lot of confidence. They've done what we've asked them to do, and now the only thing left is to go out and play. The team that plays best will win.''

Part of the team's success, it seems, has been due to Belichick's toned-down workouts. In training camp, the team practiced in full pads for double sessions for a week or two, but the death of Minnesota Vikings offensive tackle Korey Stringer was a wake-up call for many coaches, who came to the realization that pounding their players wasn't necessarily the way to go.

Belichick has had a magic touch in feeling out whether his team needs rigorous practices or whether he needs to back off. Some weeks the Patriots have been in pads for two practices, some weeks for only one. If Belichick sensed the team was tired, he would back off pads altogether.

Like most of the decisions Belichick has made this season, his flexible practice regimen has worked. Veterans such as Anthony Pleasant, Bryan Cox, and Roman Phifer have especially benefited from the lighter load.

''I think he had the right touch on that,'' said Phifer. ''Older players need more rest the deeper you get into the season. A good coach recognizes when his players are a little tired and when they have to take the pads off, keep the legs fresh for game time, especially at this time of the year, when you've played a full season, the playoffs, and now you're in the Super Bowl.''

That's not to say the Patriots didn't have hard practices this week. According to one player, ''There was enough hitting to get the feel of it. But we also need our strength to go up against a team like St. Louis that's so fast. You can't be worn out in a game like that.''

The practices have even had their fun. And at yesterday's session, the Patriots showed signs they're not uptight. Quarterback Drew Bledsoe took bets on whether he could throw a ball into the bucket of the team's video crane, 60 feet up at midfield. Bledsoe missed his first try but made the second.

And while some players were freezing, backup offensive lineman Grey Ruegamer dressed in shorts and sleeves rolled up to his shoulders.

The Patriots are loose, but not running loose. That was J.R. Redmond taking a nap on a table in the media ballroom on Thursday. But there have been no reports of Patriots acting wild and crazy in this wild and crazy town. Curfew last night was midnight. It's 11 tonight.

Belichick was asked whether he's been successful in keeping his players off Bourbon Street. ''I'm sure I wasn't successful,'' he said. ''In all honesty, I never mentioned Bourbon Street to them. I never even used the word, or `the French Quarter,' for that matter. The thing I said to the players, which is something we've said since the beginning of training camp is, `Use good judgment; you represent yourself and the team and the organization.'

''Nobody can predict what kind of situations anybody is going to get into. We all encounter different things daily, and you can't predict how life is going to go. But we do have opportunities to make judgments in the situations that we're in, and I just ask them to think before they make a decision, and think about how that decision or that action will impact (A) themselves, (B) the team, and the organization.''

The Patriots did have their problems last season, when Ty Law, Troy Brown, and Terry Glenn stayed behind in Buffalo after the Patriots beat the Bills in a December blizzard, and Law was cited for carrying a small amount of the drug ecstasy over the Canadian border. The three players had stayed in Buffalo because they had a fear of flying in a snowstorm. The players were supposed to fly to Boston the next morning, but they were delayed when Brown and Glenn, not knowing of Law's entanglement with customs officials, waited for their teammate so they could fly back together.

The Patriots have not been entirely incident-free this season - Glenn has had myriad problems, and defensive end Bobby Hamilton was charged with domestic assault - but for the most part, Belichick's team has been able to focus on football.

This week has been more of the same.

''Other than a few logistical things, it's been pretty close to a normal week for us,'' said Belichick. ''We've had all of our meetings as normal, and our practices have gone well.''