The First Shot

Good morning! The First Shot provides you with a healthy helping of links to the top Patriots-related stories around the internet to get your day started. Enjoy your breakfast, your coffee, put off your work (just keep an eye out for the boss), and get your early morning football fix. The links begin after the jump…

• Tom Brady’s #1! But we already knew that around here…
• Speaking of Brady, he’s getting ready to host another Best Buddies charity event to support Best Buddies International, a group that works with intellectually disabled people.
• Tim Graham from ESPN’s AFC East blog is picking the New York Jets to win the division. His reasoning is tied to the lockout, arguing that they’re more ready “out of the box” should there be a shortened or no training camp, whereas the Pats will be relying more on younger players who need the camp.
• Ty Warren recently completed his education at Texas A&M and received his diploma. You can check out video of his graduation and appearance on ESPN’s “First Take” program by clicking HERE. Kudos to Warren for making his education a priority in his life.
• Patriots’ second-round pick RB Shane Vereen is joining thousands of other college graduates…he’s moving back in with his parents! While the lockout is in place, Vereen doesn’t have a contract and is not receiving a paycheck from the NFL, so he’s in the same boat as every other college grad who’s struggling to find work after college. At least for now.
• The Patriots should look into signing Plaxico Burress? Ricky Doyle from NESN.com thinks so, and sees Burress as a low risk, high reward type of signing.
• Tom E. Curran from Comcast Sports continues his look into free agents fit for the Pats, this time focusing on inside linebackers.
• Amidst the lockout garbage, the NFL also managed to install a ruling where teams will be fined for their players’ big hits in games. My question to the NFL is this: When do you start handing out flags to the players? The NFL is overdoing this thing big-time in my view, as if they didn’t have enough rules now.