Sweden’s Prince Carl Philip (who really should have been the Crown Prince but was cheated out of it) has won an internship at “the magazine National Geographic” in Washington, D.C. Quite remarkable how a Swedish prince of all people would get that internship. Yay for meritocracy!

To be fair, National Geographic Society can only worry so much about meritocracy since it also has to worry about funding and a good way to get funding is to give the rich and powerful preferential treatment.

Yes, you’re right, the Prince (see link above) doesn’t look Swedish and that’s because he isn’t Swedish, tribally speaking. His mom is a German-Brazilian and his dad is a classic Euro-royalty mutt with virtually no Swedish bloodline. Still, the King’s bond with the Swedish people is much stronger than the bond Britain’s royal family has with its people, I dare say. I rather like the unassuming, unpretentious and non-pandering King, whose office I once stood guard at (”Jag skall bevaka västra slottsvalvet samt yttre borggårdens angränsande delar!”) during my military service. Many years ago the King and the Queen passed through the lock in my hometown at the same time as my family. They were literally right next to us, with the Queen doing some sun tanning while reading a book. I’m pretty sure the King’s entire security detail consisted of a single secret service agent. Life was easy-going back in those days, before Sweden went mad.

The King’s daughters, including the Crown Princess, strike me as a bunch of Lindsay Lohans. I have no opinion whatsoever on the Prince.

New England Patriots defeated Washinbgton Redskins 41-0 in their third pre-season game.

Quarterback: Tom Brady was brutally efficient. he completed 17 of 30 passes for 231 yards and a touchdown.

Offensive line: Looking good. It hit the right guys even though it wasn’t able to create much running room early in the game. Solid pass protection all the way through. We have seven solid linemen and one or two more might well be adequate.

Runningbacks: A good enough performance. Corey Dillon left the game after gaining 39 yards on a screen play that almost was stopped in the backfield. Kevin Faulk had 38 yards on six rushes, Laurence Maroney 12 on four (one touchdown) and Heath Evand 16 yards on eight carries (one touchdown). Garrett Mills had no carries, one catch for six yards and mostly a pretty weak day blocking. Could well be the odd man out, although he’ll probably make the practice squad. Evans is a vastly better blocker than Mills. Mills had one catch which he promptly turned over to Washington.

Receivers and tight-ends: Ben Watson was the highlight reel of the game with eight catches for 97 yards and one touchdown. Troy Brown snagged 4 catches for 64 yards, including a 36 yard bomb to Washington’s 5 yard line that set up Maroney’s score.

Defense: Simply pulverized Washington’s offense. Recorded seven sacks and gave up a total of 154 yards. Junior Seau made some good plays in his pre-season debut as a Patriot, Mike Wright looked good in the 4-3, Tully Banta-Cain handled both pass-rushing and edge-setting well. Backup nose tackle Jonathan Sullivan is this year’s Monty Beisel. Well, not quite, Beisel was meant to be a starter, I don’t think Bill Belichick had such high-flying plans for Sullivan. Regardless, neither Beisel nor Sullivan have any business playing for New England.

The best thing about the game was that New England’s offense took advantage of Redskins’ particular style of hard-charging defense.

The Boston Herald reports that Boston has fallen from fifth to seventh on Nielsen Media’s list of television markets, partly because of Boston’s stagnating population and partly because of growing populations in Dallas-Ft. Worth and San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, the two markets that have overtaken the Hub of the Universe.

Some in Boston are displeased and would like to shoot the messenger (well, the measurer, I guess):

Some advertising executives are questioning Nielsen’s methodology, because of the huge increase in TV homes in both the San Francisco and Dallas markets.

“They both went up really high, and we’re actually questioning Nielsen why that happened. The numbers sound way too high,” said Karen Agresti, senior vice president with Boston ad agency Hill Holliday.

Unfortunately for Ms. Agresti, the magnitude of market-size change is not out of the ordinary for Nielsen Media market-size estmates for the three markets in question over the past several years, as this chart illustrates:

In fact, as you might deduce from the table above, Boston snatched the fifth place from San Francisco after the latter was devastated by the implosion of the dotcom bubble.

Boston’s demotion presumably means Boston Globe has to change its Why Buy Boston self-promotional web site. Or it could just abandon the site the way the company abandoned bostonglobe.com and the seriously dated and misleading market data it used to publish there.

U.S. television households and markets 2006-2007.

Today’s amusing exchange from New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick’s press conference:

Q: For guys who are maybe on the bubble, is each day more valuable?

BB: That’s probably fair. I’m sure there are a lot of players in there that are feeling the pressure, that are feeling the urgency of the final roster cuts and how the team is going to be made up and all that. [rest of answer snipped]

Q: Where does Monty Beisel fit in with what you just described?

BB: Monty missed some time this week but he’s been out there this week and that’s been to his benefit. That’s always going to help him. He’s starting to do things better after missing a couple of days. He’s starting to come back and do things better. [snip]

Q: Is he on the bubble?

BB: What bubble? I don’t know what a bubble is.

Q: It’s when a spot on the roster is not guaranteed.

BB: I don’t know who that is. We’re going to make the decisions that we think are best for the football team. That includes everybody. I don’t know about any bubble.

And that’s how the press conference ended. I’m guessing the beat reporters felt pretty good about themselves, and I they probably should.

Belichick also described the challenges that an offensive tackle faces when he switches from one left to right or vice versa (”Mentally, it’s hearing the plays and kind of flipping them and physically it’s changing your footwork and your technique.”). He also held forth on how the old 5-2 front became the 4-3 front and how Kansas City Chiefs developed a hybrid alignment while Dallas Cowboys created the 4-3 flex, an alteration of which was used by the Detroit Lions when Belichick was an assistant there.

Corey Dillon’s touchdown run against Arizona Cardinals last Saturday has created some confusion, all of which is centered on Garrett Mills. Here’s how I described the play:

[Garrett Mills] threw a good block at the edge on Corey Dillon’s touchdown run. Rookie tight end David Thomas had a good kick-out block on the same play (which looked like it had been drawn up by a football nerd: “We’ll have three tight-ends and motion one from right to left to get numerical superiority. Genius!” And since the Cardinals didn’t counter the motion it worked out just like that. You’d think the Cards would have picked up on the motion to tight-end Daniel Graham’s side, but no…).

Writers for both the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe described the play as a four tight-end formation

Here’s how Jerome Solomon described it:

The Patriots had four tight ends on the field on the scoring play, as Benjamin Watson and Daniel Graham were on the line, with David Thomas in motion and Garrett Mills at fullback. Dillon followed the blocks of Thomas and Mills, both rookies, off the left side. Gostkowski added the extra point to give the Patriots a 13-0 lead with 1:14 left in the half.

Mike Reiss echoed that sentiment the following day:

The team’s last offensive play of the half included four tight ends on the field — Graham, Watson, David Thomas and Garrett Mills — as Corey Dillon pounded in for a 4-yard touchdown run.

That’s also how the Herald’s John Tomase sees it:

On Corey Dillon’s 4-yard touchdown run at the end of the first half, the Patriots employed a rare four, tight end set with Daniel Graham, Benjamin Watson, David Thomas and Garrett Mills all on the field. Thomas had the key block on linebacker Darryl Blackstock, turning him outside.

Bill Belichick wasn’t quite so sure that it was a four tight-tend formation when asked about it during yesterday’s press conference:

Q: You had four tight ends on the field for Corey [Dillon's] touchdown. What do you like about that alignment? What advantages do you think it gives you?

BB: I’m not really sure what position some of those guys are or aren’t, but when you’re down on the goal line, usually you want to have people that can block and get movement because as they bring more guys down there, and it’s closer to the goal line, it’s just tougher to move them.

The guys who do the audio show “PFW in Progress” all agreed it was a three tight-end play on yesterday’s netcast.

The confusion is understandable, for reasons explained by this article from before the 2006 draft:

If you aren’t familiar with Tulsa’s Garrett Mills, it might just be because you’re not sure what position he plays.

Tight end? Fullback? Slot receiver? Halfback?

How about all four. Plus some excellent special teams in his spare time.

Listed as a tight end in college, the 6-foot-1, 241-pound Mills is being projected as one of the top fullbacks in this year’s draft. Number one by Vic Carucci at NFL.com, and second-best by Mel Kiper Jr.

Prior to the draft last April, he had been listed as FB-TE, TE-FB, and TE. When the Patriots drafted him in the fourth round, he was listed as TE/FB, but when they signed him this summer they tagged him as FB and that’s how he’s listed exclusively as a FB on the Patriots roster.

Hence, it was a three tight-end formation, dadgummit!

The Atlanta Falcons had a beautiful sweep in its preseason game against Green Bay Packers last Saturday, the best I’ve seen in a long time. The runningback, and I can’t remember who he was, was able to get outside untouched for a major gain after the offensive line, tight end and wide receiver at the point of attack completely boxed in Packers defense: The corner who covered the WR, the strong safety, the outside linebacker and the middle linebacker were all piled up to the inside of the tight end.

Then the Packers went on to win the game 38-10.

The Boston Globe’s Mike Reiss fields a question from a reader on August 22:

[H]ow does Ryan O’Callaghan not get in the ups? He had a very solid game — a couple mistakes, but overall a good performance.

As for O’Callaghan, it looked like he played a solid game. Those “ups & downs” are done right after the game and it’s hard to evaluate most line play until the next day, when I’m watching the game again. Along those lines, I’d give nose tackle Vince Wilfork and backup center Billy Yates the biggest ups after watching the game again.

And here’s what I wrote on August 19, during the half-time and right after the game:

Ryan O’Callaghan did a good job at right tackle and I he think he’s an improvement over Brandon Gorin… Backup offensive lineman Billy Yates had another strong game, this time at center, where coach Bill Belichick seems determined to build some depth. Yates is solid blocker and tonight he showed that he can handle playing center, too (including the shotgun snap, something even otherwise accomplished centers don’t always master, as Patriots fans know first hand). I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Yates ends up a starting interior lineman before the end of the season. The one play where Yates probably could have been a little stronger was on the cut-back run that took fullback Heath Evans to inside the one-yard line. That opening probably wouldn’t have been there against a starting defense. On the other hand, it’s hard to block everybody all the time on plays where the blocking flows from the backside towards the point of attack.

Of course, line play is what I pay the most attention to because I think that’s the most interesting part of the game. But more than that, it’s easier to evaluate when you can rewind as you please than when you’re at the stadium and don’t have the option of checking two, three or maybe even four times how a specific play happened, who picked up the backside linebacker and so on.

Here are some pieces from Bill Belichick’s Wednesday press conference that I think are interesting:

On this week’s opponent, Washington Redskins:

Q: You said the Redskins were a challenge on third down. What are some of the challenge that you face defensively?

BB: The Redskins, in longer yardage, have a tendency to keep a lot of people in for protection, sometimes as many as eight, usually seven, and their routes are much deeper down the field probably more than what we normally see. In shorter yardage situations, they get a lot of people out. They give you a lot of spread formations. They can run the ball. The quarterback can run. They have a lot of options as the distance gets longer, they keep more people in, the routes get deeper and they use their weak side passing game probably more than most teams, certainly more than most teams that we see, but I’d say probably as much as any team in the league, with the back coming out of the backfield and just working the weak side of the passing game. Whereas most teams probably favor the strong side. The three man side. The Redskins are a team that probably does more with the two man side than those teams do. Things like that.

On Tom Brady’s aging:

Q: Each year that you’ve been here, you’ve had a veteran quarterback. This year there isn’t one, but how much of that is because Tom is in his seventh year now in this offense and maybe you don’t need the older guy because Tom has graduated up to that?

BB: With each year, he is becoming more and more of that, closer to being that type of person, although it’s different than having somebody else in addition to him rather than him being that guy. Again, that position and every position, we’ll just try to do what we think is best for the football team and take a look at the opportunities as they present themselves and deal with them accordingly. I’m not saying that we would have one. I’m not saying we wouldn’t. We have in the past. I don’t think that necessarily forecasts the future, but we’ll take a look at what our options are and maybe we’ll stay with what we’ve got. Maybe we won’t.

Bill Belichick turns a question about Tedy Bruschi into praise for defensive line coach Pepper Johnson (who played linebacker for Bill Belichick at New York Giants, Cleveland Browns, and New York Jets):

Q: Has Tedy Bruschi been active in meetings and how much of a help can he be to someone like Junior?

BB: Yes. Tedy is great. I’ve seen that that every year, but we saw a lot of that last year. Tedy is great. He’s the ultimate team player. He’s always trying to help anybody who needs it or wants it. He’s available, in a good way. Not in a pushy way, but just as a guy who has played this defense. It’s a lot different reading the book and reading the x’s and o’s and the assignments and all of that for somebody that has actually played in it and how a player can relate to the defense. That’s one of things that Pepper [Johnson] really brings to this defense and to our defensive staff. I’ve coached it. Dean [Pees] has coached it. We coached it, but Pepper has actually played it and played it for a long time. He can talk to players about actually playing it differently than I can because I’ve never done that. I think it adds a good perspective to it and I think our veteran players in general, and Tedy specifically, do a really good job of that. We give them the assignments, ‘Here is how we’re going to do it,’ and all of that. There’s a lot of subtle things when you go out there on the field that players see that coaches kind of don’t or don’t have as much of an appreciation for the way a guy is leaning, or a call that was made on the other side of line that might have indicated something.

On how big rookie offensive tackle Ryan O’Callaghan is compared to the Patriots’ other offensive linemen:

Q: In general, all of your offensive linemen have been more mobile than huge. Ryan O’Callaghan is much bigger than what we’ve seen up there. Does he still move very well?

BB: I think he’s a pretty good athlete. I think movement is relative. Some of it is related to size. Some of it is related to a player’s moving skills. There’s plenty of big players that can move well. There are some players that don’t move very well. You’re looking at one of them. They could be related, but I don’t think they necessarily always are related. A guy like Vince Wilfork is a pretty big guy. He moves a lot better than guys that are a whole lot smaller than him.

O’Callaghan was listed as 6-6, 344*, when he was drafted in April this year, but the Patriots now tag him as 6-7, 330, on their roster. And there’s another tackle on the roster who’s even taller (and who played well in the second half against Arizona Cardinals last Sunday), the 6-8, 320, Wesley Britt.

*I’ve also seen him listed as 6-7, 360, and 6-7, 340. He’s a big boy, either way.

Here’s a pretty fun exchange from Bill Belichick’s press conference last Tuesday’s :

Q: Is Chad Jackson ready to practice today?

BB: He’s day-to-day

Q: So that means that he’s probably not ready to practice today.

BB [Sounding pretty irate]: It’s no different than any other of the day-to-day situations that we’ve talked about for the last five years. We go out to practice, we warm the players up, we see how they’re doing, and if they’re ready to go, then we put them out there, and if they are not, then we don’t. We haven’t practiced in three or four days, whatever it has been since the game, so we don’t do anything any differently than we’ve ever done it in the past in that phase. I can’t tell you how a guy feels four days from the last time he was out there. Once he gets out there, once anybody else gets out there, and we see how they’re doing, we start to put them through some of the preliminary stuff and if that’s going good, then you move them into the next phase. If it doesn’t, then you back off until you think they’re ready to go. It’s not any different than it’s been for the last six years.

Q: I was only asking it because you suggested that you thought that Nick Kaczur was going to be out there today so I thought maybe you’d know if Chad was going to be out there practicing.

BB [suddenly sounding like the reporter may have a point]: Because Nick has progressed to the point where, when we took him out there yesterday to do the things that we needed to do in order to take him off the PUP list, to get him out there, that those things went well. So based on that information, which is a little bit different than everybody else, and he’s in a different category than just about everybody else on this team, then that put him into a little bit of a different situation, which I guess I could’ve just sat here and said, ‘You know, we’ll wait and see how he is,’ because I’ll tell you the truth; if he goes out there today and doesn’t feel as good as what he would like to feel, then he wouldn’t practice either.

You really need to listen to the exchange to get the full flavor

More substantative is coach Belichick’s elaboration on nose tackle Vince Wilfork’s development and his role in the defense:

Q: What is Vince Wilfork doing better this year at the nose position than he was last year?

BB: I’d say the big thing is his reacting to the blocking schemes quicker. Nose is a tough position to play in our defense. You have two guards that are uncovered, and you’re on the center, so any one of those three guys can get to him and they can get to him pretty quick. There is nothing to stop the guards from coming down on him, it’s not like they have a guy lined up over them. Being able to react to all those different blocking schemes and believe me, the offense tries to make a lot of them look alike, so that one looks like the other, but it’s really not. The play is designed to go somewhere else. Or how they’re trying to influence the nose is different. It’s a tough position to play. There probably isn’t another position on the field - there certainly isn’t in our defense - where a guy can be attacked that quickly from as many different angles as the nose can.

So his ability to read those things, react to them quickly, be in the right spot and still play with strength and leverage and quickness - and not be caught off balance or caught either guessing or misreading the play - that’s really what a lot of that position is about. It’s having physical skills, but also being able to react almost instantaneously to what three guys - that far away from you - are doing. That includes in the passing game, too, because when they set up one guard or the other is usually going to involved in a slide protection, or some type of double team, and that’s pass rushing against double teams and working on which guy to attack and how to use leverage and all, there is a lot of skill there, there is a lot of mental reactions that have to be processed in a very, very short amount of time. That’s what experience at that position can provide a player, is his ability to react as quickly as those thing happen. There’s a lot going on.

I’d say that’s been Vince’s biggest step, but I would probably say that about any player who plays that position - up until they get to a certain point in their development - four, five, six, seven years - whatever it is - all the whole process up through there, they know what it is, but reacting to it quickly and being able to recognize the offenses attempt to disguise those things and to make them look the same - and then have to differentiate between them - it’s really hard. A team like Washington does a good job of that. That’s one of the things they’re really good at, several of their blocking schemes look on the first step, or even the first two steps, look exactly the same. But they’re totally different. It’s hard to differentiate them.

Coach Belichick also addressed the versatility factor in the context of Junior Seau joining the team:

Q: Is that an example of having versatility work to a player’s advantage?

BB: I think, ultimately, versatility is important, but being good at one thing is important too. We have some players on our team that can only do one thing, but in those cases they can usually do it pretty well and that’s what their niche is. Then there are other players that have more versatility and maybe aren’t strong in one specific area, but have the ability to do multiple assignments.

It’s probably safe to say that Wilfork will never play offensive line or nickle back, but he’ll still be valuable if he can jam the line of scrimmage on running plays.

Good end-of-summer article in Boston’s bilingual Chinese-American newspaper Sampan in which five Asian-American kids in Boston are interviewed.

Sample quotes:

Finance “seems boring to me,” said Lee. “My dream for a long time has been to become a computer engineer.”

…

She said she likes the U.S. and the schools here, which she said have smaller class sizes and are more open to educational experiments than in Vietnam.

…

He said that he is “very concerned” about the safety of Castle Square and said that violence can be triggered by merely looking at the wrong person the wrong way.

“They mostly target Asians, because they think that Asians are inferior and won’t do anything back,” he said.

…

He said that his parents don’t mind what career goal he chooses, as long as he goes to school and keeps his grades up.

…

During her junior year, she said, she slept an average of four hours a night. She would finish studying and homework assignments by 2 a.m., and then wake up for school at 6 a.m. Socializing with friends was a rarity. At most, Tai hangs out with friends three times a month during the school year.