The Patriots and Preseason Trades

Logan Mankins (70) was dealt to Tampa Bay, but will the Patriots suffer for it?

By Jeremy Conlin (@jeremy_conlin)

Trades in the NFL happen significantly less frequently than they do in the NBA, NHL, and in Major League Baseball. There are a few reasons for this - first and foremost, contracts are structured in the most complicated fashion of the four major sports. There's the total value of the contract, which is split into a signing bonus (guaranteed money) and the player's yearly salary (often un-guaranteed or only partially guaranteed). Those two numbers are then used to calculate a player's "cap hit," or what figure they actually count against the team's salary cap. As NFL contracts are more complicated, it becomes more difficult to trade players for other players - almost exclusively, you see players traded for draft picks.

Trades happen infrequently in the NFL, unless you're talking about the Patriots in the two-week window before the regular season starts.

Important Lessons from this Super Bowl Week

Stop asking me about my murder trial and PEDs, I never asked for this kind of attention. Now, everybody gather round and watch me do this elaborate dance routine for the cameras.

By Joe Parello

The media storm heading into any Super Bowl is always enjoyable, but this year we've learned some particularly relevant tidbits about participants in the big game. Here are just a few of them.

Ray Lewis never tested positive for a substance the league doesn't test for.

And damn it, if you disagree, you are just a pawn of the Devil! Seriously, he said the allegations that he used Deer Antler Spray (ew) to recover from his torn triceps earlier this year is a "trick of the devil."

The Ravens, for their part, released this statement.

"Ray has been randomly tested for banned substances and has never failed a test. We have never been notified of a failed test. He has never been notified of a failed test," Kevin Byrne, vice president of communications for the Ravens, told ESPN.

Uh, of course he hasn't tested positive for this, THE LEAGUE DOESN'T TEST FOR IT. I cannot emphasize that point enough, it's like they think we aren't going to notice that MINOR detail.