How is it that I now live in a world where Antoine Walker is a Celtic but Ty Law isn't a Patriot?

The Walker thing is a mystery, given how Danny Ainge let his feelings on the once (and future?) captain before shipping him out to Dallas. Perhaps Ainge felt bad that Walker was stuck in Atlanta. Not sure. From what I've read everyone involved in the deal is on the last year of their contract, so even if Antoine II doesn't work out, the Celts aren't stuck with him long-term.

Also interesting: Gary Payton, one of the players sent to Atlanta for Walker, is looking to be bought out of his contract so he can sign with a new team - possibly the Celtics.

Maybe he wants to be here after all.

The Ty Law thing is a little less surprising. Law and the team were having contract issues in training camp, he missed half the season with a broken foot, was going to cost $12.5 million against the cap for the upcoming season, and (if we learned anything this season) the Pats can put together a secondary with just about anyone.

My most enduring memory of Law will be his drafting. We were heading back to Boston from a tournament at Williams when I found out he was our first round draft choice. Sports talk radio, as you can imagine, was livid. There was a lot of talk about why we didn't trade up and try to get one of the fine RBs drafted in front of Law - guys like Ki-Jana Carter or Rashaan Salaam.

It's always nice when long-term planning shows its value. Though I'm sure there are still people out there who swear we should have gone after Joey Galloway.

Looking at it, 1995 was a pretty good draft for the Pats. They got Law, Ted Johnson, Curtis Martin, and center Dave Wohlabaugh (and Jimmy Hitchcock, who played but didn't have the same impact of any of these guys). Compare it to 1994, where after Willie McGinest, the highest impact player the Pats got was Max Lane - an offensive lineman taken in the sixth round out of Navy. Marty Moore, that year's Mr. Irrelevant, actually wound up seeing a fair amount of playing time.

I thought 1994 had a pretty weak top 10 overall, but feast your peepers on 1991. Yowza.