Hahn, Tagliabue Plan to Meet Before Game

NEW ORLEANS —  Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn will meet Sunday with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue before the Super Bowl, and the two are expected to talk informally about the prospects of bringing the NFL back to L.A.

Two months ago, Hahn met at his office with Roger Goodell, the league’s chief operating officer who oversees stadium and franchise issues.

L.A. has been without an NFL team since the Raiders and Rams left in 1995.

Hahn has expressed interest in helping bring a team to the area--an endeavor that probably would involve building a stadium--as long as it doesn’t come at taxpayers’ expense.

The meeting with Tagliabue is intended to be a get-to-know-you session.

Hahn is due to arrive in New Orleans on Saturday afternoon and will attend a private party that night hosted by Saint owner Tom Benson. Sunday, Hahn and Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook will go to the game.

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Patriot owner Bob Kraft said Wednesday he was inundated with calls and letters to fire Bill Belichick when the team was 1-3.

“That’s not how we run our businesses,” said Kraft, who owns an international paper company. “We try to pick good people and stick by them and support them.”

Kraft said he always gives his employees, inside and outside football, at least two years to prove themselves. That accounts for highs and lows in, say, paper sales.

“People ask me what’s the difference in Bill coaching here and coaching in Cleveland,” he said. “I think it’s that this organization is on the same page.”

Belichick has job stability. The pressing question concerns the future of Drew Bledsoe, the Patriots’ $107-million quarterback. Kraft was asked if he will listen to offers from interested teams.

“That’s Bill Belichick’s decision,” he said. “If I have a vote, I would not be against having both of them play for us next year, unless someone comes up with a blockbuster offer for either one.”

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They were college teammates at Washington, roommates in a tiny house outside Seattle, and now Ernie Conwell and Damon Huard will be across the field from each other at the Super Bowl. Conwell is the starting tight end for St. Louis; Huard is New England’s No. 3 quarterback.

The two lived rent-free in a one-bedroom, ramshackle house in Kent, Wash., when they were sophomores with the Huskies. The place, which belonged to Conwell’s grandmother, was across the street from a roofing company, and train tracks practically ran through the backyard.

Best friends through college, Huard and Conwell shared the lone bedroom for a year, then moved out after the place was burglarized and all their possessions stolen.

“Damon was pretty clean and tidy,” Conwell said. “Damon was kind of borderline feminine. He’d wash his face every night with Noxzema. He probably had a luffa.”

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While everybody is focused on the Arena Football League success story named Kurt Warner, they might be missing a similar story named David Patten.

He is the Patriot wide receiver who, like Warner, was undrafted and unwanted out of college.

While Warner worked in a supermarket, Patten hauled 75-pound cases of coffee beans.

“I felt like football was over for me,” said Patten, who attended Western Carolina.

While Warner began his career with the Iowa Barnstormers, Patten joined the Albany Firebirds.

“It’s been a long road,” he said.

And, wouldn’t you know it, the two men once met each other on the Arena League field, even though they didn’t know it.

“When I was on the sideline [for Albany], I was thinking about how accurate the quarterback was; he was hitting everybody, putting it right on the chest,” Patten recalled. “At the time, I didn’t recognize Kurt Warner.”

At times this year, Patten has had wildly successful and surprising games.

Against Indianapolis on Oct. 21, he became the first NFL player in 22 years to run for a touchdown, catch a touchdown pass, and throw a touchdown pass in a game.

The next week against Denver, he caught a touchdown pass, had a 13-yard run, and made a tackle. And, oh yeah, threw an interception.

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Belichick, a former New York Jet defensive coordinator, used to have to prepare for Marshall Faulk twice a season when Faulk was playing for Indianapolis.

Asked how he felt when Faulk was traded to St. Louis, Belichick said it “was one of the happiest days of my life.”

“I was happy to get rid of him for two games a year,” Belichick said. “Of all the players in the league, Marshall Faulk is probably the hardest to match up against.”

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Outspoken Patriot linebacker Bryan Cox has given serious consideration to coaching an NFL team or working as a general manager after his playing career is over. But he doesn’t like his odds.

“I continue to talk about all these things that I could do,” he said. “But at this time, the chances of me becoming a head coach or a general manager in this league, being a minority, are not very good. Compared to baseball and basketball, the NFL [stinks] in that area.

“That’s the fact of the matter. It’s not good in that area. So for me to be a minority and for me to say that one day I’m going to be a head coach or a general manager, I’m kidding myself. That’s a dream.”

Sam Farmer and Bill Plaschke