Law knows pact may cap Pats’ career

Ty Law knows football. Ty Law also knows the business of football. So less than an hour after intercepting three of Peyton Manning’s passes in the AFC championship game, the New England Patriots cornerback was being asked about next season.

Next week is good enough. It will be Law’s third Super Bowl in eight years. If it’s his last, that’s business.

Law will count an astronomical $9.45 million against next season’s salary cap and $12.5 million in 2005, so adjustments are in order. Conventional wisdom suggests a restructured deal spread over enough years to make the hit against the salary cap more palatable.

But Law saw All-Pro teammate Lawyer Milloy get summarily released the week before this season because he couldn’t come to a contract accommodation. Laws and Lawyers are always in the middle of controversy.

“I really don’t think about it right now,” Law said. “There are probably going to have to be some decisions made as far as my future, but that’s out of my hands. The best thing I can do is go out there and play football. Hopefully they want to keep me around, but right now it’s about winning the championship.”

What are three interceptions against Manning worth? Priceless, Patriots fans would say. So might owner Robert Kraft, who praised the shivering Gillette Stadium fans after an undefeated home record in the second season of the privately financed facility. If an owner can make money building a $325 million stadium, maybe he can figure out a way to make money on a $9 million cornerback.

“Hopefully I will be here for the long haul,” Law said. “I would like to retire here, but it is a business, and I understand. So regardless of what happens, it won’t be any hard feelings because if I do have to leave, I want to leave as a champion.”

Milloy was Law’s best friend, so Law was stunned along with other teammates when the Patriots cut him. Asked recently whether he had “patched up” things with coach Bill Belichick, Law said, “It wasn’t about patching up anything. I was upset, but as far as patching stuff up with coach Belichick, it wasn’t up to me to patch anything up because they made a decision. I’m a player.

“It can happen to any of us. Who is to say that it won’t happen to me or I’m not far behind?”

Endangered Eagles: From bad to worse, the Eagles now have to deal with new lows. They aren’t the first team to lose three consecutive conference championship games in the Super Bowl era, but they are the first to lose two of the three at home.

The Los Angeles Rams were one game away from Super Bowls in 1974-75-76. The Dallas Cowboys missed in 1980-81-82. The Oakland Raiders were stopped in 1968-69-70, and again in 1973-74-75. But the Rams and Raiders only lost one at home and the Cowboys lost none at home.

When the charming third time turns out to be strike three, you’re usually out. Eagles coach Andy Reid can point to the Raiders, who won it all in 1976 on their fourth try. But he knows familiarity isn’t making this any easier.

“It depends on how you handle it,” Reid said Monday. “You see teams every year that fall off the map after having lost in the playoffs or the Super Bowl or the NFC championship. It’s important that you can handle it a certain way. Character takes over a little bit and it has allowed us to get into this position. It’s important that we handle it right this off-season. If you don’t, then obviously you’re going to struggle.

“The thing you can take care of is you can have a great off-season. All the other stuff and everything that’s written or said, you can’t worry about. Get back to what you can control, and that’s having a heck of an off-season, coming into training camp ready to go and getting ready to play football. That starts today. We back up from football a little bit, then we get right back at it and get ourselves right.”

Reid isn’t sure whether quarterback Donovan McNabb could have played in the Super Bowl in two weeks after suffering torn rib cartilage in the first half of Sunday’s loss to Carolina.

“It would have been a struggle. He is very sore,” Reid said. “He would have obviously been in some pain.”

Allen revisited: Tampa Bay general manager Bruce Allen had to relish the idea of denying the Bears permission to hire defensive coach Rod Marinelli.

“Of all the franchises in the NFL, the Bears ought to have knowledge of what the rules are,” Allen said.

In 1966, Allen’s father, George, sought to leave the Bears’ staff to become head coach of the Los Angeles Rams. Papa Bear George Halas sued Allen and the case went to court. Halas won, preserving “the sanctity of a contract.” After Halas made an example out of Allen, he let him go to the Rams, without his blessing.

What goes around comes around. Teams usually allow coaches to leave for promotions, but a contract remains a contract.

Wolf back? Former Packers general manager Ron Wolf, who turned down a chance to work for the Miami Dolphins and regularly turns down offers to unretire, may be close to a deal with the Cleveland Browns. The job is more of a consultant’s position that he could manage from his home in Annapolis, Md., than a daily hands-on job. It also pays more than former personnel scouts of Wolf’s stature ever could have imagined only a few years ago.

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Falcons’ staff: Coach Jim Mora completed his Atlanta Falcons staff by hiring fired Packers defensive coordinator Ed Donatell and talking highly regarded offensive line coach Alex Gibbs out of semiretirement in Denver.

Gibbs played an instrumental role in helping the Broncos win back-to-back Super Bowls in 1997-98. In seven playoff games over the two championship seasons, Denver averaged 185 rushing yards per game while allowing an average of only 1.4 sacks.

Donatell was fired after the Packers gave up a fourth-and-26 pass to the Eagles in the divisional playoff and lost in overtime. Under Donatell, the Packers produced more turnovers the last three seasons (116) than any other team in the league.

The Packers’ defense also produced its best two-year sack total with 95 in 2001-02. In 2002, the Packers’ defense led the NFL with 45 takeaways, the most for a Packers defense since 1981 (54 takeaways). This season, the Packers ranked 11th in scoring defense and 10th in rushing defense.