Just when I was getting all excited about training camp, you have to come out and announce you’re sitting out. What you haven’t yet mentioned is if you will watch the games you’re missing with your arms crossed and a pout on your face. Are you going to march into Bill’s office and stomp your feet, too? Maybe this is a remnant of your mom forcing you to eat your lima beans? Or maybe when you wanted more allowance?

Ernie mentioned all the things he could do with the $7.9 mil the Patriots offered you. Here’s my list: Finish college, buy a sweet mansion on the beach, buy a Back Bay brownstone, buy a car, go to Disney World for a month, and shop. And when I wake from that crazy dream, I will drive my beat-up ’95 Honda to my thankless $8 an hour job. Oh boy, don’t get me started on what it’s like to not be appreciated. I virtually run four newspapers. As much fun as it would be for me to decide to not go to work for two months in hopes of a raise, it ain’t happening.

But really, what I’ve always wondered is, after $5 mil, does it really matter? I mean, really. Does it? That’s not rhetorical.