PATS LAUNCH T.O. POLL

It’s one thing for a newspaper to post an online poll regarding the question of whether the local football club should pursue a guy like receiver Terrell Owens. But when such a poll shows up on the official web site of an NFL team, it’s time to take notice. Yesterday, it was the Eagles who posted such a poll, which was up just long enough for PFT Planet to skew the voting toward the “yes” column. Today, it’s the Patriots. Though we don’t want to read to much into this, the Patriots usually have a purpose for everything they do. And it’s hard not to wonder whether they’re at least considering the possibility of trying the same foot-on-throat/one-strike approach that they applied to Randy Moss a couple of years ago. Keep this in mind: Owens torched the Pats in Super Bowl XXXIX, and coach Bill Belichick has a long memory. Of course, the Patriots weren’t interested in Owens three years ago. So, as Redskins executive V.P. Vinny Cerrato said Thursday as to his own team, why would the Pats feel differently three years later? We see two possible distinctions. First, maybe former V.P. of player personnel Scott Pioli was adamant about avoiding T.O. (Pioli, of course, is now the G.M. of the Chiefs.) Second, maybe the Pats think that Owens’ salary expectations will be much lower now than they were when he received 25 million reasons to live from the Cowboys. Regardless of what it means, the poll is live. Vote, if you so choose. UPDATE: Since “yes” is winning, let’s vote “no.”