Why Junior? Why now?

[Mark Farinella]

The Junior Seau Watch continues in Foxboro, as persistent national-media reports suggest that the ageless linebacker is expected to be back in a Patriot uniform shortly, possibly before the team heads west this weekend to play the unbeaten Denver Broncos in another of those "AFL Legacy Games" with throwback uniforms and all that.

As early as the first week of July, Seau was telling anyone who would listen that he would return to the Patriots -- and only to the Patriots, given his cordial relationships with Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick -- but for a limited number of games. Seau, who will be 41 on Jan. 19, probably knows best what he can expect of his body, although he still qualifies for freak-of-nature status to be even remotely capable of playing at a level worthy of an NFL roster spot. Ask Joey Galloway how his efforts to stay ahead of the Grim Reaper are going.

You can hear Seau's original remarks to a San Diego radio station here on my 14th edition of The Blog Show, taped in July.

Seau's return would come considerably earlier than his estimate of having "six good games" left in him. But there are valid reasons why he should be on board for the next 12 and beyond.

First and foremost is his mere presence.

Belichick is obviously aware that there's a leadership gap in the locker room, particularly on defense. The departures of Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, Richard Seymour and Mike Vrabel from last year's finale to the present have gutted that core of veteran leadership that sustained the Patriots' defense emotionally (if not always physically, given the decline in play of some of those players). Harrison, who spent most of yesterday still trying to explain his "take off the skirt" comment to Tom Brady on NBC, still calls Seau "Superman" from their many years together with both the Chargers and Patriots.

Seau's boundless enthusiasm and old-school love for the game may be just what the defense needs to hold itself together over the long run of the season.

It's not as much that they need Seau as a player, however. Jerod Mayo, the linebacker most likely to assume the leadership role in just his second season, is drawing closer to being healthy enough to play following a strained MCL in his left knee suffered in the opener. Gary Guyton, Mayo's understudy at middle linebacker when the Patriots are in a 4-3 alignment, has played every defensive snap since Mayo went down and has been looking better and better each week.

But the current level of depth in the Patriots' inside linebacker corps is very thin -- Eric Alexander rarely sees the field outside of special teams -- and with Mayo out, the Patriots are also prevented from going to a 3-4 alignment. Part of what makes the Patriots' defense hardest to figure out by opposing coaches is its ability to swich seamlessly from the 3-4 to the 4-3 and back again, and with the numbers down at inside linebacker, the 4-3 has become the Patriots' base defense.

Bringing Seau back would actually help keep Guyton on the field when Mayo returns. With a trusted backup in place, the Patriots can restore the 3-4 to their repertoire. The 4-3 has worked well so far, but there's no doubt that Belichick and coordinator Dean Pees would like to restore versatility and unpredictability to their playbook.

Under those circumstances, there's no way they would expect 60 or more snaps a game from Seau. But as time passes and he becomes acclimated to the practice routine again, Seau could probably deliver it on occasion. He had an outstanding game in last year's finale at Buffalo, leading the team in tackles with nine.

Belichick, of course, played it coy in his Monday press conference. He referred to a mishap that occured during the taping of Seau's new reality show on the Versus network, "Sports Jobs with Junior Seau," in which the veteran linebacker was trampled by a bull during his stint as a rodeo clown for the Professional Bull Riders Tour at a stop in Ontario, Calif.

“Well, I noticed he was doing some bull riding or bull stomping or bulls were stomping him or whatever it was,” Belichick said. “We’ll have to take a look at that workout and see how he was doing that.”

Seau's show will debut on the cable web at 10 p.m. on Dec. 2. Spokesmen for the network said his return to the Patriots won't intefere with his hosting duties. Seau was in Boston last week to serve as the Washington Capitals' equipment manager for a day during the NHL season opener against the Bruins, and it's presumed that that's when he underwent the physical requested by the Patriots.

There will be another issue afoot -- at the start of the regular season, the Patriots assigned Seau's number (55) to linebacker/defensive end Derrick Burgess. The latter sounded surprised Monday that he might have to surrender the number to a 20-year veteran and future Pro Football Hall of Fame member ("I don't even get involved with all that. I'll just deal with it when he gets here," Burgess said), but my guess is that Patriots' equipment manager Donnie Brocher already has several of the white throwbacks on hand that say "Seau 55" on the back.

Players often engage in some by-play over number changes, but I can't believe that Burgess would not step aside for someone of Seau's stature. The only problem is finding an appropriate number for the former Oakland Raider (I'd suggest "zero" to reflect what he's done for the Patriots so far since the trade, but it's not a legal number for linebackers or defensive ends).

You won't hear many complaints from the media corps about Seau's return, either. It may be the least of the team's concerns, but the man is chatty, he fills notebooks, and he's smart enough to do so without violating Belichick's guidelines against spilling the beans with any specifics.

There might be complaints if, as in Galloway's case, Seau looks completely lost once he gets on the field. But that certainly wasn't the case last year, and I suspect Seau wouldn't even consider a return if he knew nothing was left in the tank. He loves his life as a California surfer dude and Sports Dad to his kids, but his commitment to Kraft and Belichick is significant enough to pull him back to the playing field.

Finally, it's been asked why Bruschi has not been considered for a similar return. The answer is simple; he can't play any more, and he knows it. A day or two after his retirement press conference, he admitted publicly that a knee that underwent an arthroscopic procedure in the offseason was simply not responding, It would be unwise to use a roster spot for a former player who was so clearly in decline, he couldn't get on the field in the preseason with the first unit. Bruschi made the right move to retire and turn his attention to a budding career as a TV analyst.