By Ron Borges

You have to hand it to the Herald and to Patriot fans.

The Herald came up with this idea of naming the all-time greatest Patriot player by on-line balloting and turned it into an interesting bracketing tournament that has now advanced through four rounds and left, like the NFL playoffs, only eight men standing.

Whoever did the seeding should apply for a job with the BCS because two of the four brackets have the No. 1 and 2 seeds in the Elite Eight while the other two have No. 1 against No. 3. If the BCS had that kind of clear headed analysis we’d actually know who the best college football team in the country is.

In fact, half the seeds had 1,2,3 and 4 as the final four in their bracket while one had 1,2,3 and 5 and the other had 1,3,4 and 10 with Mike Vrabel being the wildcard entrant.
The fans deserve credit for putting history ahead of sentimentality or the moment and picking top seeded Steve Grogan ahead of Tedy Bruschi by 21 votes, which now leaves him vying with Adam Vinatieri to reach the Herald’s Final Four.

Tough call there. Vinatieri made the most memorable, and most important kicks, in Patriot history. Without him there wouldn’t be three vince Lombardi Trophies on Bob Kraft’s mantle. Then again, Grogan has always optimized toughness and grace under pressure to Pats fans, who fell in love with him twice at both the start and end of his careers while booing him in the middle. In the end, it seems Vinatieri should win out because, after all, he won the games Grogan could not.

The Schaefer Stadium bracket has top seeded Tom Brady against No. 2 Mike Haynes, a Hall of Fame cornerback. You know the way this is going to go but if you have even a little guilt about picking against a Hall of Famer tell yourself many of his best years were in a Raiders uniform. It’ll be easier to accept.

In the Sullivan Stadium bracket New England’s only real Hall of Famer (meaning a guy who played the bulk of his best years in Foxborough), guard John Hanna, goes up against a surprise in the Elite Eight, wide receiver Stanley Morgan. Some folks like Grogan will tell you Morgan belongs in the Hall of Fame himself and maybe he does considering he averaged 19 yards a catch but despite all his spectacular plays you can’t vote him ahead of a legitimate Hall of Famer who some argue is the greatest guard to ever play the game.
That leaves Brady vs. Hannah in one half of the Final Four, if the voters go that way, which will make for an interesting debate.

In the other bracket it’s a battle that was predictable between the two greatest defensive players in Patriot history, linebacker Andre Tippett and defensive end Richard Seymour. Seymour beat out No. 2 seed Drew Bledsoe and the Herald was kind enough not to say by how much. My guess is probably by a wider margin that it should have been, although Seymour has been more dominate at his position than Bledsoe was at his. When one combs through Patriot history who played defensive end or defensive tackle better than Seymour? If we ask who played quarterback better than Bledsoe a barroom brawl tends to break out so we move on instead.

Tippett reached the final 10 last year in Hall of Fame balloting and is again in the running for election with the list down to the final 25 nominees (it will be cut to 15 on Jan. 15 and it’s expected he will again make the finals). Seymour has played heroically the past two years with bad knees and elbows and remains a dominate force. But Tippett is still the best defensive player in the franchise’s history and thus should move on to challenge Vinatieri or Grogan in one half of the final four.

What still looms is what I expected all along when this whole process began – Brady vs. Tippett in the final vote. Best offensive player vs. best defensive player. That’s how it should be?

But they have to get there first and that’s still two weeks and two more votes away, which is good because it gives us two more weeks to argue over whether or not Vinatieri ever should have beaten Ty Law out in the last round.