"Fred Taylor has had, shall we say, an interesting week. Once a proud member of the Jacksonville Jaguars, now an often ailing member of the Patriots, the veteran running back threw out a comment the other day about his new team watching more film than his old team.

And then he submitted a lecture of sorts to Jaguars fans, suggesting they better step up and start supporting their team - or wave goodbye as the Jags make like Jed Clampett and move to Cal-i-forney.

Fine. Players talk. Sometimes they say smart things, and sometimes they say dumb things. And there is this: Occasionally, they say things that are "taken out of context" by the bloodthirsty, headline-hungry, deadline-harried media.

But that's not the issue here. Not today. Not on Christmas. What is at issue is that Mr. Taylor, with an absolutely straight face, tried very hard yesterday to convince people that Sunday's Patriots-Jaguars game at Gillette Stadium will be . . . pause . . . "strictly business."

Those were the man's exact words.

"Strictly business," he said. "This is for us a championship game, obviously."

Well, no, it's obviously not a championship game, but he's right when he refers to the game as "a chance to sew up the division, so I'm going to take that approach. This has been about nine years for me, personally, since I've had a chance to win a division."

But stop, just for a moment. Back up the tape to that business about this being . . . strictly business. Because it's not. Fact: Any time a player, in any sport, plays against his former team for the first time, it is never "strictly business.""