"The Patriot Way? Child please, as Chad Ochocinco would say. The Patriots' mantra is more like "just win, baby."

The Patriots have become the NFL's version of Outward Bound while trying to become Super Bowl-bound again, reforming some of the NFL's more temperamental talents to regain their lofty Lombardi Trophy perch.

Yesterday, they made trades for wanton Washington Redskins defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth, a man with a massive frame and an equally large list of transgressions, and Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco, a man whose self-promotional antics make Shaquille O'Neal look like a shut-in. For vastly different reasons, neither player appears to fit the mold of the team-first, gridiron-gestalt philosophy the Patriots have copyrighted on their way to becoming the NFL's model franchise of the new millennium.

But when you're the Boston pro sports franchise that has the longest championship "drought," haven't won a playoff game during the Obama administration and have lost three of five encounters with the rival New York Jets since Vociferous Rex Ryan arrived, including a shocking 28-21 playoff loss last season, then perhaps you come to view pigskin probity as a luxury. You need to upgrade your talent, and if it comes to Foxborough with a bit of baggage so be it.

As long as we can all be adult and honest about that and not start fitting Ochocinco and Haynesworth for halos along with their Patriots helmets, then I applaud coach Bill Belichick's low-risk, high-reward moves because they're based on winning right now. At minimal cost, he has addressed two of his teams biggest weaknesses at the collective sum of a 2012 fifth-round pick and 2013 fifth and sixth rounders."