Tedy Bruschi and Paul McCartney

Luckily for my blood pressure and the integrity of my coronary arteries, I didn’t find out that the “Certain well-known Boston Sports Figure is Dead” rumor concerned Tedy Bruschi until long after it had reared its unsubstantiated head and then been safely debunked. By the time I found out about it, Michael Felger on WEEI, who clued in Boston Sports Media Watch, and BSMW itself, which clued me in, were both taking the high road and not naming the player the rumor was about. Much later on, already having been assured that the rumor was baseless, false, fictitious, inaccurate and just plain wrong, I came across a post on Bostonist which did name names.

And even knowing the rumor was 100% untrue, my heart skipped a beat.

If you were determined to look on the bright side, you could say it just puts Tedy in a class of celebrity with Sir Paul McCartney, who was also rumored at one time†to be dead.†

More realistically, though, I’ll just say this: I hope it was an honest mistake (some reports say nurses at MGH may have made a mistaken identification) and not somebody’s idea of a prank.

Meanwhile, I was also flustered (on a much different scale, of course) to read†the names on the Pats PUP list going into training camp:

WR Troy Brown
RB Justise Hairston
WR Chad Jackson
CB Eddie Jackson
S Mel Mitchell
DL Richard Seymour
TE David Thomas
WR Kelley Washington

Some of the guys have injuries we know about (Chad Jackson, for example). But it particularly alarmed me to see Richard Seymour’s name on there for the second straight year. Mike Reiss is reporting that it’s a knee injury. Argh. Let’s hope both he and Troy Brown, who is also nursing a knee, can get out on the field at camp sooner rather than later.

Perhaps ironically, Tedy Bruschi’s wrist injury, which some theorized would put him on the PUP list (while no one appeared to have Seymour pegged ahead of time), is reportedly completely healed, and he will start training camp on time.