Bruschi Back, Seau Update

Tedy Bruschi has officially inked a multi-year contract to remain with the Patriots, ESPN reports.

New England Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi decided Thursday to return for his 13th season and apparently, he wants to play more than just one more year.

Great, great news.  Things are starting to clear up at linebacker.  Now, the Patriots are guaranteed to return Bruschi, Thomas, and Vrabel at starting positions.

Is linebacker still a priority?  Yes.  But is it looking a hell of a lot better?  Yes.

On a down note, things don’t look as optimistic for Junior Seau.  According to an AP Report, Seau is having shoulder surgery for an injury he played through most of last year.

Seau had arthroscopic surgery on his left rotator cuff not long after his New England Patriots were upset by the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, leaving the linebacker to ponder whether to try to play a 19th NFL season or retire — again.

With free agency set to begin first thing Friday, Seau is more worried about getting healthy and catching up on his offseason pursuits than where, or if, he might play again.

It sounds as if he’ll be happy, even if this is the end of his career.

“I have a choice of playing or a choice of surfing. Those are great choices to have,” Seau said by phone Thursday from his home in suburban Oceanside.

Seau said he was hurt in the fourth game of the season but was able to play through the pain as the Patriots went 18-0 before losing to the Giants on Feb. 3.

“There’s no grace time there,” he said. “I was caught in a wrong position. I just fell on it awkwardly. I felt it and it didn’t recover. So I had to deal with it. Every player has an injury during the course of the year. In order to get through it, you have to persevere. No 1, you have to make sure you’re not a liability. Obviously that was not the case.”

The Patriots, known not to be forthcoming with injury news, didn’t announce that Seau had surgery.

The surgery could have a bearing on whether the Patriots or any other teams offer Seau a contract.

“Wanting and needing are two different things,” Seau said about his prospects for returning for a third season with New England. “It’s basically looking at every situation. I know that it’s a structure of what coach (Bill) Belichick and the Kraft family have to partake in, to put together a great team that can follow up what we did last year. That takes time. There really isn’t anything on the table for me to look at except me getting healthy and being ready to go whenever anything that is a liking to me surfaces.