David Patten, a receiver who went undrafted out of Western Carolina yet went on to win three Super Bowl rings, suddenly and surprisingly announced his retirement this morning.

During the second day of training camp with the Patriots, Patten decided that he just wasn’t mentally into it anymore. Patten, almost 36, hadn’t even told his family yet when he told Coach Bill Belichick of his decision.

“This is a sad moment,” Belichick said. “But it’s also a very happy one and one to celebrate – a truly great career, the rags-to-riches story, coming off unloading coffee bags to the NFL career that he’s had is a tremendous story, and very deserving of the type of person and the type of player that David was for the New England Patriots and throughout his career in the league.”

Most of Patten’s success came early in his career with the Patriots. During his 12 NFL seasons, he caught 324 passes for 4,715 yards and 24 touchdowns. He also played for the Giants, Browns, Redskins and Saints.

As a follower of the Redskins, I know he unfortunately didn’t do much for the Skins. During his two years with the club, 2005 and 2006, he had knee surgery and viral meningitis.

Patten lives with his family in South Carolina and will become a minister full time.

Wake Forest was a stunning 5-7 last year, which tells you a great deal about how far the Deacons have come when a 5-7 season is considered a disappointment. Hey, it wasn’t that long ago that five wins was something to celebrate in Winston-Salem.

Coach Jim Grobe has changed those expectations, and running back Josh Adams recently gave you a sense of that when he talked about Grobe’s reaction after one game in 2009.

“You know he’s mad when his face turns red and he throws his hat down and gets the bug eyes,” running back Josh Adams said.

The Deacons actually lost five games in a row at one point last season, and three of those were close. Adams, who played at Cary High, said the team needs more “mental toughness” in those tight games. “When it comes to grinding time, you’re able to pull out the win,” he said.

The Deacons enter this season without quarterback Riley Skinner, a four-year starter. But Adams enters the year with 1,896 career rushing yards, 11th in Wake history, and Grobe plans to give him heavy carries this fall.

“We expect ourselves to win,” Adams said. “That’s why falling short last year was very disappointing.”

Oh, and they definitely don’t want a repeat performance of Grobe getting angry with the team, tossing his hat and getting “the bug eyes.”

“We saw more frustration [from the head coach] than we have seen,” Adams said. “Hopefully we can keep that to a minimum this year.”

ACC NEWS RELEASE – ACC Football is going Three-Dimensional in a big way in 2010. ESPN has announced that the first three games the cable network will televise in 3-D this fall will feature ACC teams beginning with the Virginia Tech hosting Boise State on Labor Day Monday Night at FedEx Field in Landover, Md.

The game between the nationally-ranked Hokies and Broncos, which will have an 8 p.m. (ET) Kickoff, is the first of three straight ESPN ACC contests that will be televised with the 3-D technology.

The second will be Miami’s Sept. 11 contest at Ohio State, which will have a 3:40 p.m. (ET) kickoff and will be televised by ESPN.

Clemson will then travel to Auburn on Saturday, Sept. 18 for the third straight ACC three dimensional gridiron contest featuring an ACC school on ESPN. The game will have a 7 pm (ET) kickoff.

In all, ESPN has announced that four ACC games will be televised in 3-D as the 6th Annual Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship Game, which will be held this year at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium on Dec. 4 (7:45 pm, ET), is also scheduled to be televised by ESPN in 3-D.

Wow, UNC coach Roy Williams is already raving about incoming recruit Harrison Barnes from Ames, Iowa. Williams will get his first look at Barnes in August when the Tar Heels play in the Bahamas.

“Tyler is the most driven player I’ve ever coached,” Williams told Fox Sports. “I think Harrison will be No. 2. He has tremendous focus, self-discipline and is so driven.”

Oh, and Barnes knows how to use Skype, too.

Former UNC basketball player Rashad McCants, who did not play in the NBA last season, had a chance to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers summer league team this month but chose instead to come to Raleigh to be with his ailing mother, a breast cancer survivor.

McCants, who averaged 15 points a game in 2008 for the Minnesota Timberwolves, didn’t play as much in 2009 and was traded to Sacramento which eventually refused to re-sign him. He sat out last season.

McCants, a native of Asheville, is only 26 and seemingly had an NBA-type game even when in college. He was considered moody at UNC but he hasn’t gotten in any trouble since turning professional.

He says that playing in Europe is not an option. Eventhough his surly reputation remains, hopefully he’ll get another chance with the Cavaliers or maybe the Celtics (he’s friends with Kevin Garnett).

An article on McCants titled “Born to be hated, dying to be loved” appears in the most recent ESPN The Magazine.

It’s a fair outcome for the marijuana charges against four N.C. State football players to, well, blow over, since the fact that a bunch of college kids were smoking pot hardly ranks as major news. Coach Tom O’Brien refused to go into the issue on Monday in Greensboro and WRAL.com quoted him as saying the issue had been addressed and, “We’re moving on.”

Jakes Vermiglio, Markus Kuhn, George Bryan and J. R. Sweezy were charged April 24 with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. The charges against Vermiglio, Kuhn and Sweezy were dropped Tuesday, according to The N&O and WRAL. The case against Bryan was continued.

This is significant because left tackle Vermiglio and tight end Bryan are starters and Kuhn is listed at No. 2 on the depth chart at defensive tackle. State needs all the good players it can get this year as O’Brien tries to turn around a program that is 16-21 under his watch. Already, State will play the season without Rashard Smith, a projected starter at cornerback, because of a knee injury.

Perhaps the most interesting case is Sweezy. He was charged in March of beating up a shuttle bus driver, but PackPride.com reported those charges were dropped last month. Sweezy is not listed on the two-deep, but keep in mind players who get in trouble in the offseason are often not left off the depth chart. Sweezy played in 12 games last season and started against Gardner-Webb.

Kernersville Post 36 overcame a 3-0 deficit with seven runs in the fifth inning to eliminate Cary Post 67 by a 10-5 score in the American Legion State Tournament in Asheboro today.

Cary was knocked to the loser’s bracket of the double-elimination tournament by falling to Randolph County 2-1 in 11 innings Sunday night.

Against Kernersville, Cary jumped out to a 2-0 lead as Stephen McKinney singled in Drew Woodall, who had doubled, and Anthony Colantino singled in a run. In the fourth, Cary extended the lead to 3-0 when David Hamm singled in Colantino, who had singled and stolen second base.

But a disastrous fifth inning, which included two runs scoring on a bases-loaded walk and a balk by Cary pitcher James Todd, was the beginning of the end of the Post 67 season. Kernersville’s Evan Orenstein capped off the seven-run inning with a three-run homer off Cary’s Gerrit Van Genderen.

Cary ends its season 22-10. The teams left competing for the state title are Whiteville, Randolph County, Kernersville and Cherryville.

A pair of Cary players will remain in ACC country as Hamm, an Athens Drive grad, will attend N.C. State while Grant Shambley, a Green Hope grad, has signed with Wake Forest.

Virginia Tech is the preseason favorite in ACC football, being picked to win the league on 50 of 98 ballots by media at the ACC Football Kickoff in Greensboro.

Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder was the ACC preseason player of the year, with 45 votes. N.C. State’s Russell Wilson and UNC’s Robert Quinn tied for fourth with six votes.

Florida State was picked to win the Atlantic Division and received the second-highest total of votes (26) to win the league overall.

The Triangle schools didn’t fare well. N.C. State was picked fourth in the Atlantic, with UNC picked for fourth in the Coastal and Duke fifth in the Coastal.

Here are the totals:

Atlantic Division
Fla. State  565
Clemson 479
Boston College 389
N.C. State  283
Wake 203
Maryland 139

Coastal Division
Va. Tech 532
Miami 444
Ga. Tech 408
UNC 379
Duke 169
Virginia 126

Cary Post 67 defeated Cherryville Post 100, 2-1, on Saturday but fell into the loser’s bracket of the American Legion State Tournament in Asheboro after losing to Randolph County by the same score Sunday night.

Cary pitcher Daniel Sondag hit a Randolph batter with the bases loaded and two outs in the 11th inning for the loss. Post 67 had the lead into the eighth when Randolph tied it.

Cary, 22-9, now plays Kernersville, a 13-3 victor over Rocky Mount, in an elimination game Monday at 4:30 p.m.

Both tournament favorites – Rocky Mount and Wilmington, who entered the tourney with the best records – have been ousted from the tournament. Randolph County and Whiteville are the only teams left from the eight-field tournament that have not lost in the state tourney.

In Cary’s win over Cherryville, Gerrit Van Genderen tripled and scored while pitcher Blair Betts gave up only one run and five hits over six innings for the victory.

To find out more about the tournament, please click here.

The issue of athletes receiving improper benefits from sports agents has spread like a rash over the country, touching schools such at Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and, of course, UNC.

While Tar Heel players were instructed not to discuss the situation involving Marvin Austin and Greg Little specifically today at the ACC Kickoff in Greensboro, UNC’s Robert Quinn did offer some insight into how agents and their runners, go about their business.

“They try to contact me on Facebook,” Quinn said. “But I don’t pay no attention to it. I don’t know how many, really. But that’s it. I ignore it.”

Due to his talents, Quinn is a big target for agents. If the 6-5 junior defensive end, who had 11 sacks last season, declares for the NFL after this season, he would be among the top five prospects overall, according to several scouting services. While it’s not illegal for athletes to have contact with agents, it is against NCAA rules and North Carolina law for them to receive anything of value or enter into an agreement before their eligibility is up.

N.C. State senior wide receiver Owen Spencer said agents do “a lot of things” to try to make contact with players. He said patience is the key to avoiding the trouble that’s always lurking.

“You try to stay away from all that,” Spencer said. “You just have to wait for it. You don’t want to jeopardize you eligibility. We just stay away from that.”

Miami defensive lineman Allen Bailey said he deals with online contact, via Facebook or Twitter, on a weekly basis.

“It can get to you if you allow it to,” Bailey said. “It’s annoying sometimes.”

Bailey said, like all major programs, compliance officials are adamant about educating athletes on the rules.

“Coach (Randy) Shannon, he harps on that real big,” Bailey said. “We have compliance meetings on that four times a year — on that topic specifically. We all know right from wrong. We know what we can and can’t do. I don’t think anybody would jeopardize their season or the whole team’s season because of that.”