Bodden release gets pricier

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The idiom "cutting off the nose to spite the face" has a living, breathing and unemployed example around these parts. His name is Leigh Bodden.
Last Friday, the Patriots released Bodden for reasons still not well explained. Bodden hada 2011 salary of 3,900,000 due to him plus a workout bonus that pushed his compensation above 4 million. The Patriots already paid him the prorated portion of that salary for the first seven weeks. If someone claimed him on waivers by 4 p.m. Monday, the rest of the salary would be the claiming team's problem. No team claimed him. So now the Patriots - who got carved up by Ben Roethlisberger in embarrassing fashion - will pay Bodden the other 2 million or so that he's due so that he can stay home and watch teams throw 50-plus times on a Patriots secondary that is undermanned, inexperienced, ill-equipped and just plain bad. Even if another team signs Bodden now for lesser money, the Pats are on the hook. As a vested veteran, Bodden is entitled to a one-time "termination claim" that means he can collect his whole salary if released. So whatever great offense Bodden was guilty of - insubordination, inconsistency or ineffectiveness - the Patriots have cleared themselves of that irritation. And now their secondary is worse and they will pay an extra 2 million to have made it that way.

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