FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Patriots announced today that tight end Ben Coates, who played for the team for nine seasons from 1991-99, was elected by Patriots fans as the 13th member of the Patriots Hall of Fame. He becomes the first tight end inducted into The Hall.

Even though Coates beat out Jon Morris, who was the Pats Center for 11 years and made 7 Pro Bowls, and Jim Nance, who was their first great Running Back, he was a deserving choice. Consider these numbers:

• Coates is 2nd on the Pats all time TDs list with 50.
• He's 3rd on the team in career receptions with 490.
• His 5,471 yards are 4th.
• He holds the Patriots TE records in all of the above.
• He played in 5 consecutive Pro Bowls.
• When he retired his 96 catches in 1994 was the Patriots record and the NFL record for TEs.
• Among NFL TEs, his career totals place him 6th in receptions, 6th in TDs and 10th in receiving yards.

And those numbers don't do him justice. He was even better. He was a lethal combination of uncoverable and untackleable, if those are actual words. With a resume like that, one might assume that Coates' election by Pats fans was a slam dunk, but it wasn't. Frankly, this is a bit of redemption for him because things ended badly for Coates in New England. For years every TV analyst and football writer was contractually obligated to call him "Drew Bledsoe's favorite target" and he was.

But toward the end of the '90s, his production began to drop off. He was struggling to get open and seemed to get flagged for Offensive Pass Interference after every catch, which is exactly what happens to a veteran when he loses a step and can't open any other way. Eventually there were whispers that Coates was becoming a "Me First" guy, which reached it's nadir on Halloween night of 1999. The Pats were on a roll, 6-2 going into the bye week and coming off their first solid, 4-quarter performance of the season against Arizona. But a frustrated Coates complained loudly after the game that he hadn't had any touches. By their next game, it became obvious that Bledsoe was forcing the ball into Coates, the offense struggled, the team swirled the drain, finished 2-6 and out of the playoffs, and Pete Carroll was fired. When Bill Belichick has handed the reigns the following winter one of the first things he did was cut Coates loose and two seasons later won a championship with Rod Rutledge and Jermaine Wiggins, who between them didn't have 1/10th of the talent Coates had in his prime. Amazingly, by the time that happened, Coates was already out of football.

I don't point any of this out to kill Ben Coates buzz on a day when he's getting a reward he justly deserves. I'm saying it just to make the point that whatever else our faults may be, New England fans never fail to appreciate true greatness when they see it. And we're all glad to see Coates' story end well at last.