When the Patriots traded their 193rd pick for the Philadelphia Eagles 194th pick, people were confused, wanting to know what else the Patriots could possible be getting. Then, when the trade officially went through the league office, it was verified, that that was the trade in it’s entirety.

It made no sense. So naturally, people sought a logical explanation.

As far as I can tell, NESN was the first to provide the answer: the Patriots and Eagles have made a draft-day trade for each of the past 12 years–ever since Bill Belichick took over the team–so they wanted to continue the tradition.

It was a fascinating answer. The only problem: it’s complete bullshit! I don’t know where NESN gets their information, but it’s not even close to true.

They’ve actually only made TWO draft day trades. That’s right, TWO. First, in 2009 the Patriots traded the 159th pick (5th round) for Greg Lewis and a 7th round pick in 2010. The Eagles selected OT Fenuki Tupou. And the Patriots ended up trading that pick to Denver, before Denver traded it back to them, and the Patriots traded it to the Redskins.

The second draft-day trade was the swap of the 193rd and 194th pick.

You’d think NESN’s inaccurate explanation would have been immediately corrected by the many other sports medias. But that didn’t happen.

Most sites ate it up, taking the story and running with it. The sites that propelled this story reads like a who’s who of internet sports:

SBNation

YardBarker

CBSSports

NBC Sports Pro Football Talk

Kudso to ESPN, SI and Yahoo! for apparently laying off the story.

Of course, this still begs the question: why did Bill and Andy Reid make the trade?

My guess is Bill is actually making fun of us. His fan base.

Most people constantly jab him, and criticize him for making too many trades. Many of us complain his trades don’t make sense.

So what does he do?

He actually makes a trade that makes no sense.

Of course he would never admit this.

When asked why he made the trade, Bill responded, “We talked to the Eagles and we wanted to make the trade. They wanted to make it; we wanted to make it, so we made it. You good on that?”

I think I’m in love.