Just to point something out, as discussed in
the end of this article from today's Boston Globe, Paul Pierce and Daniel Graham, a reasonably athletic TE for the Pats that won the Mackey award for best TE the year Shockey graduated, were messing around on the basketball court. Here's hte relevant info:
"Paul Pierce and Daniel Graham of the Patriots engaged in various shooting games after practice, something set up by the Patriots. Pierce won a game of H-O-R-S-E, finishing with a reverse dunk, something a tad unfair in that
Graham can't get up above the rim . But in a game of free-throw shooting, Graham won a best-of-five, prompting Rivers to ask Graham to shoot the next technical foul shot for the Celtics. Pierce even collaborated with Gerald Green on a pass play (a football somehow materialized) and
beat Graham on a post pattern " (my emphasis added)