New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick smiles during a news conference on Friday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., in reaction to repeated questions from reporters about the sanctions imposed on him and the team by the NFL for using a video camera to spy on opposing football teams.

NEW YORK (AP):

ONE THING won't happen tonight in the second week of the National Football League season when San Diego visit New England: No one will steal the Chargers' signals. Not after the Patriots were caught videotaping the Jets' sideline last week.

Such is the state of the league in 2007, that a sideshow is overshadowing a match-up between two of the NFL's three best teams. It's a rematch of one of last season's most significant games, the Patriots' 24-21 upset in San Diego that sent them on to the AFC championship game.

But instead of the match-up of two good teams, this week's issue was the spying allegations against the Patriots.

"Any questions about the Chargers?" Bill Belichick pleaded at his main pre-game news conference this week, as he was bombarded with question after question about signal-stealing. "Want to talk about the football game?"

Few people did, and Belichick ended up walking out.

The football is worth mentioning.

Right now, the Chargers and Patriots are two of the NFL's best three teams. Indianapolis are the other.

The three will likely battle for the AFC championship. The AFC winners will be the favourites in the Super Bowl in Arizona in February.

games on today

In other games today, Buffalo are at Pittsburgh; Indianapolis at Tennessee; Green Bay at the New York Giants; Houston at Carolina; San Francisco at St. Louis; Cincinnati at Cleveland; New Orleans at Tampa Bay; Atlanta at Jacksonville; Dallas at Miami; Minnesota at Detroit; Seattle at Arizona; Kansas City at Chicago; the New York Jets at Baltimore; and Oakland at Denver.

Washington are at Philadelphia tomorrow night.

Whether signal-stealing contributed or not, the Patriots were impressive last week, especially the new receiving corps.

Randy Moss had nine catches for 183 yards and a touchdown. Wes Welker had six catches and another TD and Ellis Hobbs had a 108-yard kick-off return, the longest in NFL history. Tom Brady went 22-of-28 for 297 yards with three TDs and a passer rating of 146.6, less than 12 points short of a perfect 158.3.

But that puts Brady only 'second' in the NFL in that category - LaDainian Tomlinson IS perfect because he threw for a TD on his only attempt in the Chargers' hard-fought 14-3 win over Chicago. LT was held to 25 yards on 17 carries, but that 17-yard TD pass to Antonio Gates demonstrates the versatility that made him last season's MVP.

"We asked a lot of him and he was great handling it because it's easy to get frustrated when there's an unblocked or two unblocked guys and there's not much room to go," Chargers coach Norv Turner said of Tomlinson.

The last time the Chargers were in was two years ago, and they won 41-17.

But in the NFL, two years is an eon. New teams, new game with play-off seeding already on the line.

AP