New England coach Bill Belichick gets back to the business of personnel changes.

FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) – Sometime soon, at a pizza place or hamburger joint near here, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick will begin building the team that will defend the Super Bowl championship.

No high-priced meals; no fancy wines; no high-falutin’, college-style recruitin’ of free agents. Maybe the prospective Patriot will get a tour of the stadium that will take him past the two Vince Lombardi trophies the team has won in the past three years.

And then the deal will be done.

“A guy who comes in and wants his name on a scoreboard that says, ‘Joe Blow, No. 28,’ is probably not going to be a New England Patriot,” Belichick said recently when asked about the type of player he wants. “A guy who wants to play for a team and not worry about being a star is likely to be one.”

It worked last year with safety Rodney Harrison, who dined with Belichick at a Ground Round restaurant but was impressed enough to sign up. It also worked with linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, one of the league’s biggest free agent signing last offseason, even though he lasted just five quarters before sustaining a season-ending hip injury.

This year, the Patriots figure to follow the same route they have in previous free agency markets, bidding on the more affordable names instead of making a big splash. That fits in with the team-first philosophy that has served them well, and it also tends to attract the kind of players who do well in Belichick’s system.

“Football is the ultimate team sport. We believe that,” said Scott Pioli, the Patriots vice president of player personnel. “Individuals go to Pro Bowls, and teams win championships. And that’s something we always try to keep in the back of our minds as we try to build a team.

“My job, and what I do, is not simply trying to collect talent. It’s to build a team.”

While the Patriots have had success supplementing their roster with free agents, they also have to worry about re-signing their own. New England has 20 unrestricted free agents – nearly half the roster – including three men who started in the Super Bowl: nose tackle Ted Washington, fullback Larry Centers and defensive end Bobby Hamilton.

Offensive lineman Damien Woody would have started if he hadn’t been injured, and six others started at some point in the regular season; that’s not counting long-snapper Brian Kinchen and punter Ken Walter.

But the biggest offseason issue facing the defending champions could be what to do with two players who are already under contract: quarterback Tom Brady and cornerback Ty Law.

Brady will cost the team more than $8.3 million next year against the salary cap – an increase of more than $5 million; there’s no way the Patriots will let him go, but they could try to renegotiate the deal to make it more cap-friendly.

Law, a four-time Pro Bowl selection, will cost almost $9.5 million against the cap this year and more than $12 million in 2005. Belichick could try to bring those numbers down with a longer deal for a lower average, but attempts to do the same with safety Lawyer Milloy last year proved disastrous when Milloy balked and was released five days before the season.

“We’ll take it when it comes,” linebacker Tedy Bruschi said this week. “That’s been our theme the entire year. We take it as it comes and we’ll just do the same next year.”

The Patriots also have seven draft picks in the first four rounds, which will help them fill any free agency defections. But they have one disadvantage as they try to stay atop the NFL: they’re five weeks behind a lot of their competitors in filling out their 2004 squad.

Belichick is ready to get to work.

“The combine in Indianapolis is only a couple of weeks away. We’re over five weeks behind in some of our offseason work in preparation,” he said just a day after winning the Super Bowl. “So I know it’s going to be a treadmill: it’s the combine, the draft, free agencies, mini camps, and before you know it we’ll be in the next season.

“We were on that a couple of years ago. It’s good to be on it again. I’m not complaining. The ’04 season started for most of the teams in the league, and they’re all further ahead than we are.”

AP-ES-02-07-04 1411EST