The great Bill Belicheat, Patriots coach and hidden camera junkie, weighed in to the Boston media on his recent trade for former Bucs tight end Alex Smith.

It seems, per Belicheat, that the Pats and Bucs discussed a Smith trade for quite some time.

“That’s something that has kind of been, I don’t want to say in the works, but has been out there for a while,” he said. “We just felt like, given the player and the situation and what the compensation was, it was something that we wanted to do. I feel like Alex is a good player. He’s done a lot of different things for Tampa Bay — in the passing game, in the running game, pass protection. Smart guy. Athletic. In Coach Gruden’s offense, which they ran down there, you see him doing a lot of different things, lined up in different spots — playing on the line, playing off the line, playing in motion, playing split out, different kind of routes and so forth they run. I think you see him with a versatile set of skills. Can play in the kicking game. Athletic. We’ll see how all that comes together, but we felt at this point that it gives us good depth at that position and we felt like the compensation was fair, so we went ahead and did it.”

The Tampa Tribune is reporting the Bucs got the Patriots fifth round pick in 2010 in exchange for Smith. Weeks ago, the Bucs had given their 2010 fifth round pick up for Sgt. Winslow.

Joe can’t help but wonder what Alex Smith will do with all those autographed mini-helmets he sells on his Web site for $49.95. Are they worth more now, or less?  Perhaps they were never worth that much at all.