Won If By Land

I guess the Patriots had the Colts’ signals.

Destiny Divides and Conquers

The wild, wild, Wild Card games are in the books. And what did we learn? For one thing, we learned the Chiefs, Bengals, Eagles and Packers will not be winning the Super Bowl this year. Thanks for playing.

The Year in the Rear View Review

It was something of a Dickensian year for the Patriots. It was the best of times (12-4-0, AFC East Champs, First Round Bye) and it was the worst of times (no Wilfork, no Mayo, no Gronk, still no replacement for Randy Moss). In the end I have to say this has been one of the best, most enjoyable regular seasons for New England since 2001. I like this team. It’s been great rooting for them. If this season was a movie I’d be going back to see it again next weekend and I’d be looking for an IMAX theater.

Here are some thumbnails sketches of the Patriots 2013 regular season. Seriously, has this been released on Blu-Ray yet?

Wild Cards

We’re all 0-0 now.

Drew Brees 5476*

So this is fair.

The Year Christmas Literally Kicked My Ass

An open letter to the my long-time friends this New Year's Eve...

Can Nice Guys Finish First?

My wife Vickie has an inscrutable process for choosing her favorite Patriots player. In the case of her first favorite player, Willie McGinest, it came down to one play, a sack of Peyton Manning in which Willie made an incredibly athletic move to get to the quarterback. “Did you see that?” Of course I did; I’m watching the game. “Who is that guy? He’s sung,” she said, using a Tai Chi term that I was familiar with but hadn’t really understood until that moment. Willie was so in tune with the game of football that there wasn’t an ounce of tension in his body. He moved like water in a river. “Yeah,” I said. “That’s Willie McGinest.”

Her latest favorite player does not move like water in a river unless that river just burst through a dam. Before his record-setting Sunday against the Bills, we watched LeGarrette Blount on the Patriots pregame show on WBZ and my wife said, “Who is that guy?” And that was before we got a look at his custom wheels. LeGarrette Blount, I suddenly realized, is Tom Hanks in “Big.” Who couldn’t like this guy?