Curses

28 Jan ’12 • Sports • by
0 Comments

Three NFL teams have fallen to the SI curse so far.

I downloaded this week’s copy of Sports Illustrated to my iPad (I also found a paper version of it in my mailbox too…very strange concept, this magazine thing.) and to my intense horror, saw that Tom Brady and my Patriots were gracing their cover. How could they?

For those of you uninitiated into the ways of sports superstition and Sports Illustrated, it is well documented that sports teams and athletes appearing on the cover of SI have subsequently suffered athletic failure and injury of all shapes and sizes. For those of you naysayers, read through the list on the Wikipedia page…its too frequent an occurrence to be a fluke.

And beyond the Wikipedia page, just take a look at the image above from my SI iPad app library. Four of the past six covers (including this week’s with the Pats on it) have featured NFL teams in the Playoffs. And what do you know…every NFL team featured on the cover (before this week) have been promptly dispatched from the playoffs – Tebow and the Broncos, Rodgers and the Packers, and Alex Smith and the 49ers.

My only hope that the Patriots don’t end up suffering this same indignity is that SI does the noble and right thing and put the Giants on next week’s cover which comes out ahead of the Super Bowl. Maybe having the Giants on the cover next week will “out-jinx” having the Patriots on the cover this week. I can only hope!

UPDATE 2.1.12: Well, it looks like SI has it out for the Patriots. Coming off of last week’s cover shot of Tom Brady, they went ahead and pulled a double doozy on the Patriots by putting owner Bob Kraft on its cover. That’s two weeks in a row of bad SI cover karma.

patriots_logo

Game Day

22 Jan ’12 • Sports • by
0 Comments

Lets Go Patriots!

Pix From Opening Weekend

15 Sep ’11 • Sports • by
0 Comments


After coming oh so close to a strike, lets celebrate this past weekend’s opening of the NFL season with a set of fun photos from around the league via Boston.com’s The Big Picture.

teamshot_g7

Bruins Win Stanley Cup!

16 Jun ’11 • Sports • by
0 Comments

OK, I admit it. I am the epitome of a ‘front runner’/bandwagon/show up late to the party Bruins fan. I don’t think I watched a Bruins game all year until the playoffs. I’m the first to admit that I lost interest in the team and the sport of hockey.

Growing up in New England, I actually watched the Bruins as much as the Red Sox – Bruins teams that included Rick Middleton, Wayne Cashman, Ray Bourque, Terry O’Reilly, Peter McNab, Stan Jonathan, and on and on. So seeing them compete for the Cup and actually win it for the first time in almost 40 years just brought back a flood of childhood memories. Beyond that, watching this Stanley Cup Final series was just an amazing spectacle of hockey by both teams. Hockey gets a bad rap for being the “4th sport” in the US, but the athleticism and speed at which hockey players can do things on the ice is just amazing.

So now, as I look back at the past 10 years from a personal sports fan perspective, every single one of my teams that I regularly follow – Syracuse basketball (2003), the Red Sox (2004, 2007), the Patriots (2001, 2003, 2004), the Celtics (2008), and a certain hockey team that I irregularly follow – have won championships. Good times, good times!

Elizabeth Potter liked this post

Toe The Line

14 Jan ’11 • Sports • by
0 Comments

With all the trash talking coming out of the NY Jets camp this week in advance of the big Jets – Patriots NFL Playoff game, Wes Welker (New England WR) may have had the most fun with the situation.

As you may have heard, videos leaked online that supposedly depict Rex Ryan sharing a fetish for his wife’s feet. He all but implicated himself by saying that the videos were “a personal issue”.

So this week, in a hilariously subtle set of tweaks, Welker made no less than 11 references to feet during his press briefing.

Q} How do you approach the young guys about what to expect in the postseason?
A.) You just talk to them. It’s a playoff atmosphere and you can’t just stick your toe in the water, you’ve got to jump right in and make sure you’re ready to go and make things happen. In a playoff atmosphere that’s what you have to do

Q) How valuable is it to have a guy like Tom Brady standing in the huddle, especially in the intense situations of the playoff atmosphere?
A.)Having Tom in there — it goes without saying, the guy is who he is and he does a great job of making sure everyone is on the same page and putting their best foot forward going out there and playing well and doing what they can out there.

Q) What makes Revis as good as he is?
A.) I think he is very patient. He has good feet. He moves around really well. He understands the game. He gets his hands on you pretty well. [He] understands what you’re trying to do to him, so he definitely is a tough guy to really set up and get open against. You’ve got to be on top of your game and make sure that you’re doing everything possible to get open.

And so on.  Ah, Rex Ryan…the loudmouth that keeps on giving.

MNT-NFL-R2.jpg

Just Watch It On TV

8 Sep ’10 • Sports • by
0 Comments

On the eve of the NFL season, here is an interesting info graphic from Mint’s Blog about the rising costs of being an NFL fan. Sadly, my New England Patriots sport the highest average ticket prices by a pretty wide margin.

Via Mint Blog

A State of Denial

18 Sep ’08 • Sports • by
0 Comments


So I’ve been in a state of denial since Week 1 of the NFL season. I’ve just not accepted that Tom Brady got his knee ruined 8 minutes into the 2008-09 NFL season and is out for the year. It took watching Matt Cassell QB the Pats to a victory of the Jets this past weekend to have it fully sink in. When you compound this with the painful loss to the Giants last season, you just realize that you should take full advantage of every opportunity. Maybe Rodney Harrison should have tried just that much harder to get the ball off of David Tyree’s helmet. Or maybe Asante Samuel (who probably does not care since he’s playing in Philly these days) should have tried that much harder to catch that ball that Eli threw. As has been said so many times in so many media outlets, the Pats have quite a season in front of them. It will test Coach Belichick and the rest of the team. Thankfully, we have a pretty easy schedule. I’ll consider making the playoffs a success this year. Anything else is gravy.

Bad Omens For the Perfect Season?

17 Jan ’08 • Sports • by
0 Comments

OK, so I’m not one who’s into curses or bad karma, but a couple of things have happened this week that have made me a little concerned for this week’s game between the undefeated Patriots and the Chargers.

First, the news that broke yesterday that some desperate female “friend” of Randy Moss’s is accusing him of assault and issued a restraining order to boot. Then, today, I open up my Gmail Inbox and what do I find but an email from NFL.com with an offer to “pre-order” Patriots AFC Champions attire and gear (see image). Who is the idiot who sent this out?!? Who is the fool?!? Don’t they know better?!? Must be a Chargers (or a Colts) fan working at NFL.com.

People are thinking that getting the Chargers in the AFC Championship equates to a free pass for the Patriots to the Super Bowl. I agree with Bill Simmons who said that not having the Colts in the AFC Championship denies the Patriots and us fans the opportunity to go through their biggest rival on their way to history. (as the Red Sox did in 2004). The Chargers are playing a very good brand of football right now and while I’m anticipating a Patriots win, I’m starting to get a little concerned.

Well, we all know what happened to the Patriots perfect season in Super Bowl 42

Sports Life Is Good

22 Oct ’07 • Sports • by
0 Comments

The Red Sox are in the World Series for the second time in four years, the Patriots are undefeated at 7-0 and looking like they are well on their way to a very special season, and (shudder) the Celtics are looking like a formidable team to beat in the NBA Eastern Conference. In fact, William C. Rhoden of the NY Times wrote a piece about how its such a good time to be a New England/Boston sports fan.

Now about that Syracuse University football program.

Nice Weekend

30 Apr ’07 • Sports • by
0 Comments

What a nice weekend from a sports perspective. The Red Sox took two of three from the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, and have beaten them five out of six times and we’re only a month into the 2007 baseball season.

And then, during the NFL draft, the Patriots went and grabbed Randy Moss from the Raiders for a song (a 4th round draft pick). Sure picking up Moss is a risk, and it flys against the Patriots philosophy of their recent success. But for the low cost for such a premium talent, the Pats would have been fools not to give it a shot. Plus, he completely overhauled his contract, making the financial commitment very reasonable.

Yes, it was a good weekend.

Super Bowl

5 Feb ’06 • Sports • by
0 Comments

Some random thoughts while watching the Super Bowl:

  • Weren’t you just waiting for Joe Namath to “stop by” to pay Suzy Kolber a visit on the sideline and just plant one smak on her lips?
  • The kicker from Seattle should be fired. He cost me winning the halftime score.
  • Could the Rolling Stones have looked any older?
  • I don’t understand why the Motown artists were not the Halftime feature. Poor decision by the NFL and the organizers.
  • What’s the deal with people boo-ing Tom Brady? Just a bunch of bitter Pittsburgh fans.
  • Congrats to the Steelers. You’re just lucky the Patriots lost in Denver and you didn’t have to go through Foxborough. :)
patriots_logo

Patriots At It Again

8 Jan ’06 • Sports • by
2 Comments

I’ve been trying not to post too much about sports this year, just to try to diversify the content on the site a bit. However, with it being NFL Playoff time, I’m can’t help myself. Yes, its that time of year again. My New England Patriots just polished off a first round playoff game victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. This has been an interesting and challenging year for the Patriots because they have had to manage through a great deal of injuries and adversity, including losing two of the best coaches around in Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel. But over the past month or so, they have had some key players return and have started to play effectively.

Will the Patriots win an unprecidented 3rd Super Bowl in a row and 4th in the past 5 years? My instinct says its going to be very, very hard. But time will tell. Bring on Denver or Indy (I think I’d prefer Denver).

Page 1 of 212
ADS