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.

Lets Go Patriots!

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!

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.

Via Mint Blog

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

Now about that Syracuse University football program.

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.

• 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. :)

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).

New England Patriots – Super Bowl XXXVIII Champions What an amazing and thrilling game! I was impressed at the amount of points that each team produced, especially after the slow start that the game had in the scoring column and the quality of both Defenses. You have to give Carolina some credit as they really played a great game, although I also think that the Patrots’ Defense was not nearly as sharp as when they played the Colts for the AFC Championship. But in typical style, Tom Brady led the Patriots down the field and did what needed to be done to win the game. It was just an great game, and that’s even without the additional exposure that Janet Jackson got at halftime along with that streaker.

It looks as though my Patriots are headed back to the SuperBowl for the second time in three years. They put up a convincing win this evening against the Indianapolis Colts for their fourteenth win in a row (second longest winning streak in NFL history next to the 1972 Miami Dolphins who ran the table that year). While today’s win was good, I thought there were a few areas of concern, with the most glaring to me being the Patriots’ ineffectiveness in the red zone. They had numerous opportunities for touchdowns with the ball at the 20 yard line, or closer, and they could not capitalize and put the game away. They definitely need to improve that for the Super Bowl.

Of the two NFC teams, I guess I am alright playing the Carolina Panthers. I think I prefer them to the Eagles, although the Patriots beat the Eagles earlier this year. I think the obvious advantage is the fact that the Patriots have been there before and know the drill and hype that comes with the SuperBowl. Here’s to a great two weeks leading up to what I hope will be another Patriots World Championship!!!