New England Wins Super Bowl XXXIX

The Patriots claimed the Vince Lombardi Trophy with their third Super Bowl victory in four years, beating the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 Sunday night in Jacksonville. The 2004 New England Patriots are simply a Team for the ages.

Lamar Hunt Trophy Returns to Foxboro

The Patriots beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 41-27 to advance to Super Bowl XXXIX against the Philadelphia Eagles. A week after holding the world's greatest offense to 3 points, the Pat's offense lit up the Steelers top ranked defense for 41 points. Nick Cafardo has the AFC Championship game story.

The Steelers had decided to go for it on fourth and 1 at the Patriots' 39-yard line. It wasn't the biggest or the most important play because it came so early, but it seemed to crystalize what the Patriots, who were about to win their third AFC Championship in four years, were all about.

Before the Steelers came up to the line of scrimmage, coach Bill Belichick summoned middle linebacker Ted Johnson and offered some advice. Johnson, who calls the defensive signals, took that advice back to the huddle. Moments later, Jerome Bettis took a handoff from Ben Roethlisberger and was stopped dead in his tracks by Rosevelt Colvin, who stripped the ball loose. Mike Vrabel made the recovery.

49 Regular Season, Zero Yesterday

The greatest regular season quarterback in ages, the wonderkind Peyton Manning led his Indianapolis Colts to a 20-3 loss to New England Patriots at mucky Razor Field. The Patriots were chugging in all three phases of the game in a dominating performance to kick off the 2004 NFL season Tournament.

Ron Borges chronicled the Patriot effort;

They punched them in the mouth and when they got up they punched them in the mouth again until they didn't want to get hit any more. That's how the New England Patriots pulled off arguably the second-greatest victory in what has become one of the great stretches in pro football history.

Is it Game Time Yet?

Skip Bayless looks at all the doubts around the Patriots, yet still can't convince himself on the Colts.

Maybe Manning and his receivers will play such an easy game of catch that this mismatch will be over by halftime, when the few remaining Patriots fans will give Manning a standing ovation as he is inducted on the spot into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Maybe the snowballing conventional wisdom is avalanche-right. Maybe the Patriots' defensive backs did get away with near-murder in last year's AFC title game -- Belichick 24, Manning 14 in Out-Foxed-boro.

Maybe what one general manager told me the other day is just so much blown smoke: "Give Bill Belichick two weeks and he could beat Ghengis Khan and the Mongol Hordes."

Maybe everyone outside New England is as right as Manning is on every read outside Foxboro. Maybe this is the Lock of the Year. Maybe the Colts should be a two-touchdown favorite.

Maybe Belichick won't beat Manning 31-22.

Authenticated Thief

Workplace pillage reachs a new low. The classless .215 swindler ought to think of his mortality. link

The ball from the Los Angeles Dodgers' last championship, in 1988, belongs to Fred Claire, who was their general manager. Rick Dempsey had promised Claire that if he signed him as a backup catcher, he would catch the final out of the World Series and give Claire the ball. That is exactly what happened.

Dempsey said he hoped Mientkiewicz would not sell the ball. "It may be a priceless item, but who cares about the money?" Dempsey said yesterday. "It's a memory that will go to your deathbed with you."

Tournament Time

The Patriots put the finishing touches on a 14-2 regular season with a 21-7 victory over the San Francisco 49er's.

Nick Cafardo caught up with Coach Belichick after the victory.

"For what they've been through this year, I think you have to give a lot of credit to the players for their diligence, their perseverance, and for battling all the way through," Belichick said following a 21-7 win over the 49ers yesterday at Gillette Stadium. "It has been a long season and they played well enough today and we're happy with that. It's on to the playoffs."

How about a story about Corey Dillon landing forearm shivers to oncoming tacklers? Instead, Jackie MacMullan writes the tired story of his contract incentives.

He repeatedly has refused to acknowledge the perks in his contract, and that continued yesterday.

"The whole week all the talk was about the incentives," Dillon said. "I didn't want to focus on that. I didn't care if I did get it, and I didn't care if I didn't get it. I didn't want to blow it out of proportion.

"It's not like I was out there counting yards. Turns out I got it -- oh, well. It was not on my list of things to do this Sunday, to get 81 yards."

Was that lip service from a player going out of his way to adhere to the team-first policy of the Patriots? Probably. Count me among those who find it impossible to believe Dillon did not know he had reached that milestone on that 29-yard run. His actions suggested otherwise.

Death of a Soup Salesman

Campbell's Chunky new Hearty Beef Barley.

Loaded with hearty chunks of vegetables like carrots, potatoes and corn, this savory soup features big cuts of seasoned beef and toasted barley in a rich, well-seasoned broth that will not only satisfy your appetite but clog your arteries leading to massive heart failure.

Patriots Ground Jets 23-7

You can take that finger off the panic button at least for another week. The Patriots rebounded from their surprising upset loss to the Dolphins with a resounding 23-7 victory over the New York Jets. Michael Felger clocks the game report at the Boston Herald.
Yesterday's contest against the Jets was just as much a referendum on the Pats' embattled defense and their suddenly human quarterback. It was just as much a litmus test on where the team was headed with the playoffs looming.

And after three hours of mostly dominant football at Giants Stadium, the Patriots had their answers.

Former HC of NYJ, all of 24 hours summed up the victory;

"A lot of guys stepped up and showed a lot of toughness," coach Bill Belichick said. "This was the kind of game we needed - in all three phases."