The Super Bowl XLII Sunday Links

by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

There are no words left.

Two weeks with Super Bowl XLII under the microscope, and there’s nothing more to say. Everything has been laid bare, up to and including the final walkthrough of Super Bowl XXXVI. Now, almost incidental to the madness that surrounds it, only the game itself remains.

Forty years following this stuff and I don’t remember a more emotionally exhausting season. Eighteen straight wins and, incredibly, I have to think hard to remember if we had a good time during any of it. Because there was always some assault coming from somewhere, from the traditional media, from the new media, from rival executives, rival players, and always from the miserable supporters of the other 31 teams.

First, they and their Nixon-ian coach cheated to win. Then, when they weren’t cheating anymore, they won by too much. And then they weren’t winning by enough. And then they were dirty. And…..there was always an ‘and’.

Naturally, the moments before Super Bowl XXXVI would not be any different. Once again, Angry America and the media that satiates it moved stealing football signals to the forefront of the perpetually overwrought national debate, ahead of OJ, shark attacks, Gary Condit, Anna Nicole Smith, and even Britney Spears. A congressional investigation, complete with whistleblower, just happen to arrive in the nick of time.

In the words of Larry Johnson - lemme ask you a question. After five months, assistant golf pro Matt Walsh arrives on the doorstep of SB 42, the single most watched sporting event in the world, and he’s doing this out of some altruistic concern for the integrity of the NFL?

Come on. Nobody has used a lick of common sense in this whole thing, right from the beginning. Not Bill Belichick, who probably could have avoided all this. Certainly not Roger Goodell, who just made it worse. Certainly not the disgraceful Senator Arlen Specter, who is so hopelessly out of touch that he would make a Federal case out of a football game while average Americans can barely heat their homes, fill their gas tanks, and stock their cupboards. Who is so staggeringly arrogant that he would remain invisible as American mothers and fathers bury their dead soliders yet make himself so noticeable now.

And absolutely no common sense by the media, so caught up in competing with each other and mugging for ever-decreasing attention that they long ago disabused themselves of any public trust.

Anyway, that’s over now, if you use good sense and find something else to do with your day once ESPN and Fox begin their pre-game programming. Which flat out sucks, because of all times, we should be enjoying these most of all.

Let’s hope the Sunday papers take it easy on us; this is going to be a long day.

In the Globe, Mike Reiss has Andre Tippett becoming the second player to enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame after playing his entire career with the Patriots. What a thrill to see a Patriot be so honored yesterday, on this of all weekends. And we have none other than Ron Borges to thank for it. Borges made the case for Tippett in yesterday’s selection process, and in the strangest twist of all, fans of the local entry owe a tip of the cap to their longtime adversary for providing the only feel good moment of the last few days.

Reiss and Christopher Gasper also have the league and the Patriots denying they taped the St. Louis Rams walkthrough the day before their legendary Super Bowl XXXVI win. Key line for me: Matt Walsh’s “employment ended abruptly” in 2003. By the way, Matt, you had 2002 in your own wedding announcement.

Turning our attention to the field, Gasper correctly notes that one way or another, the Pats will make history today. Gasper also correctly notes that 18-0 won’t mean a thing if the Pats can’t close the deal. Jim McBride says no worries - the Pats will prevail 37-10.

And now its time to get Up Close and Personal with the key players behind the Patriots’ success. Mike Reiss profiles Robert Kraft (who is firing back on Spygate), Kevin Paul Dupont takes on Bill Belichick, and Bob Hohler catches Ernie Adams pulling the strings. On the field, Jackie MacMullen says Laurence Maroney has persevered to become one of the best players on the field over the last month. Michael Vega looks at two things that never get old - going to the Super Bowl, and Rodney Harrison. Frank Del’Appa visits with jack of all trades Heath Evans, who should be remembered in any assessments of the Patriots and free agents.

Briefly glancing at the other sideline, John Powers has Mass native and Giants DC Steve Spagnuolo facing a tall order today. Jim McCabe looks at Giants GM Jerry Reese, and in his notebook, rookie TE Kevin Boss. Mark Blaudschun focuses on LB Antonio Pierce.

On to the Herald, which had a quiet day yesterday.

John Tomase has the league and team denials of his Saturday report. He includes a comment from then-Rams QB Kurt Warner, who remembers working on red-zone offense at the walkthrough that was allegedly filmed. By the way, red zone trips by the Rams in SB 36: one. Result: touchdown. So what did this tape do, again? And the Patriots had just played the Rams in November, for crying out loud. The lessons learned in that game led to a changed approach and the win (”Slants, and in-cuts! That’s the game!”). That’s in the history books already, for Pete’s sake. None of that’s true? It all came instead from a hand held camera on the weekend of the game?

Common sense, people. Common sense. Take Tomase’s report yesterday, and his story of “what happened” according to his source. Plenty of detail - employee stays behind, tapes Rams walkthrough, not asked for credentials or interrupted in any way, blends into the media crowd and even rides their shuttle back to the hotel. Seem like a first person account to me. So what happened to the tape? Oh, that’s “not known.” Strange how the story just trails off there, doesn’t? Is somebody holding back the punch line looking for the best offer?

One more thing. Secret Agent Man rode back with the media? Were they watching the walkthrough too? Sounds like the Rams were working on some top secret stuff. Common sense. Shoudn’t it be applied at least once before we start ‘tainting’ this or that? It’s okay to slap that tag on Belichick, Brady, and all the others, but it’s not okay to hold Walsh and Tomase’s ’source’ to an equally high standard, providing they aren’t one and the same?

It isn’t? Not according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who is so anxious to see the worst befall the Patriots that he’s decided to accept Walsh’s story at face value, and blame Patriots fans for any inconsistencies in his story. So much for due diligence when it doesn’t support our preferred end. And get this: Florio’s a lawyer. Hopefully not a defense lawyer.

In happier news, Rob Bradford has the report on the Tippett HOF nod, and Steve Buckley reflects on an emotional day for the Pats great.

To the field, Tomase predicts a blowout for the Pats. Karen Gurgeian says the controversy just provides further incentive for the Perfect Pats. Tomase adds five things to watch. Tony Massarotti profiles the unequaled leadership of Tom Brady. Donna Goodison gives us some good material with which to give Laurence Maroney a hard time next year - hey man, are those the Goofy Grapes?

This being the Herald, they have to give equal time to the New York Post, which ought to be taken out into the alley and given two in the hat. Steve Serby should drop dead, working ‘Bill Belicheat’ into the second paragraph. This being Boston-New York, Massarotti can’t just let it go for once.

In the ProJo, Robert Lee says this is the Pats shot at immortality. Shalise Manza Young outlines a Giant task for New York. Jim Donaldson says you can’t overhype this Super Bowl, not with all that’s on the line. Yes you can, Jim, but that’s a nice sentiment anyway. SMY looks at Andre Tippett, and Lee says Ellis Hobbs must be a Little Big Man against the Giants BIG RECEIV-UHS! today.

Elsewhere, the Courant has pulled out all the stops with a special Super Bowl edition, so check out the work of Dom Amore, David Heuschkel and Jeff Jacobs. Glen Farley of the MetroWest Daily News looks at the key move in the construction of the Patriots dynasty - luring Bill Belichick to New England.

From earlier this week, Ron Hobson looks at Belichick and his partner in team building, Scott Pioli. And my pal Chris Price has been cranking them out for the Metro all week. Chris has the Pats confronting history, and their offensive line as the key to the game. Have Randy Moss and Tom Brady become a package deal? Will this be Tedy Bruschi’s last game?

Check back throughout the day as members of our Patriots Roundtable share their final pre-game thoughts as their team tries to cap the first perfect season of the sixteen game era, and grab their fourth world championship in the last seven years.

The Sunday Links

logoby Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

One week to go.

Pats fans have hit the halfway point in the grueling 14-day gauntlet that leads to the Super Bowl. This morning, the papers take one final deep breath before full deployment to Arizona. Let’s see what they have to say.

In the Globe, Jim McCabe wonders where the Pats fit in “the greatest evah!” debates. Bob Hohler looks at the Giants’ slow start and super finish. Jackie MacMullan considers Jabar Gaffney, an 06 holdover who has become a key player for the Pats. Michael Vega is one of many this morning to laud Tedy Bruschi, the heart and soul (and logo) of the organization. Also playing his best football of the season at the best possible time.

Ben Collins is in search of locals who would like you to know THERE ARE STILL A LOT OF GIANTS FANS IN NEW ENGLAND. Really? Hadn’t heard that. Anyway, Ben finds them. First guy he talks to pulls out old Shaughnessy columns lauding New England’s ‘other’ pro football team. That guy’s got two strikes on him already. Let’s move on.

Mike Reiss has the weekly league notes, with a look at Andre Tippett’s Hall of Fame chances (about the same, it seems), and the possibility of labor strife ahead.

In the Herald, Rob Bradford visits Open Mike Vrabel, who in 35 years in football has never seen that. Vrabel has a screw loose, which is even funnier when you consider that he may be the smartest player the Patriots have. He’s at least 1A. I insist that he be named a member of the Patriots coaching staff the minute he retires. Anyway, Bradford continues on the theme by saying their experience is what sets the Patriots linebackers apart.   

Karen Gurgeian has the notebook, where the Pats are considering Eli Manning’s improvements as a quarterback, and as a leader. In his Quick Hits, John Tomase says today’s Pats recordbreaking offense recalls the old school version, led by a coach who would be fired a season later. Ron Erhardt survived and went on to become one of the best coordinators in football. Tony Massarotti says Wes Welker’s world has been turned upside down in one season. Paul Schwartz of the New York Post could say the same about Tom Coughlin.

A couple of guys I’ve never heard of have assigned “a noticeable limp” to Tom Brady, back from New York. If I understand this correctly, one or both of these gentlemen have been hanging around Brady’s place in Boston, hoping to catch a glimpse of him. There’s even a pic! They should totally start their own web site.

Jay Fitzgerald says that CNBC will air the hour-long documentary “Touchdown! The Patriots and the Business of Winning” at 10 tonight. Maybe next week, they can do a follow up at about the same time.

In the ProJo, Joe McDonald looks at the underdog Giants through the eyes of a few guys who were once dogs themselves.  Are the Giants still the underdog? Didn’t seem like it at times this week. Anyway, in case you missed it yesterday, Shalise Manza Young started a three-part series on how the Pats have built an NFL dynasty.

The Courant is the Mason-Dixon line of yet another Boston-NY throwdown this week, so this morning they offer not only David Heuschkel’s feature on Pats icon Bruschi, but Dom Amore’s look at 41 year old Jeff Feagles, who, it can’t be said enough, kicked for the Patriots in NINTEEN EIGHTY-EIGHT. Lastly, Jeff Goldberg realizes that not everybody who wants to go to the Super Bowl gets to go.

Elsewhere, Douglas Flynn of the MetroWest Daily News digs deep on Bill Belichick, the man at the center of a historic season. On Friday, Chris Price confronted the dirty Pats on their low-down ways.

One week to go. Warning: it’s all uphill from here.

The Sunday Links

logoby Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

Well, here we are again.

A journey that began approximately 12 months ago with the shocking finality of a game ending Tom Brady interception and the first AFC Championship Game loss in team history has brought the New England Patriots right back to the place where they left off last year - sixty minutes from the Super Bowl.

The wound suffered that day was so deep that the team hasn’t dared lose a game since. Can they take the final step today?

Let’s see what the papers think.

In the Globe, Jim McCabe says the business-like Pats and the heart-on-their-sleeve Chargers are polar opposites. Christopher Gasper says for the Patriots, their experience eases the pressure of the Big Moment. McCabe has the San Diego morning notebook, where the Chargers claim no hard feelings for sack dance copyright violation. In the New England camp, Gasper notebooks some thoughts from understudy Matt Cassel, as he and his fellow Pats prepare for a possible Billy Volek appearance today. Jim McBride likes the Pats to be air traffic controllers in his weekly scouting reports.

The Pats safeties get a closer look from Michael Vega, who profiles the studious James Sanders, and Gasper again, who notes that this time, Rodney Harrison is healthy for the AFCCG.

I admit to a sinking feeling when I saw a Jackie MacMullan column on Randy Moss this morning, but after further review, it could have been worse. The thing even ends up being functional; it lists every brush with the law that Moss has ever had, so if you’re keeping track, you could stick this to your refrigerator or something.

As you know, it is the longstanding policy of this space never to link a Dan Shaughnessy “column”. So you won’t be getting one for today’s “effort”, which candidly, I didn’t read. All I needed to see was the little slug that runs underneath the link on the Globe’s sports webpage. “They are the San Diego Chargers and they have no chance to win today.”

Sigh. Despite several decades as a lead columnist for one of the country’s preeminent sports sections, Dan evidently still does not understand team sports. Hey Curly, if it’s so easy, why don’t YOU get out there and do it? Not that I don’t notice that you’ve set yourself up nicely for a Bill Buckner reference tomorrow if the “no chance” Chargers beat the Pats a week after taking care of your Colts. Because that’s exactly the kind of “writer” you are.

To cleanse our palate, let’s visit with a true sportsman, Mike Reiss, who looks at Tom Dimitroff, who became the Atlanta Falcons GM this week. By the way, Mike killed it with his blog this week. He was hitting line drives all over the ballpark, day in, day out.

Another top blogger, John Tomase, got taken out of the game this week while dad attended to an under-the-weather child, so we hope things are back on track in the Tomase household this morning. JT leads the Herald coverage with a look at Randy Moss in the playoffs. Steve Buckley says the Chargers will face some cold, hard football facts (hmmmm….) in chilly Foxborough today. AP says expect low 20’s.

Karen Guregian has the notebook, where the Pats prepare for anything from the Chargers quarterbacks today. Tomase has his weekly five things to watch, leading with the pass rush of Shawne Merriman and Shaun Phillips. Visiting columnist Nick Canepa is in the corner, curled in the fetal position, sucking his thumb and mumbling something about the Patriots being “vulnerable.”

At the ProJo, Shalise Manza Young says Tom Brady’s no wide-eyed kid anymore, as he prepares for the fifth championship game of his eight year career, while his defensive teammates contemplate Philip Rivers and Volek. All things considered, SMY is leaning Pats with her analysis. Jim Donaldson is in playoff form with two more columns today - a  visit with Rhode Island native (and Chargers GM) A.J. Smith, and in case nobody had already stated the obvious, JD opines that it would be a shame if the perfect Pats lost now.

Elsewhere, the Courant’s David Heuschkel asks which Chargers are standing in the way of the Pats. Douglas Flynn of the MetroWest Daily News details the extreme makeovers of both teams since their last playoff meeting.

From earlier this weekend, Eric McHugh of the Quincy Patriot Ledger recalls another chilly championship game for San Diego, and looks at Randy Moss’s 0-2 record in conference title games. Christopher Price of the Metro has Junior Seau’s old team as the last hurdle to the Super Bowl, and ponders the always intriguing Laurence Maroney.

Speaking of price, you can’t put one on this decade, at least for Patriots fans. And yet another chapter in the story of this most improbable of football dynasties will be written today. Enjoy. In case you missed it yesterday, here’s a Patriots Buffet Table to enhance your championship day experience.

The Saturday Links

logoby Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

The papers took the occasion of their Friday editions to put out much of their pre-game material this week, but there’s still plenty awaiting us this morning as the sun rises on the Patriots’ 2007-2008 playoff debut. Let’s get started.

Over at the Globe, Christopher Gasper has some discomforting early news - Ellis Hobbs is listed as questionable with a groin injury. Thankfully, the Pats have Randall Gay ready to stand in, but the loss of the underrated Hobbs would be felt, including in the kick return department. Wes Welker, who may have been just resting this week, was removed from the report yesterday. In any event, Gasper says the Patriots’ tense regular season prepared them for the playoff pressure they’ll feel tonight.

Jackie MacMullen says the tables have been turned on the old underdogs - the 07 Jaguars are drawing comparisons to the 01 Pats. You know, I’m not convinced that Jackie wrote this. There’s not a single player criticizing management.

Jim McCabe looks at the Jaguars secondary as they get ready for Tom Brady and company. Is it just me, or did the Jaguars simmer down considerably as the week progressed? Here, they’re downright deferential.

Gasper closes out our Globe links this morning with a solid feature on the career arc of Josh McDaniels. 

In the Herald, John Tomase expects the unexpected from that Krafty Patriots D. Karen Gurgian warns - look out for those BIG RECEIVERS! Tomase counters by making ‘Confuse David Garrard’ one of his five things to look for.

Steve Buckley says get back, Jackie Mac! There’s one problem with your Jags-Pats comparison - the 01 Pats won it all, and the Jags have not. Do the Globe and Herald have some kind of point-counterpoint exchange program? Speaking of exchange programs, Carl Kotala of Florida Today is the next victim of the Herald’s weekly Behind Enemy Lines feature.

Down in Providence, Shalise Manza Young is breaking it down and figuring it out. In her morning notebook, SMY has the honors rolling in for the Pats. Jim Donaldson is JACKED UP! with two servings this morning. First, Jim thinks the divisional round is football at its best, but….it will all be for naught if the Pats don’t go all the way.

The Pro Jo also has a short wire story on the disappearing asterisk. Seriously, I think these guys realized no later than Thursday morning that they were making a mistake with the locker room braggadocio and yes, even the passive-aggressive website. The brakes came on pretty quick, it seems to me.

Elsewhere, the QPL’s Eric McHugh says the Patriots are ready to be punched in the mouth. Douglas Flynn out in MetroWest thinks they’ll hit back. Doug adds ten things you don’t know about the Jacksonville Jaguars. David Heuschkel of the Courant thinks the Patriots will just throw it over the heads of the big brutes.

Our colleague Christopher Price evokes the legends of Bill Brasky and Chuck Norris in this Metro look at Fred Taylor.

Hey, getcha tailgate ready! Have a great day and we’ll talk to you after if the game.

The Sunday Links

logoby Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

I think my favorite of all the Steeler traditions is the one where they lose playoff games at home.

And so we’re off - two wild card playoff games under our belt with two more to come today. I am not going to get a damn thing done this weekend.

Which I’m okay with. My big task this weekend was to re-shovel the path to my oil tank. But at $3 a gallon, the oil companies ought to be able to hire a team of upstanding Blackwater contractors to blast a path to my tank with military-grade flamethrowers.

Anyway - as distasteful as it may be, I think we have to root for Jeff “Freddie Mercury” Fisher and the Tennessee Titans today. If they prevail, it would be a true win-win; another Chargers playoff collapse would certainly be as entertaining as another Steelers home playoff loss, and further, it would set up the Patriots to kneecap nemesis Fisher, a networked member of the NFL’s shadow government, next weekend.

My only concern is whether Fisher will be able to engineer a win without being able to arrange the outcome beforehand. Let’s see what the papers think this morning.

In the Globe, Jim McCabe has the story from Pittsburgh, where the Jaguars withstood a late rally to send the Steelers packing, and not for Glendale. Mike Reiss looks at Pocket Rocket Maurice Jones-Drew, the kind of guy who can beat you a ballgame all by himself, if you know what I’m saying. I’d just as soon not see him next Saturday night.

Joseph White of the AP recounts the Seahawks’ comeback win over the Redskins, who went as far as emotion would take them yesterday.

Looking to today’s games, Frank Dell’Apa has the Chargers getting ready for the Titans while thinking back to their playoff exit at the hands of the Pats last year. Fred Goodall of the AP has the Giants and Buccaneers trying to recapture the playoff magic they have been missing for most of this decade.

Oh, yeah, Tom Brady is the MVP. You mean he hasn’t won this award every year since 2001? Christoper Gasper has reaction from Foxborough. I’m going to start counting how many people refer to Brady as “Tommy” from now on - it’s quite a phenomenon, which I attribute to Randy Moss. Elsewhere, Amalie Benjamin looks at Stephen Gostkowski, who has quietly become the most efficient field goal kicker in Patriots history. Mike Reiss connects with Tampa tackle (and former BC stand-out) Jeremy Trueblood in today’s league notes.

Bob Ryan gets ready for college football’s National Championship game on Monday night by visiting with Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis, a player that draft-watching Pats fans already know intimately. Can you imagine the WWE face paint you’ll see at Gillette if the Pats can snare Laurinaitis with the seventh pick of the draft? Gotta support the team!

In the Herald, John Tomase says Brady is not only the 2007 MVP, he’s the greatest football player of all time. It’s unlikely you’ll find much disagreement in the Patriots locker room, as Jeff Horrigan attests. Tomase also looks at Dallas assistant head coach Tony Sparano, who made his bones at the University of New Haven. Word is Sparano is Bill Parcells’s choice as the next head coach of the Dolphins, and the New Haven Register says this morning its a done deal to be announced at the end of the playoffs. There’s also an interesting Bethel Johnson anecdote in there too.

Tomase finishes up with a grab bag of Quick Hits, including a look at Josh McDaniels withdrawing his name from consideration for head coaching opportunities in Atlanta and Baltimore.

In the ProJo, Shalise Manza Young says the real question is who didn’t vote for Brady as league MVP. SMY also looks at the Patriots preparing for their next playoff opponent by first focusing on themselves, with red-zone defense and tackling on the defense’s docket.

Douglas Flynn of the MetroWest Daily News says now that the playoffs are here, the Patriots’ perfect season is a thing of the past. In the Hartford Courant, David Heuschkel says the rewards for Tom Brady’s record setting season are now starting to roll in. Colleague Paul Doyle talks with Pats alumini Marv Cook, Stanley Morgan, Randy Vataha and Garin Veris, who all agree that the stability brought by Robert Kraft has been the key to this golden age of Patriots football.

From earlier in the week, Eric McHugh of the Quincy Patriot Ledger says Brady’s dream season just got better. On Friday, our buddy Chris Price had the Patriots looking back with appreciation at the playoff-like test the Giants gave them last Saturday night.

That’s it for now - enjoy day two of Wild Card Weekend, and stay tuned this week as PD gets ready for a huge home playoff game next Saturday night.

Sunday Links

by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

The Patriots will try to become the first NFL team to notch a 15-0 regular season record this afternoon when they host the 1-13 Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium.

It’s been a big week for our friends the Fins, who avoided a winless season with a thrilling overtime victory over the Baltimore Ravens (again, the perfect team to hold the distinction) on Sunday, and began the next chapter of their history on Wednesday when the legendary Bill Parcells agreed to become the club’s director of football operations. The worst team in football is on a roll.

For some reason, this all put me in a reflective mood, thinking of our team, and the days not too long ago when they would struggle to win even one game, let alone fifteen. And how that all ended the day Parcells would return to football for the very first time, as coach of the (I couldn’t believe it) New England Patriots.

It gave the team instant credibility as a professional operation, which is something pretty precious, as the Dolphins have discovered. It gave the team hope, for at last the lost Patriots had an unflinching guide that could lead them from the wilderness.

Here’s the thing I loved the most about Parcells, as a fan - from his first day on the job, there would be no more fooling ourselves. No more delusions about the task at hand. If the Patriots lost, there would be no more cursing the fates, lamenting the breaks, blaming the refs, or anything else. If the Patriots couldn’t win a game, it would be because they earned it.

On the other hand, if the Patriots began to win, it wouldn’t be by destiny, or by answered prayer, or by happy accident - it would also be because they earned it, Monday through Sunday, with equal parts preparation and perspiration. It would be real.

Honest to God, I had been a die-hard Patriots fan for 26 years before I truly learned any of that. I have seen the game and the team in a completely different light ever since, which has only made me love them both even more.

Yeah, things happened years later that would cast the football messiah in a harsh light. Rightfully. And Parcells continues to be as mercurial as the weather, which can be alternately amusing and infuriating, depending on which way the wind is blowing.

Still, if you love the game, how can you not love Bill Parcells too?

Speaking of coaches that have taught us plenty about the game, our colleague Dan Snapp passes along this link from Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star. One of the best and brightest sportswriters in the country has an amusing - and instructive - Bill Belichick anecdote from Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez.

There’s still Christmas shopping to be done (I know, that’s pathetic), so here’s a quick run through of the morning papers.

In the Globe, Jim McCabe talks with the 1972 Dolphins’ sub-committee for graciousness, co-chaired by Earl Morrell and Jim Mandich. Jackie MacMullan visits with Pro Bowler Mike Vrabel. Christopher Gasper looks at some more league records on the line today, and says a forecast of rain might ground the Pats again. Jim McBride likes the Pats by 17, and Mike Reiss considers the job ahead for Parcells.

In the Herald, John  Tomase claims that number 15 is already in the bag for the Pats. I’m pretty sure they have to play the game anyway. John adds some quick hits, and five things to look for today. He also has Scott Zolak on Parcells, while Karen Guregian wonders if the rain will put the ball in Laurence Maroney’s hands again.

Lastly, in the ProJo, Shalise Manza Young talks with Mercury Morris, who hasn’t been this famous for 30 years, at least. This guy is nuts - what does “you can only get your first home run once,” mean exactly? Jim Donaldson says he wants Scott Pioli to be his personal shopper this Christmas, and Willie Andrews tries to break SMY’s ‘Up Close’ jinx. Her subject last week, defensive back Eddie Jackson, was waived shortly after he was profiled. Careful, Willie.

I’ll be back after the game. Enjoy your Sunday.

The Sunday Links

logoby Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com

The long awaited rematch with Eric Mangini and the New York Jets has finally arrived, and with it a messy winter storm. With all the high drama that is expected this afternoon, the morning papers are out in force. Let’s dive in.

The Globe leads off with a big file photo of Bill Belichick with his arm around the shoulder of Mangini, and that sets the tone for the day’s coverage. It’s all about Bill and Eric, and handshakes. Christopher Gasper sets the stage with a rehash of the Patriots-Jets soap opera, but acknowledges that several other teams have come to better fit the term ‘rival’ for New England. Jim McCabe follows with a Top Ten list of NFL feuds. I laughed when I saw that ESPN analyst Mike Ditka, a frequent critic of Belichick, once tried to trade blows with Packers coach Forrest Gregg in the bowels of County Stadium - after an exhibition game. Do as I say, not as I do, I guess.

In his Patriots notebook, Gasper has the Jets secondary praising Randy Moss, perhaps in an effort to lull him to sleep this afternoon. Jim McBride says it won’t do any good, calling for a 28 point Patriots win in his weekly scouting report.

Mike Reiss closes out the Globe’s coverage with another exhaustive edition of his league notes, where he has Romeo Crennel building a foundation in Cleveland, Charlie Casserly taking a measure of satisfaction in the play of Mario Williams, and the always volatile Lawyer Milloy blasting away at departed Falcons coach Bobby Petrino. Deservedly so, I might add.

In the Herald, John Tomase looks at the Jets fall from grace since their 2006 playoff season. In his Quick Hits, Tomase wonders whether Belichick will pull a swerve on the football world this afternoon, and adds a bit of a rant on the sometimes docile Gillette Stadium crowd. Not going to do much for John’s Q rating among Pats fans, I suspect. Tomase closes with five things to look for today. Guess what #1 is? Handshake!

Karen Gurgeian has the Pats notebook, reminding us that on a slippery track, the advantage goes to the offense. Tony Massarotti has a brief bit on Ben Watson, who has faded to the background after an impressive start. Tony laments that Watson isn’t as productive as Jason Whitten. Um…..okay. I would suggest that one reason might be that Whitten is the Cowboys second option, and for the spread ‘em out Patriots, Watson is no better than, what? Fifth? Sixth? I’m not sure how much Watson could really do about that.

In their weekly Behind Enemy Lines feature, the Herald offers a forum for Steve Serby of the NY Post, who is doing his best to convince himself that the weather will be the great equalizer for the Jets today. Um…..okay. I did get a kick out of David Bowens and his story about Tom Brady’s cappuccino machine at Michigan. Was Peter King a frequent visitor?

In the ProJo, Jim Donaldson says when it comes to the controversial Patriots, the game itself seems to play second fiddle. Pretty good point, I think, though Jim never gets to the X’s and O’s either. Shalise Manza Young does her typically thorough job on the decline of the Belichick-Mangini relationship, before going up close with cornerback and track man Eddie Jackson. In her game analysis, SMY notes that the Patriots lead the league with 32 drives of five minutes or longer, which I will do my best to remember the next time I start to fret about the de-emphasized running game.

Elsewhere, our pal Chris Price of the Metro reminds us that snow has never been a problem for the Pats. Eric McHugh of the Patriot Ledger, who always seems to find a fresh angle, talks with Arizona special teams coach Kevin Spencer, who first brought Belichick and Mangini together in Cleveland. David Heuschkel of the Courant says regardless of the history shared between the two men, frost is expected in Foxborough today. Rachel Lenzi of the Maine Sunday Telegram, bless her heart, acts as though none of this is happening by focusing on Tom Brady, celebrity quarterback.

As I’m finishing this up, the Today show opens with a report from Gillette Stadium, enveloped in a Nor’easter some five hours before gametime. As Michael Conrad used to say, be careful out there. 

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