SITE SEARCH
GLENDALE, Ariz. - Stephen Hauschka grew up in Needham, went to Needham High School, and will oppose the Patriots on Sunday in Super Bowl XLIX. He has been the Seahawks' kicker since 2011. He has hit on 87.6% of his field goals in his tenure in Seattle, and is automatic inside the 40 (20 of 20 in 2014). You have to wonder what goes through the minds of players when they get a chance to compete against the team they grew up watching. Make it a Super Bowl, and Hauschka has to really be on edge this week. He booms one out of the end zone, and forces Tom Brady to have to go 80 yards on that tough Seahawk defense.
LeGarrette Blount: "The Seahawks have a great defense, but they can be beaten."
Brandon Browner: "I'm gonna tell my teammates to go after (Richard Sherman's) shoulder…at the end of the day, we're best friends, but on the field, he knows that we want the Super Bowl as much as they do!"
LeGarrette, shut up.
Brandon, shut up.
These guys gotta get with the program. Let Sherman do the popping off and accuse Bob Kraft and Roger Goodell about having a conflict of interest. All Patriots should just shut up.
Great. We're back at the place where 18-0 went to die. Why couldn't the Super Bowl be in Houston or Jacksonville?
If you fall asleep on Sunday afternoon and wake up just after the game is over, the last thing you want is the first thing you see being a sound byte from Gisele Bundchen. That means that things didn't go well for the Patriots.
The Super Bowl pregame show is four hours long. I'll take the Puppy Bowl. Or the Kitten Bowl.
Just nudge me when it's kickoff.
Geek of the week: Media Day is stupid. But come on, Marshawn Lynch. We can do better than "The only reason I'm here is because I don't want to get fined!"
Rob Gronkowski was asked who the best dancer on the Patriots is, and he answered "I'd have to say me!" Lynch could have given answers like that.
 Pete Carroll, who coached the Patriots from 1997 to 1999, opposes his former team on Sunday in Super Bowl XLIX. (USA TODAY Images) |
If you followed the Patriots closely in the late 1990s, it is still astounding to see Pete Carroll as current Super Bowl champion head coach, gunning for his second in a row.
By all rights, Seattle should be going for its third Super Bowl win. The Seahawks lost Super Bowl XL thanks to some of the worst championship game officiating in recent memory.
It's hard to believe that this is the first Super Bowl for Darrelle Revis. You would think that Rex Ryan could have overcome the championship game hump at least once.
Here's hoping that if Bill Belichick needs a 49-yard field goal, he will let Stephen Gostkowski kick it.
Russell Wilson makes Belichick's "Stats are for losers!" dogma dead on. If Wilson beats the Patriots on Sunday night, it won't be with Tom Brady numbers.
Back to school: You have about five or six rivalries around college football that are legendary. Here in the Grand Canyon State, much can be said about Arizona versus Arizona State. It's not the Iron Bowl, it's not Michigan-Ohio State, it's not the Red River Rivalry, it's not Harvard-Yale. But try and trivialize the in-state rivalry to the people here in Arizona. Right now, the edge is down in Tucson, with former West Virginia and Michigan head coach Rich Rodriguez helping the UA Wildcats to bear down.
The Patriots head into Sunday with three strikes against them.
There is an ongoing scandal, like there was in 2007 with SpyGate.
The game is at Glendale, Arizona, where SpyGate met 18-0 and SpyGate won. The Giants did, too.
And finally, the game will be on NBC. The Patriots are 0-2 in Super Bowls on NBC. They've been doing better on Sunday nights lately. But only the Bruins have won a title on NBC since the early 1960s.
That is why when you see Bob Costas in the broadcasting mix, you quiver. Costas was supposed to have presented the big trophy to Heywood Sullivan and Jean Yawkey in 1986. He was there when the Patriots lost Super Bowls XX and XLVI. He wasn't there when the Bruins won the whole thing in Vancouver (Dan Patrick was).
Of course, the Patriot coaches and players could give a hoot over who is doing the game.
However, if the Patriots win, it will be fun watching Bob Kraft receive the Vince from Roger Goodell. Thanks to DeflateGate, that will be almost tantamount to Al Davis receiving said trophy from Pete Rozelle in 1984 two years after moving the Raiders to Los Angeles on his own without league permission.
Best line from Felger and Mazz on Tuesday: Commenting on Monday's press conference, "Bob Kraft reminded Roger Goodell who he works for!"
Remember him: Founding Seattle head coach Jack Patera led the team out of the expansion wilderness. But it was former Rams head coach Chuck Knox who finally put the Seahawks on the NFL map. Knox coached the Seahawks for nine seasons. In his first season, 1983, the Seahawks went all the way to the AFC Championship Game before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Raiders. Beginning in 1983, the Seahawks made the playoffs in four of Knox's first six seasons. Led mostly by the combo of Dave Krieg and Steve Largent, Knox and the Seahawks had winning records in six of his nine seasons as head coach. The 12 wins in 1984 were the most until the Super Bowl champs had 13 last season.
And now, our Super Bowl prediction in rhyme, and hopes that all New Englanders enjoy the game, and the result.
Pete is an Aunty no longer;
His day in the sun has finally come
From Route 1 to Exposition to Royal Brougham Way,
He's proven himself and then some.
Bill took Pete's place on Route 1;
He's won three trophies named Vince
He was the last to win twice in a row
And after Sunday, still nobody since.
SITE SEARCH