Among the Patriots items in Peter King's MMQB column today is the news that former Patriot Je'Rod Cherry is auctioning off his 2001 Super Bowl ring to raise money for children's charities. Mark Cuban is charged with insider trading. Gordon Edes tries to identify the next wave of great catchers. Michael Silver isn't quite ready to annoint Matt Cassel as the Next Big Thing. Bill Simmons might be ready to go there, though. The NBA is apparently looking into that Garnett/Bogut incident from Sat... More ...

It's an odd Monday for the middle of the football season, the Patriots didn't play yesterday, nor do they play tonight. Instead, they're getting ready for next Sunday's critical matchup with the Miami Dolphins. John Tomase says that the Patriots entire season hinges on this game down in Miami. Mike Reiss says this is just another reminder of what a difference a year makes. Christopher Price has the Patriots acknowledging their miss opportunities thus far this season. Bob Halloran says that t... More ...

By David Scott Boston Sports Media Watch Time for a brief emergence from the hibernation headquarters as the Pittsburgh-San Diego finish on Sunday night (which pre-empted the President-elect on “60 Minutes”) will surely be a hot topic on Monday (and, indeed, already on Sunday night. A good summary of what happened in the final seconds can be found here, but our focus in more on the outright hypocrisy of both CBS and NBC (via Neil Best at Newsday) in avoiding direct mention of the point spre... More ...

The Pats are off this weekend after Thursday night's disappointing loss to New York, so the Sunday papers are kind of light this morning. Still, a few links stand out. Top Links 1. Patriots Report Card, by Ron Borges, Boston Herald. As he did on Friday morning, Ron continues to insist no torch was passed when the Jets outlasted the Pats with an overtime win in Foxborough. The Pats did do enough wrong lose their divisional lead, so fair grades all around here. He couldn't be more accurate with hi... More ...

Two divisional showdowns in five days kept things hopping at PD this week… On Monday, Chris Warner said a fast start and a slow finish helped the Pats break a first place tie with the Buffalo Bills the day before; On Tuesday, with the Pats on the upswing, Scott Benson was in his happy place; On Wednesday, Tyler Carter said the Pats defense folded the Bills with quarterback pressures and confounding coverages; later that day, the big AFCE win - and the approaching battle with the New York Jets ... More ...

Today, we're going to do something a bit different and look around the country at a few of the best juniors in all of college football. Some (but probably not all) may end up in this spring's NFL draft, and all will at some point be playing in the NFL. Florida QB Tim Tebow (#15) The defending Heisman Trophy winner is as unique a quarterback as I have seen. On one hand, he has traditional drop-back QB size at 6?3? 232. He also possesses a strong arm and is smart. Yet, he doesn't play conventional... More ...

Ken from Fang's Bites with Part 2 of the Friday Megalinks. I can also provide you with updates from the links that I had provided earlier. But let's pick up where we left off. Midwest Marc Katz of the Dayton Daily News talks with Dayton native Jon Seibel who's holding his own on ESPN Radio. Michael Zuidema from the Grand Rapids (MI) Press writes that Fox NFL analysts Brian Billick and Jimmy Johnson don't think it's unrealistic for the Detroit Lions to go 0-16 this season. And Bob Wolfley of the ... More ...

If you're listening to WEEI this afternoon, apparently there is a technical problem which does not allow them to play commercials at the moment. They can still take phone calls from listeners. The running joke from Glenn Ordway is that WEEI has turned into PBS and will be opening up the lines for donations soon. Update: At 4:00pm, the commercials returned… Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch If you're reading this somewhere else other than your RSS reader, then this content is stolen! WEEI... More ...

Ken from Fang's Bites and today, I'm giving you the megalinks in two parts today. Part I comes out now. Part II will come out tonight. As usual, I give you the Weekend Viewing Picks. The Celtics, fresh off their great win on Wednesday are back in action tonight and Saturday. Tonight at 7:30, the C's take on Denver and on Saturday, it'll be a quick trip to Milwaukee to face the Bucks at 8:30 p.m. Both games will be on Comcast SportsNet. For the NFL, CBS has the doubleheader for the second consecu... More ...

Conducting a little experiment with Scott Benson's afternoon post (Note The Absence Of A Fat Lady Singing) on Patriots Daily. If you're able to, could you take a moment go over here and go over here and Digg the post? Basically, you're just recommending that others check it out. I'm interested to see what impact this would have, if any on traffic levels over there. Thanks for your help… Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch If you're reading this somewhere else other than your RSS reader,... More ...

I'll be damned if I think anybody ought to be cowed by the New York Jets. They are a center less, soulless organization, bereft of any substance, accomplishing nothing, representing nothing. They exist only to twist in whichever breeze happens to be blowing at the moment; a silly tabloid team in a silly tabloid town, every bit as vapid and temporary as the freaks and miscreants they share screaming headlines and column inches with. For almost fifty years, they have rarely stood for anything, and... More ...

A BSMW Messageboard reader found this sentence in the Red Sox notebook by Adam Kilgore and Nick Cafardo today about Red Sox third base coach DeMarlo Hale's interview with the Seattle Mariners: If the Mariners choose Hale, he will join the Rangers' Ron Washington as the only African-American major league managers. Is this off the top of their head? Dusty Baker, Cecil Cooper, Cito Gaston and Jerry Manuel are all waving hello. Post from: Boston Sports Media Watch If you're reading this somewhere... More ...

Sometimes it really does just come down to the coin toss… Was there any doubt that whoever won the coin toss in OT was going to get a field goal? Still, what a game, though you could've been excused for tuning out in the first half. The Jets ran out to a 24-6 lead and the Patriots looked bad. Matt Cassel led a TD drive just before the half to make it 24-13, and the Patriot defense tightened up a bit in the second half as Cassel led three more scoring drives (two TD's, a field goal and a two-... More ...

Boy, this looked good in overtime. After a Pierre Woods sack and a Gary Guyton pass break-up, the Jets faced a third down and 15 from their own 15-yard line. Had the Patriots held there, they would have gotten the ball back into the hands of their molten-hot quarterback Matt Cassel, the guy who'd just directed a 62-yard touchdown drive with 1:04 left to tie it in regulation. But New York got the first down on Brett Favre's 16-yard pass to tight end/newly-established nemesis Dustin Keller, and th... More ...

From Comcast SportsNet: The Boston Celtics are responding to the challenges of defending their 17th NBA Championship and Celtics fans responded in record numbers for Comcast SportsNet’s Celtics-Hawks telecast. The rematch of NBA first round playoff opponents was viewed by an estimated 245,000 households in New England. Specifically in the Boston television market, 163,000 households watched the game, a record 6.8 household rating. Paul Pierce’s game winning basket was viewed by an estimated... More ...

ESPN Ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber has her latest column up today. Issues discussed include outrage over Lou Holtz invoking the name of Hitler, coverage of the Presidential campaign, and ESPN's decision to ignore the allegations that Brett Favre had called the Lions to offer assistance in game planning for the Packers as reported by Jay Glazer of FoxSports.com. I found the comments from ESPN's senior vice president and director of news (and former Boston Globe Sports Editor) Vince Doria about th... More ...

I know this will be old news for most of you, but we have to recap the big story of the NFL offseason for those that haven't heard. A legendary figure makes a return to Foxborough today. A legendary figure that retired, a figure that touched every team and every fan in some way. A legendary figure from a land of cheese and odd Germanic accents. Entire training camps were affected by the loss of this legend - nay, an entire league was affected by the loss of this legend. Suddenly when all seemed ... More ...

The Patriots and Jets battle it out for first place in the AFC East this evening on the NFL Network. If you live around Boston and don't get the NFL Network, the game will be shown on WCVB Channel 5 in Boston and WMUR channel 9 in Manchester, NH. In the New York papers today, this game is being touted as one of supreme importance for the Jets. Get a glimpse over at JetsLinks.com. Gotta love the Jets. From Mark Cannizzaro One Jets offensive player, who spoke under the condition of anonymity becau... More ...

The Atlanta Hawks were a perfect 6-0 heading into last night's game with the Celtics. They fought the Celtics every step of the way last night, were red-hot (13-22) from three-point land, and when Marvin Williams hit his fourth three of the night to give the Hawks back a one point lead with seven seconds left, it appeared that they might've finally broken through at the Garden. Not so fast. Paul Pierce hit a jumper with half a second remaining on the clock to give the Celtics the victory, 103-10... More ...

Leave it to Eric Mangini and his co-conspirator, Mike Tannenbaum, to bring some dime-store psychology to a Grand Masters' Chess Match by acquiring the former New England Patriot/New York Jet/KC Chief CB Ty Law this week.  Although, if you read the press release announcing the signing, you might find that there may be more than his defensive skills are not the only thing that is slipping away from the former All-Pro cornerback. Here's what the Law Man said to NFL.com's Adam Schefter on Monday af... More ...