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Dolphins Vs. Patriots: Miami Stuns Pats With Late Field Goal

2009-12-06T16:27:51Z

MIAMI — When Tom Brady missed repeated chances to put the game away in the fourth quarter, Chad Henne and the Miami Dolphins took advantage.

Henne threw for a career-high 335 yards and directed a 51-yard drive for the winning field goal with 1:02 left, and Miami rallied past New England 22-21 on Sunday.

Len Berman: Top 5 Sports Stories

2009-12-01T13:57:38Z

Happy Tuesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for December 1, 2009 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.

1. Quick Hits

Tiger Woods continues to stonewall the police, the media, and for goodness sakes his own golf tournament.

Notre Dame fires their beleaguered football coach Charlie Weis.

Legendary Florida State football coach, 80-year old Bobby Bowden, is expected to announce his retirement today.

The New Orleans Saints are now 11-0 after beating the Patriots last night 38-17.

34-year old disgraced sprinter Marion Jones, who spent 6 months in prison, is planning a comeback in basketball - the WNBA.

Pass the hat. The salary increases for Major League Baseball players are slowing down. The average salary, I said the average salary, is just under $3 million.

By the way, a full Yankees share for winning the World Series is worth $365,052.73.

2. Tiger, Get your Head out of the Woods

So here's the deal. If Tiger Woods really had a minor car accident he would be playing in his own golf tournament this week and talking to the media today. And this would all be over. In essence, his silence is deafening. If "his people" are advising him on how to handle this situation, he needs new "people."

3. Sportsman of the Year

I normally don't pay a whole of attention to the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. After all, isn't the whole idea to sell magazines? I've felt that way since 1969 when Tom Seaver won the award and Rod Laver didn't. All the "Rocket" did was win a second Grand Slam that year, all four major tennis tournaments. Nobody had ever done that. Having said all that, I'm thrilled Derek Jeter won this year's award. He is the real deal (unlike a certain golfer in the news.) All these years in the New York media spotlight and not a single blip. Not one. Congratulations Derek, well deserved. You truly are a sportsman.

4. Slap on the Wrist

The headline blares. Serena Williams hit with a record fine! Sounds good. But upon further review, yes she was fined a record $82,500 for her outburst at the U.S. Open. And yes it will be doubled and she could be barred from the next U.S. Open if she has "another major issue" at a Grand Slam tournament in the next two years. It all sounds good, but I have a coupla questions. Didn't the U.S. Open end over two months ago? What took these "tough guy" tennis officials so long to act? And if they really wanted to make a statement, why wasn't she suspended? Ya think a fine is going to affect her pocketbook? And I can't wait to see what rises to the level of "another major issue." Trust me, it'll never happen. The inmates run the asylum.

5. Dollars and Non-Sense

Leave it to the Wall Street Journal to do the math. With Notre Dame buying out Charlie Weis' football coaching contract, the school will reportedly have spent $36 million on Weis. According to the WSJ, Notre Dame could have taken that money instead and given out 936 full tuition scholarships, or built two new dormitories. Instead they bought 35 football wins. So here's my math. Each Charlie Weis win cost Notre Dame roughly $1.03 million. Sweet.

Happy Birthday: The Merry Mex, golfing good guy Lee Trevino. 70.
Bonus Birthday: Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, former wife of the Rangers Ron Greschner and currently with former NHL star Alexei Yashin (she does seem to like sports). Carol Alt. 49.

Today in Sports: Look what he's wrought! Dr. James Naismith invents a game called basketball. 1891.
Bonus Event: You go girl! Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery Alabama bus. 1955.

Thanks for all your kind wishes for my kids book The Greatest Moments in Sports making the New York Times Best Seller List. Good news, it's back in stock at www.Amazon.com and www.BarnesandNoble.com.

And thanks to all of you who pointed out that Tiger Woods and Buick split company awhile back. (I guess Tiger and any kind of car really don't mix.)

Saints Vs. Patriots: Drew Brees Shreds New England Defense, Saints Stay Undefeated

2009-12-01T02:01:51Z

NEW ORLEANS — Drew Brees and the unbeaten Saints left Tom Brady in the dust, zipping up and down the field in a dominant romp over the New England Patriots.

Brees threw for a season-high 371 yards and five touchdowns, carving up coach Bill Belichick's defense like few quarterbacks ever have in New Orleans' 38-17 victory Monday night.

Patriots Vs. Jets: New England Beats Jets, 31-14

2009-11-22T19:40:07Z

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The defense Bill Belichick didn't want to put on the field a week ago kept the offense of the New York Jets off it Sunday.

Leigh Bodden had three of the four interceptions thrown by Mark Sanchez and the New England Patriots defense allowed just one touchdown and 226 yards in a 31-14 win. The victory gave them a two-game lead in the AFC East and sent the Jets to their sixth loss in seven games.

Dan Weiner: The NYGMen Podcast: Week 10 - The Bye Week Special

2009-11-18T15:38:33Z

In this Week 10 BYE WEEK special, Greg and Dan rejoice in the Giants' good fortune during their week off. In so doing, they laud the admirable character of Colonel Tom Coughlin, briefly discuss "The Sanchise," and Dan recounts his first ever experience at a Jets' game. Greg and Dan also go through a midseason review of the GMen, air their feelings about the tragic figure named PLAXICO, offer a quick update on LT's legal woes (our LT, that is), and talk about Bill Belichick's 4th down gamble at the end of Sunday night's Patriots/Colts game. As always, Greg and Dan call their top 5 NFL teams after week 10, the hottest team in the NFC and AFC respectively, the scariest team in the NFC and AFC respectively, and week 10's "Beast of the East." GET PSYCHED, THE GMEN ARE BACK!!!

Listen to The NYGMen Podcast Episode #4 here:

For more, go to www.giantspodcast.com.

David Roher: Belichick's Decision: Flip a Coin, or Trust the Team?

2009-11-17T11:52:15Z

If you write, talk, or scream about football for a living, you probably had something to say about Bill Belichick's decision on Sunday night. In short, the Patriots had the ball with just over 2 minutes to go on their own 28. It was 4th and 2, and instead of electing to punt, Belichick decided to go for it. The pass play came up just short, and the Colts gained possession and went on to score a touchdown for a 35-34 victory.

This post is not really about the correctness of that call, though. As I see it, it's been handled quite convincingly. Bill Barnwell shows here (as well as Brian Burke here, and Wayne Winston here) that Belichick likely gave his team a better chance to win the game by going for it on 4th and 2. Instead, it's about the consequences of making a choice that is mathematically correct when it's going to make everyone upset.

It's hard to say precisely how much better the Patriots were off going for it. But let's say the win probability difference is not greater than 10%. Is that 10% worth the inevitable firestorm that would result if he gambled and lost? This might not be true for Belichick, but almost any other coach would have to think about the effect it would have on his job security and on his relationship with the players.

Let's say you're an Olympian. You're about to enter a final race, one that you have a 49% chance of winning. A corrupt French judge offers to flip a coin to determine the outcome of the race. Heads, you win, tails, you don't. After making it that far, would you really take the offer? I have a feeling that very few would. Even fewer would like it if their coach took the offer for them.

When a coach makes a decision like Belichick's, he's doing something very close to that. If the Patriots had converted on 4th down, they would have had roughly a 100% chance of winning the game. If they didn't, they probably had somewhere between a 15-50% chance of winning the game (depending on how the Colts offense and Pats defense are evaluated). That means that Belichick singlehandedly based 50-85% of the outcome of the game on just one play. Granted, a play is not a coin flip -- it is based on the players' performance. But the outcome of one play is a lot more random than the outcome of one drive.

My guess is that the average Patriot doesn't understand the win probabilities behind the decision evaluation (nor does he have to). But I do bet that he has a surprisingly keen understanding of which decision is more random. I bet the defense got the following message from that decision: "I'd rather base the outcome of the game on one play run by the offense than on you guys making a stop over the course of an entire series." Is that an unfair characterization of the complex decision that Belichick had to make? Certainly. But it's what inevitably results, especially when you have Rodney Harrison on your team.

This sort of decision happens all the time, in all sports -- do you shoot a 2 at the buzzer to send a game into overtime or a 3 to try and win it in regulation? Do you play small ball to get 1 tying run in the bottom of the 9th, or swing away to get 2 or more to win? In both of these cases, the mathematically correct decision is probably to go for the win in the moment. But the reason for that involves the team's relatively lower chances of winning the game itself through more skill.

So what does all this mean? I'm not necessarily saying that any of this is as important as an increase in win probability. Maybe you think that NFL players ought to realize that it's worth sacrificing an opportunity to cause a win for any greater chance to win. They're professionals who don't have to be babied when they don't get the ball. If you believe that all this crap about psychology and confidence is overblown (and I think we can agree that at least some part of it is), then the above means absolutely nothing.

But it's a lot murkier if you think that these aspects of sports matter a lot. I'd love to say that this stuff doesn't matter, but I think it does. My feeling is that as much as professional athletes should let their coach do the right thing, a lot of them won't like it to the point where it affects their play.

So Belichick not only has to crunch the numbers, but he also has to ask himself, is that extra 10% in win probability worth the potential problems in the locker room afterward? Does it cost the Pats more than 10% in win probability over the course of the regular season? And what about the problems that would result from a loss that was the defense's fault?

I have no clue. But a good coach should.

This post originally appeared on the Harvard Sports Analysis Collective's blog. Check it out!

Len Berman: Top 5 Sports Stories

2009-11-17T11:28:14Z

Happy Tuesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for November 17, 2009 from
Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.

1. Quick Hits

Are the Knicks interested in 34-year old free agent Allen Iverson?
His best days are behind him, so the answer is probably yes.

The Titans owner, 86-year old Bud Adams, was fined $250,000 for
his double flip in Buffalo, as Tennessee was mauling the Bills 41-17.
That comes to $125,000 for each middle finger.

Forever Redskins. The Supreme Court has swatted away the Hail Mary
pass from Native Americans to stop Washington from using the nickname
Redskins. Maybe now St. John's will go back to being the Redmen rather
than the Red Storm.

The first baseball awards. Oakland closer Andrew Bailey is the
American League Rookie of the Year. Florida outfielder Chris Coghlan
is the NL winner.

2. Historical Perspective

You gotta love it. Subscriber Bob B. tipped me to a Boston radio
station conducting a poll to determine if Patriots coach Bill
Belichick's ill-advised decision to go on 4th down the other night
constituted the biggest gaffe in New England sports history. Other
candidates included Red Sox manager Grady Little letting Pedro
Martinez stay in game 7 against the Yankees in 2003, and Red Sox
manager John McNamara leaving Bill Buckner at first base before his
fateful error in game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Historical
perspective, or hysterical perspective? Call me crazy, but when the
history of the world is written, none of these moments will be noted.
But maybe that minor sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees will be.

3. Taking a Knee

So Belichick went for it and Jacksonville running back Maurice
Jones-Drew didn't. He intentionally took a knee against the Jets, and
didn't score a touchdown to help kill the clock even though
Jacksonville was losing at the time. As a result, they wound up
winning. But Jones-Drew immediately apologized to those who own him in
fantasy leagues. Have we found the major flaw in those leagues? They
reward points, but not heady plays and sacrifices that lead up to the
scores. We need a new category where brains are saluted as well as
brawn.

4. You're Kidding Right?

Laker fans are pissed. They booed their team off the court Sunday
night after losing to Houston. Who can blame the fans? The defending
champions had the temerity to lose a second game in a row, and their
record fell all the way down to 7-3. Hel-l-o-o-o? If booing is the
appropriate response in Tinseltown, what are Knicks and Nets fans to
do?

5. 20/20 Hindsight

A French woman just got married to her boyfriend a year after he
died. There's something in the law that allowed her to do it. I wonder
if that same French law will let me bet on last year's Super Bowl?

Happy Birthday: Yesterday Doc Gooden, today Tom Terrific, Tom Seaver.
65.

Bonus Birthday: Live from New York! SNL creator Lorne Michaels. 65.

Today in Sports: The Heidi Game! NBC cuts away from a Jets/Raiders
game with 65 seconds left to show the movie Heidi. The Jets were
leading by 3. Fans missed the Raiders scoring two touchdowns to win
43-32. 1968.

Bonus Event: The wedding of the year! Luke marries Laura on General
Hospital. Millions watch. 1981.

Len Berman: Top 5 Sports Stories

2009-11-16T13:03:20Z

Happy Monday everyone, here's my Top 5 for November 16, 2009 from Len
Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.

1. Quick Hits

Thanks to a strange gamble by Patriots coach Bill Belichick, the
Indianapolis Colts staged an improbable comeback to beat New England
35-34 and run their record to 9-0.

While USC and Notre Dame hit the skids, Ohio State will hit the road
for the Rose Bowl for the first time in 13 years.

They were celebrating in the Phillipines, as Manny Pacquiao stopped
Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas in the 12th round. Pacquiao won the WBO
welterweight crown, his 7th title in 7 different weight classes.

On the undercard Yuri Foreman won the WBA Super welterweight
championship. He's studying to become a rabbi. A boxing rabbi. Is that
kosher?

20-year old Michelle Wie wins her first LPGA tournament, the Lorena
Ochoa Invitational in Mexico.

Way to go Knicks. They passed over Brandon Jennings in the draft. He
scored 55 points for Milwaukee Saturday night. Maybe the Knicks should
just turn off the lights.

2. The Numbers Game

Wow. LeBron James says he wants to stop wearing # 23 and wants the
number retired league-wide in honor of Michael Jordan. He will switch
to #6 next season. Let the conspiracy theories begin. Is he going to
play for Chicago? Does he hope to sell more jerseys? The only players
retired league-wide in sports are Jackie Robinson's # 42 in baseball.
(When Mariano Rivera retires, nobody will wear it.) And Wayne
Gretzky's #99 in hockey. But Michael Jordan? Why not Wilt Chamberlain?
How about Babe Ruth? Retired numbers are getting like the Hall of
Fame. Watered down.

3. Crime and Punishment

You've probably heard that the NFL fined Chad Ochocinco of Cincinnati
$20-thousand. Ochocinco had a dollar bill in his hand and was thinking
about offering it to the refs while they were reviewing a replay. The
league cited the rulebook, in part the rule that prohibits abusive,
threatening or insulting language or gestures toward officials. They
also have this thing about players carrying props. OK, I get it. But
you have to admit what Ochocinco did was amusing. There's a reason the
NFL stands for No Fun League.

4. Wardrobe

Tiger Woods won the Australian Masters golf tournament, so he got the
coveted "Golden Jacket." His winning share was $252-thousand. Pocket
change for him. Then again his appearance fee was $3-million. So not a
bad haul down under, $3.25 million AND a sport coat. At least if you
hit a homer off the Abe Stark sign at the old Ebbets field, you won
the entire suit.

5. Fore or Two?

Here's the perfect gift for the golfing lady in your life. A bra that
turns into a putting green. Leave it to the Japanese. The bra is
adorned with a golf ball, tee, and miniature flag. You unroll it
(stretches to 5 feet), lay it on the floor and putt away to your
heart's content. You have two cups to aim at. It also comes with a
cute little skirt that has the words "Be Quiet" written on the rear.
Oh, when you sink your putt, you hear "nice shot" from a built in
speaker, in Japanese. By the way the same company brings you the Solar
Power Bra, and the Chopsticks Bra. Don't ask.

Happy Birthday: Dr. K, former Met and Yankee pitcher Dwight Gooden.
45.
Bonus Birthday: Cosby Show actress Lisa Bonet. 42.

Today in Sports: Bill Russell sets an NBA record with 49 rebounds
against the Philadelphia Warriors. His record was broken (Wilt, 55),
but his 32 rebounds in one half that night is a mark that still
stands. 1957.

Bonus Event: LSD is first created in a lab in Switzerland. It took 5
years to realize that LSD was hallucinogenic. What were they smoking?
1938.

Bill Belichick's 4th-And-2 Call Against Colts Debated, Derided (VIDEO)

2009-11-16T09:22:53Z

Bill Belichick's decision to try for a first down on 4th-and-2 late in Sunday night's game against the Colts is drawing lots of criticism. With a six-point lead and the ball on their own 28-yard line with 2:08 remaining, the Patriots elected to go for the first down. Brady completed a short pass to Kevin Faulk, who appeared to catch the ball past the first-down line, but did not establish possession until he was plowed backwards by Colts safety Melvin Bullitt. (Video of the play is embedded below.) The Colts took possession and quickly drove down the short field to score a game-winning touchdown with 13 seconds remaining.

The decision was immediately criticized by announcers and analysts. On NBC, Rodney Harrison called it "the worst coaching decision I've ever seen Bill Belichick make." Jay Mariotti derided Belichick's call as "inexplicably arrogant" and "football suicide." On SportsCenter Trent Dilfer called the decision "ludicrous" and "absolutely ridiculous." And Jim Litke of the AP referred to it as "a reckless gamble."

Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders debated the wisdom of the play itself, asking, "When you need two yards to ice the game, is it better to send everyone on two-yard patterns, or to send everyone on THREE-yard patterns and give a little room for error?"

Others have defended the call. Jeff Ma blogged about the decision on HuffPost, writing that "38 yards in field position is not worth giving up a 60% opportunity to keep Peyton Manning on the sidelines." Wayne Winston concluded that "if the Colts have a greater than 50% chance of scoring a TD after the punt, then Belichick made the right move." Dan Shanoff and David Aldridge also defended Belichick's decision.

The Patriots fall to 6-3 with the loss, a record shared by three other AFC teams, and trail the Bengals for a coveted first-round bye.

WATCH:

Full video highlights here.

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Wayne Winston: Belichick Made the Right Call

2009-11-16T08:57:45Z

Bill Belichick is one of my least favorite people in sports. I love the Colts and do not like the Patriots. The announcers were unanimous in saying the Patriots were crazy to go for it on 4th down in the Colts-Patriots game. I hate to say it, but I think Belichick's move might have made sense.

Looking back at the last two years passing plays on 4th down and less than two yards to go have succeeded around 45% of the time. With Brady this chance is probably higher than 45%. Let SHORT= chance Colts score TD from the Pats 30 and LONG = chance Colts score TD after a punt. Assume that if Patriots get a first down Colts cannot win. Then Patriots should go for it if 0.45 + 0.55*(1-SHORT) > (1-LONG).

The following table computes the Pats' chance of winning if they go for it, minus Pats chance of winning if they punt based on different values of SHORT and LONG. A positive number means Patriots should have gone for it. Note that if Colts have a greater than 50% chance of scoring a TD after the punt, then Belichick made the right move. With Peyton Manning at the helm I would say the Colts had at least a 50% chance of scoring a TD from, say, 70 yards.

Jeff Ma: Belichick Was Right

2009-11-16T01:00:23Z

I was about to write a detailed blog using advanced statistics to illustrate why Belichick's decision to go for it on 4th down tonight was absolutely the right decision. Then I realized that someone had already done it for me .

To sum it up. Belichick's Patriots were up by six points and faced a 4th down and 2 at their own 28 yard line with just over 2:00 left in the game. Rather than punt, which just about every other coach in the league would have done (except maybe Sean Payton or Josh McDaniel), he decided to go for it.

Talking about what happened due to this decision is unimportant (and frankly painful for this Patriots fan) so I'll focus on the decision itself. As I mentioned Brian Burke, at www.advancednflstats.com, has already done a great post on this but I'm going to sum it up here in layman's terms and in a way that hopefully will make you realize how obvious this decision was.

Going for it on 4th and 2 at the 28 yard line is successful 60% of the time and if successful would effectively end the game. On average a punt from the 28 would net 38 yards. So a decision to punt would have to be based on an opinion that the extra 38 yards was more valuable than the opportunity to end the game 60% of the time.

Forget everything that Al Michaels and everyone is likely to say about this and think about that for a second. If you were in Belihick's place would you rather have that 60% to end the game or that extra 38 yards in field position?

The advanced stats back up Belichick but I actually think this is a case where a seemingly counter-intuitive decision is actually very straightforward. 38 yards in field position is not worth giving up a 60% opportunity to keep Peyton Manning on the sidelines.

Colts Vs. Patriots: Indianapolis Shocks New England In Final Minutes, 35-34

2009-11-15T23:59:34Z

INDIANAPOLIS — Bill Belichick risked everything on one play Sunday night. It cost him a victory, and it may wind up costing him a trip back to Indianapolis for a rematch with Peyton Manning later this season.

After the New England coach failed on a stunning gamble deep in his own territory, Manning threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Wayne with 13 seconds left that rallied the unbeaten Colts to a 35-34 win over the Patriots.

Colts Vs. Patriots: Indianapolis, New England Face Off LIVE

2009-11-15T20:05:00Z

Watch the Colts-Patriots game develop on Twitter right here on HuffPost.

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Khai Gordon: Top NFL Matchups for Week 10

2009-11-12T18:14:12Z

The Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints are still unbeaten and both teams have perfectly executed their mission so far this season, as their playoff hopes are all but locked for the year. Both teams are sitting at 8-0 heading into week 10 with completely different teams threatening their perfect seasons. For the Saints they face a St. Louis Rams team that on paper doesn't look to put their record in any real danger. However, the Colts aren't as lucky as they face off with their AFC rival the New England Patriots, that can not only hand them their first loss but is a team who is also clearing a path of their own this season. For the rest however, it will be another week of November football and some interesting matchups.

Who's Number 1: Cincinnati Bengals (6-2) @ Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2)

Last week the Bengals swept the Baltimore Ravens in the division series, which not many people saw coming. Then again, the Ravens haven't really looked like the Ravens team that started out 3-0 on the year. This week the Bengals will be tested once again when they face the Steelers who are riding a five game win streak in a battle for number one in the AFC North. Both the Steelers and Bengals are playing great run defense holding the number one (Steelers) and two (Bengals) spots in the league.

So the spotlight in this game will be placed on the quarterbacks. Ben Roethlisberger, has been great in the last four games with nine touchdowns and only three interceptions with a QB rating of 111.2. Carson Palmer is putting together some impressive wins as well, but he'll need to have a better day against the Steelers defense than he did in week 3 despite their win. Palmer was 20 of 37 for 187 yards a touchdown.

Identity Crisis: Philadelphia Eagles (5-3) @ San Diego Chargers (5-3)

With the win against the New York Giants in week 9 in the final seconds of the game, the Chargers are once again setting themselves up for their yearly mid-season push for the division title. With the Denver Broncos having lost two consecutive games to AFC north opponents, and may have very well reached their plateau on the year, the Chargers are poised to overtake them for the lead. For the Chargers it's much of the same from a team that shouldn't be in danger of coming in second in the AFC west they'll look to orchestrate back to back wins against NFC east teams on Sunday.

The Eagles are in a similar position with the win-lose streak they're on this season. Since losing to the Raiders in week 7, they've beaten the Giants in week 8, only to lose last week to the Cowboys falling to second in the division. Still in the drivers seat of their season however, they'll need to establish some consistency if they want to be a serious contender in the wild card push. And one still has to wonder just when, if ever they'll utilize Michael Vick impatiently waiting in the wings, ready to restore order for the Eagles if needed.

Role Reversal: New England Patriots (6-2) @ Indianapolis Colts (8-0)

The NFL is a funny place as things can swing from big success for a team to disappointing failure one season to the next. The Patriots are used to big success, but last season they had a disappointing blow, losing quarterback Tom Brady to a season ending knee injury. This season the Patriots look to resume their dominance of the AFC over the past decade with another successful season. Standing in their way is an overachieving Indianapolis Colts team, who are also used to greatness, but this season seem to have the edge over New England in AFC supremacy. At 8-0 it'll be New England's turn to play spoiler and bring down the AFC's new "Goliath", the Indianapolis Colts.

In the last three games the Patriots have outscored their opponents 121-24, which started with a rout against the Titans 59-0 in week 7. The Colts have taken blows to their defense losing safety Bob Sanders and cornerback Marlin Jackson for the season to injuries. But Manning is still Manning so it'll be another classic matchup of Tom vs. Peyton.

Creating Separation: Dallas Cowboys (6-2) @ Green Bay Packers (4-4)

The Cowboys are in position to create separation in the NFC east this week with a win over the Packers. Currently, they sit atop the division and a win over a hapless Green Bay team would prove beneficial to them on their quest for their first division title since the 2007 season. Quarterback Tony Romo and the Cowboys defense are playing as good as it gets and another win would make it their fifth in a row.

On the other hand the Packers are coming off of an embarrassing loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the road, capping an up and down season where at times they've looked legitimate and others completely inept. Quarterback Aaron Rogers needs to find better chemistry with his receiving corp. and the defense needs more consistency.

Games of Interest

There's nothing compelling at first glance at either of these matchups, but looking deeper there is something to be said for the teams involved so let's take a look.

Redemption: Denver Broncos (6-2) vs. Washington Redskins (2-6)

The Redskins have lost four consecutive games and are averaging 14 points a game. So far this season they haven't scored 20 or more points in a single game and have a total of 113 points on the season. What's perplexing about the Skins however, is their ability to be better but their failure to do so. With players like running backs Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts and wide receiver Santana Moss all capable of turning things around at any moment, I'm looking for the Redskins to return from their bye week with something to prove.

They'll face a Denver Broncos' team that has lost two straight games and are looking to get back to their winning ways. On Monday night I witnessed the complete collapse of a team in the second half that had all but dominated the Steelers during the first half. The Broncos were completely incapable of readjusting to the Steelers approach for the second half. If the Broncos are unable to get back on track, the questions will begin of how legitimate they were in the first place when they leaped out to their 6-0 record.

Vince Young is Perfect: Tennessee Titans (2-6) vs. Buffalo Bills (3-5)

Two games after debuting as the starter for the Titans "the sequel", Vince Young is 2-0 and has this team rallying around its new leader. The Titans started the year off at 0-6 after going 13-3 a season ago, which created the sudden urgency to replace Collins with Young from ownership. So what happened? We know Vince Young isn't that good, but he does seem to be the spark the team needed and has helped right the shit for the time being. But what everyone wants to know is how long will it last? And can Young continue with his successful campaign for saving the Titans. For now it's exciting seeing the franchise back in action willing his team back from the dead.

Ty Law, Pro-Bowl Defensive Back, Signs With Broncos

2009-11-07T19:39:20Z

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Ty Law spent the first half of the season waiting for the right team to come calling. Now that it has, he doesn't want to waste any more time getting back on the field.

Law came out of what he called "semiretirement" Saturday to join the Denver Broncos and counts on contributing Monday night when the Pittsburgh Steelers bring three wide receivers to Invesco Field who are averaging more than 14 yards per catch.

Ari Shapiro: The October Doubleheader

2009-10-14T10:26:35Z

If you woke up in Denver, Colorado last Sunday morning, you had the opportunity of the sports year. Actually, it was bigger than that -- it was the opportunity of a sports lifetime. It was an opportunity so rare that it only occurs once, maybe twice each year, if at all.

Allow me to explain.

Imagine, if you will, the following: it's an ordinary October Sunday in Denver (I know it's tough, but stay with me). You go through your normal Sunday routine, then make your way to Invesco Field in the early afternoon for the Broncos game, where you enjoy 3-4 hours of Broncos football. (Yes, I'd normally insert a McDaniels/Orton joke here, but at 5 and 0, I'm not saying a thing.)

Then, after the Broncos game, something strange happens. All of a sudden, the day transforms from an ordinary Sunday into the most incredible Sunday of the year. Because after the Broncos game, you don't go home, or to a bar, or wherever it is you normally go after Broncos games. Instead, you go to Coors Field.

But Ari, why would I go to Coors Field after a Broncos game? There aren't any Rockies games in Oct...

And that's when it hits you -- the October Doubleheader: the opportunity to attend an NFL football game and an MLB playoff game in the same city on the same day. An opportunity treasured by all, yet a feat so rare that many may never experience this epic event in their lifetime.

Well, on Sunday, October 11, 2009, the October Doubleheader came to Denver.

It began at 2:15 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time when the Denver Broncos and the New England (I mean, Boston) Patriots squared off in one of the most anticipated coaching matchups of the NFL season. And what a game it was. Final score: Broncos 20, Patriots 17.

(Two quick notes from the game: First, how about those uniforms, huh? I mean, wow. I don't care if they were designed 50 years ago, I will never understand why someone thought it would be a good idea to make football uniforms out of the two colors most frequently found in a toilet. Second, how about Josh McDaniels screaming at Special Teams Coordinator Mike Priefer after Darrell Reid's running into the kicker penalty late in the game? It wasn't the screaming itself I enjoyed so much as realizing that Josh McDaniels was using the exact same words to scream at Mike Priefer that I was using to scream at my television. Seriously, it was like I was feeding Coach McDaniels his lines -- it was unreal.)

But I digress. The point is, after this incredible game, after the biggest Broncos victory of the season, there was still another game to attend. That's the beauty of the October Doubleheader: all of that drama, all of that excitement, and there is still an MLB playoff game yet to come.

So after the Broncos game, the Denver faithful put their Rockies purple and black over their Broncos orange and blue (I mean, their Broncos, um, number one and number two), and headed out to Coors Field for a night cap.

Now as we all know, the second game didn't go quite as well as the first. I could sit here and blather on about how it was an incredible game and an incredible series even though the Rockies lost, but I know that won't help. In fact, the wounds are still pretty fresh, so let's not talk about it.

But I will say this: Despite the Rockies' misfortune, Denver still played host to history on Sunday, and the Denver sports fans behaved beautifully. 76,000 of you piled into Invesco Field Sunday afternoon to watch the Broncos beat the Patriots, and then, despite sub-freezing temperatures that were never meant for baseball, 50,000 fans continued on to Coors Field to cheer on the Rockies Sunday night. Well done Denver, well done.

And one more thing: For those of you lucky enough to attend both games -- congratulations. You witnessed history. You accomplished something amazing. You accomplished a sports milestone that many dream of, but most will never achieve. You accomplished the October Doubleheader.

Not bad for an ordinary Sunday in Denver, huh?

Broncos, Patriots: Overtime Field Goal Caps Comeback Victory For Denver

2009-10-11T20:35:09Z

DENVER — Kyle Orton is no John Elway, Josh McDaniels is no Bill Belichick and those mustard-yellow uniforms certainly don't have anyone thinking "Orange Crush."

But on a day that had as much to do with Denver's colorful history as its promising present, anything seemed possible.

Sam Dudley: The 2009 Broncos: 2001 Patriots Redux?

2009-09-25T14:33:54Z

Eight years and two days ago, the course of NFL history changed. History has since been revised. Thank you, Morris C. Lewis.

It was the Hit Heard 'Round the World. Down 10-3 to the New York Jets with five minutes remaining, the New England Patriots faced 3rd and 10 from their 18 yard-line. On the ensuing play, Jets' rookie defensive tackle Shaun Ellis interrupted Drew Bledsoe's five-step drop and flushed him out of the pocket. The storied, 100 million-dollar New England quarterback rolled right, loafed 11 yards up the sideline, and was obliterated by Mo Lewis as he scampered out of bounds. Foxboro went silent. Drew's internal organs had never Bled-soe much.

What happened next and unfolded over the remainder of the New England Patriots' 2001 season bears particular relevance to the 2009 Denver Broncos. History may repeat itself, but it does not lie.

Amidst the chaos, Tom Brady '01 checked into the game. Tom Brady '01 should not be confused with Tom Brady '02 or anyone who has ever impregnated both a Hollywood actress and a supermodel.

That countless NFL fans remember Tom Brady '01 as Tom Brady '07 is a problem. This line of thinking revises history.

Tom Brady's career began on the Patriots' 29 yard-line. Brady completed 5 of 10 passes for 46 yards (21 of which came on a single play), ran once for 9 yards, and failed to lead the Patriots to victory. Brady played well that evening. He "managed" the Patriots' offense effectively during the game's final drive. He did not manage to pull out what would later become his trademark: a victory.

Brady continued to "manage" the Patriots' offense for the remainder of the season. His first two starts were not historic performances. Though the Patriots handily beat the Indianapolis Colts in Week 3, Brady only completed 13 of 23 passes (56.5%) and did not throw for a single touchdown. The Colts finished 6-10 in 2001, and did not qualify for the postseason. Brady played an abysmal game the following weekend against the surging Miami Dolphins. The Patriots lost 30-10 in Miami while Brady connected on 12 of 24 (50%) passes for a meager 86 yards and zero touchdowns. Yet, Brady did not turn the ball over in either game, which surely impressed Bill Belichick.

Meanwhile, New Englanders considered Brady a temporary solution. Not even Bledsoe believed Brady was capable of achieving success in the NFL. In an interview with the Boston Herald less than a month after his life-threatening injury, Bledsoe stated, "I feel like I'm going to be the starter for as long as I'm here."

Drew spoke too soon. He became the most expensive clipboard-holder in NFL history faster than I just typed, "Mo Lewis."

Tom Brady "arrived" in Week 5 when Belichick set him loose on the San Diego Chargers. Brady displayed a newfound command of Belichick's playbook during his third NFL start. The sixth-round draft-pick completed 33 of 54 passes (61%), amassing two touchdowns and league-wide respect. His second touchdown pass, a shot to tight-end Jermaine Wiggins, came in the final minute of the game and forced overtime.

The Patriots won 29-26 on a 44-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri. Brady however received the bulk of the credit for the dramatic comeback victory. He engineered a marvelous game-winning drive. Brady identified numerous Charger blitzes, and his audibles led to a string of completions that set up Vinatieri's game-winning kick. His poise and intelligence won the game.

Still, Brady '01 never became Brady '07. He was not even Brady '04-'06: The Bridget Moynahan Years.

In 15 regular season games, Brady '01 interspersed six impressive passing performances (91-pus QB rating) with nine relatively pedestrian outings (sub-79.6 QB rating). Although Brady finished the regular season with a solid 86.5 QB rating, a sine curve best describes his week-by-week performance. He was a wild card, who often played down to his competition. Few recall that Brady threw 10 of his 12 interceptions against non-playoff teams -- Buffalo (2 INTs, 3-13), Carolina (2, 1-15), Denver (4, 8-8), and Cleveland (2, 7-9). Brady's mediocre statistics make the Patriots' first Super Bowl victory seem all the more stupefying.

The Patriots clinched the AFC East by winning 11 of their final 14 regular season games. They did so despite the fact that Brady only threw 18 touchdowns to counter his 12 interceptions during this span of games. This is by far the worst TD-INT ratio he has ever posted. They advanced to Super Bowl XXXVI even though Brady threw more interceptions (1) than touchdowns (0) in the first two rounds of the playoffs. They won the Super Bowl even though the future Mr. Bundchen only threw for one touchdown, 145 yards, and completed fewer than 60% of his passes in the Big Game!

History demonstrates that Brady played effective (not spectacular) football throughout the 2001-2002 season. So, how did the Patriots win consistently with him under center?

The Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVI because Brady always played within the confines of Bill Belichick's game plan. Belichick's success started on defense. He paired an aggressive, nameless front seven with a proven secondary (sound familiar, Denver?). He fortified his tough, dedicated defense by running a conservative offense. Belichick did not possess a dominant All-Decade football team. The 2001 Patriots did not lead the League in total offense or defense. The roster did not brim with Pro-Bowl talent. Belichick won because each week he convinced all of his players to execute his game plan.

But what is so special about that? Every winning coach gets the most out of his players.

This is where today's fans contend, "Belichick won in '01 because of The System! His proven 'system' beat everyone!" Ah, of course, the good ol' Patriot Way. Unfortunately, crediting the franchise's incredible run and first Super Bowl victory to The Patriot System ignores and even contradicts history.

Making the playoffs was a pipe dream for the 2001 Patriots. Dr. Z of Sports Illustrated ranked the Bledsoe-backed Patriots twenty-fifth out of thirty-one NFL teams in his 2001 pre-season power rankings. Yet, the imagination of the contemporary fan revises history. The post-'01 dominance of the Patriots organization causes people to believe that the 2001 Patriots were supposed to win 11 of their final 14 games. This perception could not be further from historical fact. Each week, the Patriots were supposed to stop winning. I remember this because I was there.

In 2001, I was attending high school in a suburb of Boston. The Fall of '01 was the most frustrating season of my life. I had no car. I had no privacy. I had no mountains. All the while, "Pats" fans surrounded me. They bore names like O'sull, Walshy, and "insert the nickname of a character in Good Will Hunting and/or Boondocks Saints here." I lived in the Kingdom of the Enemy. Every week, I watched in disgust as the Patriots piled up yet another absurdly lucky victory. Yes, I broke things. Had Ray Bourque not recently jettisoned the Bruins and won a Stanley Cup with the Avalanche, Greater Boston would have eaten me alive. I felt like a caged bird ... a caged bird that despised Tom Brady. The man was ruining my life. Griese was supposed to win and Brady, the backup, was supposed to lose. Bill Belichick had thrown off the natural order of my universe.

No one in Boston spoke of a "system" that would ultimately lead the Patriots to victory, let alone dynastic greatness. There was no saving the 2001 Patriots. With Bledsoe in the ICU, the Patriots were a pastiche of nobodies led by Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, and an unproven, unpopular, second-year head coach. Suffice to say, The System did not rescue the 2001 Patriots. The System had yet to exist.

Revisionist history clouds our judgment. Tom Brady's poor play against subpar opponents in 2001 tends to perplex those who examine his stats today. However, in 2001, few were surprised by Brady's errors. Analysts and fans blamed Brady's mistakes on inexperience and an overall lack of talent; no one expected precision, much less a Super Bowl run, from a sixth-round quarterback with no NFL experience. Brady's improvement since 2001, especially his historic 2007 season, has altered our collective memory. We now expected the Patriots to markedly improve after Bledsoe's brush with death.

Belichick's constant success since 2001 has also blurred NFL history. No one outside of New England recognized "The Patriot Way" until Belichick won Super Bowl XXXVIII. That season the Patriots went 14-2 and won the Super Bowl with a roster that contained only three pro-bowlers -- Ty Law, Willy McGinest, and Richard Seymour. None of these guys played offense. Talk of The System remained quiet until the 2004 Patriots set the NFL record for consecutive regular season victories and went on to win Super Bowl XXXIX.

By February 2004, the Patriots had won 28 regular season games in two seasons and consecutive Super Bowls. Belichick had become a genius in the process. He reached genius-hood in part by strategizing around season-ending injuries to established starting cornerbacks Ty Law and Tyrone Poole. The coach inserted Asante Samuel (a second-year NFL player, fourth-round draft pick), Randall Gay (a rookie undrafted free agent), and Troy Brown (an aging wide receiver) into the New England secondary. His creative gamble paid off. As the Patriots hoisted the Lombardi Trophy for the third time in four years, people came to believe that Bill Belichick could annually compete for a championship with a roster of antique chairs.

The franchise remained hungry and obsessively organized.

The New England System came of age in 2007, and it withstood the test of time (and injury) in 2008. Josh McDaniels played a major role in bolstering and preserving The System between 2006 and 2008; he had worked for the Patriots since 2001. McDaniels came of age while watching and actively helping Belichick change NFL history. Josh McDaniels is the Forrest Gump of the last decade of NFL football.

Pat Bowlen hired McDaniels for his work during the 2008 season. Yes, 2007 was an historic year in New England. But any team that starts eight Pro-Bowlers, including 3 of 5 offensive linemen, has a chance to re-write history. That is not to say that the '07 Patriots were not impressive. They were arguably the best team ever assembled. Yet, their talent at every position made it more difficult to discern the impact the coaching staff had on each game.

Bowlen believes that McDaniels stopped the bleeding in 2008. Colorado hopes Bowlen is right, but only time will tell if Matt Cassel owes McDaniels a sixty-third of his new $63 million contract. Cassell will most likely have to pay up. McDaniels belongs at the helms of an NFL offense. Cassell does not, unless McDaniels is calling his plays.

Speculating that McDaniels is attempting to re-build the 2001 Patriots roster position-by-position in Denver oversimplifies his occupation. Nevertheless, the chain of events that unfolded in New England between 2001 and 2007 offers hope to the Denver Broncos.

The 2001 Patriots and the 2009 Broncos are strikingly similar teams. In a strange twist of fate, Sports Illustrated ranked the Broncos 26 out of 32 before Week 1 kicked off. More importantly, McDaniels is currently working with the same level of unproven talent and low expectations that Bill Belichick coached to victory in 2001.

Like the 2001 Patriots, the success of the 2009 Broncos starts with an anonymous yet voracious defense. Denver also lost its franchise quarterback. The plot thickens as a 6'4" unproven signal caller replaces a Pro-Bowl pocket passer. Additionally, the problem child formerly known as Brandon Marshall is the '09 version of Terry Glenn. Glenn, a former Pro-Bowl wideout and a general nuisance, was in his prime when Belichick suspended him indefinitely in 2001 for his off-field transgressions. The franchise never offered Glenn a Super Bowl ring, and traded him to Green Bay before the 2002 season for two fourth-round draft picks. Say, didn't numerous teams low-ball the Broncos during the pre-season by offering third and fourth-round picks in exchange for Marshall? The list goes on, and the resemblance will grow stronger each time the Broncos win in 2009.

Sports icons are predicated on revisionist history. Revising history produces glory. Take revisionist history with a grain of salt, but also be sure to learn from it. Retracing each step an historic athlete took to become a legend sheds light on both the past and the present. Always keep in mind that Tom Brady '01 was not Tom Brady '07.

Kyle Orton will never be Tom Brady '07. McDaniels of all people knows this. Orton however does not have to be Tom Brady '07 for this team of Broncos to win games. Put your faith in the defense and coach McDaniels. He will do whatever it takes to win. This is the only method that McDaniels knows. He stuck with Cassell in '08, passing on a more proven player in Chris Simms. His controversial decision paid off. The Patriots won 11 games, McDaniels received a head-coaching gig, and Cassell won the lottery. Stick to a successful method and you just might end up with a productive system. Just ask Bill Belichick ... or his trusty sidekick, Josh McDaniels, who saw it all since '01.

Do not allow the glitz of the present to re-color the past. Remember history as it actually unfolded. Forget the legend of Tom Brady '01. Brady was not a legend when he won his first Super Bowl, and he certainly did not play like one. Live in the present by remaining patient with the '09 Broncos, especially on offense. Judge the Broncos for what they currently are: a 2-0 underdog led by a clever, competitive coach with everything to prove.

Eight years later in a town called Denver, the true story of Tom Brady '01 endures.

Len Berman: Top 5 Sports Stories

2009-09-15T12:47:46Z

Happy Tuesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for September 15, 2009 from
www.LenBermanSports.com.

1. Quick Hits

Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina pulls the stunning upset. He
knocks off five-time U.S. Open champ Roger Federer in five sets.

Ho Hum, the Patriots trailed Buffalo by 11 points last night in the
final minutes but Tom Brady rallies New England to a 25-24 win.

In a possible playoff preview, the Yankees beat the Angels 5-3.

2. Long Live the King

Was that a blip on the radar last night or the changing of the guard?
After a lackluster start, Juan Martin del Potro bounced back and
dominated the great Roger Federer. In 1981, John McEnroe did it to
Bjorn Borg, and Borg walked out of tennis. I'm not convinced it's the
end of the line for Federer, but just like boxing, tennis players can
age in a hurry. There are always younger Turks like del Potro coming
along to claim the throne.

3. I'm Sorry

A simple phrase that Serena Williams just can't say. She didn't say
it in her news conference or in her first press release. It finally
said she was sorry yesterday on her website. But after she won the
doubles yesterday, she couldn't utter that simple phrase when Patrick
McEnroe gave her the chance. Leads me to believe somebody else writes
the stuff on her website.

4. Tuesday Morning Quarterbacking

Now that the first weekend of NFL football is finally over, a couple
of thoughts. With all the hoo hah over quarterback Jay Cutler leaving
Denver, and showing up in Chicago ... Denver won, the Bears lost.

-----

New season, same old same old. The Lions, Raiders and Bengals are all
winless. Detroit, who else, yielded the most points of any team.

-----

And you knew it was bound to happen. Michael Vick shows up in Philly,
and Donovan McNabb cracks a rib. Even though they signed Jeff Garcia
yesterday, Vick could be running the Eagles (after his two-week
suspension) faster than you can ask "who let the dogs out?"

5. Name-Dropping

Last night at the U.S. Open I sat next to Stanley Tucci and right
behind Judd Hirsch and Matthew Broderick. Tony Bennett and Bruce
Willis were across the aisle. Pretty cool. And in a weird
juxtaposition, Jack Nicklaus was a few rows away. I was wondering if
he was thinking, "aha, Federer is stuck on 15 and Tiger on 14. Maybe
my record of 18 majors is safe after all!"

Happy Birthday: Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry (Mr. Spitball).
71.
Bonus Birthday: Mr. Conspiracy, director Oliver Stone. 63.

Today in Sports: Muhammad Ali beats Leon Spinks in 15 rounds to
reclaim the heavyweight title for the third time. 1978.
Bonus Event: Pie charts! USA Today is born. 1982.

Tom Matlack: Why Character in Sport Matters

2009-08-03T15:56:54Z

I live quite literally in the shadows of Fenway Park. On game days I have to make sure fans don't block my driveway. I can still tell you where I was when, at age twelve, Bucky Dent hit the bloop fly ball that crushed my teenage heart. So the resurgence of Boston sport, from the Patriots to the Red Sox to the Celtics, has been something of a heaven on earth experience for me and my friends. This week's revelation about David Ortiz, on the heels of Manny's reported abuse, has me thinking about what really does matter in sport, both on the field and off.

It should be noted on the field that Boston's success all started with a tough SOB named Bill Belichick. He and I both went to Wesleyan so I have met his several times. I recently heard him tell a crowd of alums, "Ever man on our squad knows he has a job to do on game day. You don't want me wrapping ankles or throwing passes. And you sure as hell don't want Brady calling plays. Leadership is about two things: Being able to do your own job and having a selfless attitude when your doing it. It pretty much comes down to working your ass off and keeping your mouth shut." Belichick showed that character does matter, not off the field but actually in terms of on-the-field success. He built teams out of undervalued players rejected by other general managers. When one of the Patriot's stars demanded too much they were quickly shown the exit.

Theo Epstein adopted a very similar approach, along with a Money Ball statistical analysis, in building the teams that broke the curse of the Bambino. You can see in the odd looking squad headlined by Dustin Pedroa and Kevin Youkilis and the portfolio approach to young arms that he has been drinking the Belichick Kool-Aid. The NBA is perhaps the hardest nut to crack in terms of character-does-matter on the court philosophy given the circus atmosphere. But in the Celtic's recent championship it was the character of Kevin Garnett that made the difference, even more than his amazing physical talent. He changed every other player on that team and willed them to win.

This week's story, however, shows that in some cases our beloved teams have had to make sacrifices in character in an all out attempt to bring home the rings. Manny, as much as in some sick way we all loved him, was the case in point. The guy was great because he was literally so dumb he couldn't remember the last pitch (or remember to come out from underneath the green monster to play left field). Turns out that is a great characteristic when facing a pitcher under enormous pressure -- swing like you didn't just miss the last two pitches by a foot. But it makes for a pretty bad teammate and a horrible example for our young men, which gets to whether character off the field should matter.

I know Charles Barkley famously told us all, "Don't make me a role model!" but the reality is sports figures are a very powerful influence on our young men, particularly the men most vulnerable to falling off from the straight and arrow by circumstance of birth. It does matter what superstar athletes do and say. It hasn't just been the fact that the Patriots, Sox and Celtics have won world championships that has brought smiles our faces and warmed our collective hearts but it has been the character of those teams that have made them popular not just in Boston but around the world.

Despite living near Fenway, the team I have gotten to know the best in recent years is the Celtics. I have had the good fortune of sitting on the floor for some games and even traveling to Los Angeles in 2008 with one of the owners to watch the amazing game 4 comeback win in the finals. I also have written freelance pieces about them from time to time. I was doing a little piece for Boston Magazine about the Russian Masseuse, Vlad Shulman, who has been the team's secret weapon since the days of Larry Bird. Management for some reason decided that they didn't want a member of the press, even a lowly freelancer such as me, speaking with Shulman, so they gave me a press credential and let me loose in the locker room instead. Talk about a sports fanatic's wet dream. There I was in the Celts' locker room, free to talk to whomever I wanted.

The first thing I noticed is that the locker room is a lot smaller than I would imaged. And the players, up close, are a lot bigger. I'm 6'3" and 215 pounds, when walking up to KG or Perk, I felt like the little kid on the schoolyard who no one wants to pick for kick ball. Pretty quickly I learned that most players treat even the beat reporters from the local papers like a necessary evil. Answers are short and generally given with an annoyed expression. I wouldn't take kindly to guys popping off while I changed my underwear either, but the writers are just trying to do their jobs.

The protocol is to stand well behind the locker of the player you want to speak with. When he becomes free, you can ask him (very politely) if he has a minute for a question. Mostly the answer is no. When I asked Ray Allen, he turned and looked me in the eye and asked who I was and what I was writing about. He was in a state of undress, so he asked me to wait a minute so he could get his shorts on. Then he shook my hand and told me to sit down. We talked for 20 minutes about the Celtics of old and how Vlad fit into that picture and how he, Ray, felt putting on the same green Celtics jersey as Bill Russell and Larry Bird. He told me how he prepares relentlessly for every game and tries to lead by example. Frankly after the first five minutes, though I had my tape recorder on, our conversation had nothing to do with my article.

Ever since I have been a Ray disciple. To me it's players like Allen (and Pedroa and Patriot's star Tedy Bruschi who came back from a stroke to lead the defense he loves) that prove that character does matter on and off the field. It leads to world championships, loyal fans, and also gives our young men some chance to see by example what's really important in life. Manny and Ortiz's drug use are sad. But they are the exception not the rule in what has made Boston a great sports town over the last decade.

And, yes, that's yours truly in the photo below. I'm the nut wearing the number 20 jersey, green pants, and love beads, whispering in the ear of my guy after he drained a three from the corner late in a playoff game last spring.

Inside Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's Head

2009-06-17T13:38:50Z

There's been a lot of talk about the key players in the Iranian election saga, but little mention of their psychological motivations. So we decided to play Freud. Helping us with this head game is Marvin Zonis, a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Zonis is a political risk expert who was a widely cited commentator during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. He was educated at Yale University, the Harvard Business School, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a Ph.D. in political science, and the Institute for Psychoanalysis, Chicago, where he received psychoanalytic training.

Best Sports Dynasties Of The Last 30 Years (SLIDESHOW)

2009-06-17T11:39:24Z

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Orlando Magic by a score of 99-86 to claim their fourth NBA title this decade. The near-unstoppable combination of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant brought home three straight titles for the Lakers starting in 2000, and this championship only further cements the team's legacy. This got us thinking about the best sports dynasties of the past thirty years. Tell us which ones you loved and which ones you loathed in the poll below.

Chris Kyle: The Best Damn Sports Mom, Period.

2009-05-10T13:00:36Z

For Mother's Day, I gave my mom a signed copy of Mike Krzyzewski's new book The Gold Standard. Even though she's a Tar Heel, my mom likes and cheers for Coach K and Duke -- and the University of North Carolina.

That's unusual, I know, but my mom is an unusual sports fan. She doesn't use the word hate and she's never booed a single team or person in her life.

She gets that sunny disposition from her mom, my 90-year-old grandmother, who not so long ago declared that she wouldn't be reading anymore stories with unhappy endings. Why bother, she said, when there are more than enough happy endings to keep her busy?

That's the kind of logic that explains why my mom is so blissfully unaware of A-Rod's nastier nicknames; why she doesn't get angry at Brett Favre for retiring and un-retiring; and why she never gets agitated by the likes of Skip Bayless and Jay Mariotti, ever.

My mom saves her energy for the people and teams she likes the most. When her Boston Celtics lost to the Orlando Magic the other night, my mom sent me an email saying, "Well, it was nice to see JJ Redick playing for Orlando."

She also roots for the New England Patriots, but my mom never made excuses or cast blame during the Spygate scandal in the fall of 2007. She was too busy rooting for her favorite team, the Boston Red Sox, as they marched to their second World Series win in 89 years.

My mom's love for all things Red Sox-related sparked a much sadder email from her on Thursday. But no, she wasn't worried about Manny Ramirez's legacy or his 50-game suspension.

She was worried about Jerry Remy, the voice of Red Sox Nation, who is battling lung cancer. Maybe that's why my mom doesn't watch ESPN that much. Although he will never be the subject of an ESPN Special Report, the RemDawg is a person truly worth worrying about. Just like my mom, I've always liked him, as long as I can remember, I think.

In his memoir Trying To Save Piggy Sneed, John Irving wrote:

A fiction writer's memory is an especially imperfect provider of detail; we can always imagine a better detail than the one we can remember. The correct detail is rarely, exactly, what happened; the most truthful detail is what could have happened, or what should have.

With those words in mind, I think my mom is the real reason I love sports as much as I do, although it's possible that my older brother was a bigger influence.

Growing up, I was never as big or strong or fast as my brother, but I could be his equal as a fan. We rooted for the same teams and dressed up like the players for Halloween.

Or maybe I became a sports fan because of the T-shirts. I like T-shirts a lot. Any sports fan who came of age in Massachusetts during the '80s remembers the "Squish the Fish" and "Berry the Bears" shirts for sale during the Patriots' run to Super Bowl XX.

My favorite shirt was a green and white ringer tee. It said "Boston's Best Six Pack" on the front and featured beer bottle-like caricatures of the Celtics starting five, plus sixth-man Bill Walton.

I loved that shirt so much and wore it so often that it surprises me, now, that I ever lost it. It probably came apart in the washer or dryer after its zillionth wearing.

Years later, I came across a street vendor at the Spanish Steps in Rome selling that shirt. It was too small so I didn't buy it. It's a decision I still regret. That same vintage shirt featured the same vintage Celts who were trailing the Detroit Pistons by one point with only seconds to go in the pivotal fifth game of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals.

"Now there's a steal by Bird," Johnny Most screamed through the radio in our kitchen. "Underneath to DJ -- he lays it in...oh my, this place is going crazy!"

Johnny Most's call and my family's ensuing celebration is one of my favorite sports memories, right up there with Laettner's shot, Henderson's homer, Vinatieri's clutch kicks, and Dave Roberts' steal.

Although the aging '87 Celts went on to beat those upstart Pistons, they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals, but my memory of that defeat has faded over time.

As my mom and grandmother would say, Boston's dramatic victory over Detroit was our happy ending that year and the only one worth remembering, and mothers know best.

Jeffrey Buchanan: Celebrities Hit Auction Block for Human Rights

2009-05-05T10:37:19Z

Ever want to meet Oprah Winfrey? Hop in the pool for a swimming lesson from Michael Phelps? Get fashion advice from Project Runway's Tim Gunn over lunch at Bryant Park? Learn the arts of comedy and paper sales from Steve Carell on the set of The Office? Hone your blogging skills with an internship at the Huffington Post? How about talking politics with the most powerful woman in Washington, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, during a visit to her office or meeting Senator John McCain for some "straight talk"? Make your Hollywood debut as an extra in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood film "Nottingham", starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. Seek enlightenment and meet Richard Gere with VIP tickets during His Holiness the Dalai Lama's 2010 trip to NYC. Or ride in a pace car at the Indy 500 and party with track chairman, Mari George.

Supporters and my colleagues at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights have put together these experiences and much more for our Annual Online Auction. With the help of CharityBuzz, the online auction will raise funds supporting the RFK Center's vital work around the globe. The auction is open now and runs until May 28th with new lots added every day.

Other auction highlights include: Visit Ben Stiller or Robert DeNiro on the set of Little Fockers. Take a one-hour singing lesson with the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Take a tennis lesson from the legendary Andre Agassi. Spend a "Day of Fashion" at NY Fashion Week with Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley. Grab lunch at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills with Warren Beatty. Prepared to be mystified during a private magic show from David Blaine. Watch a taping of The Rachael Ray Show and go backstage. Meet Jennifer Hudson and watch her concert in Nashville. Launch your fashion career interning at Diane Von Furstenberg's NY studio. Attend the Dancing With the Stars finale or dance with former contestant and NFL linebacker, Jason Taylor. Visit the set of House and meet the cast, including star Hugh Laurie. Have dinner with Bill Cosby at Bouley in NYC and enjoy wine from his private collection. Score tickets to the World Series, Final Four and U.S. Open. Get VIP tickets to watch the Washington Capitals or Boston Bruins and even catch a ride on the Zamboni. Watch the New England Patriots take on the Jacksonville Jaguars from the owner's box. Meet Regis Philbin, Chuck Grodin and Alan Alda for lunch in New York. Visit the set of your favorite news shows and meet some of the hosts, including ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 and Larry King Live (and bring home a signed pair of Larry's trademark suspenders), CNBC's Mad Money with Jim Cramer, NBC's Meet the Press and the Today Show, MSNBC's Morning Joe and The Rachel Maddow Show, Fox News' O'Reilly Factor and HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. Or hang out with David Foster and one of his friends such as Andrea Bocelli or Katherine Jenkins or maybe Michael Buble in his recording studio.

Plus much more at http://www.charitybuzz.com/rfk.

The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, www.rfkcenter.org, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, provides innovative support to courageous human rights defenders around the world. It assists advocates who have won the RFK Human Rights Award to boldly confront injustices such as modern day slavery in U.S. agricultural fields, torture in Darfur, and the devastation along the hurricane battered Gulf Coast. Every year the RFK Center honors investigative journalists and authors who bring light to injustice through the RFK Book and Journalism Awards. With the Speak Truth to Power program, the RFK Center educates students worldwide about human rights, the courage of its defenders and the power of individual action.

Support the RFK Center by visiting http://www.charitybuzz.com/rfk and bid to give. Visit often and check out the new lots added daily.

Cassel trade signifies Pats feel Brady will be OK

2009-03-01T09:34:37Z

The New England Patriots sent Matt Cassel to the Kansas City Chiefs and a message to their own fans: don't worry about Tom Brady's knee.

One question, though, remained.