He was the last man added to the Eastern All-Star team. When KG scratched, he waited for the call, only to find it went to Rasheed Wallace. When Washington's Caron Butler went down, the call finally came. He had to cancel the fishing trip and make plans to go to New Orleans. And when he got there, Ray Allen was awesome. He scored 28 points in 19 minutes, mostly in the fourth quarter, to lead......

Can you put a price on Super Bowl immortality? MasterCard would likely say no (because let's face it, it's priceless), but some people in St. Louis offer a resounding "hell yes." The estimated price of a 2002 Rams Super Bowl win, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, is $100 million. The lawsuit, which names the Patriots organization and Coach Bill Belichick, stems from former Rams player Willie Gary,......

Here's something we never thought of: the Patriots' (hopeful) victory parade would have to be on Tuesday, thus conflicting with the Massachusetts primary. The team won't be back on Monday, and most of them have to go to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii on Wednesday. So Tuesday (and not AFTER the Pro Bowl, which would just be crazy talk) it is. "We have to have a plan," saidMayor Menino. "I'm just thinking about it; I......

In a way, it doesn't feel right; the Colts should perhaps be in town today. They are(were) the defending champs, after all. They gave the Patriots the first in a long stretch of runs for their money that the Pats survived. The Dungy-Belichick and Manning-Brady rivalries are about the biggest stories in sports in this young century. But who cares, really. The Colts are on the golf course and it's San Diego who's in town......

Ask Bill Belichick about last week's game, and you may as well be asking him about the Treaty of Ghent. Ask him about the 14-point-underdog Chargers, and you may as well be asking him about an All-Star team composed of the '85 Bears, '89 49ers and the Justice League of America. You know what you get from Coach Bill when you ask about football. But apparently, ask him about team fight songs and you hit......

Thanks to the Freedom Of Information laws and the PATRIOT Act, we were able to petition the federal government to listen in on last night's weekly Manning Family phone call. Here's a sample: E: Hey, Peyton, it's me. P: Oh, hi, Eli. What's up? E: Well, I don't know if you saw it, but we beat the Cowboys last night. It was pretty awesome. P: Yeah, I saw. Congratulations. E: Thanks, big brother! You know,......

Victor Thompson of New Hampshire is a bigger Pats fan than you are. Sure, he's never actually been to a game in Foxboro, but he'd like to. But that doesn't matter. Maybe you watch all the games on TV, maybe you own a Wes Welker replica jersey, maybe you've even trekked down to Gillette (or even Schaeffer) Stadium, but you haven't done what Victor's doing: getting a Tom Brady helmet tattooed on his head. The......

Amazing when you think about it: everyone who's played the Celtics this season has a losing streak against them right now. The C's' three losses have all been avenged; first Cleveland, then Orlando, and last night in Detroit, in a fantastic game that served as a serious test of how good this 28-3 team really was. Ray Allen continued his struggles, Kevin Garnett got in early foul trouble, so it was Paul Pierce and -......

Like so many teams before them, the New York Giants gave it everything they had. And like everyone else before them, they could only watch helplessly as Tom Brady and company engineered another beautiful fourth-quarter comeback to win the game, and become the first team in the 16-game era to run the table. It was very scary for a long time, though. Eli Manning looked more like his poised brother than the skittish quarterback we......

Boston Sports in 2007. It wasn't all about the grim, joyless dispatching of foes left and right. In fact, there were quite a few yuks to be had over the course of the year. So without further ado, we present the Bostonist 10 Funniest Sports Moments of the Year: 10. Papelbon dances! It would have been higher if it had remained a spontaneous expression of a goofball's delight. Instead, it turned into a commodified, officially-sanctioned......

With the best year EVER in Boston sports coming to a close, it's time to do a little reviewing. We've come up with a series of lists from the highs to the really highs to the lows, and we'll be sharing them for the next few days. Here's a list of Boston sports' 10 Biggest Disappointments of 2007: 10. Coaches' wardrobes. Our hopes for a delayed winter were shattered, which meant two things, (1) snow,......

We could choose to be disappointed. We figured (and we weren't the only ones) that the combination of crappy weather, boisterous fans and motivated personnel would mean the Patriots would kick the Jets' butts up and down the field for three hours. We figured that, even though we're better than New York in every sport right now, yesterday would be a cathartic blowout to soothe any lingering anti-NY feelings around here. Well, not quite. The......

If Anthony Smith has learned anything this week, it's that guarantees are best left to Cajun chefs and the Men's Wearhouse guy. Because when you're an inexperienced safety trash-talking a 12-0 juggernaut, you can bet they'll listen. And listen the Pats did, toasting Smith twice en route to a 34-13 pasting of the Steelers. First, Smith misplayed Randy Moss, which is almost always good for a highlight, as Brady hit Moss for a TD while......

Well, the Twins aren't cooperating. Instead of being excited about the chance for yet another Minnesota star to come to Boston, they're dragging their feet on the inevitable Johan Santana trade. They now want Jacoby Ellsbury thrown in the mix, to counter Hank Steinbrenner's throwing-in of pitching prospect Phil Hughes. The Red Sox say maybe on Ellsbury, but that would mean no Jon Lester. The Yankees say if they don't hear from Minnesota soon, the......

In the first half of the Patriots' perfect-so-far season, there were a few scary moments. There was the time Dallas took the lead in the third quarter, and....well, that was about it, actually. For eight games, the Pats picked the tune, and the opponent either danced along, or more likely, got flung out of the way. We've had our scary moments now. Yesterday was a game when the Pats not only didn't pick the tune,......

Unusually quiet on the local sports scene yesterday. Sure, the World Champion Red Sox dispersed to the talk show circuit. At various times last night, and for the next few days, you can see members of the hometown team doing walkons with Letterman, Leno, O'Brien, "The Daily Show", "Nightline", "The NFL Today", "Thomas the Tank Engine", "The Iron Chef", "CSI: Miami", and "Deadliest Catch". Check your local listings. But in terms of actual, on-the-field, recappable......

Someone in the Red Sox front office deserves a bonus today. Someone must have found a loophole in American League rules that permitted Josh Beckett to pitch ping-pong balls at the Angels while John Lackey was forced to throw regulation-sized baseballs. He had to be throwing ping-pong balls. What other explanation could there be that the Angels, a good hitting team and champions of the West, were reduced to flailing around like overmatched patsies? After......

Money and draft pick(s). That's what NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is taking from Coach Bill and the Patriots as punishment for this week's video brouhaha. The team gets fined $250K and a draft pick or two, depending on how they finish this year. Bill gets whacked for half a million personally, which will eat heavily into his suit budget. Let's just all agree we probably got off very easy, and get ready for San Diego......

Trot Nixon's homecoming game at Fenway was one to remember. Not so much for Trot (1-for-3), but for the fact that this game had a little bit of everything. An inside-the-park home run for Kevin Youkilis (shhh...20 game hitting streak...shhh). A conventional home run for Manny, tying him with former teammate Jim Thome for 25th place all time. A controversial third-strike call in the ninth that brought both managers out for some earnest discussions with......

There's two ways to handle a loss. Even if that loss is an utterly flat performance against an utterly forgettable K.C. team that made Gil Meche look like Christy Mathewson and Mark Grudzielanek look like Rogers Hornsby. The first way to approach it is, hey, it's only one game. Even the best teams in history lose more than fifty times a season. And Pedro lost Opening Day in 2004, and we know how that turned......

The New England Patriots had it taken to them last night at the Razor, yet again, by an old nemesis, the Denver Broncos, by a score of 17-7. While the score looks small, this one was never really in much doubt once the Broncos took a 10-0 lead, and kicker Stephen Gostkowski had his second field goal blocked in as many weeks, late in the second quarter. While Brady's numbers were gaudy, his overall......

Bostonist knows... Bostonist knows... Spring Training is wrapping up, and the boys of summer are due north in a couple weeks time, so most of this space will be dedicated to our beloved Red Sox over the next few months. But, Bostonist has some unfinished business with the New England Patriots organization, Head Coach Bill Belichick, and owner Robert Kraft. As all Bostonists are now aware, the Pats lost some pretty large parts this......