5:38 PM. Let the live blog begin! We're back at Bostonist Auxiliary HQ in Central Mass, where we've been for 15 out of the previous 18 games this season (2 of the 3 we missed were the way-too-close Baltimore and Jets II games, so no way we're taking any chances). We're joined for a little while by a 2 1/2 year old who has never seen a Patriot Super Bowl win in his entire life.......

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,......

So we were driving home from a party Saturday night, and heard on the radio that BC lost. Almost reflexively, we went, "Figures; as soon as we start paying attention to BC, they start losi....". Then we stopped and thought for a minute. Being reflexively negative and miserable just doesn't cut it when four of the five pro teams in town are either undefeated, in the championship game, or current World Champs. We know we're......

Was it CBS or not? We thought we'd heard the end of the complaints about noise piped into the PA system within the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, but WBZ-TV is reporting that what seemed like an audio discrepancy during Sunday's Colts/Patriots game was no fluke - and a venue security guard told WBZ photojournalist Bryan Foley that it was intentional. According to WBZ-TV's story, Foley noticed that the sound of the crowd was painfully loud......

4:05 PM: Welcome to the Bostonist live blog of the Patriots/Colts game, live from Bostonist Auxiliary HQ in Central Mass. We're trying to follow the Celtics game right now (45-37, mid-3rd quarter), but the lure of watching Minnesota Vikings rushers destroy San Diego is hard to pass up. 4:15: It's time. Due to contractual obligations, CBS has to cut away from the end of the Viking-Charger game to show us a few commercials before going......

In honor of the mother of all football matchups, which will take place when the New England Patriots play the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday afternoon, Bostonist is going to compare the coaches and the quarterbacks. The following piece addresses one of the sillier aspects of the Face Off--which quarterback inspires the most baby names. You can compare New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning in all kinds of ways. Their......

Now that the trophy has been shown off and the Duck Boats have moved through Boston's streets, Patriots fans out there are psyched. Baseball's over! Time to devote the sports news hole to the pigskin! Almost. We want to give patient Pats fans their due, so we'll breeze through the baseball news nice and quickly: - There was a victory celebration on Tuesday. Many people attended. - Joe Torre: out of New York, into Los......

Well, the Red Sox proved that they can win even when Colorado finds its offense. So it's 3-0, and teams coming back from 3-0 is a once-in-a-lifetime deal. (We're engaging in a little post-2004 thinking, but don't think we're not engaging in all the superstitions, wearing the same cap, drinking the same coffee, wearing the same underwear, etc., in the meantime). The Sox came out blazing, slapping Rockies starter Josh Fogg around for six in......

There's something about Tom Brady that's a little annoying. He's talented and good-looking and all, but not all the parts come together to make a whole. In a recent Globe piece, Wesley Morris pinned down the problem with Brady by comparing him to his archrival, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. Morris writes, "As Brady has racked up championships and magazine covers, Manning seems to have won something that eludes Brady: The rest of the country.......

We Boston sports fans are a funny bunch. While we cheer on the Patriots' hard play through those cold winter months, we're busy dishing, dissecting and debating the Red Sox hot stove season. And yet today, as we count down the hours until Dice-K takes the mound at Fenway, we can't get the Pats off our minds. Why? The new season's schedule is out, friends. New schedule. While we know that many will want to......

Normally, we avoid Saturday Night Live like the plague because it just isn't funny. And we avoid Peyton Manning like the plague like any good Patriots fan. However, we saw clips of Peyton Manning on Saturday Night Live, and we were floored. We were laughing, and there's good reason why this athlete-service spoof is getting aired all over the place: The Bruins lost another one in a big way. The Pittsburgh Penguins took 'em down......

With both local winter teams off Monday, all the local attention could focus on Globe writer Ron Borges, who was benched for two months for plagiarizing a Seattle writer in his Sunday football column. (Deadspin has the passages in question.) When asked for a quote, Borges said (not really): "'Tis a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done." Good news in Florida, as Jon Lester got back on the mound......

Despite all our lovin' of Lovie, what was supposed to be the Bears' next Super Bowl Shuffle turned into the Rex Grossman Stumble as the Colts defeated the Bears 29-17. Then again, who knows how the game would have turned out if a monsoon hadn't hit Miami. The players seemed miserable stumbling all over the field. There were turnovers galore because the pigskin probably felt like a real, live greased pig. The only person who......

Because everything gets it’s own research funding these days we ripped this wonderful lead in to a story from today’s news: “Researchers in England, citing unpaid holiday bills, rotten weather and people's realization that they likely won't live up to their New Year's resolutions, say Jan. 22 is the unhappiest day of 2007.” Yep, today is the unhappiest day of 2007. Since we made it to work by dragging our feet and swearing about having......

The Patriots' loss against the Colts looked like a replay of how the Patriots beat the Chargers, minus the head-butting. Like the Chargers last time, the Patriots had everything at the beginning. Sportswriters were probably preparing paragraphs about how Peyton Manning can't take the pressure of the playoffs. And then the Patriots gave it all away. Don't blame Reche Caldwell, who had a case of the butterfingers. It wasn't just him. The second half of......

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! A familiar foe in a familiar venue with the stakes as high as it gets. The winner of Pats v. Colts goes to Miami for a shot at the Super Bowl. It doesn't get much better than this. What does our beloved home squad, the New England Patriots, need to do in order to win this game? Indy came into New England (pre-FieldTurf, mind you) and took New England to task 27-20 on November......

Well, that wasn't as fun as Bostonist remembers it. There is no parade route in the planning this year, as the Pats were defeated Saturday night in Denver by the Broncos 27-13 (As you surely know by now). While the defending champs did have their chances, no team that turns the ball over five times deserves to (or should, really) win a playoff game in the National Football League. Tough one for the hometown boys,......

The just keep on truckin’, don’t they. The defending World Champs, the New England Patriots, masterfully disassembled the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars yesterday at Gillette stadium in Bostonist's satellite office in Foxboro, 28-3. The Pats advanced through the Wild Card round of the National Football League’s playoffs, and are awaiting the results of Sunday's games which will determine whether they will travel to Denver to face the Broncos, or Indianapolis for a rematch with good......

It’s tough to complain about the Boston sports scene, especially with all the successes over the past few years... But let's be honest... The Indianapolis Colts took the defending champs to the proverbial woodshed last night, and it wasn't pretty. The Colts jumped out to a Speedy Gonzalez 7-0 lead in a mere 2:27 (the quickest opening TD against a New England defense in the Belichick tenure), capped off with a 1 yard TD......

Since the New England Patriots are the reigning champs with a great record this year, Bostonist is expecting to be busy on Superbowl Sunday. Yet, some are worried about the match up with Peyton Manning and his Colts this Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Sure, Manning received 35 of the 48 votes for Most Valuable Player this year but are we not forgetting about our golden boy, Tom Brady? Besides his dashing good looks and......