By Ryan McGowan I almost died on February 5, 2012. Well, maybe not physically, though a heart attack or stomach explosion seemed quite imminent, especially after Tom Brady got called for a safety in the first quarter of Super Bowl XLVI.

By Ryan McGowan Bob Rafter was there at the beginning, and it wasn’t pretty. “I was at the first preseason game with Elvis,” Rafter, 28, of Phoenix, but a Franklin (Mass.) native, said, referring to the current Patriots logo, which debuted in 1993 to replace the original “Pat Patriot”, the beloved icon that adorned the [...]

By Ryan McGowan A local radio host (Andy Gresh of 98.5 the Sports Hub) got me thinking Sunday morning.  Tom Brady, Gresh said, is Boston sports.  With all due respect to Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Josh Beckett, and maybe Jason Varitek, when people think of sports in the Hub, #12 shows up in their minds [...]

By Ryan McGowan On December 31, I wrote “Five reasons the Patriots can win Super Bowl XLIV.” Nice prediction. That’s right up there with the geniuses who predicted the Betamax would clobber the VHS, or that New Coke would be a sales bonanza for Coca-Cola, Inc. Predictions like that basically show why I don’t make [...]

By Ryan McGowan As surely as the calendar changes from oh-nine to oh-ten, I’m back with my annual homerific justification and rationalization as to why the Patriots will solidify their Team of the Decade standing with a Super Bowl title. (Or, in the case of last year, why the Super Bowl XLIII champion will always [...]

By Ryan McGowan I didn’t sleep much last night. I usually pass out easily on Sunday nights, but this week I kept replaying the final two minutes over and over again in my head. Somehow, I eventually got to sleep—and when I woke up, it all made sense. Belichick was right. He went for it [...]

By Ryan McGowan The Patriots are done.   Tom Brady is done.  Bill Belichick is cooked. It’s over.

By Ryan McGowan Some quick hitters as we roll into August, even though by my internal weather-clock it should be late June here in the Northeast… Ortiz, Manny on steroids We didn’t get around to discussing this on the podcast yesterday.  This topic lost out to Cliff Lee/Roy Halladay trade discussion, Michael Vick and Connecticut [...]