Kids, if you haven’t learned anything yet, learn this: you can find a silver lining in almost anything.

Let’s take Sunday’s excruciating and heartbreaking Super Bowl loss to the Giants, for example. How can anything good come out of that?

Behold… Continue reading Maria Menounos Loses Super Bowl Bet, Wears Giants Bikini »

Had to sit down and watch the game again without a crowd where men were yelling for a beer and wives yelling for people to be quiet during commercials. They still lost, sorry to say. Some thoughts and observations are below…

1. Biggest Plays of the Game:

1. Wes Welker’s drop – I’m adjusting my blame from 60% on Tom Brady to 50% / 50%
2. Tom Brady missing Deion Branch over the middle on the last drive
3. Twelve men on the field (somewhere Don Cherry is throwing up in his mouth)
4. Rob Ninkovich jumping offsides on the 16 with 13:18 left in the quarter (on what would have been fourth down and Eli starting to short arm the ball). Giants didn’t give up possession until 9:31, adding 40 yards of field position and costing 3:47 of critical time.
5. Crazy catch by Manningham on the last drive Continue reading Connelly’s Top Ten: Wake Hours To Be Announced »

A heartbreaking loss for New England; another well-fought victory for New York. New York won again behind a season eerily similar to four years ago. Tom Coughlin continues to expand his record for most times being fired without actually being fired, and now has another Super Bowl to his credit. And the AFC finally won a coin toss for the first time in 15 years. The last AFC team before the Pats to win one? The Pats.

With most votes going with city lines, the Giants pulled off the upset in our Pick ‘Em contest. Scoring, turnovers and passing were all low, leading to few points across the board. But that doesn’t mean the scoring wasn’t close. In fact, despite double points, the final score came down to four points. And the winner of the 2012 NFL Playoffs Pick ‘Em is… Continue reading 2012 NFL Playoffs Expert Picks: Super Bowl Results »

Everyday we do our best to fight the good fight. We go to work, survive bosses, tolerate traffic, make sincere efforts to parent to the best of our abilities, do our best to appease spouses, pay the bills, go to sleep and then wake up and do the same thing over again. To do more than just subsist, we must be able to attach ourselves to something that distinguishes us from others.

The Patriots and primarily Tom Brady and Bill Belichick up to this point, have given us the ability to feel special and unique. Their successes have allowed us, up to this point, to say that we, in some small way, we are part of something that is extraordinary. But, now we’re just fans of  another really good team. Somewhere, Joe Montana and Vince Lombardi can go to sleep Sunday night with their legacy secure while we replay what could have been and wonder why we’re not fans of the greatest football team ever. Like the groundhog not seeing his shadow – the Patriots losing means our winter will be longer and we’re no longer special! Continue reading Connelly’s Top Ten: Manning & Manningham Yes – Brady & Welker No! »

The Super Bowl is finally here, and once again, it’s New England vs. New York (if you include the other side of the New Jersey border). The SoB (in red)/SoNY (in green) rivalry is continuing in full swing as well, with the Pats getting the majority of picks to win their fourth ring. (True, most panelists are from Boston, but the Giants swung one of those votes.) Based on our picks, it looks to be a medium-to-high scoring game, though not an absolute shootout.

The passing looks to be in the low-to-mid 300s to top off the day, with a few turnovers thrown in. The MVP depends on who you ask, with only Tom Terrific getting multiple votes.

All categories are the same as last round, with the addition of picking the total combined turnovers of both teams. And also, for the Super Bowl, all point values are doubled! That mean’s it’s worth four points for anyone who guesses the winner of any game, two points if they can guess combined touchdown totals of the two teams to within one (or four points if they guess the total exactly right) and two points if they can guess the total passing yardage of each game’s top passer to within 50 (or four points if they get within 10 and six points if they guess it exactly right [just for the Super Bowl]). Correctly guessing the game’s MVP is worth two points, and guessing the combined turnover total of both teams is worth two points if guessed to within one (or two points if guessed exactly right).

So with all that out of the way, let’s enjoy the Super Bowl. Check below for the picks and check back on Monday for the results. Continue reading 2012 NFL Playoffs Expert Picks: Super Bowl »