"Man's Best Friend" seemed to be the consensus favorite of last night's Super Bowl ads.

Without a doubt, the Super Bowl is the biggest TV event of the year. Brand name companies and their advertisers mark the day on their calendars knowing they will be paying an arm and a leg, but the exposure will be tremendous. But with every company looking to stand out, they brought their “A” game.

The Doritos contest strategy paid off immensely. According to USA Today’s Ad-Meter it was the most popular ad to air last night. Brand Bowl 2012, said it was the most tweeted about generating 48,498 tweets. “Man’s Best Friend,” a finalist in the “Crash the Super Bowl” contest, had me cracking up. The commercial centers around a cat-murdering dog who bribes his owner with a bag of Doritos to shut him up.

Also earning a lot of laughs was the other finalist, “Sling Baby.” In this one, a kid taunts his grandmother because he has a bag of Doritos’. Grandma decides she will launch the kid’s baby brother using the bungee-cord jumper to snag it from him.

More on the side of controversy was David Beckham’s risque black and white ad commercial for clothing retailer H&M. The concept is simple. Closeups of Beckham in nothing, but their new man panties, zooming in on his chiseled chest and torso (as well as his tattoos), set to porn music, basically. Although, the women in my household, and presumably all across America, were hot and bothered, this wasn’t what incited an uproar. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) demanded that CNN commentator Roland Martin be fired immediately regarding his tweet about the H&M commercial: “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!” This angered the gay activist organization, causing them to respond: “@rolandsmartin Advocates of gay bashing have no place at @CNN #SuperBowl #LGBT.” Roland retorted, “Well you’re clearly out of touch and clueless with what I tweeted. Way to assume, but you’re way off base.” He later tried to justify his remarks to his over 94,000 followers tweeting, “It’s hilarious when idiots…see my Beckham tweet as homophobic and I rip on soccer all of the time.” Whether he meant it as a slight at soccer and his fans or as a denigration of homosexual behavior matters little. GLAAD is not letting up, still rousing supporters and gay bloggers to initiate a campaign for his termination. To get up close and personal with David, click here.

Lovers of women in lingerie were not neglected, however. Adriana Lima, Victoria’s Secret model, appeared as a spokeswoman for Teleflora, an online flower delivery service. Needless to say, it was every bit as sexy as Beckham’s. Lima seems to be getting dressed for a night on the town as we watch her hook her bra and pull on her tights. And unlike H&M’s, it included dialogue: “Guys, Valentine’s Day is not that complicated. Give, and you shall receive.” Message happily received. Pay your respects to Ms. Lima here

Brand Bowl’s third most popular was courtesy of Chrysler. Clint Eastwood waxed philosophic about the recovery of Detroit’s motor industry. Apparently, Eastwood’s rhetoric on “Halftime in America” and us rallying as a nation to “come from behind,” touched the hearts of Americans like Eminem’s ode to Detroit did (set to his “Lose Yourself”) last year.

My personal favorite was from Fiat, who equated the beauty of their new sleek and sporty model with being seduced by an Italian supermodel (picture below). The reveal that he was kissing the window of a car completely caught me off guard, and was probably the most inventive premise of the night, while still going for sex appeal. For a laugh riot, click.

Filling out the remaining contenders, I was underwhelmed by Budweiser’s contributions, but thought the dog named “Wego,” was clever. Hint: If you call the dog, you would say “Here, Wego.” “Here We Go” is the Bud slogan. Going for the nostalgia factor, Acura and Honda shelled out the big bucks for tributes to pop culture. For Acura, Jerry Seinfeld starred in a parody of his “Seinfeld” show and Matthew Broderick showed up in Honda’s homage to his 80s classic, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Yeah, I got all the references, but it just didn’t tickle my funny bone like the others.

So, note to self: Wanna make millions on ads? Include babies, attractive and scantily clad women (but you can throw in a dude), and animal personification. Nostalgia is hit or miss, and involving your customers via contests can never hurt.

I won’t mention the game itself, because I know here in Boston it is a day of mourning, but I hope you at least enjoyed some of these crowd-pleasers up until the final whistle. Was one of your favorites not mentioned? Share links and your opinions of the ads mentioned in the comments section.

For the Super Bowl XLV this Sunday, Pepsi MAX is releasing a new video featuring rapper Snoop Dogg as part of their NFL Audible program.

Previous NFL Pepsi Max Audible spots have featured B.oB, Big Boi, Talib Kweli, and Lupe Fiasco.

By 2015, there will be approximately 804 million smartphones worldwide. Lucky for football fans, the NFL and  mobile advertising agency Adzookie.com are already looking to the future, promising that by 2015 the Super Bowl will be streamed live via an iPhone.

Romeo Mendoza, CEO of the Orange, Calif.-based company that plans to handle the advertising, Adzookie.com, said in a statement that “Streaming the Super Bowl on a phone just makes sense. Cell phones already outnumber television sets 5-to-1.”

Given that the 2010 Super Bowl brought in 106 million viewers and earned over $300 million in network advertising sales — that’s $2.8 to $3 million per 30-second advertisement — streaming the Super Bowl on smartphones is a smart business decision. Further, through cell phones, advertisers can run multiple ads at the same time, catering to individual viewers based on age, gender, income and location, something that television ads cannot do.

“Companies prefer to promote their business via mobile ads than other forms of advertising,” Mendoza said.

Because of the increasing popularity of smartphone use and the edge that mobile advertising has over television advertising, viewers can expect to eventually watch all of their favorite shows via cell phones, said Mendoza.

“The Super Bowl is just the beginning,” he continued. “Eventually all programming will be mobile. We plan on being there when it happens.”

Dear EarthTalk: What is being done to enable ocean fish populations to rebound after being so over-fished? Are nations coming together on this in any way? – Deborah Kay, Milford, CT

Although 75 percent of the world’s fisheries are now either overexploited, fully exploited, significantly depleted or recovering from overexploitation, many governments continue to provide huge subsidies -- about $20 billion annually --­ to their fishing sectors. Pictured: A fisherman hauls in a catch in the North Sea. (Thinkstock)

There is no overarching international agreement to limit overfishing globally, but a few governments have been able to implement and enforce restrictions at regional levels that have resulted in rebounding fish stocks. The success of these isolated examples gives environmentalists and marine biologists hope that protecting marine hotspots from overfishing can save the biodiversity of the world’s oceans.

The results of an extensive four-year study released in 2006 by leading fisheries expert Boris Worm of Canada’s Dalhousie University and colleagues showed that overfishing would put every single commercial fishery in the world out of business by 2048, with the oceans potentially never recovering. But University of Washington fisheries scientist Ray Hilborn challenged Worm’s frightening conclusion, offering evidence that several fisheries in parts of the U.S., Iceland and New Zealand were recovering. So the two men decided to team up on a new, even more comprehensive survey of fisheries around the world.

The results the second time around, published in 2010 in the peer-reviewed journal, Science, provided ocean advocates with somewhat more encouraging results. In half of the 10 fisheries studied by Worm, Hilborn and their researchers, closing some fisheries, creating protected areas, setting catch limits and modernizing equipment did result in lower exploitation rates and some fish are indeed on the rebound.

“This is a watershed,” Worm told reporters. The new study “shows clearly what can be done not only to avoid further fisheries collapse but to actually rebuild fish stocks” and provides a baseline which scientists and managers can use to gauge progress. “It’s only a start, but it gives me hope that we have the ability to bring overfishing under control,” he added.

Of course, a little bit of good news hardly means we’ve solved the overfishing problem. Environmentalists were particularly disappointed last year when the European Union (EU) announced it would set quotas for deep-sea fisheries even higher than expected. According to Uta Bellion, director of the European Marine Programme for the non-profit Pew Environment Group, the EU’s decision “will give fleets from France, Spain and Portugal the opportunity to continue plundering these stocks.” She adds that the new quotas go against a 2009 United Nations General Assembly resolution that commits the EU to implement a set of measures to ensure the long-term sustainability of deep-sea fish and the rebuilding of depleted stocks.

Meanwhile, some groups are trying to end the government subsidies that effectively bankroll overfishing, legal or otherwise. The nonprofit Oceana, for instance, led an ill-fated 2010 effort to persuade the World Trade Organization to ban subsidies that encourage the depletion of fish and other marine resources. “Although 75 percent of the world’s fisheries are now either overexploited, fully exploited, significantly depleted or recovering from overexploitation, many governments continue to provide huge subsidies—about $20 billion annually—to their fishing sectors,” says Andy Sharpless, Oceana’s CEO. “The fleets are fishing at a level that’s as much as 2.5 times more than what’s required for sustainable catch levels.”

CONTACTS: Pew Environment Group, www.pewtrusts.org; Oceana, www.oceana.org; Boris Worm’s Lab, wormlab.biology.dal.ca; Ray Hilborn, www.fish.washington.edu/people/rayh.

Dear EarthTalk: What’s being done to “green up” professional sports? I know that the last two Olympic Games both made some effort, but are there others? — Rob Avandic, Chicago, IL

The last two Olympics were indeed greener than any before, but environmental awareness isn’t limited to the realm of international amateur competition. In fact, in just the last few years all of the major professional North American sports leagues have made strides in greening their operations.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has helped blaze the trail through its “Greening the Games” initiative. Since 2003, when the National Football League’s (NFL) Philadelphia Eagles turned to NRDC for help saving energy and reducing waste, NRDC has helped dozens of pro teams evaluate their environmental impacts and make changes. Today the Eagles obtain all of their energy at Lincoln Field from wind power, pour fans’ beverages in biodegradable corn-based plastic cups, power their scoreboard with solar panels and have reduced electricity use overall by a third. The NFL itself has also jumped on the bandwagon, implementing various green initiatives at the Super Bowl, the Pro Bowl and other big events.
In 2008, NRDC teamed up with Major League Baseball (MLB) to first green the All Star Game and, the following year, the World Series. Subsequently, NRDC assessed each team’s environmental footprint and made recommendations for improving it. Several teams have gone on to build or refurbish their stadiums with sustainability in mind. Boston’s Fenway Park, Atlanta’s Turner Field, Washington, DC’s Nationals Park, and San Francisco’s AT&T Park all get high marks for pro-environment features and operations.

In 2008, NRDC began working with the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) to green its signature event, the U.S. Open. For one, this led to a move to 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper for tournament programs. And an environmental review of all operations at the National Tennis Center in Queens, New York led to a number of green improvements, including the switch to 90 percent post-consumer recycled paper for some 2.4 million napkins and a move to wind turbines for the tournament’s electricity.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) jumped on the NRDC sports bandwagon in 2009, working with the group to organize its first annual Green Week in early April whereby the entire league works in concert to generate environmental awareness and funding for related causes. As part of the festivities, which took place in 2010 as well and will happen again in April 2011, each NBA team hosted community service events including tree plantings, recycling drives and park clean-up days.

NRDC got the National Hockey League (NHL) in on the act as well, helping to green the Stanley Cup Finals and working with individual teams as it did with baseball and football. In announcing the launch of the NHL Green program, league commissioner Gary Bettman commented that it’s only fitting for professional ice hockey to care about staving off global warming: “Most of our players learned to skate on outdoor rinks. For that magnificent tradition to continue through future generations we need winter weather—and as a league we are uniquely positioned to promote that message.”

CONTACTS: NRDC, www.nrdc.org/greenbusiness/guides/sports/; MLB Team Greening Program, mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/community/team_greening.jsp; NBA Green, www.nba.com/green; NHL Green, www.nhl.com/ice/eventhome.htm?location=/nhlgreen; USTA, www.usta.com.

DALLAS — After an embarrassing loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has fired head coach Wade Phillips.

Multiple reports after the game (and some during the game) suggested Phillips was on his way out. Jones had said last week that Phillips would remain the coach until the end of the season, but the Cowboys were humiliated in a 45-7 loss on Sunday, to drop to 1-7 halfway through the year. The talent-packed team is considered by many to be the worst in the NFL.

Jones said after the game that people would suffer the consequences of the loss and of the terrible season.

Offensive coordinator Jason Garrett will take over in an interim role.

Garrett had been a surefire head coach and candidate for several jobs, including the Ravens, Broncos, and Rams over the last few years. He is one of the highest paid assistant coaches in the NFL.

Football was again the most watched event of Sunday, and likely the week. From 8-11, the Colts/Redskins game averaged 16 million viewers and a 6.3 adults 18-49 rating, leading to an NBC win.

“Desperate Housewives” was the night’s most watched scripted show, with a 3.8 demo rating and 12.4 million viewers. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” was last at 8, with a 2.3 demo rating and 8.6 million viewers. “Brothers and Sisters” was also last at 10, with a 2.7 rating and 9 million viewers.

CBS had a strong night, with “Amazing Race” drawing 11.2 million viewers and a 3.4 demo rating at 8. “Undercover Boss” had 12 million viewers and a 3.5 demo rating. “CSI: Miami” was low at 10, with a 2.8 rating and 11 million viewers.

Game 2 of the NLCS averaged 9.1 million viewers and a 2.7 rating on Fox from 8-11, mostly at the back of the other networks. Fox’s Sunday night animation lineup will be pre-empted until the postseason ends.

There is a book by Michael MacCambridge called “America’s Game,” which chronicles the NFL’s rise in the latter half of the 20th century. The most fascinating aspect of the more than 500 page book is how the NFL’s survival in the United States, now seemingly predestined, was in question less than 70 years ago. A small group of driven, business minded men believed in the sport that they loved and it has quickly evolved into a Gladiators-in-Rome level spectacle that generates over $5 Billion a year in revenue.

At Moakley Field in South Boston, a group of Rugby players in their 20s are creating a foundation for the future success of professional Rugby in the United States. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Boston 13s of the American National Rugby League.

Mikhael Shammas, the Founder and President of the Boston Thirteens R.L.F.C., Inc., is a man with a truly entrepreneurial spirit. Mik is a 28-year-old graduate student at Harvard University with a focus on International Management. From the United Kingdom, he fell in love with Rugby as a teenager, played for the Lebanese national team, and owned a team called the Wolves in Beirut. The 13s are not just a hobby for Mik, he has serious aspirations. Mik states; "The Boston 13s R.L.F.C., Inc. is more than just a mundane sporting entity; both to myself, its management, our team, and all fans. It represents a true desideratum: something longed and wanted. Through the team, I rightfully intend to inspire the empyreal values of leadership, commitment, camaraderie and consciousness; and therein spread these further afield throughout New England, as a whole, and then throughout North America itself."

The 13s consist of a diverse mixture of local and foreign players. George Aroyan is an Australian who is of Lebanese descent and played semi-professionally in Australia. Smart and cerebral, George is one of the vocal leaders of the team. Aroyan has great speed and the ability to break tackles despite his diminutive size.

At around 6’2" tall and 260 pounds Setefano Su’a Leotele Talavave (his teammates call him Sully) is a physical marvel. Coupled with his immense size Sully also has tremendous pace and great moves. He played on the U-18 National Team in Australia and has world class skill.

Jon Mixon and Michael Bozza are both from Billerica, Massachusetts. Bozza, the 13s Captain, played rugby at UMass Amherst after being a standout lacrosse and hockey player in high school. Mixon plays like a man possessed and goes out on the field looking to initiate physical contact.

The local players are especially conscious of portraying themselves as role models to the children around the area, and are looking to advance the sport while focusing on having an impact beyond the field. "We plan on starting a youth league in the area we grew up in." said Ben McHugh, who is a member of the 13s and a Business Development Officer for the team, as well as a Chelmsford native. "If we keep kids off the streets and teach them discipline", McHugh continued, "then we are giving back to where we grew up."

The 13s joined the ANRL in 2009 and had immediate success, making it to the semifinals in their inaugural season. With 11 teams, including clubs in New York (the defending champions), Connecticut, Washington DC, and Jacksonville, the league is growing rapidly.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the league is the fact that traveling is not an after thought. You need to have love for something if you are willing to fly to Jacksonville, or drive to DC, to get it. This hunger is visible in all aspects of the 13s. Instead of complacently accepting their place as a niche sport in a country that does not understand anything beyond what they are used to (read: football, basketball, baseball, and hockey), all members of the team are driven to be remembered as pioneers. Everything, be it marketing or public relations, is at a grassroots level right now. The focus for the 13s is to grow rugby in the United States, but they realize that it will be through their hard work that future generations will prosper. As McHugh said, "It is the American Dream."

Rugby is a nuanced sport that requires all around athleticism; all faults are exposed. A large portion of the game is played in the open field with constant laterals and features word class athletes with an affinity for lowering their heads and breaking tackles. Like anything on the rise, the 13s success is predicated on individuals giving something different a chance. It is a rare time when you can see something at its purest level, especially modern day competitive sports. The 13s are not driven by money or fame, but by a will to share something they love with the masses; appreciate that.

The Boston 13s R.L.F.C., Inc will have three home games at Moakley Stadium this summer. They have recruited a dance team and are predicted to compete for the league championship.

Months after losing its Major League Baseball, and only weeks after settling a lawsuit by MLB for allegedly illegally using its trademarks anyway, news has broken that the National Football League will not renew Upper Deck’s licensing agreement.

This means no more (official) baseball or football cards from UD.

Upper Deck released the following statement:

"Over the past year, Upper Deck has attempted to negotiate a new licensing deal with NFL Properties. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were not able to reach agreeable terms, and therefore will not be issuing any NFL Properties-licensed trading cards for the 2010 season. Upper Deck will continue to focus on its exclusive license agreement with the Collegiate Licensing Company and co-exclusive agreements with NHL Enterprises and the NHL Players’ Association, as well as its multiple entertainment licenses.”

College football star Tim Tebow’s Super Bowl advertisement, funded by Focus on the Family, did not live up to its hype, according to The Celebrity Caf©. The anti-abortion commercial featuring Tebow and his mother was expected to very controversial, but was quite tame in actuality.

Blog Critics states that in the days leading up to the Super Bowl there was much discussion around the question of whether or not the ad should be allowed to be aired. Over the years, several ads have been banned from the big game because they were too "racy for the masses." Last year, PETA’s pro-vegetarian ad was banned for being too sexual, and this year an ad for the gay dating website mancrunch.com was also rejected.

Despite the building controversy, Tim Tebow’s ad was mild. According to The Celebrity Caf©, the ad was more of a lighthearted take on a mother-son relationship than it was an advocate against abortion, or a heartwarming story about a mother ignoring doctors’ advice and having her baby anyway. Tebow’s mother suffered a life-threatening infection while she was pregnant. Doctors expected a stillbirth and recommended she have an abortion. But Pam Tebow, despite the odds, made her own choice.

The actual ad briefly narrates Tebow’s story, and then shows Tim tackling his mother in a lighthearted way. The abortion issue is never explicitly mentioned or discussed in the commercial.

Jamelle Hill of ESPN wrote “I don’t care if you’re pro-choice or pro-life, conservative or liberal, God-fearing or atheist, you’ve got to admire Tebow for standing with conviction, even as he’s opening himself and his family up to criticism.”

When you think Super Bowl, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Football, commercials, cheerleaders and beer, probably. Maybe Janet Jackson. But did you ever wonder how much it would take to ensure that all 76,500 fans that walk into Sun Life Stadium on Sunday, walk out safely?

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) have unleashed their best four-legged agents to guard against explosive threats at this year’s Bowl. The top K-9 units from around the country have been shipped down to Miami, along with local, state and federal law enforcement, to make sure the fans, players and staff can enjoy the game in safety.

Trained dogs from Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Colorado, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and Florida are all helping to make sure Sun Life is free of explosive devices and other threats that could endanger any fan, staff or athlete during the big game on Sunday.

All ad space is officially sold out for the Super Bowl as of Monday, said CBS spokeswoman Shannon Jacobs. CBS, the broadcaster for this year’s NFL championship, had some difficulty selling the last few of more than 62 spots, according to CNN. t.

CNN reports that a 30-second spot sold for up to $3 million, and Anheuser-Busch is the top advertiser this year having purchased five minutes worth of ad time.

Several first-time advertisers are in the lineup, according to the LA Times, including Kia Motors America, Qualcomm’s Flo TV and KGB texting information service. In addition, the Christian group "Focus on the Family," will be displaying a controversial anti-abortion commercial featuring college football star Tim Tebow. In addition, CBS rejected a gay dating website advertisement for ManCrunch.com, reported the LA Times.

“This year we are going to call it the Controversy Bowl,” said Mike Sheldon, chief executive of the Los Angeles advertising firm Deutsch LA. “It used to be a championship football game, then it became an advertising showcase, and now the Super Bowl has turned into a microphone for special interests."

Last month, CBS said it was selling 62 spots, but spokesman Dana McClintock said that the number has grown and is now very close to last year’s 69 spots.

“We’re happy campers over here,” said Jo Ann Ross, the president of network sales at CBS. Ross also said that there are some spots still available during the pre-game broadcast.

Last year’s Super Bowl had a record 98.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen, and Kantar Media says ads during the 2009 game brought in $213 million.

Blast’s On the Record Sports blog reports that Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry has died of injuries suffered when he fell out of a pickup truck.

Northeastern University entered the 2003 season ranked No. 1 in the nation in what was then Division 1-AA. A few weeks into the season, the school wasn’t ranked at anymore. It’s been a steady stream downhill ever since.

In an unsurprising move that’s no less depressing for students and alumni, Northeastern University is cutting its Division 1 football program.

In a statement, Athletic Director Peter P. Roby said he made the call.

“We do not define success merely through wins and losses,” Roby said. “Instead, we recognize that success comes from creating a positive student-athlete experience. The primary motivation for this decision was based on the significant obstacles to providing this experience for our football players.”

Administration officials have said since 2007 that cutting football was on the table for Northeastern, which has been moving away from athletics for several years as its academic standing grows.

Northeastern football competed its 74th season with a 33-27 win on Saturday at The University of Rhode Island, capping a 3-8 season.

The college’s 63 football scholarship athletes have been told they are guaranteed their scholarships until graduation, though Roby admitted he made sure the athletes knew about the decision as soon as possible so that they had the “most time possible to make decisions about their future.”

Two of cable’s heavy hitters premiere tonight. Discovery Channel starts a new season of “Mythbusters” at 9 p.m., and Comedy Central has “South Park” at 10. Comedy Central also has “Secret Girlfriend’” at 10:30.

Investigation Discovery (for those of you who have it) has “The Bureau” about the FBI’s top cases, starting up at 9 p.m.

CBS will renew “Flashpoint” for at least 13 more episodes later this season. The Canadian import about a police “Strategic Response Unit” has been a rating success so far.

Bravo is expanding its “Real Housewives” brand with “The Real Housewives of D.C.” The cable network also renewed “New Jersey” for a second season.

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” had its best numbers in five on-and-off years on Sunday night, with 1.6 million total viewers at 10 p.m. for the “Seinfeld” reunion.

But the biggest news so far is this: “Monday Night Football” with the Vikings versus Packers gave ESPN the largest audience in the history of cable television and ESPN’s own best ranking in its history, attracting a 15.3 rating, or 21.8 million total viewers. It’s just a ridiculous number, as Brett Favre facing his old team boosted the game to a whole new level.

Forget Football.

Okay, it’s Sunday, and you feel like the only person in Boston who isn’t glued to the TV watching the Patriots game. So not true! It might seem like Tom Brady casts a spell that brings the whole city to a halt, but there are a million other things to do instead this Sunday. With everything from street fairs to poetry readings, here are a few ideas to get you started.

Matinee Madness

If you really want to escape, head to the movie theater to find an alternate reality where Megan Fox is possessed by a demon and Matt Damon is fat. Jennifer’s Body, a quirky horror flick from Diablo Cody, the writer of Juno, opens this weekend. It stars Megan Fox as a bloodthirsty cheerleader who starts killing off her male classmates. Another new flick worth seeing is The Informant, which stars Matt Damon as a bumbling exec who starts spying on his company for the FBI.

Hit the Streets

To load up on live music and lots of your favorite street food, head over to the Allston Village Street Fair. From noon to 6 p.m., Harvard Avenue from Brighton Avenue to Cambridge Street will be jam-packed with art exhibits, food vendors and street performers. There will also be three stages of live entertainment featuring local bands like Bird Mancini and Three Day Threshold, as well as Irish step dancing and a troupe of belly dancers.

Be A-maize-d

Get in touch with your inner child and take advantage of the great fall weather by exploring one of the area’s corn mazes. For under $10 per person, you can put your sense of direction to the test and see if you can find your way out of an elaborate maze built right into a cornfield. North of the city, try Marini Farm in Ipswich. South of the city, Sauchuk Farm in Plympton has a maze dedicated to 100th anniversary of the Lincoln cent — from above, it looks like a penny!

Culture on the Cheap

It’s time to channel your artistic side because Sunday is the perfect day to visit the Museum of Fine Art. From 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., admission to the museum is totally free. So for less than you spend on your morning coffee, you can enjoy exhibits such as Vida y Drama: Modern Mexican Prints and Seeing Songs, a collection of works inspired by music. ReadBoston will also be there holding a book drive, so you can top it all off by doing a good dead and bringing a children’s book to donate.

Poetry in Motion

For something more unusual, stop by the Forsyth Chapel in Forest Hills Cemetery at 2 pm for a reading by The Carpenter Poets of Jamaica Plain. The group of local craftsman discovered a shared love of poetry more than a decade ago and have been meeting for poetry readings ever since. For $5, you can join them to hear their latest works and enjoy the architectural beauty of the 19th century chapel.

Retail Therapy

If shopping is more your type of sport than football, you should check out the Sowa Open Market. Located at 540 Harrison Ave. and open from 10 am to 5 pm this weekend, the market features 120 different vendors. Browsing through the booths, you can find everything from handmade pottery, one-of-a-kind jewelry and the latest creations from local indie fashion designers to fresh flowers, tasty baked goods and produce from area farmers. With free admission and free parking, too, you can’t lose.

Fall is here in New England, right on queue, which means only one thing: it’s time for football. Most of us will have to resign to watching the Pats from our flat-screens, but for the lucky few with tickets to Gillette, tailgating is a right of passage. Of course, there’s a right way and a wrong to go about tailgating, as many a back injury can attest to. That’s why there’s the Shade Wagon.

The shade wagon is a high-capacity wagon capable of carrying two full coolers on either side of a storage console that also mounts an umbrella. The wagon comes with a cooler and two seats, with a capacity for twice that, plus a volcano grill. The umbrella also anchors the wagon to keep it from rolling away. Fold down a side on the Shade Wagon, and nylon straps hold it level, forming a table. When the nylon straps aren’t holding the side up, they can be used to carry folding chairs.

Unlatch them, and then you have two bench seats. No tailgating party would be complete without music, and the Shade Wagon comes built in with a battery operated Altec Lansing speaker to plug your iPod into.

While marketed as a tailgating tool, it would be just as appropriate at the beach, picnic, or any outdoor event. Fire up the grills and pass us a hot dog.

It was December 2003. Brian Kinchen hadn’t played in the NFL in three years. He was teaching middle schoolers — bible classes.

Then the phone rang.

It was the call.

The hot, streaking, eventual champion New England Patriots needed a long snapper. Two months later, Kinchen was snapping the ball for the winning field goal in the Super Bowl.

Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Marx tells this story in intricate, witty detail as only a true journalist can.

In sports today, we’re too often inundated with bad news. We see too much of players cheating and doping or violently breaking the law. With Paul Byrd’s epic comeback performance Sunday night for the Red Sox, these are the kinds of stories that keep us believing in sports. So go read “The Long Snapper: A Second Chance, a Super Bowl, a Lesson for Life.”

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady threw a football in front of his team and the media at Gillette Stadium yesterday afternoon. It was his first time in front of an audience since tearing his ACL and MCL during the first game of the 2008 season.

Brady, wearing a brace on his surgically-repaired knee, threw five passes in a drill for two completions. He was careful not to give definitive answers about his preparedness for next season.

“Life doesn’t always go how you plan it, and it’s a matter of dealing with it and understanding ‘what do I have to do to get on the right track?’,” Brady told the media. “Talk is cheap. I could sit here and tell you guys I’m going to play until I’m 80, but that doesn’t matter. I’m going to go do the best I can do, and I’m going to try to be the best leader and the best teammate and supporter of the guys on my team.”

Brady developed an infection in his knee a week after undergoing surgery on Oct. 6 of last year. He was treated aggressively for the “very treatable” staph infection and it won’t cause him any long-term problems.

“Part of surgery and rehab is you have setbacks, and you just deal with them,” he said.

The Patriots open their season on Sept. 14 against the Buffalo Bills.

Northeastern University football player Brian Mandeville received devastating news on Friday at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis during routine physical examinations. The star tight end, who missed a third of his senior season with knee injuries and even survived a brain tumor while in college, was told by Combine doctors that he has a heart ailment, effectively ending his football career.

Mandewille was diagnosed with an abnormal heart valve, which is not considered life-threatening, but the problem could become dangerous under the strenuous training regimens of the NFL.

“I told him his health and well-being is what’s important” Northeastern coach Rocky Hager told the Boston Herald. “I don’t know if that means he’ll continue in a career in sports, but then everybody’s career in sports eventually comes to an end. But I think he’s so well grounded and his parents have done a great job raising him and he always has the right attitude.”

Mandeville caught 63 passes for 863 yards and seven touchdowns in 33 games, worthy of earning first-team All-New England honors. Northeastern’s I-AA football program went 2-10 last year and hasn’t had a winning season since 2003.

Just like they said they would, Boston College has fired head football coach Jeff Jagodzinski, whose name is roughly as fun to type as that of a certain Illinois governor.

B.C. warned Jagodzinski that if he interviewed for the head coaching vacancy of the N.Y. Jets that they would fire him. Apparently, they weren’t kidding.

“Jeff and I were really divided on the future of this program,” said B.C.’s athletic director Gene DeFilippo. “I just thought I hired a coach that I thought was going to be here a long time and I thought Jeff was that guy. I am looking for someone who can give a commitment of at least four or five years, for the length of the contract.”

He said that there will be an interim coach assigned until he can find a long-term replacement.

Iomega, a company under the wing of local tech and storage giant EMC Corporation, announced Wednesday that they have released a New England Patriots-themed portable hard drive.

The Iomega eGo Patriots edition is decked out with the team logo above a 2.5″ 250 GB hard drive.

The tiny drive is a USB 2.0 product and retails for $129.99 at local retailers including Staples, the Patriots ProShop, and online at Patriots.com.

The eGo also comes with EMC’s Retrospect Express HD backup software, which allows automatic and on-demand backups of your files and drives. It works with Windows and Mac computers.

Are you one of those people who are convinced that the Madden football series has not changed significantly since the beginning of the decade? Are you tired of shelling out full price for a slightly glossier look, non-essential game mechanic add-ons and updated rosters, year after year? Would you like football any better if it involved power bombs and nut shots, rather than penalties straight from the “No Fun League?” These are the questions that Midway asks with the latest installment in their Blitz football series, Blitz: The League II.

Though the questions are certainly worthy of an eyebrow raise and interest from those who are disenchanted with EA Sports long running (and best-selling) franchise, there are some issues with the game. Midway manages to deliver on some of their promises, but the failure to deliver a worthwhile football experience holds the game back from being better than it is, and may keep many from trading in their freshest copies of Madden or canceling plans to reserve next year’s edition.

There is plenty that works here though, if you are in the market for some football. First of all, the ability to pull out all the stops — late hits, cheap shots, brutal tackles that look more like wrestling moves than football ones, the blatant cheating on field — is fun, because it is not real. I would not want to see any more pronounced cheating than what we are used to seeing every Sunday in the NFL on television, but when it’s in the realm of video games, it’s entertaining and a quality game hook.

The “Franchise” mode also has its merits, though you will easily beat it in a day or two if you stick with it. You create a player — one who is not nearly as fun as the mode he is a part of, but more on that later”"and then attempt to become the biggest star in the league, one who will enable the Blitz universe to live on thanks in part to it’s larger than life icon. There are ways to become famous without necessarily dominating the league: want some extra cash? Bet on the games, and keep within the spread in order to rake in money you can use to buy steroids for your team in order to improve their in-game performance.

Earn promotions and sponsorships by turning your “Franchise” player into a household name, and follow the advice of your agent, voiced excellently by Jay Mohr — in order to succeed. The gameplay is more intriguing here than it is in a random game, since there is more on the line — specifically, beating your opponent but upholding the spread, making sure your franchise player (who works on both sides of the ball) gets enough touches, and following the story, which has its moments.

As far as the gameplay goes, outside of the killer tackling and hits, you can slow down the action and maneuver around your opponents in order to gain a few extra yards or break free for a touchdown. “Unleashed” plays, which you earn by pulling off moves in your slowed down state, are momentum changes, but be warned, the AI will utilize these as often as you do, so you will need to get the hang of them quick to stay in the game.

Jay Mohr is not the only voice actor that adds to the game, as Frank Caliendo takes his Madden impression into Blitz and does a wonderful job. He’s an even more ridiculous version of Madden as usual, and his commentary adds to the in-game experience significantly; that is, until you have heard everything he has to say (which is not much at all) over and over again.

If those positives are enough to sell you on the title, consider the negatives. The graphics, while obviously an upgrade over the original version of the game on last-gen consoles, are not up to par with Madden’s offering, and the player models look odd in a glossy way, especially in the rain. Some of the gimmicks that are supposed to make the game seem more “hardcore” lose their appeal quickly.

For instance, the game zooms in on a breaking bone or torn muscle as they happen, which is effective the first few times, but when you play a team that has late hits and cheap shots on every play, you get tired of seeing the same thing repeatedly, not to mention the fact that you lose many of these players for quarters, games or weeks at a time.

Playing against the AI is another drawback. They seem to be more interested in snapping your players in half than winning, which has its positives and negatives. First off, there’s no real challenge once you pick up the basics of the game, as you can dart and weave amongst their defense at will when you start to master slow down and the Unleashed maneuvers. It’s nice to win, but it’s better to feel accomplished for doing so, and the AI does not allow that in Blitz; it’s tough to lose any game where you can easily throw a 60 yard pass at any time and succeed because they want your quarterback to be broken into pieces, and therefore keep coverage light.

Thankfully, there is an online mode that works effectively, so there is never a shortage of human opponents to play, and though they may be interested in crushing you under their cleats as much as the AI wants to, at least you know you are playing to win in this mode.

This is the downside to playing a Franchise, as the games come off as less entertaining than the other portions of the mode. It does not help things that your created player goes beyond campy and cheesy and straight into annoying when he speaks; his dialogue is awful (but thankfully offset by Mohr’s solid work much of the time) and more choices for personality would have been a positive, rather than being stuck with the one type.

Overall, Blitz: The League II is not a bad game, as there is plenty to keep you interested if you want a change of pace on the football scene. The late, cheap hits and mature setting to the story are a serious turnaround from what you are used to playing other football games, but the football itself is at times lacking in structure and effectiveness. It’s worth a purchase if you need to play football, but if you are just looking for something to play and are short on cash, this holiday season is loaded with better places to spend your money.

Every now and then we like to throw down a mention about sports cards and trading cards.

Pay attention to Upper Deck 2008-09 Basketball, if you’re a fan of that side of the hobby. Whole boxes are coming out dirt cheap. It’s a 200-card base set without many bells and whistles — great for a younger collector or just a really good basketball fan who wants to collect a whole set easily. I cracked a square hobby-edition box with 24 packs of 18 cards. It’s very easy to form the whole set.

There are much better options on the football side of things with Upper Deck Icons 2008. Boxes are going for $75-$100 with 10 packs of six cards in each box. You get two jersey cards and an autograph in every box, so if you’re at the card store and pull a pack of these, there’s about a 1-in-3 chance that you’ll get something good.

On the cheap side, get 2008 Upper Deck Football First Edition. You can get a box for $20, and you get a Starquest Foil insert in every one of the 36 packs of 10 cards. The base set is 225 cards, and you will probably make it with one box. The big draw with this set is that it has 75 rookie cards.

If you’re a huge Peyton Manning fan, I’d spend the $20 on the box and just leave it sealed because he’s on the cover.

If you’re really all about the rookies, for under $10 you can get 2008 Upper Deck Football Rookie Premiere. It comes in a 30-card box set including Rashard Mendenhall and Limas Sweed from my always-using-their-draft-picks-well Steelers, and some guy named Darren McFadden.

I didn’t even crack open my box. It’s a set, and I’m holding onto it.

Remember, you’re buying these cards because you enjoy the hobby and love the sports. Cards aren’t worth anything anymore, and unless you get lottery-ticket lucky and pull a super rare card, don’t expect to turn a profit on your cards. And if you do get a super rare valuable card, sell it right away or end up like all those guys that held onto Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens rookie cards (or worse, bought it at their peak) and now have some useful toilet paper.

There may have never been a better football game — sports game — than Tecmo Bowl.

It’s been too long, but Tecmo is finally bringing us some real details on the upcoming Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff for Nintendo DS.

“Yes, it’s been a while since our last update on Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff. We figured you’d want to spend some time with Madden ’09 and kick off the NFL season with some friends “" and of course you didn’t want to miss that opening concert with Usher and Keith Urban, right? (Note to NBC and NFL: Football fans like Usher and Keith Urban..really???)” Tecmo said Thursday.

“And yes, EA has done it again with Madden NFL ’09 taking 3 spots in the August 2008 Top 10 sales charts with the 360, PS3 and Wii versions. But what about the DS version?” they ask.

Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff releases in November for the DS and they are banking on retro-loving players who remember the ultra addictive Tecmo Bowl.

The Pats won last night. Everyone seemed to think that the team was destined to go 1-1. Why? I never really understood it.

New England Patriots quarterback and cornerstone Tom Brady will be out for the rest of the NFL season after the team announced he will have knee surgery after being injured Sunday in the first quarter of the Patriots opener against the Kansas City Chiefs.

“After extensive tests this morning, it was revealed that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s left knee, which was injured in the first quarter of yesterday’s game, will require surgery. He will be placed on injured reserve and will miss the remainder of the 2008 season,” the team said in a statement released Monday.

Brady dropped back from the Kansas City 43-yard-line halfway through the first quarter when Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard blitzed. Despite the fact that the blitz was blocked and Brady completed a nearly 30-yard pass to star Randy Moss, Pollard made a last second dive at the quarterback and caught him in the left knee.

Brady was the 2007 NFL Most Valuable Player, and this is a devastating blow not only to his team but the the league in general.

We absolutely love it when a big media outlet gets college students involved in the news.

PlayboyU.com, the PG-13 Playboy site for students recently polled top college newspaper sportswriters to get their top 25 college football picks.

The “Playboy College Sportswriter Top 25 Poll,” is surprisingly accurate with a few points for debate.

“We’re glad to have students from so many great schools participate in this inaugural poll,” said Gary Cole, Playboy magazine’s sports editor.  “It’s great to be able to add the opinions of these college journalists to Playboy’s coverage of college football and college sports in general … even if their ultimate pick of Georgia over my preseason number one, Oklahoma, is dead wrong.”

The Georgia Bulldogs narrowly edged out the University of Southern California. Rounding out the top five are Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Florida.

The 31 student-pollsters include representatives from nearly every major Division I conference, as well as the Ivy League, including the University of Florida, University of Georgia, USC, UCLA, The Ohio State University, Harvard University, University of Notre Dame, and 24 other schools.

Playboy’s College Sportswriters Top 25

Rank Team Points
1 Georgia 729
2 USC 724
3 Ohio State 698
4 Oklahoma 680
5 Florida 675
6 Missouri 605
7 LSU 566
8 West Virginia 517
9 Clemson 494
10 Texas 486
11 Auburn 451
12 Wisconsin 404
13 Texas Tech 374
14 Kansas 330
15 Virginia Tech 318
16 BYU 295
17 Arizona State 291
18 Tennessee 280
19 Illinois 208
20 Oregon 185
21 South Florida 168
22 Penn State 126
23 Fresno State 87
24 Wake Forest 64
25 Alabama 57

We don’t have much information right now, but Jay Glazer of Foxsports.com says that the deal is done, and that Brett Favre is a NY Jet.

The Packers get an unknown conditional draft pick and the Jets will likely have to release a QB. According to Glazer, the most likely suspect will be Chad Pennington.

Stay tuned on this one.

Editor’s note: I’m running this story because our sports duo of Micah and Perry is from Philly, and sometimes they need to be taken down a peg. — John

From our Posterboy sports blog:

If you have ever been down to Strip District and walked into Wholey’s, you know that the owner definitely doesn’t give a shit. Don’t get me wrong, you get the best and freshest seafood, (which is saying something for the city of Pittsburgh because it’s not exactly near the ocean) but they hack it up and dish it out right in front of your face. And now the owner of Wholey’s will be refusing to sell any octopi to Red Wing fans for fear of them throwing it on the ice at the Mellon Arena. From the countless songs to beer specials for shitting on Sienna Miller, Pittsburghers think a little bit differently than other sports fans and Mr. Wholey is just one more example. Here are a few reasons why Pittsburgh is better than some other sports towns:

Philadelphia: Pittsburghers only boo guys named Kordell Stewart.

Boston: Pittsburghers aren’t self-loathing and don’t want to slit their wrists after every loss.

New York: Pittsburgh news outlets do not report anything bad about the athletes, and lead broadcasts with player vacations to their homeland.

Dallas: Pittsburgh teams have a little respect for the game rather than bringing in guys like T.O. and Pac Man. Also, three more words, No Jerry Jones.

Oakland: Do not dress up like the Legion of Doom or have an owner that resembles a character from a movie based on a Roald Dahl book.

Baltimore: Pittsburgh has a hockey team, a quarterback and a football team that isn’t purple.

Cleveland: Pittsburgh has won a title in the past 50 years, and doesn’t lose franchises.

Everyone else: Jesus is on Pittsburgh’s side.

Due out July 15, EA Sports’ NCAA Football 09 will feature Cal’s DeSean Jackson and West Virginia’s Owen Schmitt on the covers. Jackson will appear on the PlayStation 2 version, while Schmitt will be featured on the cover of the PSP game.

Jackson was drafted in the second round by the Philadelphia Eagles. Schmitt was tagged by the Seattle Seahawks in the fifth.

There are football fans, and then there are football fans.

You know the kind — they obsess over the smallest statistic, tracking their team’s every move, feeling personal jubilation at each victory and pain at each loss. In “rebuilding years” they always flex their arm chair muscle, knowing that they could have done a better job.

EA Sports has heard your pleas.

When the 20th anniversary edition of Madden NFL 09 hits shelves later this year, it will come packed with NFL Head Coach 09, a completely retooled version of the strategy and simulation game we last saw in late 2006. Listening to fan and critic reaction the initial release, EA hopes to strike that delicate balance of accessibility for new comers to the series and depth.

This year’s title does away with the cumbersome and clunky menu interface that both drove and stalled the original NFL Head Coach in favor of the new “Coach’s Clipboard” feature. Acting as everything from your calendar to your playbook, the clipboard is your window into all of the major events in an NFL season. The clipboard moves the action from out of the office into one centralized interface.

One of the major goals of the Head coach 09 development team, which is completely different than that of the original, was to take away some of the day to day tasks that plagued the 2006 version. Rather than feeling like a one-man franchise, you can now delegate certain tasks to your staff, like scouting and handling draft preparations. Most interesting is that since your staff is now made up of actual NFL personalities who you put on certain tasks will actually make a difference.

Even better — these tasks are now instantly skippable,

Aiming to create the most realistic football sim ever, NFL Head Coach 09 features a number of new features centered on individual playbooks. A new, more in depth in-game play creator let’s wannabe coaches take their creations from scribbles in the sand to NFL stadiums worldwide. Is your opponent exploiting a weak spot in your defense? Make a quick change and plug up the gaps. These new playbooks can then be imported into Madden NFL 2009 to use in game or to Gamernet to share with the world.

Building a deep game isn’t just about revising the play calling and menu system. NFL Head Coach 09 aims to capture the real life drama and emotion that comes along with running a multi-million dollar organization. While your team anxiously awaits your next move as it paces the sideline, you’ll be faced with what the development team is calling “defining moments.” Say it’s 4th and inches with 10 seconds left on the clock. How you handle the situation will result in your approval rating, and your team’s morale. Similar to the user controlled touchdown celebrations recently announced for Madden NFL 2009, players will be able to control how their coach reacts to their team’s play. Cool and collected or frustrated and yelling – it’s your choice.

While not much has been seen of the new NFL Head Coach, it’s definitely showing improvement over 2006′s version. Stay with Blast up through the game’s release for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this fall for more info.

Terrelle Pryor, the nation’s top high school football recruit, has decided to go with Ohio State.

The 6’5″ All-American quarterback felt that Oregon was too far away and that Penn State was too rural. He liked Michigan, but in the end decided that Ohio State would give him a better opportunity to make it to the NFL.

“It was just the right fit,” Pryor told Rivals.com. “The coaches, the comfort level, the players and the signing class they had. I am very comfortable with all of it, and I became friendly with the other recruits throughout the process.

Here are some random notes and thoughts from the National Football League:

According to a blog on the Orlando Sentinel’s website, there are quiet rumors within the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization that Cadillac Williams’ career is over. Williams tore a patellar tendon last season on October 1st in a win over Carolina. The Bucs recently signed Warrick Dunn, and will have Earnest Graham and Michael Bennett returning.

According to Profootballtalk.com and Mlive.com, Kevin Jones was told this morning by the Detroit Lions that his services would no longer be required. A former first-round pick, Jones has been battling foot problems the past few years. Considering who the other running backs are on the roster (Tatum Bell, Aveion Cason, Brian Calhoun), Detroit must have been awfully down on Jones.

Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic says that Joel Segal, the agent for free-agent wideout Bryant Johnson, told him that he expects Johnson to sign with a team soon. He didn’t name names, but the Cardinals, who draft Johnson in the first round in 2003, are not one of those teams.

More Dwayne Robertson trade talks emerge. Robertson doesn’t fit the Jets’ 3-4 scheme (just like LB Jonathon Vilma, who was shipped to New Orleans) and will count $11 million against their cap this year. Denver will have to check out Robertson’s knee first, which some say is a bone-on-bone condition. But if that’s the case, consider it a done deal. Mike Shanahan never met a retread on the defensive line that he didn’t like.

This isn’t surprising, but expect Shaun Alexander to get cut soon by the Seahawks. There were rumors that he would turn into a bum after he got his big deal following the 2005 season, and injuries and ineffectiveness have proven that to be true. Alexander looks like he is running on the beach. With the addition of Julius Jones, he’ll be out the door sooner rather than later.

The 49ers have released Trent Dilfer. Dilfer would make a nice backup somewhere, but his starting days are long gone. Did they ever begin? He won a Super Bowl, so maybe so. Then again, I don’t know many Super Bowl winners that get replaced the following year by Elvis Grbac.

ESPN.com “Hashmarks” writer Matt Mosley says he knows “for a fact” that the Rams love Ohio State LB/DE tweener Vernon Gholston, but not enough to take him with the second overall pick. Perhaps a trade down from the two slot? Only if a team loves Boston College QB Matt Ryan and feels the Falcons will nab him at #3. And with Joey Harrington, Chris Redman and D.J. Shockley as the only QB’s on the roster, that’s a very big possibility.

You can always find more sports in our Off The Record blog.

According to a source close to the situation – despite reports that Larry Fitzgerald is not available in trade – the Philadelphia Eagles are still going hard after him. I also heard that Lions WR Roy Williams is no longer on the radar for the Eagles.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Larry Fitzgerald has officially renegotiated with the Arizona Cardinals. His new deal is reportedly worth $40 million over four years, with $30 million in guarantees. The contract changes his cap number from $16,485,000 to $7,643,334.

Regardless, the Cardinals inability to get this hammered out before the start of free agency has cost them dearly. They now have some wiggle room to add some free agents and there is really no one left. Well done, Rod Graves.

Myron Cope, the 35-year color commentary man for the Pittsburgh Steelers died Wednesday morning in a nursing home in Mt. Lebanon, Pa. Cope had been struggling with his health since leaving the broadcast booth after the 2004 season.

Before joining the Steelers family, Cope was a widely read freelancer for Sports Illustrated reporting on such iconic figures as Howard Cosell and Roberto Clemente. He later moved onto to television at the request of a station manager, before being hired by a franchise that had not yet seen much success in a nearly 50-year history.

Cope along with a certain fair haired quarterback from Louisana Tech made their respective debuts with the Steelers on September 20, 1970, and it took only two seasons before the once pride less team became arguably the greatest dynasty in professional football history.

During this time Cope developed a relationship with the fans of Pittsburgh that rivaled none, delighting fans with his “yinzer” accent and quirky catchphrases that only he could get away with using. His countless “yoi’s” and “double yoi’s” as well as his classic music video will live on throughout the history of the Steelers as the turning point. A turning point from a baseball town to a football town, it was a turning point that gave the city and fans an identity.

“I guess sometimes in the football business we all take ourselves too seriously and Myron never let anybody do that, so he had that knack for sort of reminding us of what business we were in,” Art Rooney once said of the 5’4″ broadcasting icon.

His contributions also ranged to five books, none entirely about the Steelers, the prevalence of the term “the Immaculate Reception” and most of all his creation of the “Terrible Towel.” The towel was original and has not been done better in more than 30 years, but the truly significant fact about this favorite dish rag is that in 1996, Cope donated his ownership of the trademarks to the Allegheny Valley School. Over $1 million has been raised to support this institution caring for over 900 physically and mentally disabled children.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, but expect nothing short of a remembrance rivaling the man who hired him, Art Rooney. Steeler nation will genuinely mourn grieve after this loss and reminisce as this is the end of an era. In Pittsburgh his passing will be taken as a loss of royalty because when it comes to the Steel City, Myron Cope is as close as you can come to being a king.

A source close to Eagles Quarterback Donovan McNabb recently told me that the embattled star “absolutely wants to stay” in the City of Brotherly Love.

McNabb told ESPN in a recent interview that he thinks they should bring more star-caliber talent into the Eagles’ the roster. Many think that he is just saying all the right things despite wanting out. Some believe that his vocal desire to add playmakers is an attempt at forcing a trade.

“Donovan definitely wants to stay in Philly,” the source said. “He wants to stay in Philly and win a championship here.”

Most probably wouldn’t blame McNabb one bit if he really did go elsewhere for a fresh start. He’s had to take heat going back to the 1999 draft when he was booed thoroughly after the Eagles made him the second overall pick.

Of course, he was booed for what he wasn’t (Ricky Williams) and not for what he was. Still, he had to stand up there and take it.

In 2003, after a rough start, which included inconsistency and a sore throwing thumb, the Philadelphia faithful clamored for third-string quarterback A.J. Feeley, who had filled in admirably in 2002 when McNabb went down with a cracked ankle (they ignored the fact that he threw four touchdown passes in that game, after the ankle snapped). Even Rush Limbaugh was able to jump in on the McNabb bashing during the 2003 season.

McNabb rebounded from all of it and rattled off nine straight wins that season, leading the Eagles to their fourth-consecutive playoff berth.

At the conclusion of the 2004 season, the Eagles lost in the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots and McNabb was held responsible by the locals. He threw three interceptions — two of them very costly — and was seen vomiting in the huddle towards the end of the game. The phone lines at Philadelphia’s sports radio 610 lit up like a Christmas tree with angry fans harping on his mistakes during the game.

Nowadays fans say Eli Manning grew up in the Super Bowl while Donovan threw up.

In 2005, Terrell Owens openly criticized McNabb as a way to help Owens get a new contract. The quarterback was then thrown under the bus by just about anyone with a pen. His leadership was called into question, and it was widely reported that he lost the locker room. McNabb was ridiculed for taking the high road and not standing up to Owens. Some claimed that he should have physically confronted the mercurial receiver.

“He did not lose that locker room,” a former Eagle teammate told me at the time. “Those guys have Donovan’s back. That stuff isn’t true.”

In 2006, following an injury-shortened season, McNabb found himself on injured reserve for the second straight year when he blew an ACL against the Tennessee Titans. The ire was now centered around his inability to stay healthy.

The NFL Draft last April saw the Eagles draft University of Houston quarterback Kevin Kolb in the second round. It was their first selection in that draft. Since the moment his name was announced, all of the talk has centered around when McNabb will be gone. He has been hammered repeatedly with questions about whether he’s going to stay, whether he wants to stay and whether he thinks the team even wants him anymore.

By the conclusion of the Eagles 8-8 season, McNabb looked bloodied. He looked like a man exhausted from the constant barrage of repetitive questions. No one would be surprised if he privately wished to re-start his career in another city. But, it seems that McNabb has just gotten used to how things work in one of the toughest sports towns in the country.

He has responded to the adversity admirably thus far in his career, and judging by the way his knee seemed to be coming around late in the season, most signs point to him doing it again.

For the whole article, see our Off the Record blog with sports editor Micah Warren!

Yes, it could happen. Remember the Super Bowl of the 2001 season? The underdog Patriots came in with no shot against The Greatest Show on Turf. They were lucky to be there and had no chance against the offensive superpower that was the St. Louis Rams. Well, whether they cheated or not, they won (and by the way, cheating only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Wait…do I have that right?). [...]

The world looks to the Patriots and Giants as they do battle Sunday — will it be Michael Strahan or Junior Seau who takes home their first Super Bowl ring?

But while the focus is on sports and Mexican journalists proposing to Tom Brady, I decided to look at what some people below the radar are doing to prepare for football’s annual gluttony festival.

Here in Boston, RC SILK is waiting for the final gun to sound so they can flip the switch on either the Patriots or the Giants Super Bowl XLII championship “locker room” t-shirts. The Giants one is traditional, while the Pats shirt makes specific mention of the “Perfect Season — 19-0.”

Reps from Reebok, whose label will be on all the shirts, are standing by at RC’s 20,000 sq. ft. facility in South Boston to help get the shirts to dealers.

“RC Silk is proud to offer its full production capabilities to this event: three fully automated, pneumatic/servo, multi color industrial printing presses, feeding a gas powered, 800,000 btu, 72″ belt drier,” the company said in an email Friday. “RC SILK operates the largest production shop in Boston.”

Over in East Boston, Danilchuk Auto Body is no stranger to ripping apart cars and trucks, but these guys get creative with it!

Danilchuk has done their part to crush the Giants in Boston. Beingin Boston, this auto shop gets to do this almost every year — they made similar displays of the Red Sox against the Rockies in the World Series and the Patriots versus the Panthers a few years back.

Finally, my favorite, Amber, the Louisville Zoo’s 20-year-old orangutan made her pick known by sporting a Patriots t-shirt.

Zoo officials laid two shirts out for her — Giants and Pats — and she walked right up to the 18-0 team’s shirt and threw it on.

Amber is not only a sports fan, but she’s also quite the fashionista. Her t-shirt prediction was part of the zoo’s “animal enrichment program.”

“Animal enrichment is an important aspect of animal management at the Louisville Zoo,” said Animal Training Supervisor Jane Anne Franklin. “Amber and other animals at the Zoo are given regular enrichment that provides them with mental and physical stimulation.”

Playing with T-shirts and other items of clothing is one of Amber’s favorite activities.

“When she is given a shirt, she often likes to take it and rub it across her face and feel the texture before she puts it on. Oh, and she really likes handbags!” Franklin laughed. “If she had to choose between two handbags that might have been hard for her, because I bet she would have carried both of them around and not let them out of her sight.”

Let us be thankful that there are no Super Bowl locker room handbags.

Super Bowl Sunday is coming and you are hosting a big party. You’ve got your HDTV all set up and your huge Houston Texans #1 foam finger ready to go (because you are a Texans fan and don’t really have a rooting interest in the game. Hey, we can’t all make it this far).

But what should you serve your friends? The beverages are easy — a ton of beer and a small box of wine for that one friend who doesn’t like the taste of beer.

Well, Jerome Bettis is here to help with the food. He is working with cardiologist Dr. Richard Collins to help provide healthy Super Bowl food options. They are hosting a Cardio Kick-Off Party that will break the Guinness World’s record for World’s Largest Food Spread.

Hopefully, “The Bus” doesn’t eat the whole thing.

Here are four sorta-can’t-miss recipes that are easy to make and pretty healthy to eat. Now, you can make the case that your friends should fend for themselves because they are a bunch of mooches who never pay for anything, in which case, simply email them this story and have them make these and bring them over.

Let’s discuss.

The Turkey and Black Bean Super Nachos will be a hit for sure. If you are afraid of the ground turkey as opposed to beef, don’t be. You don’t even have to mention anything to your guests. I’ll bet they won’t notice. And if they do, kick them out.

Buffalo Chicken Bites? I’ll eat Buffalo anything.

Creamy Spinach and Hearts of Palm dip. This is the one the host has to start selling to the guests in the fourth quarter. “Hey guys, don’t forget we’ve got plenty of spinach and hearts of palm dip left. Jerry, you want to try this dip? Mark, did you try the spinach dip? There is plenty left. Jack, please don’t tell me you haven’t tried the dip.”

Hearty Game Day Potato Skins. Why the “hearty” and “game day” in the title? Can’t go wrong with these. Potato skins are marvelous.

So if you get stuck with greasy pizza, you can’t blame Bettis.

Turkey and Black Bean Super Nachos

12 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes — Cook Time: 15 minutes

2 Tbsp. Promise Buttery Spread
1 cup finely chopped orange or red bell pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
8 ounces ground turkey
1 can (15.5 oz.) black beans beans, rinsed and drained
1 tsp. chili powder
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 bag (12.5 oz.) baked white corn tortilla chips
1/2 cup low fat shredded cheddar cheese (about 4 oz.)
1 large tomato, chopped

In 12-inch skillet, melt Promise Buttery Spread over medium heat and cook orange pepper and onion, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until tender. Add turkey, beans and chili powder and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until browned. Stir in 1 tablespoon cilantro.

On oven-safe platter or pizza pan, arrange chips. Top with turkey mixture, then sprinkle with cheese and tomato. Broil until cheese is melted. Sprinkle with remaining cilantro.

Nutrition Information per serving: Calories 230, Calories From Fat 60, Saturated Fat 1.5g, Trans Fat 0g, Total Fat 7g, Cholesterol 10mg, Sodium 500mg, Total Carbohydrate 29g, Sugars 2g, Dietary Fiber 4g, Protein 12g, Vitamin A 15 percent, Vitamin C 30 percent, Calcium 10 percent, Iron 10 percent

Buffalo Chicken Bites

36 skewers

Prep Time: 20 minutes — Cook Time: 8 minutes

2 Tbsp. Promise Buttery Spread
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, pounded 1/4-inch thick (about 2 breasts)
2 Tbsp. cayenne pepper sauce
12 ribs celery, sliced into 2-inch pieces (36 pieces)
36 cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup Wish-Bone Fat Free! Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing

In 12-inch nonstick skillet, melt 1/2 tablespoon Promise Buttery Spread over medium heat and cook chicken, turning once, 8 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked; cut into 3/4-inch pieces and keep warm.

In medium microwave-safe bowl, microwave remaining Spread with cayenne pepper sauce 15 seconds at HIGH or until melted. Add chicken; toss to coat.

On 36 wooden skewers, alternately thread celery, tomatoes and chicken. On serving platter, arrange skewers and serve with Dressing.

Nutrition Information per serving: Calories 90, Calories From Fat 20, Saturated Fat 0g, Trans Fat 0g, Total Fat 2g, Cholesterol 20mg, Sodium 240mg, Total Carbohydrate 7g, Sugars 2g, Dietary Fiber 2g, Protein 10g, Vitamin A 10 percent, Vitamin C 20 percent, Calcium 4 percent, Iron 4 percent

Creamy spinach and hearts of palm dip

4-3/4 cups dip

Prep Time: 20 minutes — Cook Time: 10 minutes

2 Tbsp. Promise Buttery Spread
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 bag (10 oz.) baby spinach leaves
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 package (8 oz.) fat free cream cheese, softened
1 cup nonfat sour cream
1 can (7.75 oz.) hearts of palm, rinsed, drained and finely chopped
1/2 cup fat free mozzarella cheese
2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
2 loaves (12 oz. ea.) French baguettes, sliced

In 12-inch nonstick skillet, melt Promise Buttery Spread over medium-high heat and cook onion, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until onion is tender and golden. Stir in spinach and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until wilted. Stir in garlic powder and let cool.

In large bowl, combine cream cheese, sour cream, hearts of palm and cheeses. Stir in spinach mixture. Serve with your favorite dippers.

Nutrition Information per 4 tablespoon serving including bread: Calories 150, Calories From Fat 25, Saturated Fat 1g, Trans Fat 0g, Total Fat 5g, Cholesterol 5mg, Sodium 400mg, Total Carbohydrate 23g, Sugars 2g, Dietary Fiber 2g, Protein 7g, Vitamin A 15 percent, Vitamin C 6 percent, Calcium 10 percent, Iron 10 percent

Hearty Game day Potato Skins

24 servings

Prep Time: 1 hour — Cook Time: 17 minutes

6 large baking potatoes (about 3-3/4 lbs), unpeeled and baked
3 Tbsp. Promise Buttery Spread
3/4 cup low fat cheddar cheese (about 3 oz.)
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup light sour cream
2 large green onions, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 425.

Cut potatoes in half lengthwise. Remove about 1/3 of the potato pulp, leaving 1/2-inch shell (save pulp for another use). Generously brush inside each potato half with Promise Buttery Spread.

On baking sheet, arrange potatoes. Bake 15 minutes or until potatoes are crisp. Evenly top with cheese and tomatoes. Broil 1 minute or until cheese is melted. Top with sour cream, then sprinkle with green onions.

Nutrition Information per serving: Calories 70, Calories From Fat 15, Saturated Fat 0.5g, Trans Fat 0g, Total Fat 2g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 40mg, Total Carbohydrate 10g, Sugars 1g, Dietary Fiber 1g, Protein 2g, Vitamin A 6 percent, Vitamin C 8 percent, Calcium 4 percent, Iron 2 percent

Blast Magazine starts its brand new sports section and introduces its new sports editor, Micah Warren, with a story about reports of dating violence charge against Patriots star Randy Moss in Florida.

Polish off your old Randy Moss Vikings jersey, because that guy is back.

The Patriots star has been hit with a temporary injunction for protection against alleged dating violence. A restraining order is in place that will not allow him to come within 500 feet of accuser Rachelle Washington.

Moss allegedly hit the victim, seriously injuring her and then refused to allow her to seek medical attention.

WDBO-AM 580 Radio initially reported this story last night, but has since taken it down off of their website. Initially, we didn’t think it was true, but now WDBO has a new report on their website that indicates otherwise.

Florida court documents filed January 14 allege dating violence against Randy G. Moss. Moss has a home in Boca Raton, FL.

Moss responded to the allegations Wednesday telling reporters, “all I want to say is that they are false allegations.”

“It’s something I’ve been battling for the last couple days, threats of going public if I didn’t pay X amount of dollars,” Moss aid. “Before people rush quick to judgment, I think you need to find out the facts about really what is really going on. This young lady, by no means, is hurt. I didn’t hurt her.”

The Patriots don’t let much distract them, but with two games left before history is made, this couldn’t come at a worse time. This is about the worst time for a screw up.

This is not the first time Moss has had legal trouble, but even given his past escapades, what we do know about Randy is that he is a choirboy when he’s winning. In 1998, he dispelled the myth that he was a problem child coming out of college by putting up huge numbers and helping Minnesota to a 15-1 record and NFC Championship game appearance. But stay tuned as this develops.

So, if we want to have fun with Randy today, we’ll just have to watch this great music video about his time in Oakland. This is worth watching: