Congratulations 2007 Undefeated New England Patriots

*photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images*

We interrupt your regularly scheduled year-end countdown to bring you these words.

Congratulations on an undefeated season to the 2007 New England Patriots. The celebrations were subdued however as in two weeks they will resume their quest for the Vince Lombardi Trophy, but the undefeated season almost wasn't.

The Giants were on their game, at least for the first half, and the Pats really got lucky a number of times and almost threw it away on a ridiculous penalty. In the first quarter on the Pats' second drive, on a 3rd down and 14 play, the Giants get called for soft penalty, giving the Pats 5 yards and a fresh set of downs, allowing the Pats to score 6 plays later.

During the touchdown celebration as pictured above, a zebra was almost struck during the play, warranting him to throw a flag for excessive celebration, constituting as unsportsmanlike conduct. That brought the Patriots' kickoff back 15 yards, allowing speedy kickoff returner Hixon to return the kickoff for a touchdown. Had the Pats kept those 15 yards, they might have had a chance against Hixon, who didn't make a return for less than 11 yards all night except for the one touchback.

New York led most of the game, but began to lose their focus and sharpness in the second half, whilst the Patriots seemingly found theirs. Patriots go on to score 22 unanswered points, and that pretty much was the end of that. Giants brought it back within 3, but the ensuing onside kick failed for the Giants, with about a minute to spare for a timeout and a couple QB kneels.

Now if I may shift to the other football, that's soccer to us Americans, hooray for Dimitar Berbatov for scoring 4 goals, a hat trick and then some in a massive goal-scoring fest in Tottenham's 6-4 win over Reading yesterday. Also, cheers to West Ham United for toppling Manchester United yesterday 2-1, no easy feat. Too bad for Everton, just getting manhandled by Adebayor's Arsenal yesterday 4-1.

As Casey Kasem would say, now on with the countdown.

Born under a bad sign / Chupacabra Week

Another heartbreaking loss to my Spurs on Sunday. Up 2-1 at home, Robbo gives up the equalizer, Keane is red-carded after a legal looking slide tackle (yellow card at worst, it was nothing flagrant), then the nail in the coffin in the closing minutes, 2-3 Birmingham City. It's absolutely maddening that last year's quality club have sunk so low with wins only against rubbish clubs Wigan and Derby County. Now with their best scorer on the bench after the red card appeal was rejected, things are still looking grim. Yes, I'm a masochist if you must ask.

Now I'm no comedy writer. I barely have a sense of humor according to my wife. But I will still attempt to write something about Chupacabras, being that this is Chupacabra week, so I offer the following:

Top Ten Chupacabra Books: (Little known fact: Chupacabras are quite keen on the literary world!)

10. Green Eggs and Goats

9. To Kill a Chupacabra

8. Chupacabras and Peace

7. Pride and Chupacabras

6. Chupacabras for Dummies

5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Chupacabras

4. The da Vinci Code

3. How to Win Friends and Influence Goats

2. Jonathan Livingston Chupacabra

1. Goat Soup for the Chupacabra's Soul

p.s. Reward offered for Chupacabra attack on this referee in the Yahoo.co.uk photo above!

Changes, Awards, and Spurs

I've been doing some changes to the blog as you can see - new layout, new titles. I hope you, the reader, like the improvements.

Congratulations to Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox 2nd Baseman, for winning Rookie of the Year for the American League yesterday. Today the AL Cy Young award comes out for top pitcher, and really no-one deserves it more than Josh Beckett, the league's only 20 game winner, and probably most improved pitcher from last year. Next Monday 19/11/07 the AL MVP is announced, which with any luck should be another Red Sox.

Also I should mention congrats to Tottenham on their win over Wigan on Saturday. Clearly they don't belong in the bottom 3 and Wigan was an easy victory. Hopefully it's the kind of rebound win they can use to propel them back to the middle seven and finish somewhere in the middle of the pack and avoid relegation. I chose Spurs at the beginning of the Premiership season as my team to follow because it wasn't one of the big 4, their proximity to Cambs, Bucks & Lincs and my ancestry, but they placed within spitting distance of the big 4 so I had hopes that they would be able to make for some great upset games, although the season under Jol seems to have been lost, and now with one win and one draw under Ramos they are beginning to make strides.

I have also followed Everton and West Ham this season as secondary favorite clubs, and they have been doing better than Spurs, but I won't give up on my Spurs and Robbie Keane. I also considered following Fulham, just being over the bridge from Putney, where some of my ancestors lived for a time, but Fulham is a downright awful club. To dare is to do!