Who doesn’t love a good, old-fashioned tournament. Draw up some brackets, rank a bunch of teams and let the best one stand at the end.

I consider myself a football and baseball fan first and foremost. The National Football League is my passion, partly based on playing fantasy football, and partly because the game is such a fantastic television spectacle. When it comes to baseball, I’m simply a baseball guy. Right now my view of the Red Sox is hardly what I’d consider glowing, but the game itself has always been my favorite to play and something that I love to coach. I could spend all day shagging flys, hitting grounders and throwing BP. Actually that sums up last Sunday pretty succinctly.

But when it comes to the playoffs, both of those sports are wanting. They pale in comparison to the spectacle that is the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. I’ve been glued to the TV just about every night the past week watching playoff pucks, and not just our beloved Stanley Cup champions. Vancouver-LA, Pittsburgh-Philly, New York-Ottawa, and so on. It’s been awesome.

It got me to thinking, what are the best championship tournaments out there. Why don’t we rank them. I’ve only included one that I actually pay attention to so don’t email me saying that the Premier League’s format is the best because I don’t care, and wouldn’t know because I don’t watch soccer.

7. MLB Postseason

I love baseball, but the MLB playoffs are boring. The games are way too long, and baseball already moves at a leisurely pace. Throw in that the announcers for the most important games make you want to throw a fastball through your flat screen and you’ve got a product in need of fixing, or at least tinkering.

This changes greatly if you’re emotionally invested. When the Red Sox are playing I live and die with every pitch, and it just gets worse as the playoffs get deeper and deeper. I’m pretty sure that October 2004 shaved at least 3 years off the end of my life, but having the 86-year drought end made it worthwhile. Hey, I’m still going to live to be 97, that’s pretty good.

But if you’re not emotionally invested it’s hard to tune in and watch. I’m just as likely to watch reruns of “Seinfeld” for the 20^th time as last 4 innings of Tampa-Anaheim.

6. NBA Playoffs

Like the NHL they have a best-of-seven format, which is nice, but basketball is so different from hockey because there are so few upsets. Right now we all know that either Chicago or Miami will represent the East in the Finals. No matter how much you love the Celtics, who is the team no one wants to play, the fact of the matter is that they won’t go all the way without a billion things breaking just so. Out west it will be either San Antonio, OKC or the Lakers, it just will.

Having so much of the drama ripped out of the tournament before it even starts hurts the overall product. The other thing that hurts it is that the games slow down so much and become more like skirmishes than basketball games during the playoffs.

5. Frozen Four, NCAA

If you’ve never been to one of these then you don’t really understand how cool they can be. I’ve been to two Frozen Fours in person and never miss the championship game.

It’s not quite as exciting as the basketball tournament, because the best teams almost always win. Because college hockey gets so little coverage, there’s very little familiarity with the teams unless you’re the most diehard of college puckheads.

Still, the most exciting game I’ve ever seen in person was the 2004 Frozen Four championship game at the FleetCenter (that’s what it was called back then). Denver survived a 1-0 game over UMaine. Denver was called for a penalty late and had to skate the final minute-plus shorthanded, and Maine pulled the goalie. It was a shooting gallery for a minute straight, but Denver’s goalie stood on his head and the Pioneers escaped with the trophy. It was awesome.

4. NFL Playoffs

I love the National Football League, and the playoffs are fun, but let’s be honest, they’re not perfect. When the field of 12 postseason teams is set we know going in that only a couple actually have a chance to win it all and that some of those teams don’t really belong there in the first place.

The Super Bowl has been very competitive the past few years, but historically you’re just as likely to get a stinker of a game as you are a classic.

Helping to get it into the top five is the fact that the league is so TV friendly and the games are so watchable. Since so many of us do in fact play fantasy football we have emotional investments in some of the players. During the NFC playoffs I smiled every time Hakeem Nicks made a catch because he’s been so huge for me the past two years in fantasy. Of course I booed him lustily during the Super Bowl.

3. World Series of Poker Main Event

Alright, I’m a poker nerd, and if you’re not you think that I’m crazy for putting the WSOP this high. I’m not, though.

Almost everyone that traverses that field to get to the November Nine is a Cinderella Story. Most of them are amateur players that got wicked lucky several times along the way and dodged countless bad beats to have a shot at both immortality and millions of dollars.

You may not consider this a sport, and it’s probably not, but there’s no greater test of endurance, discipline, and guts than the road through the Main Event. Only 9 of 6,500-plus people make it to the biggest stage, and just one of those wins it all. It also gains points in my rankings because it’s the only one that I, personally, or any of my readers probably ever have an actual chance in participating in. It’s the longest of long shots, but there’s always a chance.

2. March Madness

The NCAA gets so many things wrong, and they’ve even messed up the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament by adding those extra teams and screwing up the look of our brackets, but it is one of the best months of sports going.

We love March Madness because of gambling, first and foremost. You may not be betting over-unders and teasing games together every March, but if you’re reading this you’ve at least thrown a 10 spot into an office pool for the pure joy of hoping that this is the year you nail all of the upsets and score all of the Final Four teams. It rarely happens, but the fun is still there annually even if it’s usually the old lady in the far cubicle that picked her winners based on colors and state birds that wins the whole thing.

Pulling for upsets is my favorite part, even though they usually make fill my bracket with more red ink than my ninth grade science tests. Watching the bench riders jump up and down in excitement as prayerful 15-footers swish through the twine is fantastic.

Helping to push this higher up the list is “One Shining Moment,” at the end of the tourney. That horn section, those schmaltzy lyrics, how do you not love it as you watch the highlights? It’s awesome.

1. Stanley Cup Playoffs

The format is perfect. It’s a best-of-seven, so the best team should win. That many games between familiar foes breeds contempt, which has been in abundance over the last week. NHL discipline czar Brendan Shanahan can’t find time for a coffee break because of the never-ending series of dangerous plays during this year’s playoffs, which is a good thing for the hockey fan.

I’m not saying that goonery and thuggery is a good thing, because it’s not, in general. But the underlying reason for the dirty play is just how much this stuff matters to the players. They’re willing to lay everything on the line for a chance to have their names engraved on that cup, which is also the greatest trophy in all of sports.

What’s not to love about the NHL playoffs? You’ve got so many subplots, personal vendettas, hot goalies (a la Tim Thomas last year), horrible goalies (Hello Mr. Bryzgalov and Mr. Luongo), brilliant individual efforts, and best of all, overtime.

There is nothing on earth that compares to the excitement that is overtime playoff hockey. Will it end in 90 seconds, like Game 1 of the Bruins-Capitals series, or go on and on and on and on. I’m a bit sadistic when it comes to these OT’s, the more the better in my eyes. I keep wondering what it would take for the officials to deem that the game must be suspended until the next day. Would it take 6 OTs? 7? 10? One day we’ll find out.

And the celebration at the end is perfection. No matter who wins it, you have to smile when the Cup is handed over to the winning team’s captain and he lifts that thing over his head. The pure joy is unbridled and beautiful. It gets dusty at my house almost every year when I see that thing being handed off to teary-eyed toothless Canadians that have just fulfilled their boyhood dreams.

As a sports fan, I try not to be overly reactionary. That’s part of the reason that I’ve basically given up on sports radio. Sports, especially pro sports, are not about just one game. They’re about seasons and one particular game, win or lose, is only a small part of a whole. The exception to that rule is football, where every game does carry with it a ton of importance, but even there you can afford to have one or two bad days and still be successful.

Because of that point of view I didn’t panic when the Sox got off to a slow start. People were ready to line up at the Bourne Bridge and weren’t considering that they happened to be swept by a pretty good baseball team in Detroit. In Toronto they could have easily won 2 of 3 rather than lost 2 of 3.

Wouldn’t you know it, the Sox came home and won their series with Tampa and are headed back in the right direction.

Unfortunately the skipper of the ship that is the Red Sox seems hellbent on steering the thing into a jetty.

I have never been a Bobby Valentine fan. The guy rubs me the wrong way. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but I do know that a part of it is that everything that comes out of his mouth makes him sound like a know-it-all who thinks a little too highly of his own opinion on matters. He also likes to hear his own voice and doesn’t think before he speaks. He’s basically the polar opposite of the former manager, Tito Francona, whom I’m a big fan of. Francona did things the right way, he kept most matters in-house and stood up for his players. At the end, maybe he did that too much, or maybe it was just time for a change overall, but you can’t deny that he was good at what he did and knew what he was doing.

Today Valentine made everyone wonder if he has a clue about what he’s doing, both on and off the field.

While most of New England was asleep on Sunday night, the new manager he threw his workhorse of a third baseman under the bus on Sports Xtra. Kevin Youkilis isn’t off to a very good start, but the guy goes out and gives his all when he’s on the field. If anything the dude has shown that he cares too much and he obviously puts a lot of pressure on himself to perform, which would explain the helmet throwing and post-strikeout rants that he’s had in the past.

“I don’t think he’s as physically or emotionally into the game as he has been in the past for some reason.”

If that’s what the guy truly believes, he should talk to the player first. Throwing that out into the media before talking to the player is just Bush League. It’s also a good way to lose a guy. Way to go Bob.

Then, this afternoon, during a 1-0 loss to the Rays Valentine showed that he’s not that adept at managing his pitching staff.

Daniel Bard was having a quality start, but certainly starting to run on fumes. The pitcher retired the first two batters of the seventh, but then the converted reliever — whose pitch count was approaching 100 — hit a batter and then walked a guy.

No trip to the mound.

He walked another batter, to load the bases and bring up all-star Evan Longoria. By this time the relievers were ready to go, but Valentine decided to allow Bard to throw pitches 112, 113, 114 and 115. They were all balls. The walk forced in the game’s only run and only then did Bobby V get out his hook and bring in a relief pitcher to put out the fire.

Bard never should have been in that situation. The guy obviously did not have pinpoint control today. He had walked four men before the seventh began. His pitch count was already high to start the inning and with this being just Bard’s second start of the year, after several years of relief pitching, it should have been obvious that the leash needed to be very short in the seventh.

But Bobby V is smarter than us. I’m sure he had his reasons.

Dear NCAA,

The first round of the tournament begins on Thursday, not Tuesday. It always has, it always will. Calling the play-in games the first round is confusing to the millions that fill in their brackets each year. Most bracket commissioners in offices do not even concern themselves with the play-in games. They’re just there, and they are ignored by the public at large. Just look in the stands for these games and you know this to be true, the contests are being played in front of a couple dozen basketball junkies, some cheerleaders and the pep bands. Any actual cheering that is being done is completely drowned out by second rate versions of “Hey Baby.”

In Harvard’s school newspaper on Friday it said that the Crimson had been eliminated in the second round. That makes it sound like they had advanced a round before being knocked out. It is misleading to call it the second round. The Crimson, God love them the rest of the field will be employed by them later on, lost their first game to Vanderbilt. Let’s call it what it actually was, a first round loss.

Call your “first round” what it is, preliminary games or play-in games. That’s what they are. Those teams are not in the field of 64, they have to earn their way in to the actual tournament.

You cannot call these prelims a separate round because they are not a part of an actual round. A round in  tournament is participated in by the entire field, not just a part of it.

And while I’m on my soap box, thanks so much for making it more difficult to follow the games from our cubicles NCAA. You make billions, with a ‘B’, off of the tournament each year. It is your cash cow, so thanks for bleeding us for another $4 to watch the games this year rather than allowing the boss-evading minions at their depressing desks from being able to stream the games for free anymore. Nothing makes your fan base more excited than an obvious cash grab by the 1-percent to us lowly 99-percenters that just want to see a buzzer-beater while putting off an annoying task.

Signed,

Rich Maclone … and countless others

I’ve had this piece of paper sitting with my notes for four years now. Whenever I needed a quick laugh I’d glance at it, for the utter absurdity of it all, and get that needed grin out of the way. I owe Mansfield High School a ‘thank you.’

The piece of paper that I’ve been clinging to is a cheat sheet on how to cheer at a high school basketball game that was handed out to the student section at Mansfield High 4 years ago. That night I witnessed one of the greatest high school games I’ve ever seen in person, with a young Nelson Baptiste — a sophomore then, who graduated last year — hitting a heave from about 40-feet away at the buzzer to beat the Hornets. It was excellent (check it out below).

The piece of paper reads: CHANT LIST FOR THE HORNETS NEST. MAKE CONSTANT NOISE!!!

(thanks for the all caps guys, and in 14-point font, we needed that, and three exclamation marks, wow.)

NO Swearing (including sucks & sh**), opponent names, noise makers, signs, horns, no chants about officials.

(not an absurd request, but why can’t I reference my shoe? Also, what’s so bad about signs? How will the hearing impaired know what we’re saying?)

———–

What really cracks me up about what follows are not just the suggested chants, but the explanations they give that follow.

1. “Let’s GO Hornets” 5 claps (start after each quarter/time out)

You know what, I feel that one. However, why do we need to remind the student body to chant the most relied upon chant in sports history. Were they really going to get home and say “I can’t believe we didn’t chant “Let’s go Hornets.” If we had maybe Baptiste wouldn’t have hit that heave.”

2. “DEFENSE” 2 claps (Random times during each quarter)

It really surprises me  that the person that put this together didn’t remind the Hornets fans to chant for the defense when they were playing defense. By this time I’ve come to figure that with the MHS student body you can’t presume that they’ll know the right time to do it. Also, where’s the obligatory hyphen between the DE and the FENSE? Are we making too much of a leap that they’ll insert the syllables in the proper places?

3. “AIR BALL” (Any time a guy touches the ball after shooting the air ball)

Okay, I’m splitting hairs, but what is “the air ball.” It really should’ve read “an air ball.” The air ball sounds like a mystical part of the game that follows the free throw and the jump ball.

4. “You Can’t do that” (After travel or violation)

That chant used to make me laugh, but it’s been played out. I really want kids to start chanting “stop cheating” every time someone travels or is called for 3 seconds, it is infinitely funnier.

5. “AHAHAHAHAH” while jumping (Just like Duke fans to start the game)

Now, I know what they’re referring to is this

But, what it sounds like is that they want their fans to laugh uncontrollably and obnoxiously, more like this

6. “We have _________ (player name)” (After a big shot)

By now I’m beginning to come to the conclusion that this fan section really needs a director because I can’t see the group coming to a quorum on whether or not to use a first name or a last name or nickname. Let’s not even get into the cadence to use.

7. “WINNER TEAM, LOSING TEAM” (Point at each bench, and get faster an faster)

And what time during this pointing and shouting fit do you realize that your tense is completely off. Shouldn’t it be “winning team, losing team” or “winner team, loser team?” Pick a tense and stick with it please. Also, the use of all caps sporadically through this really started to get on my nerves, almost as much as the fact that someone thought a group of high school kids actually needed a piece of paper to tell them how to chant at a basketball game. I’ve been to Mansfield over the years, they’re not a bandwagon group. It’s one of the best athletic programs in the state, I think the kids would have been alright without the assist from a “helper” in the athletics office.

8. Count to 10 quickly while the opponent is at the foul line.

I’ve never seen this done at a game. I want to see if that actually works, I think it would be better in Spanish though.

9. “Any phrase” with 5 claps (say 3 times and stop NO NAMES, NO SWEARS)

I picture Eagle One sitting in his cruiser on Route 3, sipping his tea while clocking speeders chanting “Write your blog, write your blog, write your blog.” He has a hard time with the no names and swearing part though.

10. “Who was that to” (after a bad pass out of bounds)

Well, we’re going out on a whimper. Which seems fitting with this list of suggested chants. I’d still like to know what Mansfield has against shoes though.

The Patriots losing was always a possibility. It didn’t come out of nowhere like Super Bowl 42, where Patriots fans were so overconfident that we all felt like the Captain of the Titanic. “What do you mean the boat is sinking? It’s unsinkable.”

Unfortunately this Patriots team had pretty evident holes in the hull and they leaked in the fourth quarter. They lost, it sucked, we move on. It’s all you can do.

Don’t blame Wes Welker, the throw wasn’t that good. Don’t blame Tom Brady, he got us there. Don’t blame the defense, they performed better than expected. Don’t blame Coach Belichick, well except maybe for poor drafting.

Let’s not forget, the Pats were on borrowed time to begin with. It took 3 consecutive miracles to get to the Super Bowl, 2 by Sterling Moore (everyone forgets the great deflection after he knocked the ball out of Lee Evans’ grip), and one by poor Billy Cundiff.

It was a fun season. A flawed team lost to another flawed team.

I’m moving on, and I can deal with it.

What’s harder to deal with is not having football in our lives for the next 6 months. Sure we’ve got March Madness on the horizon, The Masters, Opening Day, the NHL and NBA playoffs. There’s a lot of stuff that’s coming up, but none of them are as much fun as professional football.

I used to be a baseball first guy. The Red Sox have always been my first love, but as I’ve gotten older the Patriots have become more and more important to me and they now possess the No. 1 spot in my heart. The Sox are a close second, but the Patriots lead the way.

Part of the reason that the Pats are at the top is because the NFL is so much fun to follow. Thanks to fantasy football and the once-a-week scheduling, I feel like I have a good grasp on every team. I know the most important players for each club. It’s an easier league to follow.

The baseball season is a grind. Once we reach August the games all kind of blend into one. By that time you know who most of the playoff teams are going to be and which teams are awful. Heck I can sit down and watch a Cleveland-Arizona NFL game and get lost in it. I wouldn’t even stop flipping the channels to watch the Indians play the D-Backs.

The Giants are proof positive that a team can get hot late and win it all in football. Yes the Cardinals did something similar in baseball this year, but to watch them rally from 11 games back late in the season, plus play all of those playoff games you would have had to have devoted something like 60 hours watching baseball over three weeks.

Who’s got that kind of time? I wish I did, but this 99-percenter has other commitments too.

With football, to follow your team, its a 3 or 4 hour block once a week. It’s manageable. It’s usually on Sundays, a day of rest for most of us. It’s perfect.

Over the next 6 months there will be plenty of other stuff to fill our time. Soon the grass will turn green and I will be coaching Little League and watching my daughter play softball games. We’ll be able to go the beach, take the dogs to the park and grill cheeseburgers on the deck. The warm weather is a great distraction, and it’s the best time of year to do stuff.

But a part of me will long for the cooler weather that follows and sitting on my couch with a bag of chips and the Patriots on the tube. Football, I will miss you.

The Patriots are going to win the Super Bowl. Okay, I gave away the big payoff at the end, but there you have it. I’m taking the Pats to take down the Giants.

Surprised? Me neither. Yes, I’m a homer. I root for the Patriots and always have. I was made fun of as a kid by the others in my neighborhood because the Patriots sucked (I grew up on Cape Cod mind you, and I was made fun of for rooting for the home team). I latched on to the Seahawks, and later the Eagles, as a kid just so that I had someone to root for that seemed “cool.” It was stupid, but I never wavered as a Pats fan. I just had to hide it from others.

That seems laughable now. Kids growing up around here have never seen anything but success. My son’s surprised when someone other than the Pats is in the Super Bowl.  I tell him to enjoy it while it lasts, but youth is wasted on the young. He doesn’t get it. To him this is just the way things are, to those of us a little more wiser because of years, and the pain of losing, we know better.

That’s why I’m having fun with this run. I don’t for a second believe that the Patriots are the best team in the NFL this year. Heck, neither of these teams are. The best team this year is back in Wisconsin watching, and in my eyes the second best is buying up all the beads they can find for Mardi Gras. The fourthbest is wondering why its punt returner called in sick two Sundays ago.

I thought that the Pats were the third best team in the league, and when the playoffs started I had the Giants somewhere around six or seven. That’s the beauty of the tournament, though. You just have to get there. Both teams survived and advanced. They each got lucky in a lot of ways, but that’s the way it is and here we are

Where we are is a funny place because somehow the Patriots are favored by Las Vegas by 3 points, yet everywhere you look the media’s talking heads are blabbering like the Giants are a 7 point favorite. The Giants have been acting like they’re huge favorites. I’m all for a little swagger, but someone needs to tell Jason Pierre-Paul and Antrelle Rolle to take it down a few notches.

So the G-Men are confident and the “experts” are confident in the G-Men. Is any of this starting to sound familiar? Remember Super Bowl 36, New England v. St. Louis? The Patriots were the lost cause, the Rams were unbeatable. Pats by 3.

I hate to bring it up, but how about Super Bowl 42? David Tyree? Asante Samuel? Anyone? I know, it’s painful, but the roles were reversed. The Pats were the juggernaut uber-team without a chance of losing and the Giants were the to-be whipping boys. But it didn’t work out that way, unfortunately.

Not only have the Giants seemed a bit too pleased with themselves this week, but the Patriots are back to doing Patriots things. They’ve been lying low — well except for Rob Gronkowski’s family — and keeping their mouths shut. They haven’t said a disparaging word about New York, they’ve had fun with one another (Wes Welker’s breakdown of Tom Brady’s hair was outstanding) and they’ve focused on football. Even Gronk, who is just a 6-7 teenager with freakish talent, has kept things quiet and never boasted. He could have easily said “Of course I’m going to play, and I’m going to be awesome,” but instead he just towed the company line.

They haven’t grabbed for headlines. They haven’t been flamboyant. They’ve just been a football team.

Hmmm.

More than any X’s and O’s, this is what I’m hanging my hat on for Sunday at 6:29. The Patriots have gone about their business and seem focused on winning this game. They are relaxed (have you ever seen Coach Belichick look so at ease during Super Bowl week?) and excited to play football. The Giants have been acting like they’re trying to prove to themselves that they belong on this stage and can be the top dogs again. The Pats know they belong here.

Listen, if the Giants win the Super Bowl I won’t be that surprised. Both teams are good. Both teams are flawed. It really is going to come down to which one plays better on Sunday, one game for all the marbles.

I just feel pretty good about casting my lot with the team that is acting like they know how to handle the moment.

I saw a countdown on ESPN today that told me that it was only 5 days, 7 hours until kickoff of the Super Bowl. That tells me we’ve been enduring hype for only 8 days, 17 hours. We’re more than halfway there, but it’s painful isn’t it. Here are some things that are running through my mind as wait … and wait … and wait … and

** This game has to come down to the wire again, doesn’t it. We all remember Super Bowl 42 and the Velcro Helmet Catch and Asante Samuel’s gaffe and then Plaxico’s game-winner. Do you remember when the Pats played the Giants back on November 6?

That day the Pats rallied from behind to take the lead with 1:36 to go, a touchdown pass from Brady to Gronk for 14-yards. Eli got the ball back and drove down the field, and threw a 1-yarder to Jake Ballard with 15 seconds left to win it, 24-20.

** Turnovers are going to be the big difference in this one, I think. The Pats coughed it up 4 times in that loss to New York, a season-high. In the AFC championship game — the Cundiff Bowl — they committed 3, and probably should have lost. Taking care of the football is paramount. If the Patriots win the turnover battle, they can win the game. It’s simplistic, but so true.

** Non-football. Staying eligible to play on a high school team is not that hard. If you don’t do it, you let your team down, and yourself. You can read between the lines here, but I can’t really say any more than that.

** Blake Griffin’s dunk last night was pretty awesome, but was it really the greatest dunk ever? It was something to see, but we live in such a now-now-now society that the superlatives fly a little fast and loose. It was awesome, but I’m not ready to crown it the best ever.

** Rob Gronkowski is going to play. You know it, I know it, he knows it, his dad knows it. That said, I really think Aaron Hernandez is going to have a huge day. He’s more of the speed guy of the pair, and look what Vernon Davis did against the Giants in the NFC title game.

** I’m not an MMA guy by any means. That said, you should go out and rent The Warrior. It was awesome, and I can’t wait to see Tom Hardy play Bane in the new Batman movie now.

** Falmouth High School is having a fantastic winter right now, the boys’ hockey is 9-2-3, girls hockey is 7-4-1, girls hoop is 12-2 and boys hoop is 12-1. That’s a combined record of 40-9-4. I don’t think many high schools in the state can stack up to that.

** Those 4 teams have so many players that are fun to watch. I have a lot of favorites, but a quick list would have to include: Andrew McGill, Maddie Scavotto, Cy Wickersham and Nick Lineaweaver and Elizabeth Knox and Grace Geary. I’m also a fan of: Damien Reid, Devon Soares, Kyle Kasprzyk, Brenna Callahan, Durham Ghelfi, The Taylor Bros, The Cardeiro twins, Cody Murray, Zack Zaino.

** It’s the year of the freshman at FHS. The Class of 2015 is ridonkulous already. Scavotto, Brian Jeffrey, Ben Taylor, the litany of talented rooks on the girls’ hockey team (too many to name), Alexa Johnson, Tommi Gans. All 4 of those varsity clubs have big-time first-year players.

** Speaking of high school kids, I love how many of them are following my Twitter feed, both from Mashpee and Falmouth, and even some from D-Y and beyond. That said, here’s an important piece of advice to all of the Twitterati. What you say on your feed, unless you have a private account, is public record. People can, and will, check up on you. If you are out doing stupid things, and you post it, people will see that.

I’ve said this before, and I will say it again. When I was younger, when your parents were younger, when your coaches were younger, they too did stupid things. The big difference was and is, we did not document our idiocy for the world to see on Facebook and Twitter. If you post photos and status updates that are against the rules of what athletes/students are allowed to do, you will get noticed by someone that you don’t want to see it. Maybe a parent, maybe a coach, or maybe someone from another school that would love for you to miss a couple of games due to a suspension.

One of these days I’m going to hold a social media symposium at one of the schools.

** Mashpee deserves some love too. Who is filling up my notebook there? Zak Orcutt, Cody Bingham-Hendricks, Kevin Frye, Taylor Nickerson, Kyle Murray, The Conaways, Summer Fierro, Morgen Morris (when she’s healthy), Riley Taylor and Romeo Grey jump to mind. That’s just a quick list. Oh, and Jared Taylor may be playing mostly JV minutes, but he’s hard to miss with the shock blonde hairdo.

It’s been a long time since I’ve strained my voice like that. The next door neighbors, who I suspect are up to nefarious things by the way (another story for another day), probably heard my joyful noise. I suffered a nearly dislocated nose when my son ran full speed into my face to tackle me for a hug after Billy Cundiff’s game-tying field goal attempt from 32-yards sailed wide left.

It was worth it.

I’m here to tell you that if you said things like “we didn’t win that, they lost it,” or “I don’t feel like the Patriots deserved to win that one” that you need to check yourself.

The Pats won. There are no style points when it comes to professional football. Teams win or they lose, period. The scoreboard is used to account for the points, not how well a team played.

And for that matter the Patriots defense did play well. In my preview I said that they’d need to hold Ray Rice in check. He had 68 yards and never busted one for more than 12-yards. Vince Wilfork may have had his best game ever as a pro. The man was a beast, especially on that key fourth-and-six play in the fourth quarter that forced a turnover on downs. Sterling Moore made two of the best plays of his life when it mattered most, after getting burnt for that third quarter touchdown.

The only Patriot that stood out for not playing well was the one that you expected would be The Man, because he usually is, Tom Brady. Tommy had a bad day at the office, finishing with a QB rating that looked a lot like what Gronk’s Spanish scores probably were in high school (around 57). He still scored a clutch touchdown, going all Walter Payton over the top to put the Pats ahead for good in the fourth.

Sure, it could have been a lot easier if Brady had hit Gronkowski over the middle in the first quarter for TD, or hadn’t thrown 2 picks (that last one on the bomb after Spikes’ INT was especially infuriating). But the Patriots found a way to win the game, and that’s the bottom line.

If you’re seriously going to spend the next 2 weeks worrying about whether or not the Patriots “deserve” to be in the Super Bowl I feel sorry for you. At least it will help you pass the time while we wait out the rematch of Super Bowl 42.

I’ll be working on a full bag of cough drops, trying to get this beautiful voice primed up for February 5.

I’d like to offer a big “settle down” to everyone that wants to keep reminding fans that the Ravens beat up on the Patriots in the playoffs in 2009. We know, we remember, it happened.

It’s also hardly relevant to this weekend’s game.

As I recall the Patriots were without Wes Welker for that one. He blew out his knee in a week 17 game against Houston and watched from the owner’s box with Mr. Kraft as the Ravens scored a 21-0 lead in a heartbeat and destroyed the Pats. Ray Rice had a huge game and the Pats never had a chance.

That game was only about 700 days ago. A lot has changed. For one, Welker is back and better than ever. The Patriots have received a ton of coverage about how they’ve revolutionized the passing game with Gronkowski and Hernandez (we’ll get to them more later). That may be true, but Welker has been a huge weapon for Tom Brady this year as well. WW had 122 catches — one shy of his career high — and over 1,500 yards and 9 TDs. He may be little, but he’s a huge weapon. To me he’s the X-factor in this one. The Ravens are going to try to do everything they can to slow down the Boston TE Party, which will open things up for Welker in the slot, not to mention Deion Branch (51 rec, 701y, 5 TD), who knows how to rise to the moment.

Those tight ends are the ones getting all of the attention, and deservedly so. Rob Gronkowski (90 rec, 1,327 yards, 17 TD) had maybe the best season any TE has ever had. Hernandez would be the No. 1 guy for every other team in the league, except maybe New Orleans and San Diego. He pulled down 79 catches for 910 yards and 7 TDs, and we found out that he can run the ball too. When they’re on the field, Brady is deadly. According to ESPN Stats Tom Brady threw 25 TDs and just 3 INTs when both tight ends were on the field. I think they’ll be on the field quite a bit against the Ravens.

But Rich, the Ravens are a great defense. They’ll pressure Brady and force him to make mistakes.

My counter is that if you blitz Brady, you’d better get to him. If you don’t he finds open receivers and makes plays down the field.

The Ravens were fourth against the pass and third against the run this year, they can ball on D. However, let’s keep in mind they had 2 games against Cleveland to pad those stats, beat up on Cincy twice (who was not nearly as good as their record), not to mention games against St. Louis and Indy.

They haven’t faced any of the top passing teams in the league, except Pittsburgh, who they torched early in the season and then lost a close one. San Diego passed all over the Ravens late in the season and blew them away.

It comes down to the New England offensive line’s ability to protect Brady and give him time to throw the ball. If they do, the Pats win. I don’t expect New England to put up 45 this weekend, but I don’t think they need to. If the Patriots get to 28 they win because I don’t think Joe Flacco is good enough to win this game.

Flacco has been mediocre at best over the last two months of the season. Since November 10 he’s not thrown for more than 227 yards in a single game, and that was against Indy. He has not throw a ton of picks (4) during that stretch, but he’s hardly lighting it up either. Coach Harbaugh does not let Flacco win games for them, he just doesn’t let him lose them.

Rice has been the one solid standout on offense for Baltimore. He’s tough to tackle and he makes big plays. He had over 1,300 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns, plus another 704 yards receiving and 3 TDs. He’s a weapon, no doubt.

While the Patriots defense is hardly a reincarnation of the 86 Bears, they’re not as bad as people think. Last week they looked fantastic against the Broncos, but that was an easy game plan to put together. Historically, though, Bill Belichick lies to take what you do best and take it away and make you beat them another way. The Patriots will look to take Rice out of the equation as much as possible and make Flacco beat them down the field.

That is a recipe for a high-scoring game. The Pats will make some mistakes on defense. The Ravens will have their share of big plays that go for 25-plus yards, but the Pats are also one of the best teams in the league at creating turnovers. New England created 34 takeaways this season, which is better than 2 per game. Certainly they give up yards, but they also steal the football.

NE will try to borrow from the Houston game plan of last week, the team that the Pats would be facing if they had a reliable quarterback (TJ Yates threw 3 INTs, including a horrible one in the final minute). The Texans allowed Rice just 60 yards on the ground, a 2.9 yards per carry average and he did not have a run that went for more than 10 yards. Houston has superior defensive talent than the Patriots overall, but if New England can keep Rice to around 100 or fewer yards they’ll be in great shape. Remember Houston wanted to play at a slow pace and slug it out with the Ravens, the Patriots will look to do the opposite. They’ll break out the no-huddle and try to run the long-in-the-tooth Ravens defense ragged.

My pick: Patriots 31, Ravens 20.

In the other game we’ve got a team of destiny against a team of destiny. Something’s got to give.

I won’t get into the detail I did with the previous game, but here are my quick thoughts on 49ers-Giants.

Everyone under the sun is picking the Giants. They keep saying how great it is that they can pressure the passer without blitzing and that the defense is rock solid. That’s great against teams like New Orleans and Green Bay, and they deserve a ton of credit for going to Lambeau and winning last weekend, but I’m not so sure it’s that big a deal against the 49ers.

San Francisco is one of the most balanced defensive teams in the league. This is hardly the old days of Montana-to-Rice. They’re smash mouth football players that don’t mind settling for field goals and will hit you square in the jaw on every play. The big question mark with the 49ers has been quarterback Alex Smith, but I’d say he answered a lot of questions with two of the gutsiest drives of the season of the year inside the last 3 minutes of last week’s game against the Saints. The dude came through in a big, big way.

This Giants team has been a Jeckyl and Hyde crew all season. Let’s not forget that they were just 9-7 and needed to win a showdown against Dallas on the final night of the season just to get into the tournament. They’ve already played 2 playoff games, blowing out Atlanta and then Green Bay. New York has been too inconsistent this year, winning 3 straight games just once.

These two teams played earlier this season, in San Fran, and the 49ers hung on for a 27-20 win that day. I really love the way San Francisco is playing and I think they do it again. I know that the Patriots fans are pining for a rematch of Super Bowl 42, but I don’t see it happening. We’ll have to settle for stories about how Tom Brady loved the 49ers as a kid for 2 weeks.

My Pick: 49ers 30, Giants 24

To set the tone for the weekend, here’s one of the best football movie speeches ever, Al Pacino’s “Inches” speech. Don’t click if you don’t mind a couple of bad words. If they don’t bother you, enjoy …

This season I completely backed the Tim Tebow experience and I stand by it. I was rooting for Tommy and not Timmy on Saturday night, though, because blood is thicker than water — even the kind that Tebow can supposedly walk on — and the Pats are like family.

During the game I was ecstatic to see the Pats defense lay to waste the Denver “attack.” New England’s dominance just magnified the disaster that was the Pittsburgh game plan a week earlier. I still can’t figure out why Mike Tomlin and Dick Lebeau decided to dare Tebow to beat them with the long ball. Did they not have any confidence at all in their linebackers? Sure New England’s defensive line was a lot more healthy than Pittsburgh’s was, but the Steelers could have won that game if they had played their safeties deeper and made Tebow throw over the middle and hit the mid-distance routes. In the end, though, I’m glad that they were so dumb because the Pats were allowed a cakewalk in the divisional round, which bodes well going into the AFC title game on Sunday afternoon.

I will get more into the Ravens on Friday afternoon. I watched most of their game against Houston, but I’m saving my thoughts on them for the breakdown.

As for the NFC, it was a wow weekend. I was in the press box at Falmouth Ice Arena watching the FHS girls’ hockey team battle Hingham (what a game that was, by the way. FHS tied the No. 4 team in the state, 2-2) when I checked ESPN and saw that the game was going to the wire and in doubt. Thankfully I know of a couple of nefarious web sites that Homeland Security does not like that streams games online. I found the 49ers-Saints feed, via the United Kingdom, and enjoyed the last 3 minutes of craziness that ensued. That game is an NFL Films masterpiece of the future. The only thing that could have made it better was if Gus Johnson were calling the action, and he might have had an aneurysm, so it’s probably for the best that he wasn’t.

The other NFC game can best be summed up by this great YouTube video.

Obviously it’s all Megan’s fault that the Packers lost, and I’d like to thank her. The lesson learned, as always, is never to put sparkles on your nails before a big game … and maybe not to drop the ball so much.