Wes Welker

In the waning minutes of Super Bowl XLVI, Tom Brady delivered a strike downfield to Welker, who split the defense and, like he always does, found himself open.

The result? A very uncharacteristic drop by Welker, who almost never lets a pass slip through his fingers, especially in crunch time. He had just five drops all season.

It was a particularly backbreaking sequence of events for the Pats, as they could’ve been in position to ice the game if he would’ve hung on.

Of course, New England went on to lose to the G-Men, who captured their second title in the last four years.

And, of course, Welker was immediately bombarded with questions regarding the play in his postgame press conference, tears in his eyes and voice cracking.

“The ball was right there,” Welker said. “I’ve got to make that play. It’s a play I’ve made a thousand times, and at the biggest moment of my life I don’t come up with it.”

Lamenting his point, Welker feels he disappointed his teammates and coaches with the gaffe.

“It’s a play I never drop. Most critical situation, and I let the team down,” Welker said, fighting back his emotions.

Upon learning of his self-imposed criticism, many of Welker’s teammates came to his defense, attempting to cheer up the veteran wideout.

“Wes is a phenomenal player and a teammate,” said Brady. “I love that guy.”

“Wes is a competitor,” added offensive lineman Brian Waters. “He’s a pro. One play doesn’t tell the story in this game. There were a lot of things out there that didn’t go the way we wanted.”

“He’s the kind of guy you wanted to see win one,” said fellow receiver Deion Branch. “That one play wasn’t the game. In time, he’ll see that.”

As nice as those sentiments are, it’s for naught in the 30-year-old’s mind — at least for now.

“It’s one that will take a while to shake off, that’s for sure,” Welker said.

An impending free agent, Welker is almost certain to return to the Patriots. However, he needs to be complemented by a vertical threat; Deion Branch and Chad Ochocinco, both of whom may not be back, aren’t those guys.

In any case, it sounds like it’s going to be a long, long winter for Welker and the Patriots, wondering what could’ve been if that routine grab was simply hauled in.

REUTERS/Jim Young

Aside from a jab thrown by Mario Manningham, there really hasn’t been too much trash talk exchanged between the Patriots and Giants in the days leading up to Super Sunday’s super rematch.

That’s changed.

Both clubs, who normally let their play do the talking, began to sound like … well, their mutual rivals over in New York, pseudo-guaranteeing a Super Bowl victory.

It started with Tom Brady, who left the 25,000 fans at Gillette’s pep-rally with this message:

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“We’re going to give it our best, and hopefully we have a lot more people at our party next weekend,” Tom Brady said at a send off rally on Sunday.

Dripping with a boldness only Rex Ryan could utter, that statement came after he privately promised owner Robert Kraft a “better” performance in the Big Game.

Not to be outdone, however, a member of the G-Men fired back with his own prediction.

Prepare to bust out the floats.

“Get ready for a great game on Super Bowl Sunday,” Chris Canty said on WNBC-TV when asked to give Giants fans a message on camera. “And get ready for a parade on Tuesday.”

Canty’s not the only Giant feeling confident, either. His fellow defensive linemen do, too.

“I think we’re going to win the game,” Mathias Kiwanuka told reporters. “You don’t come out here and say we’re going to go out there and give it our best. I believe every guy in that locker room thinks we’re going to win the game. If they didn’t believe that, they shouldn’t be in the locker room.”

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Ochocinco bought 70 Beats By Dre headphones for each of his teammates to have during their flight to Indianapolis on Sunday for Super Bowl XLVI.

Beats By Dre, created by legendary hip-hop producer Dr. Dre, are considered to be among the best — and priciest — headphones on the market, with even the basic model running upwards of $200.

Something tells me he didn’t go the “cheap” route, however. The custom Gold-plated variation he’s sporting in the picture is a tad more expensive, valued at an astronomical $2,400.

And I was right. Per the Boston Herald, Chad dropped roughly $28,000 on the “Beats Pro” model for his comrades.

“S/O to the big homie @ochocinco for buying the whole team beatsbydre’s!!!! #fresh” safety James Ihedigbo tweeted.

What he spent was simply a drop in the bucket for Ocho, who’s making $6 million this season. Still, it’s a nice gesture by the 11th-year receiver as he gears up for his first ‘Bowl appearance.

This year is no different, and the opening salvo has been fired, courtesy of Big Blue wideout Mario Manningham.

On Friday, Manningham made it clear to the Boston Herald that he’s looking forward to facing Julian Edelman.

“I hope he’s out there when we play them,” Manningham told the Herald. “I don’t want to sound like that, but you know what I mean. To our advantage, I hope he’s out there.”

Fair enough, that statement was benign and, actually, pretty reasonable.

Divulging further, however, Manningham couldn’t help but to take a pot shot at Edelman, saying he’d be wise to give up his double duty — receiver and cornerback.

“It’s a different stage,” Manningham said. “This ain’t regular season. That ain’t your real position, so we’re going to try to expose you. It’s all or nothing now. That ain’t your position, this is the Super Bowl and we want you to play that position.”

Edelman, in his third season, has been pressed into the old Troy Brown role for New England, moonlighting as a nickel back in the injury-riddled secondary.

The do-it-all 25-year-old really hasn’t done a terrible job in his new task, holding his own against the Ravens’ Anquan Boldin in last Sunday’s AFC Championship win.

Nevertheless, you better believe Eli Manning, just as he did in Super Bowl XLII , will test New England’s secondary. He’ll have plenty of weapons at his disposal, headlined, of course, by emerging superstar Victor Cruz — a nightmare matchup for Edelman and his defensive back mates.

Officially, he finished with 239 yards through the air and added a short score on the ground. It was a very un-Brady-like performance, a rare sight to behold from the Hall of Fame-bound quarterback.

Despite wrapping up his fifth conference title, Brady told a national television audience that he “sucked,” and later admitted that one of his interceptions, an endzone shot to Matthew Slater, kept him up that night.

Per ESPNBoston.com, Brady vowed to owner Robert Kraft that the mediocre outing won’t happen the next time around, when he squares off against the New York Giants in Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI.

“I promise you I’m going to play a lot better in two weeks,” Brady told Kraft.

Kraft, whose watched Brady guide the franchise to dynasty-status over the last decade, still thinks quite highly of the guy.

“He’s still pretty good in my book. I’ll take him over any quarterback,” Kraft told reporters Sunday after relaying what Brady told him. “I’ve been watching the NFL for a long time and there’s no quarterback I’d rather have.

“He might say he sucked, but we won the game.”

Although the Giants are obviously well-versed on Brady, having defeated him in Super Bowl XLII, a ticked-off Tom Terrific is a force to be reckoned with. He’ll be playing with a huge chip on his shoulder, trying to dissolve a memory from that fateful game which still haunts him to this day.

However, as motivated as Brady is, he’s doing his best to remain even-keeled, and will treat this contest like any other.

“It’s a football game for us. It might be the Super Bowl for everybody else, but for us, we’re going there to try to win a football game, so put all the distractions aside and don’t let anything get in the way of our preparation,” he said. “That’s ultimately what’s most important. This game, everyone will remember for the rest of their life. Hopefully it’s a good memory.”

That’s a far cry from when he scoffed at the notion that the Pats would “only” score 17 points against the G-Men in 2008. It’s a different approach; one he hopes will help earn him his fourth championship ring, possibly solidifying his status as the greatest QB of all-time.

He was recently named the most popular athlete in America by an ESPN sports poll, topping some of the most iconic names in sports history.

After an upset win in the playoffs, Lady Gaga began singing his praises, and now Katy Perry supposedly has a romantic interest in him.

Everybody loves Tim Tebow.

Everybody, except for Patriots defensive tackle Kyle Love.

Love told The Republican Thursday that he’s grown tired of the constant media coverage surrounding the Broncos quarterback, suggesting his 15 minutes of fame has felt more like an hour.

“I can’t speak for everybody, I can just speak for myself. I can say that it does (get old) for me,” Love said. “It gets to the point where you get tired of hearing it. You just have to keep your TV off if you don’t.”

Love went on to add that he’s using Tebowmania as motivation for the Divisional round tilt, a rematch of their regular season contest, which the Pats won handily, 41-23.

However, he should know by now that the spotlight will continue to be focused on Tebow, arguably the NFL’s most polarizing figure in quite some time. After all, his story is one overzealous producer away from becoming Hollywood’s next creation.

What if I told you that Brady, he of the Bill Belichick hush-hush variety, again opened up about his disdain for Gang Green?

Go on, right? As you wish.

According to the NY Daily News, Brady appeared on Boston radio station WEEI on Tuesday and was asked if he enjoyed watching the recent collapse of the Jets, who went from flying high to crashing and burning in a matter of weeks.

Simply put, yes. Yes, he did. Several times over.

“There’s a few websites I like where they have all the New York papers so I read a few of those articles,” Brady said in the paid appearance. “I would be remiss not to. They had a tough year and I’m glad we beat them twice. That was a huge key to our season, that win against the Jets in the Meadowlands. We’ll see them next year. They’re not going anywhere. I’m sure they’ll come back with just as much confidence next year.”

You don’t need a master’s in psychology to read between those lines; sweeping the Jets this year gave him immense satisfaction, and likely a feeling of payback after New York embarrassed the heavily-favored Pats in the playoffs last January.

The “confidence” bit may have also been a jab at coach Rex Ryan, whose brash bravado seemed to work against his squad this season, as they failed to reach the playoffs for the first time in his tenure.

It’d be just like the Jets, as chaotic as the organization is right now, to respond. Only they’d be doing so from their couches, while Brady chases his fourth Super Bowl ring.

Just how it’s always been.

According to the New York Post, Belichick let out a colorful statement as he exited the MetLife Stadium field with his son, Stephen, on Sunday night — one that’s both uncharacteristic and unbecoming of the 59-year-old.

“Thirty-seven points on the best defense in the league, s— my d—,” the Patriots coach said in celebration.

If you’re somehow failing to read between the lines, that horrible mental image barb was sent directly toward Rex Ryan and his highly-touted defense, which surrendered nearly 400 yards and looked overmatched against Tom Brady and Co. for most of the evening.

Of course, the media relayed the message to Ryan on Monday, fishing for a trademark reaction from the walking soundbite. Instead, his response was pretty ho-hum, considering what we’re used to from the boisterous coach.

“That tells you how big a game that was for both teams,” Ryan said Monday. “I don’t take offense to it. Quite honestly, I said the exact same thing to my son when we were walking off the field after we beat them in the playoffs about their offense being the No. 1 offense in the league. I’ve got no problem with that.

“It’s something I’ll bring up to him after we beat them in the playoffs again this year.”

As for Belichick, his tight-lipped demeanor quickly reverted back to its usual state when asked about the comment on WFAN radio in New York.

“Any conversations I had privately I’ll keep private,” he said.

While it’s surprising to hear someone like Belichick, whose personality typically remains the same in victory or defeat, utter such a graphic remark toward an opponent, he earned the right to brag after re-taking sole possession of first place in the AFC East, and helping to make history in the process.

After beating the Jets on Sunday Night Football in convincing fashion, 37-16, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick earned win number 117 together, and became the winningest head QB-HC tandem in NFL history.

Previously, another notable duo in football lore — the Dolphins’ Dan Marino and Don Shula — held the record with 116 wins.

As mentioned, both Brady and Belichick were instrumental against the Jets. Brady threw for 329 yards and three touchdowns, tearing through an overwhelmed Jets secondary, with tight end Rob Gronkowski (8 catches, 113 yards, two scores) as his weapon of choice. He continually sidestepped pressure from New York’s defense, avoiding sacks and delivering pinpoint throws without missing a beat.

Belichick completely outclassed and outcoached Rex Ryan‘s bunch on national television with a defensive gameplan that befuddled quarterback Mark Sanchez for a majority of the contest. He made his D, which ranked dead last, into a group reminiscent of Ryan’s with various blitz packages, masking a complete lack of talent. It lead to 4.5 sacks from defensive end Andre Carter, whose resurrected his career in New England.

Brady and Belichick will aim for No. 118 next Monday night, when they happily welcome the Chiefs into Foxborough for what could very well end up as another rout.

And with the next active duo of Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin sitting at 64 wins, it’s safe to assume their throne won’t be touched for a while.

Per ESPN.com, the NFL has flexed the Week 13 contest between the Colts and Patriots out of its original “Sunday Night Football” timeslot. The game, which takes place on December 4, will now be played at 1:00 p.m. ET and broadcast on CBS.

The league has until November 22 to decide on a replacement for SNF. Flexible scheduling after Week 10 ensures the best games are the one’s nationally seen.

My, how the times have changed. Every year they meet, the Peyton Manning-Tom Brady duel is hailed as must-see TV, with each game typically leaving you on the edge of your seat. Now, with Manning sidelined indefinitely and Indianapolis reeling at 0-9, no one wants to tune in to see a one-sided bloodbath.

In Week 7, the Colts visited New Orleans on Sunday night and were bludgeoned by the Saints, 62-7. Against the Pats, there’s a high chance a laugher of that nature could take place again. Thankfully, we — nor Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth — won’t have to endure it again on a grand scale.