Ellis Hobbs

FOXBOROUGH - Professional athletes usually choose to hit the mute button in their minds to block out the boos of a fickle fandom. But cornerback Ellis Hobbs had the volume turned up Sunday, when the Patriots were booed - and abandoned - by the fed-up Foxborough Faithful during a shocking 38-13 loss to the Miami Dolphins. Yesterday, Hobbs took the opportunity to respond to the fans - and media - he felt overreacted to one poor performance by the Patriots, who sustained their worst loss at Gillette Stadium since it opened for business in 2002.

INDIANAPOLIS - It's not about revenge. There's nothing the Patriots can do tonight that will change what happened in the desert against these same Giants four years ago. Most of the players from that game have moved on. This Super Bowl has zero connection to Super Bowl XLII, when Elisha Nelson Manning broke New England's heart and killed dreams of perfection and immortality. Baloney. Rubbish. Nonsense. Lies, lies, lies. This is all about revenge. It's about driving a Rolls-Royce to your high school reunion and laughing at the cheerleader who ruined your life when she wouldn't go out with...

FOXBOROUGH - The next Wes Welker is out there. The Patriots' playmaking, 5-foot-9-inch wide receiver hears that all the time. He receives mail from fans claiming to know the next undersized player who will make it big in the National Football League. Usually, those fans are short athletes writing for help. They look at Welker, who must stretch to reach his shoulder pads on the top shelf of his locker at Gillette Stadium, and wonder, "Why not me?" "A lot of kids want me to call coaches for them," said Welker, who has become a go-to-guy for high school players entering the college recruiting process.

INDIANAPOLIS — It's not about revenge. There's nothing the Patriots can do tonight that will change what happened in the desert against these same Giants four years ago. Most of the players from that game have moved on. This Super Bowl has zero connection to Super Bowl XLII, when Elisha Nelson Manning broke New England's heart and killed dreams of perfection and immortality. Baloney. Rubbish. Nonsense. Lies, lies, lies. This is all about revenge. It's about driving a Rolls-Royce to your high school reunion and laughing at the cheerleader who ruined your life when...

GLENDALE, Ariz. - The team that had been deified proved mortal when it mattered most. In one of the biggest upsets in NFL history, the New York Giants shocked the previously perfect Patriots, 17-14, last night in Super Bowl XLII in front of 71,101 fans at University of Phoenix Stadium. New England (18-1) picked an awful time for its first loss of the season. Now the records, the 16-0 regular season, the individual awards, the All-Pro recognition, all ring hollow without a Super Bowl ring.

The Patriots reunited Ellis Hobbs with Asante Samuel yesterday, shipping the cornerback to the Philadelphia Eagles. The Patriots parted ways with Hobbs for a pair of fifth-round picks, a pittance compared to the six-year, $57 million contract the Eagles used to lure Samuel from the Patriots last offseason. The trade caught Hobbs by surprise. "Personally, I think it's shocking because you've been playing so many years for an organization," Hobbs told the Philadelphia media.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The Patriots started their season with a 38-14 victory at Giants Stadium Sept. 9. Last night, 112 days later, they ended it with a win at Giants Stadium, perfect symmetry for a perfect regular season. By dispatching the New York Giants, 38-35, the Patriots produced the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history - the league switched to 16 games in 1978 - and became just the fourth team in league history to go through the regular season undefeated, joining the 1972 Miami Dolphins and the 1934 and 1942 Chicago Bears.

FOXBOROUGH - Next. For all the hype and Shakespearean plot twists, the Patriots much-anticipated rematch/grudge match with the New York Jets yesterday at Gillette Stadium was just another ho-hum victory for a team that has turned winning into a routine ritual. Like the postgame handshake between Patriots coach Bill Belichick and his former protégé, Eric Mangini, the Patriots' 20-10 victory was anticlimactic. Scoring a season-low 20 points, the Patriots didn't serve up the revengeful rout the hearty souls who braved the wintry weather had come to see, a point-filled...

Finishing first is not unusual for the New England Patriots. But this accomplishment is somewhat of a surprise. The Patriots became the first NFL team to sign its first-round draft choice, inking offensive lineman Logan Mankins to a five-year deal yesterday. Mankins was the last player taken in the first round of the NFL Draft (32d overall) in April, but the first to sign in part because the Patriots asked their rookies to report sooner than any other team and Mankins's desire to get to camp and compete for a starting job. A year ago, tight end Benjamin Watson, also...

FOXBOROUGH - He ended his holdout nearly two weeks ago, but will Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel be ready to play in tomorrow's season opener against the Jets? "I guess we'll have to wait and see until Sunday," Samuel said yesterday. "I don't know if I'm going to play, how much I'm going to play. I'm just going out practicing and working hard. " Samuel, who signed the one-year franchise tender and reported Aug. 27, maintained that he stayed in shape during the holdout by working out at home, but coach Bill Belichick rejected the notion that the left cornerback is back up to speed.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The Patriots started their season with a 38-14 victory at Giants Stadium Sept. 9. Last night, 112 days later, they ended it with a win at Giants Stadium, perfect symmetry for a perfect regular season. By dispatching the New York Giants, 38-35, the Patriots produced the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history - the league switched to 16 games in 1978 - and became just the fourth team in league history to go through the regular season undefeated, joining the 1972 Miami Dolphins and the 1934 and 1942 Chicago Bears.

There will be ad nauseam rehashing of the Game That Got Away. It's both tempting and torturous, like figuring out how much money would be in your 401K if the economy hadn't tanked. Nothing the Patriots do is going to stop David Tyree from pinning the football to his head like a high school graduate securing a mortar board, or reverse an all-out blitz call that left gimpy cornerback Ellis Hobbs in man-to-man coverage with Plaxico Burress. If we must make the rematch/revenge angle relevant for the Patriots matchup with the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, we...

GLENDALE, Ariz. - There'll be no Hub parade on Super Tuesday. No commemorative books about "Path to Perfection. " In New England, the church bells all are broken. Two-touchdown favorites and touted as possibly the greatest football team of all time, the Patriots were beaten by the New York Giants, 17-14, in Super Bowl XLII last night at University of Phoenix Stadium. An 18-0 season dissolved when New York's Eli Manning found Plaxico Burress in the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown pass with 35 seconds left.

GLENDALE, Ariz. - The team that had been deified proved mortal when it mattered most. In one of the biggest upsets in NFL history, the New York Giants shocked the previously perfect Patriots, 17-14, last night in Super Bowl XLII in front of 71,101 fans at University of Phoenix Stadium. New England (18-1) picked an awful time for its first loss of the season. Now the records, the 16-0 regular season, the individual awards, the All-Pro recognition, all ring hollow without a Super Bowl ring.

Appearances not withstanding, God has still not made up His mind about tomorrow night's New England Patriots vs. Denver Broncos football game. He duly notes that His Visible Servant, reflexive genuflector Mr. Tim Tebow, is quarterbacking one of the teams. On the one hand, how terrific to have Tebow's "John 3:16" antics out-trending the broad-bottomed Kardashians on Twitter. On the other hand, God has seen it all before. Opposing the Mile High God Squad are a ragtag collection of broken-down sinners from once-pious New England.

FOXBOROUGH - Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana famously wrote that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. And it was New Jersey philosopher Yogi Berra who told us about "déjà vu, all over again. " Welcome to Super Bowl XLII, played at the Razor yesterday … yet another close win for the New York Giants over a heavily favored Patriots team. Four years ago it was Giants 17, Patriots 14. This time it was Giants 24, Patriots 20. A lot of the cast members were the same.

Plaxico Burress was the Jets' player who took part in a conference call with Patriots reporters today, and of course his winning touchdown catch for the Giants against New England in Super Bowl XLII was a part of that conversation. Burress, who has 10 catches for 160 yards and two touchdowns in his first season back in the NFL after spending 22 months in prison on weapons charges after infamously shooting himself in the leg in a Manhattan nightclub, called the reception the best moment of his career.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The Patriots started their season with a 38-14 victory at Giants Stadium Sept. 9. Last night, 112 days later, they ended it with a win at Giants Stadium, perfect symmetry for a perfect regular season. By dispatching the New York Giants, 38-35, the Patriots produced the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history - the league switched to 16 games in 1978 - and became just the fourth team in league history to go through the regular season undefeated, joining the 1972 Miami Dolphins and the 1934 and 1942 Chicago Bears.

Plaxico Burress was the Jets' player who took part in a conference call with Patriots reporters today, and of course his winning touchdown catch for the Giants against New England in Super Bowl XLII was a part of that conversation. Burress, who has 10 catches for 160 yards and two touchdowns in his first season back in the NFL after spending 22 months in prison on weapons charges after infamously shooting himself in the leg in a Manhattan nightclub, called the reception the best moment of his career.

FOXBOROUGH - The numbers are certainly impressive, the type of inflated statistics reserved for video games. The Patriots have racked up 1,126 yards of total offense through the first two games of the season - last year, as they scored the second-most points in franchise history, it took them into their fourth game to get that many - as they've posted a 2-0 record for the first time in three years. But while the mark matches the team's start in 2008, the current offense begs comparison to the 2007 squad, which scored more points than any club in NFL history, saw Tom Brady...