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About Kerry Byrne
Kerry J. Byrne created the revolutionary Cold, Hard Football Facts concept and is the nation's foremost authority on the "gridiron lifestyle" of beer, food & football. He's also food and drinks writer for The Boston Herald and has spent much of his "career" traveling around the beer-making capitals of the U.S. and Europe while writing for Esquire, Yankee Magazine, Penthouse (yes, that Penthouse), Cargo, America Online, Epicurious.com, Boston Magazine, All About Beer and many other newspapers and magazines, most of them highly disreputable.
MOST RECENT COLUMNS
02/03/10 06:46 EST
There are three things a team and its fans must do to ensure a successful Super Bowl Sunday: win the passing battle, win the turnover battle and, naturally, win the tailgate battle.
It looks like one team is poised to do all three on Sunday. It starts, as every NFL game does, with the respective quarterbacks.
Drew Brees vs. The Chosen One
Over at Cold, Hard Football Facts, we dubbed Peyton Manning “The Chosen One” because of his unmatched pedigree. You know the family story. Don’t need to rehash it here. Three Legends of the South. First Family of Football, blah, blah blah. You also know that Peyton’s the most prolific of the bunch, a record-setting quarterback in both college and the NFL destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He’s great. One of the best ever. We don’t doubt that.
But with pedigree comes the benefit of the doubt. All else being equal, the pedigree tips the scales in the court of public opinion. Pedigree is why a
01/27/10 07:11 EST
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Is the Patriots dynasty over? That’s been one of the big questions around New England in the wake of another disappointing end to another disappointing season — a fifth straight year without a Super Bowl victory.
I don’t know if it is. But even if the dynasty is over, it’s been one of the great rides in history of sports. In fact, football fans should celebrate the fact that they were alive to witness it.
Here’s a look back at the top 10 signature moments in the New England dynasty. It’s actually an amazing collection of memories that few fans in few sports in few cities have had the pleasure to enjoy.
There are countless moments that would make the cut in most towns, but not here: Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning field goal in the final seconds of Super Bowl XXXVIII; Rodney’s Harrison’s pick-six against the mighty 15-1 Steelers in the 2004 AFC title game; linebacker Mike Vrabel’s not one but two (2!) Super Bowl touchdown
01/20/10 10:04 EST
A certain piece published in this space last week about New England’s need to toughen up and return to its old-school roots went over about as well as Martha Coakley’s Senate campaign.
Local football fans, it seems, are rather attached to the entertaining, offensively prolific but very soft Patriots of recent vintage.
It’s a very unusual turn of events: like the Bay State’s rebuke of its traditional leftist values on Tuesday, Patriots fans have cast aside the football values they once held near and dear.
It was just a few years ago that New England football fans valued tough, hard-nosed football and mocked the soft, losing, late-season efforts of teams like the Colts. Patriots fans once valued gritty wins in January and mocked the Colts every time they collapsed in the winter. Patriots fans once enjoyed winning championships and mocked the Colts for failing to come through in the clutch.
Heck, it was something of an annual tradition for Patriots fans to clog
01/13/10 06:43 EST
Remember a few years ago, when fans and pigskin “pundits” and even a certain quarterback, not satisfied by winning titles every year, clamored for a big-name wide receiver? ’Member that?
And remember when everybody said the dynastic Patriots needed to put some elite weapons around Tom Brady because, um, well … apparently Super Bowl victories in 2001, 2003 and 2004 and two last-second championship-winning drives and a pair of Super Bowl MVP awards weren’t enough?
And ’member the Patriots, two years removed from their last championship and one defensive stop away from winning the 2006 AFC title game and returning to the Super Bowl, went out and grabbed Randy Moss and Wes Welker in the offseason? Do you ’member?
How’d that work out for everybody?
You know the answer. Not so hot. Somewhere along the way, the Patriots voluntarily threw away their super-duper-secret recipe for championship success. And since that day, they’ve
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What a night..!! Where do I begin? I tweeted Saturday night that I thought we were in a great position. We [..] -
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02/07/10 11:40 pm EST The Hat Trick: Let the celebration [..]- 02/07/10 11:40 pm EST
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02/07/10 10:18 pm EST One man's diary from a somewhat [..]- 02/07/10 10:18 pm EST
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02/07/10 07:56 pm EST The Three-Pointer: Celtics forced [..]- 02/07/10 07:56 pm EST
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02/06/10 06:15 pm EST The Hat Trick: It's the same old [..]- 02/06/10 06:15 pm EST
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02/09/10 09:22 pm EST Planet Mikey Theme Song- 02/09/10 09:22 pm EST
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02/09/10 08:49 pm EST Sabres claw back to tie it in [..]- 02/09/10 08:49 pm EST
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02/09/10 04:38 pm EST Super Slip Ups- 02/09/10 04:38 pm EST
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02/02/10 01:08 am EST The Hot List: Best individual [..]- 02/02/10 01:08 am EST
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02/08/10 04:05 pm EST Decisions, decisions: Who would [..]- 02/08/10 04:05 pm EST
Decisions, decisions: Who would fit with C's if they deal Ray Allen? Before we dive into the Ray Allen trade rumors, let’s start with a premise: The Celtics [..] -
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