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It was great to see the Patriots take it to the Pittsburgh Steelers. So far the playoffs couldn’t have gone any better. Even though as a Pats fan we had to root for the Jets against Pittsburgh or for the Broncos against the Colts it couldn’t be any more gratifying to see the Pats not just play an amazing defense and offense, but to beat both of them without any doubt, questionable call, or lucky break. It so far has been so very different from the first time the Pats won the Superbowl when Brady had a fluke play against the Raiders at the end of the Snow bowl, Pittsburgh cried about a couple of interference calls and someone stepping in bound or out of bounds. We just won the AFC Championship this year and there is no argument about it. The Pats are finally favored for the Superbowl.

So the past few days have been dedicated to Blizzard and Patriots worship. The blizzard gave Sarah and I an excuse to dust off the cross-country skis and to ski to Matt and Kate’s to watch the game. The journey to the game was a fun little expedition including a romp down a sledding hill where I went over a jump in my cross-country skis.

I had been reading anything I could get my hands on that was Patriots oriented in preparation for the game so on Saturday I polished off most of Patriot Reign, the book about the rise of the Pats under Bill Belichik. I always love how sports books cover topics like teamwork. This was a good little passage about Belichik learning about teamwork.

“He believed in some of the principles of the Naval Academy, where one of the traditions is a classic teamwork exercise. The young midshipmen or plebes, are required to climb the twenty-one-foot Herndon Monument after it’s been covered with 200 pounds of lard.”

I also found Scott Pioli, director of personnel for the Pats relationship as a son in law to Bill Parcells while working for Belichik to be of interest. It’s a quick read. Sarah and I had a long ski trip back from Matt and Kate’s. Just at the beginning Sarah was freezing to death because her gloves weren’t warm enough. Drinking a few bottles of wine probably didn’t help.