Patriots

Key: New England's Leigh Bodden had three interceptions, starting with a 53-yard touchdown return for the first score of the game. The Patriots picked off four of Mark Sanchez's passes and gave up only one touchdown and 226 yards. Patriots said: "There was a lot of emotion from last week, not finishing the game. We definitely wanted to finish this game." -- Bodden, referring to the team's loss at Indianapolis Jets said : "I have to play smart. I tried to do a little much against a great defense."

A Newport Beach woman who arranged for a former NFL player to kill her wealthy boyfriend in a 1994 plot to collect $1 million in insurance money was sentenced Friday to life in prison. But sentencing for onetime New England Patriot linebacker Eric Naposki was continued to Aug. 10 after he refused to leave his courthouse holding cell. The prosecutor called Naposki's actions "a final blaze of no class and cowardice" by the man who fired six gunshots into the chest of Bill McLaughlin, who died in his Balboa Coves home.

A nurse rocked him awake as pale dawn light crept into the room. "C'mon now, c'mon," the nurse murmured. "Time to get up." Reggie Lane was once a hulking man of 260 pounds. Friends called him "Big Dad." Now, he weighed less than 200 pounds and his brain was severely damaged. He groaned angry, wordless cries. The nurse moved fast. Two bursts of deodorant spray under each useless arm. Then he dressed Lane and used a mechanical arm to hoist him into a wheelchair. He wheeled Big Dad down a hallway and parked the chair in a beige dining room, in front of a picture window.

No. 21 New England Patriots: DE Chandler Jones, Syracuse - - Jones believes his biggest career strides were made during the off-season before his final year when he participated in mixed-martial-arts workouts with his brother, Ultimate Fighting Championship star Jon “Bones” Jones. Comment: With Mark Anderson now in Buffalo, the Patriots badly needed to beef up their pass rush. Jones is very versatile. MORE Photos: 2012 NFL draft picks First round of draft is a rush to judgment NFL considers suspending Pro Bowl after 2013     NFL draft: Patriots take DE Chandler Jones of Syracuse at No. 21  

The NFL has outlawed gambling. Clearly, New England missed the memo. The Patriots took one of the biggest, most mystifying gambles in memory Sunday night, and paid the price when it backfired. In the strangest chapter of their storied rivalry, the Indianapolis Colts scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter -- the last coming with 13 seconds left -- to beat the Patriots, 35-34, at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Colts improved to 9-0 and, by getting past their most fearsome threat, claimed the early inside track toward home-field advantage in the playoffs.

With two weeks remaining in the NFL's regular season, there are still dozens of scenarios that will put teams in or out of the playoffs. But New England and Cincinnati can find comfort in those four little words: Win and we're in. The Patriots play host to Jacksonville on Sunday and can clinch the AFC East with a win or tie. The same goes for the Bengals, who play host to Kansas City with the AFC North within reach. "We still have the opportunity to obtain our first and No. 1 goal, and that's to win this division," Bengals Coach Marvin Lewis said.

After New England won at Denver last month, Tom Brady met Tim Tebow at midfield and offered the second-year Broncos quarterback some words of encouragement — including "we'll see you again. " That reunion came sooner than many expected. "I'm excited," Brady said Monday, when asked about his reaction to Denver's jaw-dropping overtime victory in a first-round game against Pittsburgh. "And I'm sure there's not a lot of guys on our team that slept great last night. " Even though throwing the ball isn't his forte, Tebow put together a masterful performance against the Steelers, throwing for a season-high 316 yards — including the 80-yard game-winner to Demaryius Thomas on the first play of overtime — with a passer rating of 125.6, best in Broncos postseason history.

Rex Ryan's massive phone-a-friend campaign wound up a party line. Days after the first-year New York Jets coach recorded a phone message urging fans to crank up the energy for the New England game, his team pulled off a huge upset Sunday. Not only did the Jets win, 16-9, knocking off a franchise that had beaten them eight consecutive times at the Meadowlands, but New York also became the first team to keep the Patriots out of the end zone since Miami on Dec. 10, 2006. Before the other 31 NFL coaches scramble to make recordings of their own, everyone should get this message: You can't phone in victories.

First, we turned back the clocks. Then the NFL did. Four years after upsetting New England in the Super Bowl, the New York Giants did it again Sunday, knocking off the Patriots, 24-20. New England was favored by nine and had won 20 regular-season games in a row at home. San Francisco improved to 4-0 on the road by winning at Washington, 19-11. The 49ers have their best record away from home since 1992, and all four of those victories have come in the Eastern time zone — once a dead zone for them.

Please have someone remind that idiot Chris Simcox [of the Civil Homeland Defense Corps] about Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, a Marine killed in Iraq ("Patriots on the Borderline," by Dan Baum, March 16). Gutierrez, who was posthumously granted American citizenship, entered this country illegally but wanted to repay his adopted country by serving in the Marines. Gary Lapinsky Via the Internet

No. 25 New England Patriots: ILB Dont'a Hightower, Alabama - - Hightower, who made the calls and defensive adjustments for Alabama last season, was a finalist for four national awards last season and had career highs in tackles (85) and sacks (four). Comment: The Patriots make another move to fortify their defensive front. Hightower is huge and likely will come off the field in passing situations. MORE Photos: 2012 NFL draft picks First round of draft is a rush to judgment NFL considers suspending Pro Bowl after 2013     NFl draft: Patriots get Alabama ILB Dont'a Hightower at No. 25  

SPYGATE New England Coach Bill Belichick is fined $500,000 and the Patriots are fined $250,000 and forfeit a first-round draft pick for taping the signals of the New York Jets' defensive coaches during a game on Sept. 9, 2007. HORNUNG-KARRAS Green Bay Packers star running back Paul Hornung, the 1961 NFL most valuable player, and Detroit Lions All-Pro defensive tackle Alex Karras are suspended for the 1963 season for betting on NFL games and associating with gamblers.

Within hours of creating one its most glorious moments, the pro sports world exposed one of its dirty little secrets. Hours after the New York Giants' dramatic Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday, the losing team threw a loud party where two key players, tight end Rob Gronkowski and tackle Matt Light, stripped off their shirts and joyfully danced onstage. The video went viral , and plenty of people got sick. Many Patriots fans couldn't understand it. A least one notable former Patriot couldn't accept it. "There's no reason for that to happen … it's not right," said former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison on ESPN Chicago Radio 1000.

Another ratings record, another halftime controversy. What else could it have been but the Super Bowl? Sunday's NFL championship set another TV ratings record, the latest evidence that the Super Bowl has become the equivalent of a nationwide secular holiday, with all the attendant hoopla and partisan bickering one might expect. An average of 111.3 million total viewers tuned in to NBC's coverage, according to figures from Nielsen, watching the underdog New York Giants hold off the New England Patriots 21-17 in a seesaw match that went down to the final moments.

If this was not the end of the New England Patriots dynasty, you could certainly hear it from here. On a night the New York Giants stole their Super Bowl, mistakes filled their hands, recklessness rocked their focus, and mortality rumbled in the distance. On a night when Lucas Oil Stadium was filled with rock-star roars for Giants quarterback Eli Manning and his team's 21-17 victory, the disillusionment that engulfed the Patriots late Sunday sounded very like a farewell. You could hear it in the clack-clack-clack of the high heels of Gisele Bundchen as the supermodel furiously chased husband Tom Brady while he sagged down a hallway toward the interview room.

His older brother built this house. Sunday, Eli Manning raised the roof. The sleepy-eyed New York Giants quarterback woke the past, beating the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl for the second time in four years -- a 21-17 victory at Lucas Oil Stadium. In the 2008 game, the signature play was an against-all-odds completion to David Tyree, who pinned the ball to his helmet as he fell to the ground, a catch that set up the winning touchdown in the final minute. This time, the rub-your-eyes reception was a 38-yarder dropped into the hands of Mario Manningham on the first play of the drive to another last-minute winning TD. He beat two defenders and just got his feet in before tumbling out of bounds.

The New England Patriots' pursuit of perfection produced record ratings Saturday night on a trio of networks. The unprecedented simulcast on the NFL Network, CBS and NBC averaged 34.5 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen estimates -- the largest audience for any telecast this season. Three previous Patriots games on CBS this season had averaged 29 million viewers or more. The game was the most-watched NFL regular-season contest since a Dallas-Kansas City matchup on Thanksgiving Day drew 35.7 million viewers on NBC in 1995.

Reporting from Indianapolis -- It's a strange time for the Manning family. Eli just won the Super Bowl, and Peyton is almost certainly on his way out of Indianapolis, with the Colts eyeing his successor in Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck . The brothers' father, Archie Manning , said this Super Bowl win was particularly special because it came in the town where Peyton created so many memories. "I think it's special because of the city here," Archie said. "This city has meant a lot to our family for 14 years, and I've been here all week.

Reporting from Indianapolis -- You're wrong. I know what you're thinking, what most of America is thinking, and you're wrong. You're thinking the New York Giants are going to win the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots on Sunday, and you're thinking it might not even be close. After watching the Giants roll through the playoffs by putting a "discount double check" on Aaron Rodgers and a postgame head slap on Jim Harbaugh, you feel it in your gut. After watching the Hoodie slowly wrinkle and Gisele's husband slowly wilt, you know it in your soul.