Nextag.com rounded up some figures and shared them with members of the media throughout the web. Here are some of the facts and figures I found interesting:

• In terms of Patriots’ gear, “Tom Brady continues to be the most sought-after jersey with 8 of the top 10 selling items, followed by Wes Welker.”

• Women’s merchandise account for seven of the top ten most popular Patriots’ items sold online. The most popular item is the “Reebok New England Patriots Tom Brady Premier Team Color Jersey,” with a women’s pink jersey, the “Reebok New England Patriots Tom Brady Women’s Pink Fem Fan Jersey” coming in a close second.

• Despite the usual outcry towards pink and sparkly sports wear for women, two of the top ten Patriots items on Nextag.com are pink female jerseys. Another two have rhinestone embellishment and are in fabric and prints exclusive to women’s styles.

Big thanks to Nextag.com for sharing this data with sportswear geek me. What will I be wearing to the Super Bowl Party I’m working Sunday? Not anything Brady, but not anything Manning either. I’ll be wearing a very special outfit that will represent the two teams that would have made the Big Game…if the AFC and NFC determined their representatives based solely on the first four weeks of the season. I promise to post a photo sometime Sunday on my Twitter feed.

We’ve seen tons of stories throughout the years of athletes persevering through injury or illness to play in the most important game, meet or match of their lives, and many of them have been in the Super Bowl. In a well-done marketing move, the marketing team behind Vicks created the following info-graphic about not letting anything derail you from playing in, attending or watching the game, as well as the best NFL stories that have the healing quality of a good bowl of chicken soup.

It even gives a shout-out for one of the only New England Patriots I can root for, fellow Western New Yorker Rob Gronkowski. A recent fan survey pointed to him as the best example of the Vicks slogan, “In the NFL, there are no sick days.”

(I’m a sucker for info-graphics, what can I say?

I eventually grew up, traveled much more, even lived in a hotel for a year and a half (overflow housing at Binghamton), and realized that beloved Walden Galleria hotel was just a chain. A clean chain, a safe chain, a very nice hotel for a 14 year old on a Girl Scout trip to a large regional mall, but still…a chain.

So part of me was taken aback when Tom Brady may have taken a swipe at Buffalo hotels in a Super Bowl press conference on Wednesday. You don’t like Buffalo hotels? You specifically felt the need to call out Buffalo hotels? I’m sorry that the Rust Belt-but-still-surviving city of Buffalo doesn’t suit the taste of you, your Brazilian supermodel wife and your two small children who honestly just get excited to go swim in a hotel pool regardless of its Triple A star status.

Then the more rational, less defensive, and Boston conditioned side of me took over. He may have a point. Brady only sees Buffalo and the surrounding area during its coldest and grayest months. He’s not spending long periods of time there (unless he gets snowbound in the Hyatt in Rochester after the World Junior Hockey Championships prevent him and his teammates from lodging in Buffalo.) And the hotels around Orchard Park, much like the hotels around Brady’s home stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, are like the ones near the Walden Galleria: generic chains or sketchy motor inns best suited for home hair dyed hookers. (Nothing against home hair dye.)

Maybe it was not the best statement to make in public. Maybe he should have picked on Green Bay. (They’re small market too. They just…market their quaintness and sausages better?) But in the grand scheme of awful remarks to make, Brady’s jab ranks pretty low.

(I wrote this post Wednesday evening, before Tim Graham of the Buffalo News summed up Brady’s remarks and Buffalo’s knee jerk reaction perfectly Thursday morning. Read his column here. Brady isn’t the first athlete to bash Buffalo’s tourism, and most likely will not be the last.)

Another note: if any Western New Yorker uses this as an excuse to root for the Giants, I will…shake my head disappointingly (I’m not good with threats.) The Giants are not New York’s horse in this race; they are New Jersey’s. They are just as inherently unlikable as the Patriots. Remember the poorly officiated and entirely devastating Super Bowl XXV? Why would you even consider rooting for the team that caused Bills fans so much heartache twenty-one years ago?

I was 11 and Megan was 6 when we hatched this plan, so there’s a good reason why Megan never named her side of the business.

I even created a brochure in Print Shop for the business during one of the few times I had free computer time in school, but that was as far as we got. But 11 and 6 year old us were convinced that when we were 30 and 25, this would surely be what we were doing with our lives: teaching dance and coaching gymnastics.

Flash forward to 2012. I just turned 30, and Megan will turn 25 in two months. I haven’t worn my tap shoes in eight years, and she gave up gymnastics in 2000 to play soccer (which she ended up briefly playing in college.) I am an educational administrator and part-time sports writer, and she’s in college majoring in mass communications, with a focus in television production.

Earlier this week, I was scrolling through Twitter while zombie-fied, since my weekend was a blur of taking care of my food poisoning stricken husband. I came across a Tweet regarding the American Cup, a gymnastics competition at New York City’s Madison Square Garden at the beginning of March. And in my sleep deprived and stress filled state, I hatched an idea.

I remembered that my sister was in the process of building her portfolio with a variety of print and video work in order to apply for internships. In my writing career, I have never really covered a gymnastics meet. What if we channeled our little kid selves and joined forces to cover the American Cup and the concurrent Nastia Lukin Cup? Megan would create some great pieces for her portfolio, I would get to cover a gymnastics competition and we would get to go watch live gymnastics together, something we haven’t done since the 1999 US Classic (where we both tabbed then child elite Chellsie Memmel as a future world champion. Call Miss Cleo, because we’re psychic!)

So I proposed the idea to my sister, who, since we shared a bunk bed for a decade, grew up having to hear and eventually learning to tune out all of my crazy ideas. But kudos to her – she listened, and immediately jumped on board.

Hopefully, if all goes as planned on March 2nd and 3rd, we’ll be doing some sort of coverage on two of the biggest gymnastics events on American soil this year. What we’ll be doing is still up in the air – will we just buy tickets, tweet from the stands and write recaps? Will we get press passes and do more multimedia coverage? Like our business dreams of nearly twenty years ago, we have some details to work out. But both Megan and I think our 11 year old and 6 year old selves would think that our plans were, in appropriate 1990s slang, “totally radical.”

From the Kansas City Star.

Maybe that was the first whole football game you watched. Maybe it was the thirtieth. Maybe your father has gotten you into the great sport of football because he doesn’t have any sons…yet. Maybe you desperately wanted to hang out with your older siblings or uncles and were watching football in order to do so. Maybe you were at your friend’s giant game watch party in her giant house and her seven brothers and sisters and all of their friends.

Maybe it was your turn in the awesome wicker hanging chair in the den (quite the hot commodity in a party fill of 40 kids from the ages of 5-18) when Billy Cundiff’s kick went wide left Sunday afternoon, sealing a win for the New England Patriots and costing the Baltimore Ravens a chance at the Super Bowl.

You’ll probably remember that exact moment for the rest of your life. It’s either the moment where you gave up on football forever, or discovered how intriguing and mysterious football – and sports in general – can be.

Sport shows us an important life lesson: that the almost certain isn’t always guaranteed, that what seems a given is not always granted. The Ravens missed field goal showed you that on Sunday evening, and it may be the first time you’ve experienced the phenomenon, but it will not be the last. As you get older, you’ll find that the man who you’re “certain” is “The One” unceremonially dumps you out of the blue. You’ll find that the career you thought was “certainly” your destiny isn’t what you end up doing at all. You’ll find that the almost anything guaranteed has an annoying catch that ruins its perfection. But you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, take a shot of espresso (or when you’re old enough, vodka), smile and continue on. It’s life, and you’ll always remember the first time you learned that nothing is a given in life.

If you decide to stay a football fan despite Sunday’s disappointment, you are in for more lows but some wonderful highs. There will be seasons where your team actually makes it to the Super Bowl, but is trounced by an overbearing loudmouth Texas team. There will be times, however, that while your team is losing massively in that Super Bowl, they’ll make those brazen Texans look like fools.  (Wikipedia “Leon Lett” for more information.) There will be seasons where your team sets an NFL record, coming back from a 32 point deficit in a playoff game on the arm of a backup quarterback to advance to the next round. There are those years where your team starts well, then signs their mediocre quarterback to a knee-jerk long-term contract, then loses all of their useful offensive targets due to injury, and then their only playmaker left standing gets benched in the season’s final game because he decided to write “Happy New Year” on his undershirt and show it off after a touchdown.

There are going to be years like that, and they will outnumber the good years.

I was in your shoes on January 27, 1991, watching Scott Norwood’s kick sail wide right of the goal posts during Super Bowl XXV, sealing the Buffalo Bills’ loss to the New York Giants. Like Norwood and “wide right” for me, Cundiff and the words “wide left” for you will always make you shiver, stick out your tongue, scrunch up your face or just give you the bitter taste of burnt coffee in your mouth.

It’s the type of play that either cements your fandom, extinguishes any interest you had in football, or peaks your curiosity and love of sports in general. If it wasn’t for Scott Norwood and the emotional reactions of the people around me to that play over 20 years ago, I don’t think I would be obsessed with telling the layered and nuanced stories that sports create.

The seemingly bad aftermath of Cundiff’s miss (and Lee Evans’ muffed catch the play before) may be just the beginning of your lifelong obsession with sports. And if it is, then welcome.

I told myself to just watch the game. I left my notepad in the car, and didn’t even carry a pen with me. I told myself I wouldn’t tweet either, since the service at the Garden when filled is seriously lacking.

Despite my attempts to just enjoy the game, I still had two quick notes I had to write up post-game. You can take the tools away from the writer, but you can never make them stop thinking like one. Here they are:

- Speed-  There was a time a few years back when I would attend an NHL game and be instantly impressed at the speed difference between the pro game and the college game. The difference was marked – the pro game moved quicker, players not only skated faster but had better skating skills, and a player’s reflexes were that much more automatic.

The last two times I’ve attended a Bruins game, that difference has drastically decreased. It could be possible that it is because I’m simply not getting to games to make the comparison as often. But it just seems that since 2008, hockey observers have seen a marked improvement in the quality of play of college hockey players. The quality of passes and puck work in the NHL has decreased at the same level the college game has increased. Skating skills and speed in both the pro and college game have woefully decreased (qualities I didn’t learn how to evaluate until I started watching hockey with hockey players, but once I did, you can’t help but notice stride, edge security and speed.)

There is no longer that marked difference, that “wow – this is a different level” feeling, when you watch a NHL game as opposed to a college game. That’s equal parts wonderful for college hockey and a shame on the pro game.

-Seguin’s Shifts Off - Talented Tyler Seguin is still a teenager. Though you cannot deny his playmaking abilities and his contributions thus far to the Bruins, you can’t see his play purely through rose-colored glasses.

Seguin, like other immensely talented young hockey players both before and after him, has two switches. One controls his effort, and the other controls his natural talent. Every shift, a player like him has to decide to turn either one on or both on.

The natural talent switch is stuck on. It’s the switch to that lackluster light in the corner of the living room that provides you with no truely useful lighting source – it’s usually the light your grandmother leaves on a timer to try to convince would-be robbers someone is home.

The effort switch is not a given. It’s the light switch on the wall on the other side of the room. You really don’t feel like shuffling over to that side of the room. It’s out of the way of your final destination: the couch. Unless you are going to read or type and really need that light, there are times where you just don’t want to take the extra amount of energy to flip it on. You’ll rely on the lackluster light and the glow of the television.

Everyone in this world is naturally talented at something, and when it comes to whatever that is, they have those two switches. For Seguin, it’s hockey. Before every shift, he has to make that decision – is he going to expand that extra amount of energy and turn the effort swtich on?

Last Tuesday against the Jets, there were too many shifts where he wasn’t turning on the effort. He’d jump out for a shift and coast. Good plays and meaningful contributions will still happen because he’s talented, but not with the same regularity as they would if he would skate out on a shift with both talent and effort turned on. And that’s why his stats appear streaky at times – he will be on scoring fits and then be seemingly and suddenly extinguished. For example, he went on a six game scoring streak from October 29th until November 12th, amassing eight goals and three assists, and then only scored one assist in the next four games.

Seguin is far from alone. This is the same problem that was always evident to me when Colin Wilson played with BU – he took shifts off, thinking that he could coast on talent, put his stick down on the ice and volia! He’d score or assist magically, without having to try. Charlie Coyle suffered from this more severely. The shifts he turned on the effort shifts were increasingly rare as his BU tenure continued. He relies too much on his wingspan and talent, and doesn’t always put forth the effort that would push his playmaking ability over the edge. Every team has one – the young kid who thinks he’s invincible and superhuman, and can coast on the same talent that made him the star of mites, travel team, high school, and juniors.

Seguin won’t be felled by this for long – he has a tough coach and experienced teammates that won’t allow it. But it nagged me during a few games I watched on television, and when I finally saw a game live and could see the entire ice, it definitely stuck out for me. The “Seguinistas” may sling snowballs at me for pointing it out, but it’s not a death sentence for the talented forward, just a blemish.

In a piece this week, Pitoniak reflected on the 19th anniversary of the greatest comeback in NFL history, the Buffalo Bills defeat of the Houston Oilers in a wild card playoff game. The Bills came back from a 32 point deficit under the leadership of backup quarterback Frank Reich, forced into play after the Oilers injured starter Jim Kelly when the two teams met in the last game of the regular season.

In Pitoniak’s piece this week, he quoted an interview with Steve Tasker about how usually loquacious Bills head coach Marv Levy inspired the team during halftime, despite their being down 28-3:

“All he said was, Don’t ever let ‘em say you gave up,” Tasker recounted. “There was brilliance in his simplicity. He didn’t berate us for crappy play, and he didn’t try to give us some rah-rah speech, which would have come across as disingenuous and phony. We had been to two straight Super Bowls, and he appealed to our pride. It wound up working. We chipped away and kept playing hard, and a miracle occurred.”

To say that I was exactly what I needed to read this morning would be an understatement. “Don’t ever let ‘em say you gave up.” That’s going in my wallet. Marv Levy may have never won a Super Bowl, but he’s provided me with enough kick-in-the-butt quotes and moments to last a lifetime.

(The other piece Pitoniak posted on his site this week is perfect for anyone not familiar with the pre-Indianapolis Colts work of Bill Polian, who was let go by the Colts this week. Polian was a mastermind for the Super Bowl years of the Bills, and did excellent work crafting the early years of the Carolina Panthers. Bills fans would love to have Polian back within the organization, but Polian and owner Ralph Wilson have not been on the best of terms.)

After reviewing the press conference transcript, I decided to decipher Belichick’s statements, and translate them into what he really wanted to say about the Bills.

Belichick said: “Chan [Gailey] and his staff have done a real good job with that team.”

What he meant: ”At least Gailey has kept his job, despite an inability to make smart decisions in the red zone for the last half of the season. He’s done better than, say, Todd Haley. So there’s that.”

Belichick said: “They do a lot of things well; they’re not penalized much.”

What he meant: “The Bills may not be penalized much, but they also make brainless mistakes and mismanage the clock. The way Ryan Fitzpatrick has handled the play clock in the last few games, you would think he never played with one in the Ivy League. So what’s worse?

“And when I say they do a lot of things well, I mean their owners haven’t drawn the intense ire of their stadium’s neighbors by trying to build a Las Vegas style casino on a stretch of road where the traffic resembles sausage being pressured into casing. So there’s that. Oh, and I guess you could give them some credit for those new uniforms. So yes, they do a lot of things well.”

Belichick said: “You have to play good football against them, obviously a lot better than we played the last time. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that but it’s not easy.”

What he meant: “You have to not have a horrific record setting yard allowing defense against the Bills. Then again, that’s the same for every team we’ve played this season. Controlling the inabilities of our defense will be key not just for this week against the potential spoiler Bills, but in the playoffs. Some question our defensive leadership and coaching, but here’s a fun note about my defensive staff: if you add up the ages of the two coaches realistically in charge of the defense – Matt Patricia and Josh Boyer – they are still roughly thirty years younger than Ralph Wilson and Marv Levy.

“But our defense can allow all the yards they want – unless Gailey uses a back besides Tashard Choice in the red zone on Sunday, our questionable defense may be able to keep the Bills at bay.”

Belichick said: “They do a lot of things well; return the ball well. ”

What he meant: “They did a lot of things well, until 17 of them ended up on the injured reserve and they subsequently tanked the rest of the season. I mentioned returning the ball well because it was the only thing I could think of to praise them on. In reality, the Bills only have one return touchdown this year, and rank 22nd in the league in that category. But they are better than we are – my Patriots are a dour 29th.”

————
Buffalo Bills fans aren’t taking Sunday’s matchup against the Patriots lightly. Northtown Automotive, the “official car dealer of the Buffalo Bills”, posted this as their weekend billboard in Buffalo.

The Northtown Automotive billboard for NFL Week 17. (From the Buffalo Bills Twitter account)

I’ll be in the Gillette Stadium crowd on Sunday afternoon, wearing Bills gear and holding my breath. I probably won’t be Tweeting (see my Gillette Stadium guide from earlier this week for why), but I’m sure I’ll share my thoughts as soon as I am able.

Like any stadium, you learn a few tricks and tips after a few visits that make your trip all the more enjoyable. After I attended November’s Monday Night Football Chiefs-Patriots game, I jotted down this list of the tips I’ve learned to share with other non-Gillette regulars.

You will not eat in Patriots Place pre-game without reservations.

There may be 15 restaurant options available at Patriots Place, the outdoor shopping mall adjacent to Gillette Stadium, but no matter how early you get there before game time, you won’t be able to eat at them. Many establishments go “reservations only” before Patriots games. The ones that don’t (like the much talked about “Tony Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill”) have waits up to an hour or more, which is difficult to navigate before game time. (Which is too bad – I wanted to drink beer out of a jam jar.)

No reservations, but you want to eat outside the stadium? Five Guys, Qdoba and Dunkin’ Donuts are your best options, though you probably will be standing while you eat your meal.

Forgot gloves? Need an extra layer? Want a Patriots shirt? Go to Old Navy.

My husband underestimated how cold it was going to be that Monday night, and feared getting price gauged for gloves at the Patriots Pro Shop. As we walked towards Patriots Place from the car, I noticed an Old Navy. “Maybe they’ll have cheap gloves,” I said.

Sure enough, the Old Navy in Patriots Place not only had cheap gloves (we ended up getting a $7 pair that were a bit more tricked out than normal gloves), but cheap fleece pullovers ($12 on sale!) and Old Navy’s newish line of NFL gear. Why go to the Pro Shop and pay $35 for a t-shirt when Old Navy’s are cheaper?

Gillette may be the only acceptable place in America for a Snuggie.

Gillette Stadium security (as with many NFL stadiums these days) is fierce. Not only is there a pat-down, but an intense bag search where even your cell phones is given the once over. The patrons who brought a blanket to the stadium went through an even harder time, having to go through a separate line and spending even longer in an already disorganized security station.

My suggestion if you must bring a blanket to the game? Wear a Snuggie. I know they’re totally embarrassing and a safety hazard for us short folks (because of the tripping possibilities), but it may be the only way to avoid the extra security and still have that extra layer. You won’t find me with one, but hey – if you have one, flaunt one.

Security lesson for the non-blanket toters? Ladies, bring the tiniest bag you have or don’t bring one at all. Men, keep the pocket contents to a minimum, and get ready for a pat down that, if administered anywhere else, would get a place shut down for being that illegal sort of massage.

On AT&T? Don’t expect to Tweet during the game.

Gillette Stadium has the same issue Fenway Park had for most of this past season. No, Tom Brady’s not eating chicken on the sidelines (I imagine Giselle has him on a macrobiotic diet anyway.) Gillette’s AT&T service is non-existent once the stadium becomes full. I last tweeted and texted a half hour before game time, and then couldn’t again until I left Route 1.

Verizon’s service in the area is fine (not surprising, seeing that they are a major sponsor of the Patriots.) But if you have AT&T, you’ll be service-less for most of the game.

Specify that you want a regular beer.

Tom Brady slyly suggested earlier this season that fans should get liquored up before and during games. (I mean, he asked them to “stay hydrated.” Sorry.) There are plenty of places to follow Mr. Brady’s orders within Gillette Stadium, including a great of selection of actual quality beers (Harpoon, Wachusett) for the same prices as the cheaper stuff.

But don’t make the same mistake I did, and order a “beer.” The default seems to be the large size, which will run you $11. Specify a “regular sized beer” and you’ll get the $8 version. You’ll get less beer, of course, but when you just wanted to get numb to the cold a little and not tipsy, it is the better option.

There are about 5 sections of the entire stadium that stand during the game.

And I was in one of them during the Chiefs-Patriots game. which was great. I also like to stand during football games, but at Gillette I typically find myself in an area that treats a football game like a symphony concert. I have seen dance recital crowds with more excitement. The upper section of the stadium sits through the game and you can’t hear a peep from them.

But on my fourth trip to Gillette earlier this season, I finally found a section that was lively and on its feet. My section also included an amusing drunk man who had a total bromance going on with Nate Solder…in his mind. Every time Solder was announced as reporting as eligible, the man would yell some increasingly slurred cheer for him, including, “You’re a Buffalo Solder, Nate!,” “Keep on Solder,” and the much intoxicated, “Sssssssolderrrrrrrr isssss the f— MAN!”

Don’t expect to leave anytime soon after the game.

Despite parking in lot P10, which has been recommended to me by several Patriots regulars as the lot easiest to get out of, it still took roughly two hours to get out of the parking lot and onto Route 1. Post-game tailgaters have the right idea. We would have been best served by taking an hour long nap in our car and then attempting to get out of the parking lot. Bring a book, turn on sports radio and prepare for the longest line you’ve ever been in. They should really make Dunkin’ Donuts huts in the parking lot for you to run to when you’re idling for a few hours. (You can have that idea for free, Kraft Family, if you just give me a few free coffees.)

The Bills were playing the Tim Tebow led Denver Broncos at 1pm on Christmas Eve. Even though the miracle Broncos had been snuffed by the New England Patriots the week before, the consensus was that the hopeless and injured Bills would lose.

On top of that, the game would be blacked out in the Buffalo and Rochester areas because Ralph Wilson Stadium did not sell out. In some markets, an owner will buy out the remainder of the tickets to ensure a sold out game, but Bills owner Ralph Wilson (or whomever is acting on his behalf these days) did not. To add to that, the Bills had squandered a successful first half of the season to fall to a 5-9 record, with no chance of the playoffs in sight. Add to that the general pessimism surrounding the Bills’ brass after they signed shaky starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to a long term contract but have yet to restructure key cog running back Fred Jackson’s deal (they have merely “assured” him of one, but haven’t inked anything official.)

Given all of that negativity, why would a social media manager ask such a question? You could expect at least eighty percent bitter responses. But the Bills’ asked, and here are some of the actual responses they received:

The Facebook comments section – several hundred deep – felt like a big group therapy session, or at least an extremely curmudgeonly family Christmas dinner. Surprisingly, the Bills pulled out the upset and used a strong day on defense to defeat the Broncos 40-14.

Was it harmless for the Bills to ask such a question via social media, or does it illustrate how out of touch they may be with their fan base?