Well Wednesday made it three days in a row, but this time he had a little skit. He told all watching that he had a brother named Jacob.

When we get to meet Jacob it’s just Moss with glasses on doing what sounded like and old man voice. If this is what he’s going to start doing we want more. Enjoy!

Listen:

Still, that probably hasn’t helped Welker feel much better about the play, and his weeklong Twitter silence has been a testament to that.

The 30-year-old receiver broke that silence on Tuesday, taking the time to thank fans and indicate that he’s at least feeling a little better.

“I would like to thank all of my fans for your love and support,” Welker wrote. “I looked outside and the sun came out. #vacationtime”

The drop, of course, came with 4:00 left in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. It was not a perfect pass from Tom Brady, but Welker had the ball in both his hands before falling to the ground without it. It would have set up a first down at the Giants’ 20-yard line and given the Patriots a chance to run out the clock or at least score to stretch their lead. Instead, the Patriots punted, and Eli Manning and the Giants marched down the field for the game-winning score.

Welker hadn’t tweeted since Jan. 25, a week and a half before the Super Bowl.

I would like to thank all of my fans for your love and support. I looked outside and the sun came out. #vacationtime—
Wes Welker (@WesWelker) February 15, 2012

Is there any chance Moss could return to the Pats? What kind of relationship does Wiggy have with Randy Moss?

Will any team be willing to buy into Moss? Is it a bad thing that players like having Randy on their team?

The Patriots do need a down field threat, but that answer isn’t Moss. Is it?

Listen:

On Monday Moss took to USTREAM to announce that he’s planning to return to football after retiring after the 2010 season.

Read: Randy Moss: ‘I Don’t Know If I’m Coming Back To The Patriots … I Just Want To Play’

T&R listened live as Randy talked about some of the best players in the league and some favorite plays that he remembers.

Rich was typing things to Randy trying to get him to say a few funny things. They tried to get him to say “the sports chicken goes cluck cluck and you’re eating a pizza.” Did he say it?

Read: Moss Makes No Sense For Patriots’ 2012 Plans

Lots of T&R listeners jumped in and told him that he was on THE Sports Hub live and he gave the guys a shout out.

Listen:

Thanks to a boost in viewership in Boston due to some added publicity from Toucher & Rich, Moss received a heavy dose of Patriots-focused questions, including whether he plans to return to New England.

“I don’t know if I’m coming back to the Patriots or not, man,” Moss said. “I just wanna play football.”

Read: Moss makes no sense for Pats

Moss was also asked for his thoughts on whether Wes Welker was being treated unfairly for his dropped pass in the Super Bowl this year.

“I just think that players make the catches and players miss the catches so I felt just like everybody else when Wes dropped that ball,” Moss said. “I didn’t want the Giants to win, just redemption from ’07.”

Moss also spoke highly of the late Myra Kraft.

“Myra Kraft was a phenomenal woman,” Moss said. “I still got a picture — you can ask anybody in that organization even Mr. Kraft himself — I got a picture in my house of me and Mrs. Kraft hugging in my Minnesota Vikings uniform when I came back [to Gillette Stadium], and I will cherish that picture.”

The 35-year-old Moss discussed his relationship with Kevin Faulk, which dates back to their high school graduations in 1995. Moss was waiting for Faulk at his home upon returning from the Super Bowl this year, when Faulk wasn’t on the active roster.

“The thing about me and Kevin is when I came in the locker room in New England, Kevin was the first guy I saw and we’ve been hitting it off,” he said. “After not seeing him dress [in the Super Bowl], the best I could do is just show up and be there for him.

“I don’t know how many good things I could say about Kevin Faulk.”

Moss also said he did talk to Tom Brady after this year’s Super Bowl, too.

“Did I talk to Tommy after the Super Bowl? Yeah, but I’m not gonna tell you what we said,” Moss told his Ustream viewers. “It was just nice to hear from each other, man, and I’ll leave it at that.”

He wasn’t restricted to Patriots thoughts only, though, as the topics stretched from Mexican food to Chuck E. Cheese.

Moss said he prefers Chipotle over Qdoba, thanks to his days at Patriot Place.

“Them boys ate Qdoba every doggang Friday in New England and I was tired of that,” Moss said.

Moss told a story of his daughter once being so scared of Chuck E. Cheese that she wanted Moss to beat up the masked rodent.

“Chuck E. Cheese can’t catch 23 touchdowns in a season. No, Chuck E. Cheese can’t,” Moss added. “Man, you never know, Chuck E. Cheese might just suit up.”

Though Moss was out of football in 2011, he did chime in on the season’s hottest story: Tim Tebow.

“What he’s bringing to the table as far as himself, the organization and the Denver Broncos I think is a little bit bigger than football,” Moss said. “I think God has something set up for Tim Tebow, and that’s just coming from my heart.”

Moss announced that he was retiring at the end of the 2010 season due to off-field issues.

Read: Randy Moss: ‘I Want To Play Football’

This USTREAM chat lasted around an hour so after Moss had said all he wanted to say he started answering questions from Twitter and the chat room.

This led Moss to talk about some weird things as well spout some great lines. Listen as T&R break down what Moss had to say about boogers, pooping and mooning the crowd.

Listen:

Today is Moss’ 35th birthday and Randy took it to UStream chat to let his followers know that he wants to return to the NFL.

Could Randy Moss be an option for the Patriots next year? Would the Pats be taking a step back, if they were to sign Moss?

Listen:

Moss, celebrating his 35^th birthday, held a USTREAM chat on Monday, and told those watching he is planning on playing football again.

“I want to play football,” Moss said Monday morning. “Your boy is going to come back here and play some football, so I’m really excited. I had some things I had to adjust in my life.”

Citing off-field issues for his retirement last season, Moss said his family is ok with a return. He has even shaved his dreadlocks, going back to the look he sported in his successful early days with the Vikings.

Read: Reggie Wayne Should Be Pats #1 Target In Off-Season

“Faith, family and football, that’s my M.O., bro. Your boy be back for the upcoming season,” he said during the hour-long chat.

There were over 500 people viewing the chat as it drew to a close, a figure that shocked Moss.

A 13-year NFL veteran, Moss took the 2011 season off after finishing 2010 with the Tennessee Titans, his third team of the year. For his career, Moss has 954 catches for 14,858 yards and 153 touchdowns. 50 of those touchdowns came in his three-plus seasons with the Patriots, when he had 259 receptions for 3,904 yards from 2007-2010.

Gresh & Zo: Should Pats Bring Back Wes Welker?

Moss is looking to build on his 954 career catches for 14,858 yards and 153 touchdowns. He played for the Patriots from 2007 until he was traded to the Vikings in the middle of the 2010 season.

While rumors of a return to New England swirled all season long, Bill Belichick never felt a reunion with the receiver would work enough to bring him back. Moss has said he would want to play for the Patriots numerous times since his trade from the team, but it is hard to imagine Belichick bringing him back, even with needs at the wide receiver position.

Would you want the Patriots to bring back Randy Moss next season? Let us know in the comments section…

History, though, is all it is, and despite Moss’ Monday declaration of his return to the NFL, he should not and almost certainly will not be a part of the Patriots’ plans for 2012.

When the news first broke Monday via Moss’ own Ustream channel, ProFootballTalk immediately listed the Patriots as “the first team to watch,” adding that the website learned that New England “still likes him.” Perhaps the Patriots do like him as a person, but as a football player? That’s hard to believe.

Moss turned 35 on Monday, which isn’t ancient in wide receiver years but isn’t exactly a positive development for a man who seemingly forced himself out of football and spent a year away from the NFL. Since 1996, just two players over the age of 30 have led the league in receiving yards, and they were a 30-year-old Marvin Harrison in 2002 and a 31-year-old Muhsin Muhammad in 2004. The idea of Moss ever again being dominant or even close to dominant is, at this point, a pie-in-the-sky belief.

There is, however, some precedent to an all-time great wide receiver missing a season at age 34 and excelling upon his return to the NFL, and it comes from Jerry Rice. In 1997, Rice played in just two games due to knee injuries. Upon his return in ’98, he caught 82 passes for 1,157 yards and nine touchdowns. He went on to average 996 yards per year over the next four seasons, catching 28 touchdowns along the way.

So if Rice can do it, why can’t Moss?

For starters, Rice was the greatest receiver of all time. Moss, despite his greatness, is not.

Rice also never had as horrific a season as Moss did in 2010, when he was dumped by two teams and spent most of the season standing on the Tennessee sideline. Moss finished the year with nine receiving yards in eight games as a Titan, nine receiving yards in four games as a Patriot and a whopping 13 receiving yards in four games as a Viking. He did manage to score five touchdowns in his first seven games that year, but he turned into nothing more than a decoy as the season progressed.

Despite the drastic drop in production, Moss wanted back in 2011. No teams were willing to bite — at least none with offers enticing enough for Moss.

On Monday, Moss worked the spin control, saying his absence last season was his choice.

“I had some things I had to adjust in my life,” Moss said on his Ustream channel.

While Moss didn’t really expand on what those things were, they likely included veteran-minimum, one-year offers and a rapidly declining skill-set. The latter is something that doesn’t improve with a year away from football.

Still, the good memories remain. Moss embraced Robert Kraft, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick after returning to Gillette Stadium with the Vikings. He seemed to regret his unceremonious departure from the team that gave his career new life at 30 years old.

“I miss every last helmet in that locker room,” Moss said after that October 2010 game. “Coach Belichick gave me a chance to be a part of something special, and I take that to heart.”

He visited Kraft after Myra Kraft passed away over the summer, going so far as to sign his card “Randy Moss Kraft.” Kevin Faulk also said this weekend on NESN that Moss was waiting at Faulk’s house to greet the running back after the Super Bowl last week.

All that is well and good, but none of it means anything on the football field, and none of it erases what took place in 2010. After his team won in Week 1, Moss went on a me-me-me diatribe about how he was likely in his final season in New England because of his unsettled contract situation. That same game marked the return of Wes Welker, who shocked everyone by recovering from torn knee ligaments in time to score two touchdowns that day. Welker made that comeback despite making much less than his worth, providing a sharp contrast between the Patriot Way and the Moss Way.

Three weeks later, Moss dropped a sure touchdown in Miami. He then fought with offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien on the way to the locker room at halftime. It was his last act in New England.

Some may clamor for one last chance for Moss to end his Patriots tenure on the right note and, more importantly, on a winning note. It’s a nice thought and it would make for a nice story, but there’s just no reason to believe it could ever happen.

Faithful Moss supporters would say he’s about more than the numbers, that he “takes the top off the defense” and draws multiple defenders on every play. Brady’s 5,235 yards and the Patriots’ 15-4 record in 2011 suggests the team just might be better off without him.

Moss may not be realistic enough to understand that, but Belichick and the Patriots certainly are. Moss is going to have a hard time generating offers from any team, let alone the team that came within one play of winning the Super Bowl.

Moss was available to the Patriots and 31 other teams last year, and the Patriots and 31 other teams all said no thanks. Nobody should expect anything different this time around.

They discussed the potential moves that could improve the defense in both free agency and in the draft.

Listen:

If the Patriots want to win the race against time and win another Super Bowl before that Tom Brady-Bill Belichick window closes, the solution starts with adding a top-flight wide receiver.

That’s no indictment of Wes Welker, the receiver whose hands dropped that fateful pass last weekend. Signing the 30-year-old to a multi-year contract should be priority No. 1. But priority 1A should be signing Reggie Wayne.

The wideout has crushed the souls of the Patriots so much over the years that the thought of him exchanging the horseshoe on his helmet for a Flying Elvis is a bit jarring. And at 33 years old, his days as a top-five statistical receiver in the league may be history, but that may be exactly why he is exactly what the Patriots need.

Brady and the Patriots love Deion Branch, but his regular battles to stay healthy make him much better-suited as a third or fourth option on offense. The Patriots like what they have, obviously, with Welker, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, but they still sought an additional wide receiver last summer who could add a different element.

That receiver came in the form of Chad Ochocinco, a decision that did not work out, to say the least. Ochocinco finished the season with just 15 catches and one touchdown. He cost them two draft picks, for which the team essentially got nothing. Despite that, they were one play away from winning the Super Bowl.

Now, they can add Wayne and give up nothing more than money — which will be freed when the Patriots almost certainly cut Ochocinco this offseason. In the prime of his career as Peyton Manning’s go-to guy, Wayne made roughly $6 million per season from 2006-11. Ochocinco made a little more than $3 million last season, indicating the Patriots are willing to set aside at least that kind of cash for a wideout.

When it comes to what Wayne can still do on the field, it’s admittedly a bit tricky. It’s safe to assume he won’t be putting up 1,400 yards and 10 touchdowns without the benefit of youth, Manning and an indoor home field, but it’s just as safe to assume he’ll improve upon his numbers from 2011. With Kerry Collins, Dan Orlovsky and Curtis Painter throwing him passes, he still managed to haul in 75 of them for 960 yards and four touchdowns. Those 75 catches would have placed him fourth on the Patriots, and the 960 yards would have ranked third. Substitute Brady for Orlovsky/Painter/Collins throwing him passes, and you can rightfully expect a bump in production.

If the situation with Manning were different, then there’d be almost no reason to believe Wayne would ever leave Indy. Given that the Colts, by many accounts, are set to cut ties with Manning at the beginning of March, the chances of the big-name free agent Colts sticking around become almost zero.

Of course, with a receiver who will turn 34 in November, the concern of injuries and regression is always present. What Wayne has on his side in that department is that he hasn’t missed a game since his rookie year, playing in all 16 since 2002, plus 17 more playoff games. He also showed he’s got plenty of gas left in the tank with an eight-catch, 73-yard performance on a Thursday night against Houston, capping it off with the game-winning touchdown with 19 seconds left.

He’s still capable of an occasional big game, but he’s perfectly suited to share the load with Welker, Gronkowski and Hernandez.

Aside from the benefits of adding Wayne, there’s the simple fact that the Patriots don’t have many in-house options. Matthew Slater, Tiquan Underwood and Julian Edelman combined to catch eight passes in the 2011 season, and Edelman was the only one of that group with a catch in the playoffs. He had two for five yards.

When Brady was throwing to Reche Caldwell and Ben Watson and with Wayne in the opposing huddle in the ’06 AFC Championship Game, the Patriots fell one pass shy of reaching a Super Bowl against the Bears. In Super Bowl XLVI, with Gronkowski severely limited with an ankle injury, Brady was one option shy from being able to operate his offense at full speed.

The Patriots need an upgrade on the outside, and so long as Wayne desires to continue his career playing with an all-time great quarterback, he’s the ideal fit.

As it turns out, the injury was serious enough to require arthroscopic surgery, which was performed on Friday. Sources confirmed to WBZ-TV that the surgery was successful and the recovery period is about 10 weeks.

Gronkowski averaged 5.6 catches for 82.9 yards per game this season, catching 17 touchdown passes and scoring once more on a rushing attempt. After catching 10 passes for 145 yards and three touchdowns against the Broncos in the divisional round of the playoffs, he suffered an ankle injury in the AFC Championship Game.

He was limited to just two catches for 26 yards in the Super Bowl, his second-worst game in terms of production this season.

Rich found this video where someone took video of Gronkowski dancing and partying with some friends and spliced it together with Jersey Shore.

Gronk’s just dancing with is bros and some just have to take their shirts off.

One even felt the need to just start slapping Gronk on the bottom. Hey it’s cool their bros!

Sit back and enjoy this epic Gronked episode of the Jersey Shore.

Click here to watch the video.

Glenn Gronkowski posted a picture to Twitter on Thursday night of brother Rob Gronkowski and father Gordy Gronkowski posing with Lakers star Kobe Bryant. The Lakers had just defeated the Celtics 88-87 in overtime, with Bryant scoring 27 points.

A picture’s nothing to get too worked up about for Pats fans, but Kobe did admit to a little bit of recruiting work for his hometown Philadelphia Eagles.

“I said the Eagles need a tight end that’s what I told him. I’m recruiting,” a light-hearted Bryant told reporters after the game. “He’s phenomenally talented, just a freak athlete.”

Bryant said the 22-year-0ld Gronkowski was saying a few things himself.

“We were talking. He shot it at me, I shot it back,” he said. “It’s fun to have those conversations with athletes that you respect.”

Another athlete that has earned some of Kobe’s respect is Austin Rivers, the son of Celtics coach Doc Rivers who hit a buzzer-beater for Duke to beat UNC on Wednesday night.

“I told him his son’s got some big cojones,” Bryant said of his conversation with Doc.

Other Patriots players in attendance for the C’s-Lakers game were Vince Wilfork and Julian Edelman, both of whom received ovations when shown on the video board. Owner Robert Kraft was also in attendance, and he was seen shaking hands and talking individually with a number of fans during halftime.

Gronkowski’s not the first Patriots player to chum it up with Bryant. During Game 3 of the 2010 NBA Finals, Tom Brady sat with Bryant’s father, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, and offered a little love to Kobe after the Lakers beat the Celtics.

According to the Boston Herald, Youkilis and Julie Brady got engaged “recently” after dating for at least a year.

There has been no comment from either side.

The paper reported that Youkilis was with Brady’s family at Super Bowl 46 in Indianapolis last weekend.

They are said to have met at a post-game party at Patriots Place last year after the Jets knocked the Patriots out of the playoffs.

This will be Youkilis’ second marriage and Julie Brady’s first.

Brady has a 5-year-old daughter.

There’s no word yet on a date for the wedding.

The Herald claims it will likely be on the west coast during the baseball offseason.

If the Pats were to franchise Welker, could he end up holding out? How much will it hurt the Patriots if Welker was to go to the Dolphins or Jets?

Where does Welker rank amongst the top receivers in the NFL? What kind of contract has Welker earned?

Listen:

The wide receiver tweeted this week that he’ll change his name back to Chad Johnson this summer.

“Take the [Ochocinco jerseys] down, I’ll be Johnson on July 4,” Ochocinco tweeted at a follower this week.

TMZ also reported that the 34-year-old has been telling friends that he’ll change his name back to Johnson prior to his wedding this summer to Evelyn Lozada.

Ochocinco made the legal switch in the summer of 2008, after he caught 93 passes for 1,440 yards and eight touchdowns for the Bengals. He’s never come close to matching that production since then, culminating in his disappointing 2011 season with the Patriots, when he caught just 15 passes for 276 yards and one touchdown.

The non-catch by Wes Welker in the fourth quarter has been debated all week. Some say the throw from Tom Brady could have been better and others say Welker should have caught it.

The question this offseason is will that catch come back to haunt him in free agency?

Gresh, Zo and Bert debated whether Wes Welker deserves to come back as a top paid receiver in New England. Is he worth it is as a possession receiver?

“Remember, Bill Belichick was in New York with Wayne Chrebet, and saw how quickly that fell apart. He saw Troy Brown, who was great and found ways to contribute afterwards, but saw Troy Brown go from a 100-catch receiver to ‘hanging on.’ It happens fast with those guys,” said Breer.

“Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski are going to be up after the 2013 season. When they’re thinking about a Welker deal, they’re thinking about ‘what are we putting in 2014 2015;’ they have to account for the fact that at that point, in 2014 and 2015,  when Welker’s production may have fallen off a cliff — because you don’t know what the shelf-life is with those guys — they’re going to have to account for the fact that maybe we don’t just have that number on the books, but then we might have an enormous number for Rob Gronkowski at that point.’”

They also hit on Welker’s overall impact to the team.

Listen:

Bedard said that the intentional grounding that resulted in a safety was “just not a good play,” and when it came to Wes Welker’s infamous drop, both the quarterback and the receiver are worth of blame.

Read: Former Patriot Harrison Rips Gronkowski For Partying After Super Bowl Loss

“I thought that not only could the Welker pass been a little better, it just should have been zipped in front shoulder and they probably would have had a touchdown,” Bedard told Toucher & Rich. “That being said, I think Wes should have caught the ball.”

Overall, Bedard said that Brady had an up-and-down performance.

Read: Bill Belichick To Hit Links In Pebble Beach Pro Am

While many are focused on the Welker play and trying to figure out who to blame, not many are talking about Bill Belichick’s plan going into the game.

Did Belichick have a good game plan to defeat the Giants and it was just poor execution that lost them the game?

“Yeah, and most of the time that’s where I fall on these things,” Bedard explained. “If you’ve read my game review during the year, that’s where I’ve kind of fallen.”

Looking ahead to the offseason, the Patriots have some decisions to make with a whole lot of players this summer.

“I don’t think [BenJarvus Green-Ellis will] get a ton of money anywhere else, but he might get more than the Patriots and I don’t think they’re going to overpay for him,” Bedard said. “I think he’s a guy the would let test the market.”

What about Deion Branch? Will they keep him possibly as a fourth option?

“Yeah, if he wants to play for the veteran minimum or something like that, then yeah, I would bring him back,” Bedard said.

And even though Chad Ochocinco has years left on his contract, what about him?. Is there any kind of benefit to bringing him back next season?

“I don’t see it, if he didn’t get it by now,” Bedard said. “He’s still asking people next to him, ‘Where should I line up?’ in the Super Bowl with two weeks to prepare. I don’t see the point.”

Listen:

Toucher & Rich took a listen to Giants’s defensive end Justin Tuck’s motivational speech in the locker room before the and compare it to what Tom Brady had to say.

Tom Brady’s intentional grounding call that caused a safety gave the Giants an early 2-0 lead. How did Brady explain that on the sidelines?

They also listened to a conversation between Vince Wilfork and official Carl Paganelli about whether Kevin Boothe of the Giants deserved the holding penalty he got. This one a great interaction that’s a must listen.

Listen as the guys play a clip of Bill Belichick on the Giants’ final drive.

This is a must listen segment.

Listen to the fisrt segment:

Listen to the second segment:

While the Patriots did make it all the way to the Super Bowl, head coach Bill Belichick will be doing just that this weekend.

Belichick will play in the Pebble Beach Pro Am in California, beginning on Thursday, paired with golfer Ricky Barnes.

Barnes, who tied for second in the 2009 US Open, has some Patriots ties of his own. His father, Bruce, was the New England punter for two seasons from 1973-74.

Along with Barnes, Belichick will be teeing of with good friend Nick Saban, the head coach of Alabama, who won the BCS Championship game last month against LSU.

But instead of discussing “What Ifs” from Sunday’s Super Bowl, the two will likely be talking about the college crop of players getting ready for next week’s  scouting combine.

The Patriots have two picks in each of the first two rounds of April’s NFL Draft.

Belichick and Saban’s group is set to tee off around 11:22am Thursday morning.

D.A. started things off talking Tom Brady and how he won his first ten playoff games of his career as a starter. In the last 12 he is six and six, what does this mean?

D.A. thinks it has to do with those early team and these more recent ones and the differences.

Damon Hack of Sports Illustrated and Brian Baldinger of the NFL Network broke down Super Bowl XLVI.

Listen:

One of those veterans was Rodney Harrison, the hard-hitting safety who played with the Patriots from 2003-08. Harrison was a member of the Super Bowl-winning teams in ’03 and ’04, and he was also on the losing end of the could-have-been perfect season in 2007.

Now a television analyst, Harrison said on ESPN Radio on Wednesday that the partying that Rob Gronkowski did after the Super Bowl loss on Sunday would have never been OK during the dynasty era.

“I guarantee you this, if Willie McGinest, Tedy Bruschi, Larry Izzo, Richard Seymour or myself had been at that party, [Gronkowski] probably would have got his head rung,”  Harrison told the Chicago radio station. “There’s no reason for that to happen.”

The 22-year-old Gronkowski was seen in pictures and video after the loss partying on stage with LMFAO and dancing with his shirt off. Harrison, who also lost a Super Bowl with San Diego in 1995, couldn’t understand that behavior.

“When we lost the Super Bowl, any of my Super Bowl losses, I was so devastated the last thing I ever wanted to do was party, let alone dance or take off your shirt,” he said. “It’s just immaturity. It’s not right. He made a mistake and I’m sure he feels absolutely stupid about it at this point. There’s a time and place for everything.

“The leadership has to step up and someone has to pull him to the side and say, ‘Look young man, this is inappropriate, this is not the time nor the place. You need to grow up,’” Harrison added.

Maybe the Patriots would have gone on to beat the Giants, and the typically sure-handed receiver certainly wouldn’t be dealing with the unfair wrath of the media on a daily basis. Maybe he’s got his first Super Bowl ring and posting every 10 seconds on Twitter about how good it feels to be a champion, or what it’s like to have the world’s second most famous mustache (next to Tom Selleck, of course).

I don’t know, but I do know this:

Dinners out with the Brady’s are going to be awkward for a while! Can’t you just picture it?

Wes: Tom, could you pass the rolls?

Tom: Sure thing, Wes.

Gisele [under her breath]: Try not to drop them all over the table …

Wes: What’s that?

Gisele: Hmm? Oh, nothing.

Tom: So what are you guys gonna order?

Wes: The lobster looks good.

Gisele: Yeah, when you’re not the one catching it …

We’ve all heard Tom’s wife, Gisele Bundchen, and her postgame rant about how Tom-terrific would be better at your job than you are. Ask her and he could probably write this article better than I will, and I bet he’d drive a mean mail truck, too.

You could call her a brat, spoiled or just plain ignorant for saying, “My husband cannot f—ing throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time!” and you’d be about the one millionth person to do so. Just don’t call her man ‘OK-looking,’ or she might unleash one of her mystical supermodel powers.

You could call Brady a different guy than he was back when the Pats won three Super Bowls in four years, a glamorized version of himself that’s still awfully good at his job but just doesn’t have that same edge he once did. Will Smith comes to mind. If things go south in another three to four years, Nicholas Cage might as well. You wouldn’t be the first to make that accusation either.

Teammates are quick to defend Welker, as they should be. Win as a team, lose as a team. We know this. But, what we should also all keep in mind is that one play – or at least this play – doesn’t decide the Super Bowl. If Brady and Welker connect there, New England probably kicks a field goal or maybe scores a touchdown. Or, you could view it from the perspective of killing more clock late in the fourth, forcing the Giants into having to score a touchdown for the lead, or maybe putting the thing out of reach altogether as a two-possession game. If that’s all guaranteed, the experts are right and there should have been another duck boat parade this week.

Consider this, though, if common sense hasn’t allowed you to yet: Maybe Welker makes that catch, but the next play is a fumble, an interception or some divine intervention courtesy of Tim Tebow’s boy, Jesus. Maybe the Pats line up for that field goal, and Steven Goskowski Cundiffs it wildly into the crowd. Giants ball, still a 17-15 lead, and time for another heroic Eli comeback.

Hard as it is to believe after the year that was, but you can’t attack the defense too much. Before the game, if asked how we felt about limiting New York to 19 points (safety, aside), we’d all ask where to sign. But, the case can also be made that the group had to make one big stop, and it didn’t. The end, game over.

So, in Vegas-speak, that argument’s a push.

The point is, as has been well-documented, while a game can be defined by a mere moment or two – in this case, the Mario Manningham catch that was, and the Welker catch that wasn’t – the reality is there are so many other things that went wrong for New England in Indianapolis.

Brady was sub-standard on this night, made some poor throws, plus he was intercepted when trying to find an injured Rob Gronkowski, who’s good for much more than 26 yards when healthy. Twelve men on the field. Two drops on the final possession of the game.

None of those are excuses, just realities. It’s why we love the NFL. Some nights you get the Tuck Rule, others the Helmet Catch. You don’t get that in any other game.

Fans can rationalize this loss however they’d like.

Blame Welker, one of the best receivers in the franchise’s history, but I’m not buying it. Blame Brady, who obviously made some mistakes, but I dare you in good conscious to hang that whole game on his head. Call it a choke-job if you want, if you refuse to give the Giants the credit they deserve. Say it’s the end of an era – I don’t believe that either. Based on next year’s Super Bowl favorite odds, neither does Vegas.

As a Patriots fan, I do believe I now hate the Giants. In January of 2007, I couldn’t have cared less about them. One month later, I was bitter and full of angst. Now, they beat my team again on the biggest stage imaginable and I think I have more disdain for them than I do Sexy Rexy’s Jets. By training camp, I’ll probably have reverted back because, hey, as Bostonians, we just love to hate New York teams. Give us a reason, and we’ll hate the MLS Red Bulls.

Thing is, who cares? No matter how Gisele sees the world through her Tom-loving glasses, we’ve got to recognize as sports fans that the better team won at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday. Whether Peyton or Eli, it truly is Manning’s house. If the Pats and Giants meet 10 times, perhaps they split. The way these games have ended, you could certainly make that case. But, Tom Coughlin’s G-Men have won the last three and, no matter how narrow the margin, he’s got the Pats figured out right now and you have to respect it. Not enjoy it, just respect it.

The Giants won the Super Bowl, and they’ve had better things to do since than to face questions about Tom’s gorgeous, famous wife opening her mouth. I don’t blame Brandon Jacobs for saying, “she just needs to continue to stay cute and shut up.”

That said, for everyone other than us media folks, it’s a dead issue. The season’s postmortem? That’s got a long way to go. So, I’ll just take my rational hat off and leave you as a bitter Pats fan:

Hey, Jacobs! You shut up! Go enjoy your stupid trophy! See ya next year, ya dink!

Adam Kaufman, a native of Massachusetts, joined the Sports Hub as an on-air personality in June 2011. He has worked as a television and radio anchor and broadcaster for various outlets since 2004, and his written views on sports and entertainment have appeared on NESN.com and in the New England Hockey Journal. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamMKaufman.

Who will they let go? What are the biggest needs for 2012? Listen to the guys as they discuss.

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