Boston Newspapers: Online Web Sites of Hub Media Are Good Source of Info on New England Patriots

The New England Patriots, three-time winners of the Super Bowl, continue their march towards a perfect season with a matchup against the San Diego Chargers in the American Football Conference championship game on Saturday, January 20, 2008. The winner of that game will advance to Super Bowl XLII.

In 1963, the Chargers won the American Football League Championship in 1963 when they beat the then-Boston Patriots 51-10 in San Diego's Balboa Stadium

Undaunted by "Spygate," the scandal in which Coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 and the team $250,000 for surreptitiously taping the signals of the New York Jets' coaching staff, the Patriots racked up a perfect 16-0 record in the regular season, topping it off with a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional playoff. The Pats became the fourth team in National Football League history to go undefeated in a season, and are the only team to do so since the N.F.L. expanded its season to 16 games. If it wins the Super Bowl, it will knock the 1972 Miami Dolphins off the pedestal of Greatest All-Time N.F.L. Team.

Founded as the Boston Patriots in 1960 as one of the founding franchises in the American Football League, the Pats lost the first two Super Bowls it played in, in 1985 and 1996. It was in the new millennium that Bill Belichick took the Pats to the promised land in his rookie season as head coach, winning Super Bowl XXXVI in 2000. The Pats repeated in 2003 and 2004, taking Super Bowls XXXVIII and XXXIX and laying the foundation for a dynasty.

There are many Web sites devoted to news about the Patriots, including the team's own Official Web Site, Patriots.com. Patriots.com contains stats, up-to-date news, game reports, a Fan Zone and information on Gillette Stadium and the Patriots Cheerleaders

The Hub, as Boston is known throughout the universe, has two major dailies, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. The Boston Globe has, arguably, the best sports page of any daily newspaper published in the U.S., and many of its columnists have gone on to careers in broadcasting due to their great knowledge, including the late Will McDonough.