Arlen Specter: Trust Buster (threatener, anyway)

Can we at least do away with adding the word "gate" to the end of every subject that may seem the slightest bit shady? Spygate? I know that's been how the Patriots cheating thing has been referred to since day one, but come on. It's not clever, it represents a thorough misunderstanding of the actual events and location of it's pseudo namesake, and it seems like a lazy way to shape a story in order to make it seem bigger. Anyway, Arlen Specter wants an explanation for the NFL's destruction of the Patriots cheating tapes. "It's analogous to the CIA destruction of tapes," Specter says. Loosely. Maybe. If you strain the innermost and deepest realms of your brain, because, really, it's just not that important.

Vince Wilfork's game invovles getting fined a lot. "Hey, this is football. It's a man's game. It's played between the lines." Just not always within the rules though. Referring to his reputation as a dirty play, Wilfork says, "I really don't want to get into it, but I'm really frustrated with the whole situation with the fines this year. But what can I do?" I like the "I'm just a hapless victim," angle. A Patriot baffled by a dirty player label? Crazy. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Eli Manning has a fire burning within him. A fire so real and powerful, so stoked by desire, so raging by a want, no, need to win it's as if he's powered with coal resurrected from the remains of the Titanic, hardened by decades in the crushing blackness of the Atlantic, one can tell simply by hearing his voice.

"I kinda go out there and just kinda have a calming effect on the players; where things are going great or things are going poorly at times, I'm not gonna get rattled, they're not gonna see me frustrated and kinda out of my rhythm and out of my routine. I think they know that no matter what's happened, I'm gonna still be the same guy."

He. is. fire. Just listen to his innate sense of being. Of motivation.

"[Peyton winning last year] definitely made me want it even more. As proud as I was, it just kinda put something in my heart also, saying, 'This is where you want to be, and where you want to get.' It sparked something in me. I didn't know when it would happen, but I knew I wanted to get to this point and have a shot to win a championship."

Fire. (New York Post)