a LOT happened in sports yesterday

Serena Williams lost in a big upset at the Australian Open.  I've never liked Serena because I think she beats people just by being bigger and stronger, not because she's more skilled.  I call her the "Shaq" of women's tennis.  But her performance yesterday was a lot more like Lebron James in crunch time.

Lebron's Heat lost a home game to the Milwaukee Bucks last night, while getting outscored yet again in the 4th quarter.  Miami is now 11-5 and in 6th place in the Eastern Conference.  Amazingly Boston, at 6-9, is just one spot behind in 7th.

Meanwhile the Celtics won in Washington without Rajon Rondo, and minus Ray Allen for most of the game.  Paul Pierce had one of those Larry Bird circa 1991 "I'm not quite done yet" type of games, pouring in 34 points, 8 rebounds, and 10 assists.  At least for one day the trade rumors were put to rest.

Last night the Bruins played a crazy 5-5 game in Philly before winning in a shootout.  Oddly enough for the second day in a row they had an overtime which included a 4 on 3 power play.  The win put them back in their rightful place atop the Eastern Conference with 64 points.

All of this is trumped by the Patriots heading to the Superbowl for the 5th time in Tom Brady's 10 seasons as a starter.  He wasn't great, but that was one ballsy QB sneak; diving head first over the pile and into the end zone the way he did.  The finish left me absolutely stunned.  First a touchdown catch spectacularly broken up at the LAST possible moment, then a missed 32 yard field just seconds later.  Wow.  And for a guy who was criticized all season, Joe Flacco looked a heck of a lot more like a legitimate NFL quarterback than Tim Tebow ever did.

But by far the biggest news of the day was the death of Joe Paterno.  Stepping back and looking at this with no emotion involved, I have to say it is not at all surprising.  He did the same thing for 46 years, and then all of a sudden it was gone.  It's amazing the way the human mind and body work like that.  I'm very curious to see how the rest of this story unfolds, and how it will be remembered years from now.