Bill Belichick is universally recognised as one of the best coaches — if not the best coach — in NFL history, and he owns the Super Bowl titles to prove it. That doesn’t mean he — or his entire New England Patriots staff — is infallible.

Young quarterbacks have always had a tough time winning in Gillette Stadium during the Bill Belichick and Tom Brady era.

Liam Blackburn looks at some of the lines that could dominate the Super Bowl.

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl in search of a sixth title and will face a Philadelphia Eagles team looking for their first Lombardi Trophy.

It didn’t take the hurlers of Dublin, Tipperary, Clare and Galway long to discover Boston’s list of priorities last Friday when they landed for the Fenway Classic Super 11s.

Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick have a special understanding, writes Kieran Shannon.

Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

Matt Ryan claimed an early victory over Tom Brady on Super Bowl weekend by being named the NFL's MVP last night in Houston.

The Atlanta Falcons are going to the Super Bowl for the second time in franchise history after they thrashed the Green Bay Packers 44-21 in the NFC Championship game.

It’s funny, all those references that slip past you as white noise.

An emotional Peyton Manning signed off from his 18-year NFL career with the words “God bless football” — and one final “Omaha”.

Few champions have returned to the field under this thick a cloud. But as the accusations and rumours and innuendo pile up, New England Patriots players insist they have shut out the noise as they begin the defence of their Super Bowl title tonight against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

American Football: There were more questions than there were answers after one of the most enthralling Super Bowls of the modern era delivered a fourth title in just over a decade to Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots on Sunday night.

The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots could produce one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time tomorrow night but the real winner may be debated for decades given the "deflategate" scandal hanging over the game.

The New England Patriots escaped a winter blizzard to make their way to the Super Bowl city of Phoenix on Monday but there was no avoiding another storm as the mystery of the deflated footballs continued to swirl.

Take it again. Tim Smyczek’s simple act of sportsmanship in his Australian Open match with Rafa Nadal won’t endure in sporting folklore, says Larry Ryan.

NFL: Coach Pete Carroll said it was "belief in one another" that saw Seattle Seahawks complete a miracle comeback to reach the Super Bowl.

Tom Brady sparked the New England Patriots to their seventh consecutive victory in a 34-9 rout of Detroit, while Indianapolis receiver T.Y. Hilton scored a touchdown for his newborn daughter.

Chicago Bears’ defensive end Lamarr Houston will miss the rest of the season after a freak injury while celebrating a sack.

It’s rare that the two best teams in the NFL make it through to the Super Bowl.

For a club like the New England Patriots, it shook them to their core.

He says he has no interest in knowing what other coaches in other sports do, but the way Brian Cody’s team went about devouring Tipperary in Nowlan Park last Sunday brought to mind a scene in a fascinating documentary about the NewEngland Patriots coach, Bill Belichick.

Back in August, back before the season began, Eli Manning was asked whether he considered himself an “elite” quarterback a la Tom Brady.

With so many subplots funnelling into tomorrow night’s Super Bowl, the expectations are that it will be one of the most watched NFL title games of all time.

The New York Giants will face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI after beating the San Francisco 49ers in overtime in the NFC Championship game last night.

“SAME old Jets,” Rex Ryan smiled, goading the naysayers who had dismissed his ‘Gang Green’ prior to New York shocking the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Mass on Sunday night.

NEW YORK has been buzzing this week ahead of Rex Ryan’s Jets’ AFC play-off showdown at their arch-rivals, the New England Patriots, tomorrow evening (9.30pm, Irish time).

MIAMI snapped New England’s record regular season win streak as Ronnie Brown romped for four touchdowns and passed for another in the Dolphins’ 35-13 shocking win over the Patriots on Sunday.

NEW ENGLAND Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is expected to miss the rest of the 2008 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, according to a source familiar with the injury.

TOM Brady and Randy Moss set records and the New England Patriots put themselves among the greatest sport legends in American history on Saturday by completing an undefeated season.

WHILE New England try to complete the first undefeated NFL regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins, Washington and Tennessee will attempt to simply reach the playoffs.

THE New England Patriots continued their historic charge on Sunday by overcoming a winter blast of snow to beat the New York Jets 20-10 and extend their season record to 14-0.

THE PHILADELPHIA Eagles gave the rest of the NFL a smidgen of hope on Sunday night: they showed the New England Patriots can be vulnerable.

THE NEW England Patriots are showing no mercy to any opponent, not even the Buffalo Bills, a team for which coach Bill Belichick has publicly expressed affection.

THE New England Patriots last night settled a bitter season-long contest with divisional rivals the New York Jets when they won the wild card match between the two sides at the Gillette Stadium in Boston.

A BEAT UP Patriots defence and a supercharged San Diego offence was enough to hand Super Bowl champions New England their first home defeat in nearly three years during an exciting weekend of National Football League action.