"It's become an annual rite of winter, at least for the last half-dozen NFL seasons.

Heading into the first game of the New England Patriots' playoff run, I'll call Blue Jays third-base coach Brian Butterfield in Maine for his evaluation of his favourite team and its Super Bowl chances. The Pats take on the surprising Denver Broncos on Saturday night in Foxboro, Mass. Butterfield is close friends with many members of the Pats' front office and is a huge admirer of coach Bill Belichick as a leader of young men.

"I think the league has changed," Butterfield said. "It's turning into an offensive-oriented league. Now it remains to be seen whether a Green Bay, New Orleans or New England can win that whole thing and that would be a low-end-of-the-totem-pole-type defence that wins that world championship. They always say defences win championships. It might be the year that it gets flipped a little bit and I'm hopeful of that because the New England defence hasn't been very good.""