Early to rise

The Pats host the Colts Sunday at 1 p.m. It was originally scheduled to be the Sunday night game and it was originally circled on my calendar as the home game of the year. Pats-Colts. Brady-Manning. Battle for AFC supremacy. Cold beer on a cold December night. Billy dressed as Santa.

Then Peyton Manning's fused neck put him out for the year. And the Colts proceeded to lose every game since. Every game. They come into Gillette at 0-11. Indy's run of consecutive years in the playoffs is over. So the television execs decided Pats-Colts was no longer worthy of prime-time viewing and moved the start time to 1 p.m. I can't blame them, but it begs the question why Eagles-Seahawks was deemed still worthy of being on last night. That game was a dog (sorry Vick) before the season even started.

The time change means that this is now the first 1 p.m. game of the year. 1 p.m. games make for the best tailgating. Why? Well, how often do you get to stand outside and drink at 9 in the morning? (If you answered "All the time" then you might have a problem.) For me, it's a few Sundays every winter. 1 p.m. games mean getting up around 7 in the morning, packing the car, grabbing a large coffee at Dunkins' while filling up the thermos, and getting into the lot when it opens at 9. The first beer cap is popped shortly after that.

The forecast is for temps in the mid 50s and mostly sunny. Perfect tailgating weather. That will make up a bit for the fact that this game probably won't add much to the greatest sports rivalry of the past decade. The Pats and Colts have staged some great battles, with each taking their share of huge wins. I've been lucky enough to be at most of them. The best one is captured in the video at the top of the post. What a game that was.