Pigskin pathfinders

The Lewis & Clark of pigskin pathfinders, the Cold, Hard Football Facts, are forging a new trail for gridiron gurus. We're forcing the "pundits" to back up their bloviating with something better than "because I said so."

Note The Boston Globe on Sunday, in which local "pundit" Ron Borges fills his "On football" column with a long list of Cold, Hard Football Facts in an effort to refute one of our recent articles.

We wrote last week that there has not been a dramatic decline in the performance of New England's defense with Ty Law on the sidelines, as many of the pundits would have you believe. Borges says we're misleading the public and attempts to prove it by looking at the quality of the passing attacks New England faced with and without Law. It's a noble effort by Borges to improve the quality of his reporting.

In fact, he may be right and we may be wrong. It won't be the first time we were proven incorrect. (Monday editor's note: turns out we were absolutely correct and Borges was absolutely torched. But you already knew that.) In any case we applaud Borges for his effort: tell us what you think. And then back it up! This ain't rocket science, folks, it's simply sports writing. But backing your claims with Cold, Hard Football Facts, as Borges attempts to do in his "On football" column, only serves to bolster the credibility of the pigskin "punditry."

Unfortunately, Borges needs to dish out a second career full of Cold, Hard Football Facts before his credibility can get up out of its wheel chair and hobble around with its head held high. Note his report Friday that the coaching match-up between Tony Dungy and four-time Super Bowl champion coach Bill Belichick is an even one because, Borges writes, Tampa Bay won a Super Bowl the year after Dungy left. Go figure.

In any case, we're glad to see our lessons taking hold. In our next stop down the path of pigskin enlightenment, we'll teach Borges not to lead his columns with tired, old cliches. Of course, blending Cold, Hard Football Facts with humorous and original literary devices may be beyond his reach. But at least's he's heading in the right direction.