Happy Thanksgiving ...

As a Boston sports fan, let's face the facts - we have it good! There is alot to be thankful for ....here are my top 5 ...

1) Bill Belichick - he's the modern day Vince Lombardi. As a coach, he has 3 rings, 4 conference titles, 9 division titles, a .620 winning percentage (.708 with the Pats), and a playoff winning percentage of .789 (.824 with the Pats). What else is there to say? Perhaps that he's the best dressed coach of all-time.

2) Tom Brady - remember Joe Montana? He's alive and well in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Brady has 3 Super Bowl rings (should be 4, if not for a few members of the Pats defense ...another story for another day). He has 2 Super Bowl MVPs. He's the leader of the greatest football franchise of this decade. His intangibles are off the charts - his toughness, his smarts, etc. He has it all. Need I say more.

3) Theo Epstein - once considered Boy Wonder when he first took over the GM duties from Dan Duquette. He has led the Red Sox to 2 World Series Titles and the playoffs 6 of the last 7 years. He has rebuilt a farm system that has produced the likes of Jonathan Papelbon, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, and Daniel Bard. The pipeline to the big leagues has become a turnstile with some great arms and athletes down in the minors. In a few years, you'll be hearing Casey Kelly, Lars Anderson, and Ryan Westmoreland to name a few.

4) Wes Welker/Randy Moss - best tandem of receivers in the NFL. I'm sure they are top of Brady's Christmas list each year. Welker has caught a staggering 7.5 passes a game since coming here for a 2nd and 7th round picks to start 2007. Moss set an NFL record with 23 TD catches in 2007 and if he sticks around with Brady he's likely to give the TD record of Jerry Rice a chase (Rice has 208 total/197 receiving while Moss had 140/136 coming into 2009).

5) Danny Ainge/Kevin Garnett - lets face it, the Celtics had been irrelevant up until Ainge made the bold move of trading for Kevin Garnett (as well as Ray Allen). This single-handlely transformed the dormat Celts into title contenders. EVERYTHING changed. Garnett's passion and desire led the Celtics to their first world championship since 1986. I give Danny Ainge the credit for orchestrating the moves necessary to make this all happen.

*Honorable mention - I'll sneak the Bruins in here to show the full Boston love (for all you soccer fans, sorry I'm not putting the Revolution here - I just can't do it). I give a gobble-gobble thanks today out to Peter Chiarelli, the GM of the Bruins. He has put together a young, exciting, hard-working team that has hockey fans around here with championship hopes and dream. Milan Lucic, Tuukka Rask, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci et al are a few of the young players that will lead this team in years to come. Now if they could only get rid of Montgomery Burns who sits on his mountain of cash up in his Buffalo office.

On this Thanksgiving, 2009, I sit back and think about just how good I have it as a sports fan. There is no better place to live than Boston. We have successful, hard-working teams that are passionate about bringing nothing but championships to the fans of New England. It could be worse ... imagine being a Cubs fan or a simply a fan of any middle of the road team who you know has ZERO chance of winning before they even drop the first puck or throw the first pitch. Boston fans - be thankful! I know I am. Happy Thanksgiving!