PLANO, Texas - Veteran sportscaster Pat Summerall was remembered Saturday during a memorial service as “the voice of the NFL” and a venerated figure who maintained a humble approach despite the praise his broadcast work received for decades.

Thousands gathered Saturday at a Baptist church just north of Dallas to pay tribute to a broadcaster who called some of the most memorable games in NFL history, and also was known for his coverage of Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the Masters golf tournament and other sporting events.

New England says goodbye to fan favorite

One could accuse New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick of being a lot of things. Sentimental is not one of them.

Belichick recently continued a long and storied tradition of unapologetically cutting ties with veteran players, either through trades or outright releases. New England stalwarts and legends such as Lawyer Milloy, Ty Law, Richard Seymour, Randy Moss, Deion Branch and Adam Vinatieri have all been given their walking papers, unceremoniously dismissed despite still being talented and useful players.

A look ahead at Super Bowl XLVII

The Super Bowl has arrived.

For the 47th time, hundreds of millions of people from around the globe will be focused on the game of football. This year’s game will be played in the New Orleans Superdome, where the AFC’s Baltimore Ravens and the NFC’s San Francisco 49ers will vie to see which team gets to hoist the Lombardi Trophy as the champions of the NFL.

The overriding storyline behind this year’s game revolves around the Harbaugh brothers. John and Jim Harbaugh, coaches of the Ravens and 49ers respectively, are the first brothers to coach against each other in the Super Bowl. This has led many in the media to refer to the game as the “Harbaugh Bowl” or “Har Bowl” or other variations on that theme.

And then there were four.

After the grueling four month season and two weeks of high-intensity playoff games, we are left with four NFL teams that still have a chance to make their way to the Super Bowl and compete for the Lombardi Trophy.

2012’s postseason attrition continued this weekend as four more very good teams were proved to be not quite good enough. The Denver Broncos, the Green Bay Packers, the Seattle Seahawks and the Houston Texans all find themselves on the outside looking in as the playoff dance continues. Each team fought the good fight – the Broncos and Seahawks were especially dogged in their pursuits – but in the end, they came up short.

After a grueling four months, the 2012 NFL regular season has come to a close. Of the league’s 30 teams, 18 have already packed up and gone home to an offseason likely to be rife with pointed fingers and fired coaches.

But 12 remain. A dozen teams that fought hard all year long just to get to this point, each of whom now has a new goal – to hoist the Lombardi Trophy as Super Bowl champions. But it’s not going to be easy. It never is.

After 17 weeks, the 2012 NFL regular season has finally come to an end. The New England Patriots have once more made their way into the postseason, riding a 12-4 record to the 2-seed in the AFC and a first round bye.

The Patriots finished out the year by winning three of their last four, their only loss coming at the hands of the playoff-bound 49ers. While their win over the Jaguars was lackluster, they looked great in demolishing the Texans and shutting out Miami in the season’s last game. The team looks to be in solid shape heading toward the Super Bowl.

What a difference a month makes.

Over the past four games, the New England Patriots have played at an incredibly high level. An argument could be made, in fact, that they have been the best team in football over the past four games. The offense has been as high-octane as ever, while the defense has made a significant turnaround. Add to that some high-quality special teams play and it’s no wonder that the Pats have won their last four.

There is no denying that the New England Patriots haven’t started the season the way they would have liked. The Pats sit at 2-2 after the first four games of 2012; still, while Coach Bill Belichick and company would probably prefer to be sitting north of .500, there are reasons for optimism.

For instance, while New England is indeed 2-2, those two losses were by a grand total of three points. Losing to Arizona was unexpected, but it was only a two point loss – a loss to a team that appears to have a defense far more ferocious than anyone thought possible. And losing by a single point to Baltimore – a probable playoff team – is certainly understandable, if not exactly welcome.

Dear Commissioner Goodell,

Enough is enough.

I don’t pretend to understand all of the particulars in your beef with the NFL Referees Association (NFLRA). I’m sure that there are a lot of details beneath the surface that make your differences a lot more complex than they might seem from the outside. How much of this mess is directly attributable to you is unclear, but you’re the one who needs to clean it up. You need to talk to your bosses and change their tunes. You need to tuck your tail between your legs and do whatever it takes to get those guys back on the field.

DETROIT - Shannon Eastin used her left hand to tuck her pony tail under her cap after the national anthem and got ready for work.

She seemed to do her job, which ended by helping to separate St. Louis Rams and Detroit Lions players after some shoving, pushing and shouting broke out following the final play.

Eastin became the first woman to be an official in an NFL regular-season game, working as the line judge in the Rams-Lions matchup Sunday.