1.   And he could write hard, morning leads on sports stories instead of soft second-day leads for an afternoon paper.

2.   As with most sports stories, this one begins with fairy-tale innocence.

3.   At this hour, the New England Patriots are the only sports story on the local landscape.

4.   A sports story.

5.   But it is also a very up-to-date New York sports story in its awareness of limits.

6.   But that was about as close as this ever got to being a sports story.

7.   Could this be the final chapter of the worst Boston sports story of them all?

8.   Each of those was a huge sports story by itself.

9.   Editors, for other sports stories, see the separate SPORTS-BUDGET.

10.   For starters, there are no regular sports stories.