Witness the kid in Laurence Maroney.

As part of the NFL’s summer program to get kids to exercise at least 60-minutes a day, they could enter a sweepstakes to bring a pro athlete to their school.

Twelve-year old Tyler Hutchinson won the contest, and was a celebrity for a day.

Learn more about Play 60. Seriously, get your kids off the video games and send them out in the yard. Maybe do toss the football around. You, too. Put the Blackberry down and get winded. It’s good for you.

That old connection of which Patriots fans grew so fond in 2007 returned on Sunday to propel New England to a 27-17 win over the Miami Dolphins.

Tom Brady hooked up with Randy Moss on two key plays — both resulting in a touchdown by the end of each respective drive.

Midway through the first quarter, Moss streaked down the right sideline. Brady lofted a pass toward Moss, who plucked the ball out of the air with his right hand. Defensive back Vontae Davis, who was stride-for-stride with Moss, brought him down at the 1 yard line.

Laurence Maroney then rushed the ball in with ease, giving the Patriots a 7-3 lead at the time.

On the opening drive of the second half, Miami methodically worked the ball downfield, scoring on a 1-yard touchdown pass by Ronnie Brown out of the Wildcat formation. The score put the Dolphins up 17-16, with momentum building in their favor after New England settled for three second-quarter field goals.

Brady and Moss slowed that momentum on the ensuing drive.

Facing 3rd & 1 from their own 29 yard line, Brady hit Moss on a short crossing pattern. With Davis right on his heels, Moss stiff armed the Miami rookie and broke away by running with high knees to avoid getting tripped up. He sprinted 71 yards down the sideline for a touchdown, and caught the two-point conversion to put New England up 24-17.

“You get eleven guys working together, then anything’s possible,” Moss said in a short press conference following the 27-17 win. “That’s what we try to do here is execute on offense. Everybody did everything right on that play, and you see the results.”

Moss finished the game with six receptions for 147 yards and the lone touchdown. It was Brady who surpassed Drew Bledsoe for the most 300-yard passing games in franchise history with 27. He finished the day 25-of-37 for 332 yards, one touchdown and an interception.

The win gives the Patriots a (6-2) record, as well as the all important division win against Miami. Remember, it was just last year that New England was kept out of the playoffs due to an in-division tiebreaker.

“It’s a big division win,” head coach Bill Belichick said. “Miami’s (3-0) in the division coming into this game, so that was a huge win for us.”

Grinding out a tough win like this comes at the right time for this club, which faces Indianapolis, the New York Jets and high-scoring New Orleans in each of the next three weeks.

“This is an important time of year. November comes around and your team pretty much is what it is,” Brady said. “We’ve got a pretty tough stretch here in November, so it was good to get off to a great start.”

Brady said that, at this point in the season, what you see on the field is what the Patriots offense and defense will be. We will find out in the coming weeks if that is enough to beat the best teams in football.

Despite holding a 2-1 aggregate lead coming into the second leg of its conference semi finals series against the Chicago Fire, the New England Revolution were bounced from the MLS Playoffs on Saturday night.

John Thorrington and Cuauhtemoc Blanco scored for the Fire in its 2-0 second leg victory, topping the Revolution 3-2 on aggregate.

Blanco’s goal came with six minutes remaining in regulation.

Chicago moves on to host Real Salt Lake next Saturday in the Eastern Conference Final.

This was the second straight season in which the Fire bounced the Revs from the playoffs.

Also, I think the FSC game announcer may have been a bit excited by Blanco’s goal. And all game he kept getting excited any time a Fire player touched the ball. Strange things for an unbiased announcer to do.

In the first leg of the Eastern Conference Semifinal series between the New England Revolution and Chicago Fire, the Revs gained a 2-1 aggregate lead with Sunday’s victory.

New England trailed 1-0 in the first half, but scored a goal just before the halftime break to knot the match 1-1.

Midfielder Emmanuel Osei, who did not score a goal during three regular season starts, found the back of the net for the Revolution in the 45th minute. He deflected a Kenny Mansally free kick with his head past Fire keeper Jon Busch.

It was veteran midfielder Shalrie Joseph who scored the deciding goal of the match, putting home a close-range shot in the 75th minute.

The series moves to Chicago’s Toyota Park on Saturday for the final leg. New England leads on aggregate 2-1.

Remember, these are the same Revolution who limped into the playoffs. Head coach Steve Nichol is a mastermind.

Thinking they had completed a comeback from down 21-10, the UConn Huskies were left with a loss following an 81-yard TD with 22 seconds left in the game.

The man who caught that winning touchdown pass is Tim Brown, who grew up with the late Jasper Howard in Miami. This was UConn’s first home game since Howard’s death two weeks ago.

“I just went out there and played that game for my friend,” Brown said. “He was a special guy to me and I just went out there and dedicated that game to him.”

Huskies starting quarterback Cody Endres left the game in the first quarter after injuring his shoulder. Backup Zach Frazer threw for 333 yards and a touchdown.

On a night in which the Los Angeles Lakers received their NBA Championship rings, the Boston Celtics were recipients of their own prize — the return of Kevin Garnett.

In his first non-exhibition action since going down for good with a knee injury last season, Garnett provided sound defensive presence and hit a big shot down the stretch for Boston in its season opener on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Big Ticket, as he is known, scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, battling Cleveland’s newly acquired Shaquille O’Neal down low.

The win was not an easy one for the Celtics. One of the best home teams in the 2008-2009 season, the Cavaliers jumped out to a quick 11-point lead to start the game.

“We never really panicked,” head coach Doc Rivers said of an early 13-2 deficit that was slowly erased before halftime. “We just kind of chipped away at it. We talked about it in that stretch during that timeout that we wanted to have the lead by halftime.”

It was Boston’s depth which proved too much for LeBron James and the Cavs, as the Celtics bench outscored Cleveland’s 26-10. New additions Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels paced Boston’s second team with 12 and 7 points, respectively.

“We’re going against some of the five greatest guys to play this game, right now every day in practice,” Wallace said. “That just makes us better.”

“I liked what happened tonight because everyone contributed — I thought as much of a team win as you can get,” Rivers said. “The second unit saved the game for us.”

Boston’s bench systematically cut into Cleveland’s lead, finally evening the score at a few points in the second quarter. And it was captain Paul Pierce who broke through to give Boston its first lead of the game — 39-38 on a long jump shot — with 4:54 remaining in the first half. After jostling for the lead, the Celtics never turned back after the halftime break.

Pierce led Boston’s balanced attack with 23 points and 11 rebounds. He did the little things down the stretch to close out the 95-89 win.

The Celtics captain scored eight points in the final 1:02, making four free throws to put the icing on the cake.

“It’s great, psychologically, to go in here and get a win. Now we know next time we come in here we’ve done it and we’re capable of doing it again,” Pierce said.

While pleased to win on the road against one of the game’s best players, Pierce cautioned anyone from getting too excited about a victory this early in the season.

“It was a good Day One, but you’ve got to expect Cleveland’s going to be a better team down the road, come February, March, but also we’re going to be better,” Pierce said.

The Celtics open at home Wednesday night against the Charlotte Bobcats.

Boston College’s defense stood up to the test, but the Eagles’ offense was overmatched in the 2009 incarnation of the “Holy War,” falling to Notre Dame 20-16.

BC turned the ball over five times — three interceptions and two fumbles — including an interception to end its final drive.

With 98 seconds remaining in the game, quarterback Dave Shinskie rolled out to his right and tossed a pass while on the run — it was intercepted by Brian Smith. That turnover effectively ended the game and BC’s hope of continuing its winning streak over Notre Dame to seven games in this rivalry dubbed the Holy War. Boston College and Notre Dame are the only two Catholic institutions to play Division I football.

“We’re a high-wire act,” BC head coach Frank Spaziani said. “There’s no margin of error for us. There’s no safety net. When we fall off the wire, it’s not good. So five turnovers is hard to overcome.”

Eagles receiver Rich Gunnell made 10 receptions for 179 yards and one touchdown.

Prior to the game, Irish head coach Charlie Weis honored BC linebacker Mark Herzlich with a jersey and a donation to cancer research. Herzlich is fighting Ewing’s sarcoma and hopes to return to the field next season.

As was the shootout, which saw the Bruins blanked on all three attempts.

The Bruins lost 4-3 in the shootout, clearly feeling the results of playing back-to-back games, with a flight from Boston to Philadelphia in between. There were encouraging signs, and some not-so-encouraging.

The Bs did well attacking the puck at times, but played sloppily in its own zone. Tuukka Rask, for one, does not appear comfortable fielding the puck in the trapezoid behind the net. He looks one way, then shuffles the puck along the boards in the opposite direction without looking. Often times there is an opposing forward bearing down on that corner of the ice. Scary.

Also, there were a few passes between defensemen that awarded turnovers to the Flyers, causing scoring unnecessary scoring opportunities. Of course, some of that is Philadelphia’s adept forechecking, but that’s no excuse for passing a puck into danger.

On a positive note, defenseman Derek Morris netted his first goal — the game-tying tally on a 3rd period power play. Matt Hunwick and newcomer Steve Begin also scored for the Bruins.

Boston next plays in Ottawa on Saturday night.

I like Laurence Maroney.  I know you have issues with his running and who doesn’t?  But I’m telling you, there’s no better soundbite in the Patriots locker room.   When asked about sprinkling his personality around on the trip to London to play against Tampa Bay.  “Man they may not be able to understand me.  What they speak?  English?  British? (reporters’ laughter) People might be hounding me and I’m not able to conversate.   So I say nothing, or cheerio.  Bye!” (Laurence and reporters laughing) 

So Laurence butchers the Queen’s English, but he reminds us that playing sports and covering it should be so serious.  Seriously, he’s trip, a breath of fresh air in a locker room that’s as serious as a Corporate America Board Meeting.  

When Sunday’s game is over it’s a given the British press will be all over Tom Brady because he’s Tom Brady.  But for my pound’s worth, I’ll tell any British reporter worth his weight in tea to wander over to Laurence Maroney’s locker.  I don’t know what he’ll give you, but I’m sure it’ll be interesting.

“Patrice Bergeron — magic hands!” — Jack Edwards

It took some getting used to, but the new lines imposed on the Boston Bruins by injuries to Marc Savard, Shawn Thornton and Milan Lucic started to click in the second period of Wednesday night’s 3-2 win over Nashville.

Just 26 seconds into the second period, Michael Ryder knotted the game at 1-1. Brad Marchand earned his first-career NHL point, assisting on the goal in his first NHL game. Marchand was called up to Boston following the weekend trade of Chuck Kobasew to Minnesota.

After trading goals again in the second, newcomer Steve Begin scored his first goal as a Bruin in the third period — the game winner.

As the Bruins move forward and face stiffer competition — like tonight in Philadelphia, where the Flyers conveniently rested last night — it is imperative that these lines further gel. With Savard and Lucic out for some time, the team cannot afford a string of losses.