Lance Armstrong confessed to Oprah Winfrey during an interview Monday that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France, according to the Associated Press.

Excluding the most devout Lance believers, this isn't exactly a revelation.

[Y! TV: When to watch Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah]

Dozens of former teammates, support staff and competitors already have detailed Armstrong's use. The United States Anti-Doping Agency released a 1,000-page report that was staggering in its detail proving it. There have been books and investigative reports and on-the-record accusations. Armstrong has been stripped of his titles, dumped by most of his sponsors and banned from competition.

And, of course, there is the fact that he competed in a sport overwhelmed by PED use, making his years of asserting his purity all the more ridiculous. That would mean the clean rider beat all the dirty ones. The drugs, after all, are called "performance enhancing" for a reason.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Aaron Hernandez made a beeline postgame across the New England Patriots' locker room toward where not just Tom Brady was straightening his shirt, but where a bottle of cologne sat on a shelf.

Hernandez snagged it, sprayed it on his hands and then rubbed it on his head. Brady noticed Hernandez's primping and decided to take a fragrant shot himself.

Rob Gronkowski, rear, reaches for a pass in front of Texans LB Barrett Ruud. (AP)And with that, the Pats' quarterback and once-again chief threat at tight end were in concert, at least aromatically. They better move symbiotically for the rest of these playoffs because now comes the test for Bill Belichick's machine, one that worships by the simple "next man, up" ethos – be it from competition, roster move or, in this case, ill-timed injury.

New England produced one painful victory Sunday, a 41-28 cruise over the Houston Texans to set up a home AFC championship game rematch next Sunday.

The major blow came with a season-ending injury to Rob Gronkowski when the star tight end fell

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The New England Patriots rolled into another AFC championship game Sunday, defeating the Houston Texans 41-28.

It's what they may have lost, however, that will be a concern going forward.

Star tight end Rob Gronkowski reportedly re-broke his left forearm while attempting to make a first-down catch in the opening quarter. He immediately went to the bench where he was in obvious pain as he was surrounded by team medical staff. He was then walked to the locker room and never returned to the game.

Rob Gronkowski catches a pass earlier in the first quarter against the Texans. (USA Today Sports Images)Pro Football Talk reported during the game that Gronkowski is out for the rest of the postseason. Gronkowski, one of the Patriots' top weapons, missed six games this season due to a broken left forearm. It was surgically repaired and he returned to action in Week 17 of the regular season.

Sunday he wore a heavy white brace, which apparently didn't help when he fell to the ground trying to corral a Tom Brady pass along the Patriots' sideline.

The

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – An AFC championship game rematch between Baltimore and New England wasn't even set before tough talk from the Ravens began.

Baltimore linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo took to Twitter in the first half of New England's divisional playoff game against the Houston Texans and started blasting the Patriots hurry-up offense as a gimmick and mocking the organization for the 2007 "SpyGate" scandal.

Brendon Ayanbadejo (AP)"In a sport that is predicated on mano y mano, 'let's hurry-up n snap it' = bitchassness," Ayanbadejo tweeted.

With New England eventually beating the Texans 41-28, the Patriots will host Baltimore next Sunday with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line again. Ayanbadejo's comments are the first shot in what could be a contentious week of trash talk between the two AFC rivals.

New England edged Baltimore 23-20 in last year's AFC championship game, in part because the Ravens dropped a potential game-winning pass and missed a game-tying kick in the final seconds.

Bill Belichick and Tom Brady both arrived in New England in 2000. The Super Bowl championships came fast – 2001 (Brady's first as a subbed-in starter), 2003 and 2004. It was a dynasty, almost overnight. And although the task wasn't easy or simple, it was accelerated.

Since then, nothing.

Tom Brady reacts after throwing an INT in the Super Bowl vs. the Giants last year. (AP)Seven years of falling short and make no mistake, anything less than everything is falling short for competitors of this intensity. Especially by now, with the Houston Texans arriving Sunday for an AFC divisional playoff game. Especially after all these years of relentless churn, of boilerplate double-digit win seasons derailed by crushing injuries and gut-punch defeats, of Januarys and Februarys somehow lost.

Everybody is trying to win in the NFL but no one tries (or succeeds) like the Patriots. Other franchises take entire seasons off. The Patriots rarely have a bad week, and never two in a row. This year, they went 12-4, their 10th consecutive season with 10 or more victories, which

From Division II Grand Valley State, where he won two national titles, to Central Michigan, where he won a MAC championship, to the University of Cincinnati, where he led a team to a 12-0 record, to, now, Notre Dame, where in his third season he took the once moribund Irish to the national title game, there's an obvious constant.

Brian Kelly has always been successful. And Brian Kelly has always been a climber.

That the NFL was on the horizon should surprise no one. Until word broke Wednesday with ESPN saying Kelly has met with the Philadelphia Eagles and there is mutual interest, the horizon still seemed off in the distance. Brian Kelly has reportedly interviewed with the Philadelphia Eagles. (USA Today)

The interview, according to the NFL Network, took place Tuesday, just hours after the Irish's 42-14 BCS title game loss to Alabama, a disappointment that only slightly diminished a dream season. Kelly is now said to be out of the country for a brief vacation, an entirely separate bizarre turn. Notre Dame declined to comment on the reports.

For

In January 2011, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler sprained his MCL in the NFC championship game. Rather than stay in the locker room or head to the hospital, he stood on the sideline under a heavy coat and watched the Bears lose to the Green Bay Packers.

Doing so caused other NFL players to take to social media and rip him to shreds for his perceived lack of toughness.

An injured Jay Cutler was widely criticized during and after the NFC championship game in 2011. (Getty Images)

"Cmon cutler u have to come back. This is the NFC championship if u didn't know," Arizona Cardinals safety Kerry Rhodes tweeted.

"All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee … I played the whole season on one," Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew concurred.

Arizona's Darnell Dockett said Cutler shouldn't be allowed to shower with his teammates after the game. Hall of Famer Deion Sanders blasted that "in the playoffs u must drag me off the field."

On and on it went, an avalanche of vitriol seen and read by every football fan in America. Presumably, that

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – For the record, the first hug from AJ McCarron went to his dad; the second to his mom.

Then a bunch to other assorted family got in for high fives and pats on the back as McCarron, standing on an electrical box, reached up and into the front row of Sun Life Stadium where Alabama fans wildly celebrated the Crimson Tide's 42-14 destruction of Notre Dame for a second consecutive BCS title behind their star quarterback.

It was then, finally, when McCarron reached over and kissed his girlfriend, Katherine Webb, the reigning Miss Alabama and a young lady that, due to ESPN repeatedly flashing to her during the game broadcast, is America's newest celebrity.

So let it be known, here on a charmed night in the charmed life of AJ McCarron, it was still family first. Webb just had to wait.

"That means he's a family guy, a mama's boy," Webb said with a laugh to Yahoo! Sports. "And I'm totally good with that. It's that personality that attracted me to him in