To continue getting breaking news and the full stories from The Boston Globe, subscribe today.

The Boston Globe

Sports

How Patriots’ sizes compare with rest of NFL

The Patriots have an unusual array with some of the smallest and largest players in the league on their offense. The Patriots' running backs and wide receivers are an inch and a half shorter than the NFL average for the same position. Their offensive line is half an inch taller. A look at how they compare:

Data for offensive teams (RB, WR, QB, C, G, OG, OT, TE, FB)

Patriots
NFL
Ravens

Average height of offensive team
Mouse over the bars below to compare the average height of each NFL team
The Patriots are 0.12 inches below the average height of the NFL offensive teams with 6 feet 2.31 inches. That's 1.17 inches shorter than the tallest team (Buffalo Bills) and 0.70 taller than the shortest (Washington Redskins).
Average height of RB+WR
Mouse over the bars below to compare the average height of each NFL team
The short players of the Patriots offense are the shortest of the whole NFL, with an average of 5 feet 10.33 inches. That's one inch and a half below the NFL average and more than three inches less than Denver Broncos or Buffalo Bills.
Average height of offensive line (C, G, OG, OT)
Mouse over the bars below to compare the average height of each NFL team
The Patriots are way shorter than average, but the tall Patriots are taller. Just a half inch more than average, but it is the sixth tallest offensive line of the NFL. The tallest? The usual suspects: the Buffalo Bills.
Average weight of offensive team
Mouse over the bars below to compare the average weight of each NFL team
The Patriots are a bit above the weight NFL average (0.73 pounds over). The Buffalo Bills also set the high record, but the Kansas City Chiefs set the lowest mark, with 247.3 pounds, six and a half pounds below average.
Average weight of RB+WR
Mouse over the bars below to compare the average weight of each NFL team
Being short is not the same than being small. Patriots running backs and wide receivers may be the shortest of the NFL, but not at all the lightest of the league, with 1.6 pounds over the 49ers players in the same position.
Average weight of offensive line (C, G, OG, OT)
Mouse over the bars below to compare the average weight of each NFL team
The Patriots are tall, but not so heavy. Despite being slightly over the average in height, they're below in terms of weight for the big men. But this is Ravens' land, with a really big difference of average weight with the rest of the league.
Height-weight ratio
Offensive teams
Mouse over the circles
^ height
RB + WR
Mouse over the circles
^ height
weight >
Offensive line
Mouse over the circles
^ height
weight >

SOURCE: NFL.com

Chiqui Esteban/Globe Staff

Tagging along with the in-laws on vacation

It was freezing and we wanted to get away. But we had committed to our regular summer weeks in the cabin and didn’t want to sell off the kids’ college funds to hit a beach. The solution: a tagalong trip.

Story 1 of 15

Read full story

Back in Time: the Tilton Arch

Charles Tilton had cash. Lots of it. His Gold Rush fortune paid for bridges, a new Town Hall, and public statuary throughout the hamlet named in his family’s honor. So when the wealthy benefactor wanted a memento of his trip to Rome in 1881, a mere postcard or souvenir ashtray wasn’t going to cut it. Instead, Tilton built a colossal memorial arch atop a 150-foot-high peak in close eyeshot of his grand mansion. Inspired by the Arch of Titus, the Concord granite monument overlooking downtown Tilton soars more than five stories high. Tilton dedicated the structure to his ancestors and hoped that, in contrast to its Roman counterpart, his arch would commemorate peace, not war.

Story 2 of 15

Read full story

Feel like you’re at the ocean’s bottom at Discovery Cove’s SeaVenture

People come to Orlando’s theme parks looking for a range of experiences from space travel to safaris to superheroic adventures. The one thing they probably don’t come for, especially during school vacation week, is sustained peace and quiet. But that’s a key part of what Discovery Cove delivers with its SeaVenture experience.

Discovery Cove is a SeaWorld sister resort (another sibling is Aquatica) where the illusion they’re selling is natural tropical paradise and marine wildlife sanctuary meets back-to-basics water park. The grounds are lush and manicured to rival the grand hotels of Hawaii. There’s a lazy river that winds around a good portion of the park’s 30 acres, including through an aviary where birds will eat out of your hand if you like.

Story 3 of 15

Read full story

Bruins lose in overtime, fail to sweep

Chris Kreider, formerly of Boston College, scored the sudden-death winner to force a Game 5 Saturday. Boston leads the series, 3-1.

Story 4 of 15

Read full story

Michael Douglas hits the right notes as Liberace

Beautifully written and directed, HBO’s “Behind the Candelabra” doesn’t quite fit into the biopic genre — simply because it is so good.

Story 5 of 15

Read full story

Fidelity selling limo firm launched by ‘Ned’ Johnson

The firm’s iconic chairman launched limousine service BostonCoach in 1985 after waiting too long for a taxi at the airport.

Story 6 of 15

Read full story

Bruins fall down on the job

The Bruins were on their way to a Game 4 clinching win against the Rangers. And then Tuukka Rask fell. Butt over tea kettle.

Story 7 of 15

Read full story

Damon and Douglas go ‘Behind the Candelabra’

Beneath the outlandish costumes, showy personality, and high-watt smile, Liberace was a real person.

Story 8 of 15

Read full story

A boxing lesson for college grads

Think of the vast majority of professional boxers as essentially unpaid interns, taking their lumps to build their resumes in the hope of cashing in and joining the 1 percent who live large.

Story 9 of 15

Read full story

Artist oversees installation of steel pieces at Emerson Umbrella

At 66, David Stromeyer came to the Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts in Concord with his work gloves. And he wasn’t just pitching in. He led the crew.

Story 10 of 15

Read full story

Runners return to downtown Boston to finish Marathon, remember the victims

Runners who were unable to cross the finish line in April will have a chance to cover the final mile, and Boston’s Run to Remember will pay tribute to slain MIT officer Sean Collier.

Story 11 of 15

Read full story

Mozart’s 40th, a Far Cry pick, pops up in Asia

Asian pop music like 2004’s “Tri-Angle,” by Korean boy band TVXQ has been borrowing from the Boston-based chamber orchestra’s minatory opening theme.

Story 12 of 15

Read full story

‘What Maisie Knew’ invites us to see the world through her eyes

“What Maisie Knew,” a modern-dress adaptation of the 1897 Henry James novel, is about the erosion of innocence entirely from the point of view of a 6-year-old girl.

Story 13 of 15

Read full story

‘The Painting’ is an animated work of art

Creative, colorful, and unexpectedly wise, “The Painting” is the latest offshore animation to show to kids burned out on computer-generated Hollywood toons.

Story 14 of 15

Read full story

Still fast, still furious, it all still hangs together

Vin Diesel and the “Fast & Furious” handlers seem eager to assert how they’ve molded a series of installments into, yep, a saga, complete with twisty continuity.

Story 15 of 15

Read full story