Boston Sports: The Celtics, The Patriots, and the Forecast of Raining Shit in New England

A lot has happened in the last 2 weeks of sports, especially if you are a fan of Boston sports.

The Stanley Cup was won by the Chicago Blackhawks, defeating the Boston Bruins.  The Bruins now enter a turbulent off-season, with several key players already not being resigned and entering Free Agency.

The former Patriots Tight End and Bristol Blood fan/member is basically one more murder away from being Tony Soprano (Rest In Peace James Gandolfini).  This news story went from "some dead guy was found near Hernandez' house in Attleboro" to "Holy Shit, the Patriots drafted a suspected murderer out of Florida".  There have been two things that made me laugh about this whole thing and that's these two pictures of Hernandez in court:

The second picture, for some reason, made me laugh about what he's thinking while he's in court, and I instantly thought of The Situation from Jersey Shore.  "Gotta look good for the Judge, can't have no chapped lips.  GTL."  Sorry, my mind wanders.

How pissed is Bob Kraft and Co. after taking "the weed guy" in that draft and then realizing he's the "weed and guns and murder guy"?  Definite due diligence fail.

Good news for the Internet, we now have "Hernandezing" to go alone with "Bradying" and "Tebowing".  I think the Patriots should stop picking up all these meme-players.

Bradying

Hernandezing

Like I need to tell you what this is.

The Celtics first traded their coach to the Clippers for a first round draft pick, and then traded Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry to the New Jersey Brooklyn Nets for Marshon Brooks, Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries-Kardashian, Keith Bogans, Kris Joseph, and 3 first round draft picks (2014, 2016, 2018).  If you asked me two years ago about the age of Garnett and Pierce and whether or not they should come back, I probably would've said no.  But after a Boston-centric news week like this, I still say it's too early.  Plus Paul Pierce, the one person who I didn't think I wouldn't see wear another team's jersey, is going to be wearing another team's jersey.  Unreal.  He, along with Garnett, will no doubt get standing ovations when they come back to Boston.  Might need to check the tickets on that game.

Swap jersey's guys.

In baseball, The Red Sox can't close games, but are still managing to have an incredible record.  If there is any bad news relating to the Red Sox, I think it's just that players are getting injured.  Happens all the time.  I don't know any dreadful soccer news for the New England Revolution, but I know they are still playing, which is actually good news!

My initial reaction to all of this news coming within the same 10 days of each other -I don't know how fans around the Boston area are going to buy any sports tickets in the next year.  I honestly don't think I would want to go to a Boston sports game unless I got the tickets for free.  I know that seems fair-weather of me, but the opposite of a fair-weather fan is an obsessed fan.  Boston has too many obsessed fans.  Don't believe me?  We watch sports talk radio shows on TV:

Now the landscape right now for Boston, looks terrible.  Every person now has a question mark attached, which makes me think of Jim Carrey's Riddler.  Terrible image.  But for people that live around Boston, Sports is what keeps us sane.  After the Boston Marathon bombing, it was the Red Sox game, the Bruins game, and the Celtics game that everyone paid attention to.  I was at the first Red Sox game where Papi got the biggest rise out of a Red Sox crowd in a pre-game speech.

It was emotional and really brought the whole city together.  It made us all realize that we pay attention to sports to get away from the realities and horrors of war, bombs, and terrorism.  So maybe we don't need to be eccentric and obsessed, but I'd rather be sports-obsessed than war-obsessed.

That's all I can write for now, take care everyone!

What Team will Tom Brady end his career with?

I was at work today and I thought of something as I was listening to the Rich Eisen podcast on the iPod.  There are a ton of great football players, nay, athletes that start their careers with one team and end with a team that seems like it should not have even been part of his career.  Let’s go down the list and see who makes the cut:

The recent obvious one: Brett Favre

Doesn’t exactly seem like he played over 200 games in a packers uniform.  It’s the team he won a Super Bowl in, it’s the team that he owned for all of the 90’s and most of the 2000’s.  When you said “Packers QB”, there was only Favre.  Everyone else was a “Who?”.

The “Oh Yeah, I forgot” guy: Joe Montana

If I remember correctly he made the passing portion of “The Catch” to Dwight Clark that is so famous in the NFL and he is most known for passing to the greatest wide receiver the game will ever see.  Which brings us to the next guy.

The "Al Davis Crush” Seattle Seahawks?  Really?: Jerry Rice

Didn’t even realize Jerry Rice was traded to Seattle until I looked it up.  I thought he ended it in San Francisco.  But apparently did one of those things where he signed a contract with the 49ers for a day and then retired so he could retire a 49er.  I mean, come on!  Can’t anyone stay with one team forever.

The guy who might go crazy without Football: Junior Seau

I’ll be honest.  When Junior Seau drove his car over a cliff on a beach, I thought of one thing: he needs to come back to football.  Seau must be on so many painkillers and probably hates his family that he just wants a ring and will do anything for it.  Most definitely the reason he came to New England.  I fear for the life of Junior Seau.

The “Just Retire and Don’t Ruin Your Legacy” guy: Michael Jordan

I know that the title in this could be something to relate to all of these guys, but Jordan is the only one on this list that is still considered to be the great of his time.  Kobe is slowly approaching Jordan like status and will most likely pass him if he keeps playing up to his game. 

The “You’ve Got to be Shitting Me” guy: Johnny Unitas

Yeah, Johnny Unitas, the guy who is considered the king of the gridiron played for the San Deigo Chargers.  He looks like he should be selling hair cream in this picture, but he is also on this list. 

Now, I could go on for a long time.  I could mention Nomar, but he was traded.  I should mention Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, and maybe a couple of more players from the NBA who left small markets/traded to win big while getting paid.  Baseball players hardly ever stay in the same city.  The first big free agent from the 1974 era was Catfish Hunter who left the Oakland A’s to play for the Yankees for a little over $2M.  Baseball never looked back after 1974.  Most players are considered legendary if they stay with the team they grew with and never considered.  Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are going to end in pinstripes.  I never really considered this such a task, but maybe the days of the athlete that plays on one team and stays on one team are long gone.

The reason I ask this question because there are a couple of athletes that are always going to be on a plaque or behind a frame in a Boston sports bar.  The best players; that influenced those teams and left their mark without looking for more from another team, one more year to try and win a championship or whatever they thought would be out there.  Of course I’m talking about:

The Great White Hope:

Teddy Ballgame:

So if Tom Brady is as good a QB as anyone that ever walked onto the field?  Where does he end his career?   Most signs point to someplace not in New England.  Let’s hope Al Davis doesn’t stay alive for Brady’s contract to end.

*I researched Bobby Orr and didn’t realize he ended his career with the Blackhawks.  Still the best hockey player, if not, certainly the best defenseman, by a long shot.

NFL: The No Fun League and This Illegal Hit Nonsense

I simply do not get what Roger Goodell is trying to do with his league that he has right now.  In case you missed it, a bunch of defensive backs made awesome hits on players were either catching the ball or about to catch the ball.  I heard from ESPN football analysts, 98.5 The Sports Hub, The Sports Guy, and I’ve had all I can stand right now.  This game that just about everyone watches on Sunday, that is worth about 250,000 jobs and easily a large portion of this working economy, is about to turn everyone into a sissy mary.  Here is why.

The NFL Commissioner instituted a new rule issuing fines and suspensions on players who cause hits on players that might be considered dangerous or intentional to injury.  Let me get this straight, the National Football League, which is made for guys that hurt and were bread for making hits that are intentional.  But because some scientist opened up the head of a hockey player that died and donated his brain to science, every sports commissioner has now a monkey on his back saying “if you don’t control your concussion problem, then someone else, like the government will take over”.  This, to me, is absolute bullshit.

First there was the Peyton Manning rule, saying that players can be given a penalty for illegal contact after the Patriots defense was that good against Peyton Manning and his plethora of receivers.  That was okay because now players are only allowed contact up to 5 yards from the line of scrimmage, which is manageable and coachable.  Players can adjust to this. 

 

There was then the Tom Brady rule, which is pretty much, for any football fan, a pussy rule.  Tom Brady and the Kraft Family was pissed that he missed the 2008 season with a leg injury from game 1 because he was tackled from the defensive end from the knee down.  At first, it wasn’t a bad rule.  It made sense for players to not go for the quarterbacks legs.  But now, every time a quarterback is hit, its almost on cue that they look at the referee and give puppy dog eyes looking for a roughing the passer penalty.  Just look at these eyes and try to say No to that!  I mean, even I get upset at Tom Brady for flipping out on referees for not throwing flags and giving them 15 yards.  You went to Michigan right?  Backup?  I bet you even were a bit of a tough guy before all that lip gloss went to your god damn head.  Act like a football player.  Not a ballerina.

Those two previous rules have been landmark rules in the NFL.  The Latter has made the quarterback a bit of a flake and put more emphasis on the offensive line more than anything.  The other major rules in the NFL have had to do with Challenges, Crossing the Plane of an Endzone, and the Horse Collar rule, which we can all thank Roy Williams (DB) for.  Those rules have all made sense and are coachable rules that teams can teach their players to work around.  But this new rule, this new rule for football players to pretty much calm down on the hitting is utter nonsense.  Just ask any football player, even look at their twitter page and expect them to say “Thanks Commish for looking out for our health, but get back behind the desk and fix the financial situation, leave the hitting to us.”

Everyone from Michael Felger to Tedy Bruschi was in an uproar about all of the hits that just happened to coincide on this previous NFL weekend.  I really wanted to punch my radio when Felger was upset about Meriweather doing something like this.  James Harrison, who is a former Defensive Player of the Year, was fined $75,000 for delivering a hit on Mohamed Massaquoi, which he went in with his helmet, but he used his forearms to leverage a bigger blow on Massaquoi.  Dunta Robinson of the Houston Texans delivered a huge hit to DeSean Jackson for which both players were carted off of the field, Robinson was fined $50,000.  Brandon Meriweather delivered a huge hit to Todd Heap, which many think was the worst of the major three hits that were fined and occurred over the weekend, and was also fined $50,000.  I do not understand the science behind this kind of regulation.  Because with regulation like this, you have to make sure that you are not tainting your product.  Remember, there are 10-12 year veterans playing this game who have been used to this kind of hitting for a long time.  Just like how fighting is a part of Hockey, hitting hard is a part of football.  If you want to get rid of the hard hitting in football, then you have to redesign Pee-Wee camps so that lineman aren’t driving their bodies into metal poles covered in padding.  If you want to get rid of hitting in football then you have to get rid of the safety helmets and pads that football players are already wearing.  If you want to get rid of hitting in football, then get rid of football all together.  It wasn’t too long ago, that a man who was the dirtiest hitting safety in football, a man by the name of Rodney Harrison, was the king of the head first spear into players that either caught the ball or didn’t catch the ball. 

Judging by the video, Harrison wouldn’t have made it a day without being fined $100K per game for the hits he made.  This new rule changes everything there is to know about the modern game of Football.  This rule is uncoachable and it really brings players back to think about how they are going to approach hitting a player.  I don’t know how this will fix anything.  All this did was give some closure to players who were on the fast track to get concussed anyways.  They play football, and they get paid handsomely for doing so.  No one expects them to go out and solve math problems afterwards.  I know these players are human beings and they have children and families to care about and love and provide for.  But every player knows the risks out there.  They know the dirty hits and they know the hits that are good clean hits that just look bad.  If you want to know about hits that were banned in the NFL, look no further than Deacon Jones and the head slap.  It was a hit that the NFL had to ban because it would actually break a guys neck.  See for yourself.

This is all I can say about this right now.  So for Roger Goodell, the NFLPA, Rodney Harrison, and all the players out there who don’t give a damn about league fines and nasty hits because it makes people buy their jerseys and be a bad ass, saying Good night.

Why I'm not so sure about this Randy Moss dump...

Teamwork. It's the backbone for winning championships. Bill Belichik, Doc Rivers, and Terry Francona have proved that. Claude Julien has come close to proving it. I don't think there is a person who would disagree with me. However, there are somethings that coaches and GM's do that they might regret. The Randy Moss trade, er, dump, was one of those things according to me.

I know some, or mostly all of the Patriots fans will disagree with me. Randy was a clubhouse cancer, arguing over money while the Kraft's were dealing with Brady, doing something while the pledge of allegiance was going on, yada yada yada. Randy has a history of being a pest. Think for minute, about what Randy Moss is to any team. He is the guy working for his dollar. John Salley, on his podcast talks a lot about how organizations smearing players because they aren't loyal to the team. If anyone should be loyal to anything, it's to their family. I don't blame Johnny Damon for taking more money to go to the Yankees, I don't blame Lebron for not staying in Cleveland, I don't blame Phil Kessel for leaving the Bruins after a stellar season to play in Toronto for more money. If your a player, your allegiance is to your family. And that's all. If an organization loves you enough, you will get a second contract to stay with them. Most recently Tom Brady, Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara. All well liked and deservedly getting their contract.


I don't know if most Boston fans know this, but we vindicate so many players who come through here and don't stay forever. Sure the foods nice, weathers okay, and the chicks are hot, but those things aren't money. I don't know whether its something just with Boston fans, but we almost expect every player to stay with their Boston franchise forever, like Larry Bird, Bobby Orr and Ted Williams did. Granted those players are Boston legends, but if someone walked up to them and offered then more money to play in New York or California or some other franchise, we would have vindicated the hell out of them.


Another reason I'm not sold on this dump of Moss is the Patriots plans for when Wes Welker gets another man covered on him. Randy Moss would usually get the coverage of probably two men or one Darelle Revis. Now that we don't have Moss, we are now allowing another man freed up on the field to cover Wes Welker, therefore making our passing to Welker 20 times a game a wobbly strategy. Moss was good for Welker in this way. I'm the one bringing up the fact that maybe the luxury of Randy Moss deep took away another player and freed up Welker and made him a Dallas Clark like player instead of the receiver he was in Miami. I know the Patriots have a lot of options, but we have one less option, which is our deep threat in Moss. I'm not even going to talk about Brandon Tate being a threat. I don't even think he's going to be that great.

My last argument for Moss is that, I'm sure he would have stayed if he was offered 2 years at the same money. The Patriots knew that Moss and Brady had the same year ending contracts. They also knew that through the process of elimination that Tom Brady would stay in New England. Think about how much money big franchises have spent on their QB's in last years off season and then think about whether or not they can afford Tom Brady in this off season. He was making $6M and now he's going to be making $19M.

Now I question their move or rumor to go after Deion Branch. Why would you reject to offer a receiver like Branch one time and then expect him to come back? Does he show teamwork ethic now? Maybe he seems desperate? I don't think so. I don't see the Pats getting a replacement and I also see them missing Moss very soon. This is what I don't get about this teamwork first strategy. If you want players to come here, you have to pay them. Drafting only gets you so far. If we aren't going to use these draft picks that we acquire for receivers that are who Tom Brady needs to pass to then I suggest we think about players, who you need to make a team work.