Author: Dave Long

The Big Story – Jayson Tatum: It wasn’t exactly Larry Bird coming back out into the Garden after being knocked out cold in a ’90s playoff game vs. Indiana. But there was a definite glad-to-have-you-back vibe from the crowd as Tatum returned after 10 arduous months of rehab on his Achilles. Next best after that was him going for 15 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in an easy 120-100 win over Dallas as he spent 27 minutes knocking off some obvious rust. Which thankfully shut down the handwringers before they could get started saying the return of the Celtics’ best player could somehow be a bad thing.

Setbacks are the next concern. But assuming there aren’t any beyond routine stuff, the Celtics have 20 games to fine-tune before the playoffs begin. Their chances of winning title 19 took a big leap forward last weekend.

Sports 101: How many of the 12 NBA players to play at least 20 seasons can you name?

News Item – Red Sox Spring Training Update: The Sox start the week with an uninspiring 7-8 pre-season record. The good: Jarren Duran started hot as a pistol by hitting .583 in Week 1 with three homers, six RBI and 18 total bases. The bad: Bad but not alarming was that Garrett Crochet and Rudy Suarez had identical 5.79 ERAs in their first two starts. The ugly: The overall team ERA in the first 15 games was 6.56.

News Item – Pats Cut Stefon Diggs: The somewhat surprising move frees up $16 million in cap space and eliminates a guy known for his diva-ness, who caused off-the-field issues. But he also caught 85 passes for 1,013 yards so they now have a big hole at possession receiver.

News Item – 2026 NFL Year Begins Today: With the arrival of the new business year the Patriots are now on the clock for fine-tuning their 2026 team. Here’s a snapshot for what lies ahead.

• Needs – (1) Dynamic edge rusher. (2) Dramatic improvement of the offensive line. (3) A game-breaking take-the-top-off-the-D receiver. (4) After the release of Diggs, a reliable go-to for the first-down receiver.

• Cap Room – $59 million.

• NFL Draft – April 23-25.

• Draft picks – Pick 31 in Round 1 and 11 overall.

• Discussed Big-Name Need-Filling Players – Trades – WR AJ Brown. Free Agents – DE Trey Hendrickson, WR Mike Evans and lesser-knowns like Indy’s Alec Pierce (21.3 ypg) and NYG’s Wan’Dale Robinson (93 receptions for 1,014 yards).

News Item – WBC: Biggest highlight so far was (of course) Shohei Ohtani hitting two homers in his first game. And locally that would be Sox utility infielder Nick Eaton leading off his first game for Great Britain with a home run.

The Numbers:

29 – losing margin at home for the Celtics vs. Charlotte.

100.4 – miles per hour Sox rookie Payton Tolle threw during a three-inning, seven-strikeout stint vs. the Yankees last week.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – The Celtics: For outperforming expectations in the wake of losing Tatum for the first 60 games and four key players for financial reasons.

First Time Ever Happened – Trae Young: I’ve never heard of a guy being ejected from a game before he even played one second for his new team, which is what happened to Young in the first game he was to play for Washington after being traded there while injured a while back. After finally getting healthy he ran on the court during a scuffle with Detroit and was ejected before getting into his first action for the Wizards.

Sports 101 Answer: The 20-year NBA vets are Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Robert Parish, Vince Carter, Udonis Haslem, Kevin Willis, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Jamal Crawford, Chris Paul and newest in the club Kyle Lowery.

Final Thought – What Should Pats Do?

Key Strategy – If they are to capitalize on Drake Maye’s uncanny bomb’s-away accuracy they need guys who can open deep like Pierce and an OL who can give them time to get open.

What They Should Do: Given what N’Keal Harry (12), Ja’Lynn Polk (12) and Kyle Williams (11) delivered in catches as rookies after being drafted in the first, second and third rounds respectively, the Pats brass instead should get their receivers in free agency or trades for guys they know, not hope, can play in the NFL. Giving up a second-round pick for Philly’s speedy AJ Brown makes sense, though 25-year-old free agents Pierce and Robinson offer better financial terms and long-term on-field success prospects while saving draft capital for other fillable needs. Patriot Nation is now hoping Eliot Wolf can pull off another A+ retooling like a year ago when he hit on Will Campbell (solid till getting hurt), TreVeyon Henderson and kicker Andres Borregales, who were among eight rookie contributors, along with several free agent hits like Diggs and Milt Williams. They’re on the clock.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – The Spaceman Landing At Boys & Girls Club: There have been many adjectives — feisty, clever, inventive, one of a kind and (always) entertaining — used to describe Red Sox lefty Bill Lee. On Wednesday, March 11, he comes to the Manchester Boys & Girls Club on Union Street to give his unique views on everything from pitching in Boston against the Evil Empire to even global warming. It will be fun.

Sports 101: Name the four winningest lefties in Red Sox history.

News Item – Celtics Update: Helped by starting with low expectations after Jayson Tatum’s injury and three bigs departing for financial reasons they’ve been overlooked all year. But somehow they’re 40-20 and far better than I thought they’d be. The latest examples were a win by 37 points over the “no, we’re not tanking” Brooklyn Nets when they shot 66.7% from the field and got a whopping 77 points from the bench, and an easy 114-98 one over the Embiid-less 76ers.

News Item – Celtics Thoughts:

• Outside of Jaylen Brown’s career year, the biggest reason for their success is they’re allowing a league-low 107.4 points per game.

• I liked Neemias Queta even in his rawest form a year ago. But never saw Sunday’s 27-point, 17-rebound in just 22 minutes explosion he went for vs. Philly.

• Derrick White: The Celtics guard’s 1.5 blocks per game ranks ninth in the NBA, putting him ahead of 7-footers like former 2023 Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson, Myles Turner, and teammate Queta as well as several others.

• Love rookie Hugo Gonzalez’s defensive toughness and hustle while compiling a team-best +17 over opposition per 100 possessions (per Boston Globe). But with him shooting only 31% on shots beyond 4 feet he still has a need to grow offensively.

• I’ve often been very critical of Joe Mazzulla, but he deserves much credit for having them play as well as they have so far.

News Item – Alumni News:

• Al Horford left for Golden State because they supposedly had a much better chance to compete for a title than the dismantled Celtics. Except now the C’s have the East’s second best record, while if everyone below them weren’t tanking for draft position GS would have a tough time holding on to their play-in slot after losing Jimmy Butler for the year.

• Luke Kornetis averaging 7.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per in 22.1 minutes of PT while helping the Spurs to have the NBA’s second best record.

A Little History – Bill Lee: He won 110 games in 10 MLB seasons and had three seasons with ERAs of under 3.00. His 1975 season was his peak, as a key cog for Boston’s World Series team when he was 17-9 with a 3.90 ERA. But to those of us rooting for that team in the Bronx, he was a Yankee-killer, the leading evidence being 12-5 vs. the New Yawkas. He also was in that major 1976 brawl after a play at the plate, where he tore a ligament in his left shoulder while fortifying his beloved status in Red Sox Nation.

The Numbers:

27 – million dollar one-year deal given to ex-Sox lefty Chris Sale by Atlanta.

33.4 – NBA-leading ppg by Luka Doncic. Imagine how good he’d be if he ever got in Larry Bird-like shape.

43.5 – second-highest vertical leap ever recorded by a linebacker at the NFL Draft Combine, by Ohio State’s Sonny Styles. For context, the greatest basketball leaper I’ve seen was David Thompson, whose VL was 44 inches.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Down – U.S. Men’s Hockey Team: They went from the ultimate high of winning gold dramatically to sad me-first behavior by accepting a White House invite after the President treated the women’s team like second-class citizens during their invite. They should’ve had the back of their same-sport Olympic teammates. Sad behavior, fellas. Booooooooo!!!!

What A Stupid I Yam Award – Me: Thanks to reader Chuck Furciniti for pointing out there have been three lefties in Sox history who’ve won at least 17 games three straight years. Not two as I said last week. The third is Mel Parnell, who won 25, 18 and 18 from 1949 to 1951.

Sports 101 Answer: The four winningest Red Sox lefty pitchers are Parnell (125), Jon Lester (110), Lefty Grove (105) and Lee (94).

Final Thought – Jayson Tatum: The rumors are flying that his return is imminent. A good thing, but they should not force/rush his return unless the Achilles is 100% healthy. But the notion his return could upset the surprising way the team has played in his absence is ridiculous. Would they have said that if Bird was coming back? No. Instead, with him on a likely minutes restriction, I’d bring him off the bench. Which would give them a potent three-man scoring trio — Tatum, Payton Pritchard and Nikola Vucevic — for a big edge playing against bench players.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – USA Hockey Rules: The Winter Olympics closed with a reenactment of USA’s magical 1980 “Do You Believe In Miracles” hockey game. Except both the men and women earned gold in spectacular fashion in DYBIM: the Sequel. Not the sinister Russian Red Army Hockey team this time. It was arch-rival Canada instead, whose teams were beaten in OT by identical 2-1 scores. But it was USA men’s first gold since their upset of the USSR became the greatest upset in U.S. sports history. The women’s win was most precarious. After trailing most of the game Hilary Knight tied it at 1-1 with just 2:09 left before Megan Keller’s awesome “slide the puck low by the defender and jump behind her to recover” move to slip it by the goalie for the win. The men won on Jack Hughes’ one-timer in OT.

Didn’t expect the Olympics to grab me this time. But the reminder miracles do happen sometime in sports did it again. Cue the timeless Al Michaels call, “Do you believe….”

Sports 101: Bill the Spaceman Lee, who’ll speak at a Manchester B&G Club fundraiser on March 11 (noon to 1 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Manchester Union Street Clubhouse, see bgcgm.org/speaker-series), with 94 has won the third most games by a Red Sox lefty all-time. Name the two ahead of him.

News Item – Sunday’s Celtics vs. Lakers: The C’s were 111-87 winners when MVP candidate Jaylen Brown (32) and (back to being sixth man) Payton Pritchard (30) combined for 62 points. Some observations:

1 – The broadcast pushed the rivalry thing. But given the low crowd energy and L.A. having no players Boston hates, it’s dead at the moment.

2 – LeBron looked tired, uninterested and a lot slower than he used to be. That’s a recipe for retirement.

3 – Hate Luka Doncic’s game! He’s very good of course, but also complains all the time, takes predictable shots, and barely tries on D, all of which makes him boring to watch.

4 – The white L.A. uniforms offer no connection to when L.A. was good in the 1990s, let alone the ’80s.

5 – What took them so long to do the Pat Riley statue unveiled Sunday? Just 38 years after leaving the building.

News Item – NH (kinda, sorta) All Over Olympic Hockey Dramas: Knight, who tied USA-Canada at 1-1 with 2:09 left, is a one-time Hanover, N.H., resident, and game-winning men’s star Jack Hughes is the son of my friend (and former sideline reporter on college TV broadcasts I produced back in the day) UNH Hall of Fame hockey goalie Ellen Weinberg-Hughes and one-time Manchester Monarchs coach Jim Hughes. And while Keller is from Michigan, don’t hold that against her. Because her “slide the puck low by the defender and jump behind her to recover it for the win” was an awesome thing of beauty that will be remembered forever.

The Numbers:

41 – most Olympic medals won – Norway – 18 gold, 11 silver, 14 bronze

33 – second most medals won – USA – 12 gold, 12 silver, 9 bronze

30 – third-best medal total – Italy – 10 gold, 6 silver, 14 bronze

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – UCLA Hoop Coach Mick Cronin: Nice to see someone finally hold their own player accountable for aberrant behavior, instead of blaming refs, other players or some guy in the third row. Here it was sending center Steven Jamerson to the locker room for good after a cheap shot flagrant foul.

Promotion of the Week: Talk about a guy who earned a promotion for functioning tremendously under duress. That’s young Zak Kuhr, who started 2025 as Pats linebacker coach before doing an excellent job (particularly with in-game adjustments) filling in as Defensive Coordinator for Terrell Williams during his cancer treatment. He keeps that job while Williams moves to a new role.

Thumbs Down – Roman Anthony To Hit Lead-off: Stat geeks did it again with word the Sox’ best hitter will bat lead-off. It means he’ll be guaranteed to have 160 at-bats with no one on base to knock in. Will get even worse if/when they hit the usual low OBP guys at 8 and 9. A bonehead move.

Sports 101: Jon Lester and 300-game-winner Lefty Grove with 110 and 106 respectively are the only two lefties with more Red Sox pitching wins than Bill Lee’s 94.

Final Thought – Bears Possibly Moving to Indiana: I stopped being a NY Giants fan because they moved to New Jersey for a free stadium but kept the New York Giants name. Booooo! It’ll be much worse if the NFL’s founding team abandons Chicago after 106 years, following the Indiana legislature’s vote to give a corporation worth $6 billion a free stadium. The historic franchise dubbed the Monsters of the Midway for their toughness would be going to an environmentally controlled (yuck) Dome to cause league founder George Halas to roll over in his grave and make real fans of Da Bears want to puke.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Hello, Basketball: There’s also the waning days of the Winter Olympics. Not really my cup of tea, at least until a possible U.S.-Canada gold medal hockey game on I think Sunday, as the brackets they’ve set up confuse anyone without an MIT degree. Though I do think the incredible ability on display everywhere is, well, incredible. We’ll get to more Celtics stuff next week.

Sports 101: Only two Red Sox left-handed pitchers in their 100-plus-year history have ever won as many as 17 games in three straight seasons. Name them.

News Item – Baseball Comes Early to Manchester B&G Club: Spaceman could mean different of things to different people. But to baseball fans of a certain age it means the one-of-a-kind 1970’s Red Sox lefty Bill Lee. He’s the featured guest at the Speaker Series Luncheon event at Manchester Boys & Girls Club March 11. General admission and VIP tickets are $50 and $100 respectively. Call the club for how to get them.

News Item – Jaylen Brown: JB’s evolving persecution complex has another grievance. Don’t know if he or the police did anything wrong, but it’s safe to say being targeted (his word) for the shutdown of his event by Beverly Hills police (allegedly didn’t have a permit) during L.A.’s All-Star weekend will be added to his growing list.

News Item – SB Leftover Observations

• Much was made of the fact that Mike Vrabel joined George Seifert and Jim Caldwell as the only coaches who took their teams to the SB in their first year. But, but, but — Seifert took over the reigning SB champ 49ers. For Caldwell his Indy Colts were 12-4 the year before with a prime-of-life Peyton Manning at QB. Vrabel meanwhile turned consecutive 4-13 teams into a 14-3 Super Bowl club. The latter sounds like a tougher task to me.

• Interesting that both Sam Darnold and Mac Jones got their careers together after spending their gap year as the backup QB under Mike Shanahan in SF.

• After 19 years with the same coach, the Steelers hire ex-Cowboys and Packers coach Mike McCarthy to take over. That’s who’s going to breathe new life into that stagnant franchise? Did they see him coach in Dallas?

The Numbers:

14 – QB pressure allowed by Will Campbell in the SB, more than by any player in the regular or playoff seasons.

98 – years oldone of the early baseball closers Elroy Face was when he died last week. But in his day (1950s-’60s, mostly with Pittsburgh) it wasn’t a one-inning-a-game job. Most notably in 1959, when he was 18-1 with no starts among his 57 appearances. RIP.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Drake Maye: For donating all his SB winnings to the Children’s Cancer Research Program at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Quote of the Week – Drake Maye: “This money is just a number to me, but for the children in the hospital wards it could be a chance to save their lives.”

Random Thought: Earth to Bob Kraft and the NFL: The all white uniform worn by the Patriots in the SB is an affront to the multi-color unis of the dynasty teams. It’s like the Yankees getting to the World Series and not wearing pinstripes. You have enough dough. Honor your fans, who want the blue and silver tradition back, and not the merchandise gods.

Sports 101 Answer: The only two Sox lefties to win 17+ three straight years are Babe Ruth (24, 23 and 18) and the soon to be in Manch Bill Lee, who won 17 each year from 1973 to 1975.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Pats Lose Super Bowl: Sadly, the unexpected magic carpet ride of the 2025 Patriots season crash-landed on Sunday. It wasn’t quite the beating of SB 20. But the Seahawks’ defense similarly dominated the Pats’ O-line on their way to runaway 29-13 Super Bowl destruction.

Sports 101: Name the college program to have the most former players play for winning Super Bowl teams.

News Item – Seattle 29 Patriots 13 Recap: A total thumping where Seattle outplayed and outcoached the Pats’ offensive side of the ball from the first play.

• Key Stat – Six sacks and a strip sack/pick six allowed by an overwhelmed O-Line.

• Improvement – None during their worst game of the year.

• Backslide – O-Line: An extension of poor play throughout the playoffs when it allowed a record 20 playoff sacks.

• Game Ball: Seattle D and MVP Kenneth Walker for his 137 rushing yards.

• Bottom Line: The better team won.

News Item – Latest Hall of Fame Hoo-Ha: Last week it was Coach B’s snub by voters. This week it’s his former boss, owner Bob Kraft. I was against putting him in until he ended his pettiness of keeping Bill Parcells out of the Patriots Hall. But with that done and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones somehow in, despite his team winning just four playoff games in 30 years, how can Kraft not get in? The answer is the brass is being punished for behaviors during the dynasty years with some petty jealousy of others thrown in.

News Item – Non-Hall of Fame Hoo-Ha: However, the players aren’t being held accountable as the deserving Adam Vinatieri did get in thanks to a resume that includes scoring the most points in league history, winning two SB’s with FG’s as time expired and the greatest kick in NFL history.

News Item – NBA Trade Deadline Update:

Celtics Reshuffle: Brad Stevens again showed how good he is by completing the payroll sell-off to get under the luxury tax payroll thresholds, which eliminated all the onerous roster-building penalties they faced this summer. Out went four players, including the expensive expiring contract of instant offense Anfernee Simons. All while strengthening their front court size/depth by acquiring big Nikola Vucevic to fortify their playoff push.

The Kyrie Irving Curse Lives: Add Dallas to the list of teams dazzled by his great individual skills before seeing his real and mystical ways of killing franchises re-surface. This time it’s that he and the just traded (again) Anthony Davis played in just one game together after the Mavs dumped Luka Doncic for AD a year ago to build the team around them.

The Numbers:

30 – new players added by NE from the previous year, which is the most in Super Bowl history.

60 – percentage of the money bet pre-game on Seattle to win the Super Bowl according to ESPN.com.

75 – percentage of Buffalo fans polled who don’t agree with the decision to fire HC Sean McDermott.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Bob Kraft: For quickly admitting his mistake in hiring Jerod Mayo and then bringing back the guy everyone wanted to replace Coach B in Mike Vrabel.

Thumbs Down – Jeff Bezos: A week after his Prime Video company dropped roughly $85 million on the suck-up to Trump film Melania, the world’s richest man wiped out the entire sports department as part of a mass layoff at his newspaper the Washington Post.

NFL Awards – MVP and Coach of the Year: Vrabel was named Coach of the Year, while Drake Maye finished second to Matt Stafford for MVP.

In Case You Missed It Award – NBA All-Star Game: Their who cares All-Star game comes your way Sunday with a host of new tweaks to make the game interesting. The only one with a chance is the USA vs. The World format — which is a great idea (finally).

Quote of the Week – PJ Carlesimo: “right now the Celtics are 33-18. They were only 36-16 at this point last year en route to 61 wins. So it’s amazing how much they lost and still be a factor leading into All-Star break,” said the former SNHU head basketball coach on the ABC Knicks-C’s broadcast Sunday.

Random Thoughts: Thought the President said he was boycotting the SB half-time show. But there he was slinging nasty (un) Truth Social posts during the show. No word if that hurt Trump suck-up Kid Rock’s feelings.

Sports 101 Answer: With 58, including four Seahawks on Sunday, Alabama has the most SB winning alumni, followed by USC and Penn State with 51 and 48.

Final Thought – 2025 Patriots: Yes, the ending was disappointing. But after going 4-13 two years in a row with a projected seven-win 2025 season ahead, if you can’t say this comeback year was a gift to Patriot Nation there’s something wrong with you.Good job, fellas. Thanks for the unexpectedly fun season. Never saw it coming.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Pats and Seattle in SB: New England faces Seattle on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. It’s from the 49ers’ home in Santa Clara, California, so a win rubs it in a bit to the previous dynasty franchise. Still unsure exactly how the Pats climbed out of that two-year 8-and-26 hole, but they did, so enjoy.

Sports 101: Which college has sent the most Super Bowl-winning QBs to the NFL?

News Item – Keys to the Game:

• O-Line: It’s struggled in the playoffs. But to win, most feel they must run the ball, a tough task against a team that gave up just 91 rushing yards per game.

• Pass Protection: The 84.1 QB rating for Drake Maye is not a coincidence. He’s been constantly under pressure and sacked 15 times in three playoff games. Seattle’s 47 sacks are the same as Houston’s and two more than the Chargers’, so the O-line will be challenged again.

• Turnovers: They almost always are big.

• Sam Darnold: We all know about the failures and spitting the bit in two big end-of-season 2024 games. Until he’s past that, he’s suspect. Blitz early — a turnover could give his confidence level a shot.

Random Super Bowl Thoughts:

You win the pool if you had Darnold as the first in his QB class of 2018, which included Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, to take his team to a SB.

Wonder what clueless Jets owner Woody Johnson thinks of what Darnold has turned into since the QB-less Jets (since Joe Namath left the building) let him walk.

The opposition’s collective record vs. undefeated Miami of 1972 was 70-111-2 and they only faced two teams with winning records all year, where KC and the NYG’s and both were just 8-6. And I’ve never heard anyone say they had a weak schedule.

… of the Super Bowl

Since I’ve seen all 59 SBs to date, here are my award winners for various SB achievements.

Most Important Game: SB1. Hard to fathom the superior attitude the NFL and its fans had toward the AFL then. They expected to win and to win BIG. That ’tude got a little jolt when Green Bay led only 14-10 at halftime. But they dominated the second half to win 35-10 over KC. Then came SB3….

Biggest Upset: Jets Win SB3. It was a boring game and Joe Namath somehow got the MVP, but the D got four picks and FB Matt Snell’s 121 rushing yards controlled the clock by pounding it on the ground.

Best Comeback SB: Patriots-Falcons. Unless you were like my friend the real estate mogul Bill Weidacher, who went to bed in frustration, you saw the down-24 Pats stage the biggest comeback in history to win in OT 34-28.

Best Individual Performance: Steve Young in SB 29. He threw for 325 and a SB record six TD passes and ran for a Drake Maye-like 47 yards in SF’s 49-26 rout of San Diego.

Best Special Teamer:Desmond Howard. Adam V won two SBs as time ran out so he’s tough to beat. But Howard destroyed the Patriots in SB 31 with 244 punt and kickoff return yards, including the 99-yard TD return that iced the game.

Best Individual Play: Malcolm Butler. All due respect to Santonio Holmes, David Tyree, two spectacular Eli Manning throws and Marcus Allen’s incredible 73-yard game-winning TD run in SB 18. But it’s Butler’s last-second goal-line pick because it snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Best SB Team:1975 Steelers. They had the greatest defense I’ve ever seen. If L.C. Greenwood gets in this weekend they had six Hall of Famers (five more on O). Plus linebacker Andy Russell should be in for 12. They were 12-2, only gave up 11 points per and outscored three playoff opponents 65-37.

The Numbers – Patriots SB record holders:

3 – sacks byDont’aHightower.

5 – touchdowns forGronk.

24 – receptions for Julian Edelman.

175 – rushing yards for AntowainSmith.

Sports 101 Answer: InBart Starr, Joe Namath, Ken Stabler and Jalen HurtsAlabama has the most SB winning QB’s with four, including winning the first three.

Final Thought – No First Ballot Hall for Belichick: Last week’s big hoo-ha was Bill Belichick being snubbed in his first try for the Hall of Fame. Since he clearly deserves to be in, it outraged many. Some of it is jealousy and of course the Indianapolis writers have been petty dating back to the Manning-Brady rivalry years. But most is payback for shenanigans like Spygate and making everyone’s job harder than he had to. I’ve got no problem with a one-year punishment for his behavior.

Prediction: Pats 27-23

The second and third highest scoring offenses move the ball. But Seattle is 31st in giveaways. So I expect a +2 edge in TO’s for the Pats and it keys their win.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.