Author: Dave Long

The NFL followed up the close games and the astonishing comeback of Jacksonville from down 27-0 to beat the San Diego, er, L.A. Chargers 31-30 in a wild card weekend with a series of boring duds last weekend. Next comes (for me) the best sports day on the calendar when Continue reading “The week that was”

Observations, random thoughts and outright pontifications about the Celtics at mid-season.

What I Like: The most obvious is having the best record in the NBA and being on pace for 60 wins. Second is how they play with the fastest end-to-end pace since the John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Jo Continue reading “Celtics at midway point”

After an awful week of fear for the life of Buffalo DB Damar Hamlin after he suffered an on-field heart attack on national TV, Week 18 thankfully ended with the happy news that he is steadily improving, as evidenced by his tweeting all throughout his team’s win over the Patriots Continue reading “NFL 2022 wrap-up”

Our 15th annual predictions for the year ahead.

January: A day after their disappointing season ends, Patriot Nation files a restraining order to prevent Matt Patricia from being within 200 yards of the Patriots offense or Mac Jones in 2023. Coach B hears the begging from all corners of New Continue reading “What’s in store for 2023”

We’ll end the blah sports year of 2022 with a look at its biggest stories.

World’s Cup Runneth Over: Aside from seeing the world’s grandest sports event decided by penalty kicks, which is akin to the NBA Finals being decided by a foul shooting contest, the World Cup lived Continue reading “2022’s biggest sports stories”

As the world championships and duck boat parades were piling up during the first decade of the 21st century, Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan cautioned all to appreciate what was going on, in saying these are the good old days right now. The point was that all the winning by Continue reading “The week that was”

They tell you never to make decisions when you’re emotional. So maybe it’s fortunate I had a few days before giving my reaction to the Red Sox letting their leader of 11 years walk out the clubhouse door on Friday morning.

Since I’ve been saying for a year they were Continue reading “Farewell, Xander”

I never listen to talk radio or even read the papers much after a Patriots loss. Especially a bad one like last Thursday to Buffalo. That’s because for the most part all you get is blame, finger-pointing and vitriolrather than insight and perspective on what happened.

Not that there weren’t Continue reading “Dynasty is over”

With the Thanksgiving Day extravaganza in the books, the stretch run for the 2022 NFL season has begun. It offers all sorts of local and national story lines. Here’s a look.

The Playoff Picture: Almost every team is still in it somehow, though in some cases it has little to Continue reading “NFL enters December”

If you are a Celtics fan you wake up this Thanksgiving morning thankful for how the season has started. That’s because without the game-altering shot-blocking of Robert Williams to be counted on until late December at best and with the team being led by an untested 34-year-old coach in the Continue reading “No turkey in Celtics start”