Category: News

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.