Category: Sports

The Big Story – Red Sox Rolling: Don’t look now, but having suddenly won 16 of their last 21 the Red Sox have old-timers thinking Morgan Magic of 1988!That’s because, after a mostly awful first half, the not too long ago moribund local nine will open the second half on a nine-game winning streak and just a half game out of the final playoff spot. Starting Friday, though, we’ll get to see if it’s for real or not.

Sports 101: In terms of doing it in the fewest games Shohei Ohtani became the seventh fastest to reach 300 homers. How many of the six who did it faster can you name?

News Item – World Cup Notes: How much extra inspiration did Belgium get from President Trump getting pathetic FIFA Chief Gianni Infantino to roll over and rescind Folarin Balogun’s red card suspension without doing it for any other red carders? Given the embarrassing way they showed USA the door in the Round of 8, it seemed like a lot.

News Item – Red Sox at the Break: Given recent trends, here are some things to like.

• Ceddanne Rafaela is hitting in the .280s after learning the strike zone better and is Jackie Bradley Jr. good in CF.

• Pitching With no Garrett Crochet and a bunch of young guys they closed at 16-5 when they astonishingly have given up just 2.47 runs and more than three runs just four times.

• The ‘Who Are They?’ BrigadeWith unfamiliar names like Cheng, Eaton, Seigler and Monasterio in the line-up, it reminds me of Butch Cassidy yelling “WHO ARE THOSE GUYS” at the posse he and Sundance couldn’t shake.

• The Acquisitions Hard to find fault with Sonny Gray (11-1, 2.54) and free agent Ranger Suarez (4-3, 3.15), who (somehow) made the All-Star team. Then there is that Willson Contreras (.285-20-61) has out-hit all the possible past and current first base targets — Raffy Devers (2.49 -19-52), Pete Alonso (.252-21-65) and Japanese import Munetaka Murakami (.232-20-42).

• Caleb Durbin vs. Alex Bregman: He started awful and still is only hitting .230. But that’s up from .150 in mid-June and is beating Bregman in all run-producing stats for less than $1 million to Bregman’s $40 million per salary.

The Numbers:

10 – consecutive years women at Wimbledon will have a new champion after defending champion Aryna Sabalenka went down to former Naomi Osaka.

12 – record-tying consecutive hits made by KC’s Tyler Tolbert in games vs. the Mets and Phillies.

20 – points scored by Ebuka Okorie in Summer League Game 1 for Detroit to give the Nashua native a solid start to his NBA career

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Red Sox Turn Around: We’ll see, but it could mean the summer may not be ruined after all.

Thumbs Down – Gianni Infantino: For the slimy WBC chief rescinding that red card simply to appease political interests without doing it for anyone else. BOOOO!

Let Me Get This Straight – Adam Vinatieri: The legendary Patriot got into the Colts Hall of Fame last week before he got into the Patriot Hall of Fame.

Really? All he did here was (1) make the greatest NFL kick ever through a blizzard and later the game winner to kickstart the dynasty, (2) win two SBs with FGs as time expired, and (3) run down Herschel Walker from behind for the greatest special teams tackle by a kicker ever.

This year’s guy, Gronk, was lovable, great and deserving. But he came after V and has no franchise-altering plays to V’s four, so there’s no way he should’ve gone in before him.

Random Thoughts:

Yes the Pats got A.J. Brown, but they should not move on from deep threat Kayshon Boutte, who caught nine TD passes. What’s wrong with giving the most accurate deep thrower I’ve seen since Roman Gabriel in the ’60s two very good deep threats?

Sports 101 Answer: Ohtani reached 300 homers in his 1,121st game. The ones to do it quicker were Ralph Kiner, Ryan Howard, Juan Gonzalez, Alex Rodriguez, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

Final Thoughts – Celtics Press Conference: If you read this space regularly you know I said last summer the Celtics needed to do what they did last week: rid themselves of one of their max contracts to avoid the punitive player acquisition troubles they caused.

Only problem with Celtics GM Brad Stevens saying they needed a shake-up after early exits from the playoffs the last two years is it’s not true.

Sorry, Brad, while the players are the ones who missed the shots, roster composition is not why they lost either time. It was because of the incompetent game coaching of the Grady Little of basketball, where Slo Joe Mazzulla sat on the bench like Nero as Rome burned and made no adjustments as they blew five 20-plus-point leads after the 3-balls stopped falling vs. New York and Philly.

And I’m not alone in knowing that.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Is USA Still Alive: We ask it that way because right after I file this on Monday they face Belgium in their first chance to get to the Round of 8 in the World Cup since 2002.

Which pushes the Celtics’ controversial trade of Jaylen Brown to Philly to story 2.

The good news, however fair it is or not, is top USA scorer Folarin Balogun will play in the game after his red card penalty/suspension from their win over Bosnia-Herzegovina was magically pushed into the future after the convicted felon in the White House appealed to FIFA chief Gianni Infantino because “it was unfair” and he rolled over like he was about to face a primary challenge for disagreeing with the boss.

Belgium was justifiably irate, as United States corruption now extends to even World Cup soccer.

Sports 101: With baseball’s All-Star Game coming up on Tuesday seems a good time to ask: \Who holds the ASG records for RBI, homers and games played?

News Item – Celtics Trade Jaylen Brown: No, that was not an earthquake aftershock that hit Celtic Nation last week. It was Red Auerbach rolling over in his grave at the dumbest trade made in team history.

It sent the prime-of-life 29-year-old coming off an MVP-caliber year to the 76ers for limping-to-the-finish-line 36-year-old one-time All-Star Paul George, who has averaged playing just 47 games per year over the last seven seasons. A preposterous move that sets them back and makes their historic rival co-favorite (with NYK’s) in the Eastern Conference.

News Item – Mind Numbing All-Star Picks: Somehow wins don’t matter these days in MLB. The latest example is 10-1 Sonny Gray with a 2.69 ERA somehow being passed over for the All-Star squad in favor of teammate Ranger Suarez, who is 4-3, 2.94.

Love to hear the rationale on that.

The Numbers:

2 – more professional athletes added to growing list of sports gambling indictments. This time it’s Malik Beasley, who’s kissed his multi-million-dollar NBA career goodbye along with Bucks teammate Ed Davis.

6 – errors by Sox right fielder Wilyer Abreu, which is a lot for a full season, let alone by mid-year. There goes that third straight gold glove.

1,364 – career strikeouts by Aroldis Chapman where the K of the Angels’ Denzer Guzman on Friday made him the all-time strikeouts leader among closers.

… Of the Week Awards

Who’s Hot – Caleb Durbin: On June 1 Durbin was hitting .186 with 2 homers and 22 RBI. As of Sunday he’s up to .227, 8 homers, 37 RBI, 8 stolen bases. Not great, but comparable to the departed Alex Bregman’s .240, 7 homers and 31 RBI with the Cubs. They even are identical in the field with each having 4 errors and .978 fielding averages. The only difference is that Bregman makes $40 million per and it’s $790 K for Durbin.

Rumor Mill: The most interesting recent one has former Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck among the bidders to buy the Seattle Seahawks from the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Random Thoughts:

I’ve got zero interest in LeBron James’ coming narcissistic “hey look at me in my final year” tour.

Hate to tell LBJ, the truly beloved players are identified with their team — Jordan/Bulls, Bird/Celtics, Duncan/SA, Kobe/Lakers. Which of the four teams you abandoned will you be identified with?

Definitely not L.A. And unless he goes back to Cleveland it’ll probably be none.

Instead he’ll likely go to Miami or Philly because he wants to close it out with another manufactured title team that he had to join others to get. That’s the career pattern anyway.

Sports 101 Answer: With 12 Ted Williams has the ASG record for RBI. Stan Musial’s 6 are the homer record. Musial, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron played in a record 24 games.

Final Thought – Thumbs Down On Jaylen Brown Trade: Brad Stevens is not dumb enough to make the worst trade in Celtic history. Which is to move a 29-year-old coming off a powerhouse season for an injury-prone 36-year-old cheaper guy.

If they’d gotten electric rookie VJ Edgecombe, fine. Instead it’s for a guy who’s missed 35 games played for seven seasons, two first-round picks too far into the future to help now and two second-round picks who’ll likely have little impact.

So why do it? Money, of course. Brown is eligible later this month for a two-year extension to the remaining three years on his already giant contract and ownership apparently didn’t want to pay it. Hence the willingness/haste to accept a deal that makes them immediately weaker and their archrival much better. Where if Philly does win the title, to me it will be the new owner’s Bill Buckner moment.

But at least the playing hurt Buckner tried to catch Mookie Wilson’s grounder, while the Celtics just let the moment go by without much effort.

Booooo!!!!

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Sox Shock Everyone: OK, did the Sox finally get the spark that has been missing all year by winning four straight over their archrivals over the weekend and finishing it in dramatic fashion Sunday by rallying for three runs in the 10th after going down 4-2 in the top half of the inning to win 5-4? Or is it an illusion for a team that’s played mostly awful all year turning it around at the expense of a struggling, injured opponent to be a viable playoff contender? Time will tell on that, starting with Washington and last-place L.A. of Anaheim and the world this week.

But one thing is certain: The pitching is looking better by the day with youngsters Connelly Early (6.0, 5 hits, 2 runs), Payton Tolle (7.0, 1, 0 r), Jake Bennett (6.1, 3 h, 1 r) along with the excellent all year Sonny Gray ( 7.0, 1 h, 0 r) dazzling all at Fenway this weekend.

Sports 101: Who was the first person elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame who played Little League baseball?

News Item – Celtics Lose Giannis Sweepstakes: The Greek Freak is one my favorite players to watch, ever, and one of the best players in the NBA who would have looked great in a Celtics uniform. But losing Giannis Antetokounmpo to Miami was the phew momentof the week. Because so is Jaylen Brown, and the asking price of him and two first-round picks for a guy who’ll be 35 when the new extension is done would have been nuts.

News Item – World Cup Update: (1) With two wins to start and a “we need to be fresh in the next round” loss to Turkey in Game 3 they moved up in their power ranking from 24 at the start to 13 on Monday. (2) Canada advanced to the knockout round for the first time ever. (3) The great Lionel Messi scored his World Cup record 19th goal in Argentina’s 3-1 win over Jordan. (4) Next up for USA was 28th-ranked Bosnia-Herzegovina in their knockout round opener Wednesday (July 1) at 8 p.m. (locally) in SF.

News Item – NBA Draft and News Notes: (1) Nashua’s Ebuka Okorie became the earliest New Hampshire player ever taken in the NBA draft when he was taken 17th by the Detroit Pistons. Boo-ya, young fella. (2) The Celtics took one-and-done 6’11” project out of Houston Chris Cenac with the 27th pick. (3) All-Stars rumored to possibly be on the move are Ja Morant, Jamal Murray and Anthony Davis (again). (4) Golden State is reportedly after Davis as a way of luring free agent LeBron James to move north.

The Numbers:

105.5 – highest ever miles per hour thrown by dynamic Brewers hurler Jacob Misiorowski with a pitch he threw in last Friday’s 6-2 win over the Cubs.

33,353 – a non-sellout crowd with 4,000 empty seats vs. the Yankees Friday, showing how far the Sox have fallen from the good old SRO days at Fenway.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Patrice Bergeron: The elegant Bruins center gets it after being elected to the hockey Hall of Fame, as he was a great player and a great example of what the sport has to offer.

Thumbs Down – Devers Insubordination Act – The Sequel: Always team first Rafeal Devers did it again. This time by initially refusing to leave for a pinch runner with the Giants trailing Miami 2-1 in the ninth. He eventually gave in and later said it was a “mis-communication.” What a guy.

Random Thoughts:

Marcelo Mayer getting hurt (again) after finally moving to his natural shortstop position is like Jimmy Garoppolo getting KOd in Game 2 of Tom Brady’s four-game Deflategate suspension.

Sports 101 Answer: The famous Long Island product and Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski is the first LL player to make the Hall. He played for the Bridgehampton Lions on LI’s east end.

Final Thoughts – C’s Going Forward:

Fortunately for Celtic Nation, Brad Stevens is not nuts and wouldn’t go any higher than his final offer for Brown, which Milwaukee rejected.

Now he can work on filling their needs: (1) rearrangement of their salary cap, which could mean Brown or Jayson Tatum still could get moved; (2) building better, ready-for-action depth; (3) filling or fortifying the hole in the middle that was obvious playing Joel Embiid in their playoff loss to Philly.

With Naz Reid the top center target out after being traded, it needs to be at least two good players for one and first-round draft picks to give ammo for a future deal.

Up to six teams are kicking the tires, but Portland seems most interested. So how about Tatum to Portland for Deni Avdija (24.9 – 6.9-6.2), Jerami Grant (matching salary), their 2027 first-round pick and 2028, 2030 pick swaps they have from Milwaukee — who will likely stink for a long time after that awful return from Miami for Giannis.

Finally, happy 250th birthday, America!

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story: Golf’s U.S. Open is always a huge story, especially when it’s played at Long Island’s famed Shinnecock Hills.

But USA’s surprisingly quick advance to the World Cup knockout round tops that. They got there with impressive wins over Paraguay (4-1) and Australia (2-0), whose shocking 2-0 win over Turkey earlier opened the door to Round 2 for the U.S.

Sports 101: Which NBA team has had the most first overall picks in the draft with six? And how many of them can you name?

News Item – U.S. Open: Wyndham Clark became the ninth wire-to-wire winner of the Open Sunday at Shinnecock Hills. But, despite setting a 36-hole low score record, it wasn’t easy, as he let all but one stroke of his six-shot lead to start Sunday get away before claiming his second Open title.

News Item – Red Sox Update: They start the week 14.5 back, last in the AL East at 31-43 and six behind for the last Wild Card spot.

News Item – World Cup Notables:

Paraguay somehow beat Turkey 1-0 despite playing the entire second half with 10 guys because a player got ejected for some rule that doesn’t let you cover your mouth and yell at an opponent. What’s next — tell their mommies after yellow cards?

Tough run for Germany beating (7-1) a Caribbean country no one ever heard of besides maybe Club Med staffers, and Ivory Coast, who hasn’t been in the World Cup since 2014.

Draw your own conclusions whether it’s good or bad that 15 of the first 27 World Cup games have ended with 0-0, 1-0 and 1-1 scores.

The Numbers:

33 – million viewers tuned in to watch Game 5 to be the largest numbers of viewers for an NBA Finals game since 1998 during the Michael Jordan era.

47 – record number of times Milwaukee hurler Jacob Misiorowski hit 101-plus on the gun in Friday’s 3-2 loss to Atlanta.

10,000 – incredible number of police officers deployed to work crowd control for the Knicks victory parade in NYC.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – JayWright:When you get it right you get it Wright. Hats off to ex-Villanova head coach for the recruiting judgment to first put the three Nova Knicks, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges, together to become the first college trio to play together on NCAA and NBA championship teams. With the kicker being historically ending New York’s 53-year title drought.

Numbers Don’t Lie Award: Boy, that Raffy Devers was a real game-changer in SF. We just passed the one-year anniversary of SF getting him in the controversial trade. Contrary to all the yacking here about how great he was, the G-Men were 63-91 with him on the anniversary date

Alumni News – Braden Montgomery: If you’re interested, the Red Sox’ switch-hitting 2024 first-round pick, who went to the White Sox in the Garrett Crochet deal, just got called up to the big club. His combined 2026 numbers in 73 AA/AAA games before the promotion projected over a full season to 30 homers, 123 RBI, .315.

Sports 101 Answer: Cleveland – Austin Carr, Brad Daugherty, Lebron James, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Mitchell and Andrew Wiggins.

Final Thought – Pre-Draft NBA Rumors and Other Stories:

I’m filing this on Monday morning before the draft.

The Celtics have the 27th and 40th picks, so real immediate help is likely not coming there.

The Jaylen Brown and Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors are still swirling. Though I’m betting Brown isn’t traded there. Two interesting names bandied about in Celtics trade rumors are New Orleans wing Trey Murphy and T-Wolves back-up center Naz Reid.

Speaking of dumb. After looking stupid all through the last two playoffs for letting Finals MVP Brunson walk for less money than it cost to re-sign Irving instead, now word is Irving is on the block after not even playing a full season there to go young. Minnesota is rumored as the next team dumb enough to bring him there to mess up their team.

Earth to NBA media — Golden State is not only done, but they have been since 2023. You’re doing what the golf media does making a big deal any time Tiger enters a major when it’s been 15 years since he was Tiger! It’s over for GS’s admirable four-championship run just as it is for Tiger.

If he wants to win, the best place for Giannas is San Antonio to lead that young, talented but too small team and mentor Wemby, who needs it. It’s also great for Milwaukee because they have much available young talent and nine first-round picks or pick swaps available through 2030 to rebuild around. Except GA supposedly wants to live in Miami, whose offer is awful.

A Celtics trade I’d prefer is Brown to Houston for wing Amen Thompson and big Jabari Smith. And if Brad Stevens can somehow get a first-round pick thrown in, I’ll take that too.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – Tie – Knicks Take NBA Title and World Cup Begins: Normally a New York story isn’t something that makes it into our Big Story. But the Knicks ended their Red Sox-esque 53-year NBA title-less streak with a run that included 13-game playoff winning streak and multiple amazing comebacks, including overcoming a record 29-point second-half deficit in Game 4 of the Finals. So we’ll give the New Yawkers their due.

Then came a great first World Cup weekend that included USA’s shocking 4-1 opening round rout of Paraguay and Turkey’s unexpected 2-0 loss to Australia making USA’s chances to advance from Round 1 more likely. Beyond that was Germany’s 7-1 win over Curacao and several games few new-to-the-party Americans soccer fans care about. At least not yet.

Sports 101: How many of the 15 people who won at least two NCAA titles and one NBA title can you name?

News Item – Time for Red Sox to Panic: (1) They’re an astonishing 12 and 22 at Fenway Park. (2) They have the fewest homers in MLB. (3) Their average 3.9 runs scored per game is 31st in MLB. (4) It looks like neither Garrett Crochet nor Roman Anthony will be back until after the All-Star break.

News Item – Sorta Good News for the Sox: Every team competing for the final AL wild card slot is playing under .500 baseball.

News Item – Paul Misiorowski: Don’t know which is more unbelievable. Emerging Milwaukee star hurler being the first since 2000 to pitch a complete game in under 100 pitches while striking out 15 batters, or that, incredibly, it was the first complete game by a Brewer since Sept. 11, 2023. He allowed one hit and pitched to just 27 batters while 56 of his 95 pitches hit at least 100 on the gun in a 6-0 win over Philly!

News Item – Don’t Trade With Brewers: Thought Craig Breslow was supposed to be an expert evaluator of pitchers? Last year he gift-wrapped Quinn Priester, who went 13-3 with a 3.32 ERA. This year it was the supposed best get in the Raffy Devers trade, Kyle Harrison. He’s an even bigger black mark for the embattled Breslow. He’s 8-1 with a 2.47 ERA and 80 K’s in 65.2 innings.

The Numbers:

13.3 – seconds left when Emerson Stover scored the game winner off a pass from Garrett Lande to make Derryfield School Division II LaCrosse champs with a thrilling 8-7 win over Winnacunnet.

126 – years since the first three guys in any batting order each struck out in their first three at-bats in a game as Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu did last week vs. Tampa Bay.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Spike Lee: Hard to believe I’d give this guy anything. But he gets it for wearing a Knicks “Pope” Jersey to Game 3 to rebut our president’s mindless trolling of the first American-born pontiff.

Thumbs Down – Victor Wembanyama: For Bill Laimbeer cheap shot impersonation in the playoffs. Boooo.

You’ve Got to be Kidding Moment – Texas Tech Football: Hearing them hilariously talking about its “integrity” while defending accepting NCAA-banned transfer QB Brendan Sorsby after admitting he bet 40 times on his own team while at Indiana.

Sports 101 Answer: The 15 are Bill Russell, Al Horford, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich, Jamaal Wilkes, Henry Bibby (UCLA-Knicks), Tom Thacker (U of Cincy-Boston), Corey Brewer (U of Florida-Dallas), Christian Braun (Kansas-Denver), Keith Erickson, Lucius Allen, Nazr Mohammed, and Villanova Knicks Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges.

Final Thoughts – NBA Finals: Hope Slow Joe Mazzulla noticed the Spurs blowing four double-digit fourth-quarter leads exactly as his Celtics did the last two years, by continuing to fire up threes after going stone cold.

If I’m Giannis Antetokounmpo, the best place to win another title is San Antonio. Because Wemby needs help down low. Plus they have the depth and picks to make the deal without whipping out their rotation.

If I’m Milwaukee, I’m not doing that deal unless Dylan Harper is in it.

Knick Josh Hart reminds me of former NHC/SNHU great Will (the thrill) Flowers because he impacts a game without scoring a point.

How dumb did Finals MVP Jalen Brunson make ex-Celtics assistant/current WNBA HC Becky Hammon look after she said a team can’t win an NBA title when their best player is “small”?

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

The Big Story – World Cup: The four-year wait is over for soccernauts. The first game is today (Thursday) between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City. Then comes the first game in the U.S. when Scotland faces Haiti in Foxboro Saturday.

There are changes underway, as the tournament has controversially expanded from 36 countries to 48. That was done, of course, for, what else?, the extra dough to be racked in from the extra games. That’s before we even talk about the outrageous expense being charged for tickets, parking, hotels, merch and train rides to Foxboro, etc.

But since no one is being forced to buy any of those things, and I’ll only be watching on free TV, what’s to complain about?

So enjoy the best way you can.

Sports 101 – Name the first African American players to be MVP in the AL and the NL.

News Item – Red Sox Week: Things got worse, not better. No stat points more to the importance of power when you play at Fenway than their astoundingly being only 10-21 at home so far!

It’s been 43 days since Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet first went on the 15-day IL with simple shoulder irritation. With him being moved to the 60-day IL last week it probably wasn’t as simple as first thought.

The ERA was 6.34 when Brayan Bello got sent to AAA last week. And after last week’s debacle vs. Baltimore, the first-inning ERA alone was an incredible 16.88.

News Item – NBA Finals: Game 3 goes off after I file this. But having won 13 straight playoff games to take a 2-0 Finals lead over San Antonio, the New York Knickerbockers are on one of the greatest playoff runs in NBA history.

Karl-Anthony Towns and Mike Brown are changing their under-achieving reps around the NBA.

How dumb does Dallas look after letting Jalen Brunson walk for less money than they handed over to keep the always hurt Kyrie Irving instead?

News Item – World Cup Thoughts:

I’m taking the over on the Vegas line whatever it is, probably around 96.7% of the games will end in a 1-1 tie before shootouts are needed to break ties.

The only thing I don’t like is how the Final 4 will be played out in three separate sites rather than those three games played in the same city to close it out. But the needed recovery time between the Round of 4 and the Final negates the one local idea. So never mind.

Since I probably know five players in the whole thing, no phony predictions from me. Just hoping USA makes it out of opening-round play.

The Numbers:

0.74 – after 10 starts and 61.0 innings the earned run average of 6-2 Dodgers hurler/DH Shohei Ohtani.

1.75 – the ERA of the guy the Red Sox got for Raffy Devers and dumped this spring for .196-hitting Caleb Durbin as the headed-for-the-All-Star-game Kyle Harrison has gone 7-1 for Milwaukee.

844 – longest in the majors consecutive games played by Atlanta first baseman Matt Olson, which came ironically on MLB’s annual June 2 “Lou Gehrig Day” when his 17th homer knocked in the winning runs in a 4-3 game.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – The BBC: For announcing they will not air the World Cup’s Americanization of their event in the form of a half-time musical show a la the Super Bowl’s idiotic half-time show for the first time. The British broadcaster will instead air their usual half-time analysis show.

Bravo for the Brits.

Sports 101 Answer: Jackie Robinson was MVP in the NL in 1949, just two years after breaking the color barrier. Yankees (and eventual Red Sox) catcher Elston Howard was named American League MVP in 1963.

Final Thought – A.J. Brown Deal Called “Overpay” by Critics: The Patriots finally made the deal with Philly for wideout A.J. Brown. And while it gave them their first dynamic downfield threat since Gronk left the building, it was immediately labeled an “overpay” by Ben Volin of the Boston Globe and the always see the negative afternoon rocket scientists on the Sports Hub.

I said last week I’d give a second pick for him, so giving up a 2028 first-round pick and a fifth in 2027 is an overpay for that. But I look at the deal like this: What would be a bigger catastrophe for the Pats?

Not getting a 1A deep threat to complement the most accurate down field thrower I’ve seen since Roman Gabriel in the ’60s, but with the ego satisfaction of not having overpaid for him, or being forced to overpay a little (but delayed to 2028) by making sure their biggest need (by far) was filled to prevent someone else from swooping in with a better offer to steal him?

No doubt it would be the first option. I’ll be happy to take Brown and live with the overpay.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.