Category: Sports

The Big Story – Celtics’ Dream Ends: After Derrick White’s miraculous putback with :01 left to force Game 7 on Monday night, it was all set up for history to be made by the Celtics. But the 0-3 hole they had dug for themselves was too deep, as after winning three straight, sadly they put up yet another stinker at home to finish 5-6 at home in the playoffs, as the Miami Heat made history instead by becoming the first play-in team to make the NBA Finals.

No one beyond Rob Williams and Devin White played well. And while I don’t like to be unkind, it’s hard to fathom a human being playing a worse game than Jaylen Brown did in his turnover-strewn mistake- and forced shots-filled Game 7.

Jayson Tatum gets major points for gutting out the whole game after spraining his ankle on the game’s first play.

As do the Heat, who showed their toughness by not following the Boston Globe’s Game 7 story line of “could they somehow recover from their devastating Game 6 loss?” Answer: they could.

Sports 101: Three players in NBA history have played 20 years for the same team. Name them.

News Item – Alumni News: In case you missed it, NateEovaldi had quite a run earlier this month when he went for 29.2 scoreless innings for Texas. And he actually was allowed to pitch a complete game shutout against the Yanks and an 8.2-inning job vs. Oakland as well. Overall he was 6-2 with a 2.60 ERA in his first 10 starts for the new team.In the words of local legend Bob Lobel, “Why can’t we get guys like that?”

News Item – Mets Fans Show True Colors: It didn’t take nitwit Mets fans long to go from loving Justin Verlander in December to booing Verlander in just his third start and first home appearance at New York’s Citi Field (8 hits and 6 runs), which followed his giving up just 1 run while striking out 10 vs. Cincy in his second start.

News Item – Shaq Feeling The Heat Too: In what has to be a first ever, after chasing him for months, a legal processor finally hit Shaquille O’Neal with a summons during Game 4 while working the EFC for TNT according to media reports. They were after him to let him know he is a defendant in a class-action lawsuit claiming he and other celebrity spokespeople (Tom Brady, his ex-wife and Steph Curry) misled investors in the gone-bust FTX bitcoin investment scheme.

The Numbers:

3.49 – ERA jump for Sox closer Kenley Jansen, from 0.77 to 4.26 after he blew consecutive ninth-inning leads on May 12 and May 13, giving up 5 hits, 4 walks and 6 runs while getting just 3 outs.

7 – unheard of number of guys on the Miami Heat roster who went undrafted coming out of college before taking winding professional roads prior to being signed as free agents by Pat Riley and company.

10 – wins vs. 41 losses for Oakland’s A’s to tie them with the 1932 Red Sox for the worst start after 50 games in MLB history. Their 31-131 full-season pace would surpass the 40-120 1962 Mets as the worst season ever.

26 – times sluggers Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani have gone yard in the same game since becoming teammates in 2018, after doing it vs. the Red Sox when the L.A. Angels of Anaheim finished off their three-game sweep of Boston with a 7-3 win on Wednesday.

Random Thoughts:

LeBron James playing all 48 minutes in L.A.’s elimination game to Denver when he had the juice to go for 40 points and fall just an assist short of a triple double at 38 was impressive.

Put a pair of big-wire framed glasses and a blue blazer on NBA star Jimmy Butler and he’s a dead ringer for Jackie Chiles, the Johnnie Cochran-like parody lawyer on Seinfeld.

And Miami back-up center Cody Zeller looks like one of those plumbers or firemen JJ Redick said Bob Cousy played against in the ’50s.

Betting the squib/low line drive kicks will become a bigger factor in 2023 in the wake of the NFL adopting a rule last week that gives teams the ball at their 25-yard line if a guy makes a fair catch on any kick-off inside their 25.

A Little History: A look back in time shows the Celtics could have had two Miami Heat starters on their 2023 roster. In the 2012 draft they let Butler slide by them to go 30th overall to Chicago, after Danny Ainge selected Ju’Juan Johnson, who lasted one year in the NBA, with the 23rd pick. Then in 2019 three-ball bomber Max Strus was their final pre-season cut when they keptJavonte Green.

Sports 101 Answer: Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant and Udonis Haslem are the three to play 20 years for one team.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Celtics Feeling The Heat: In all likelihood by the time you read this the Celtics season will have ended with a big thud. As I write this they trail the Miami Heat 0-3 in the Eastern Conference Finals after what can only be described as a 30-point surrender to a team all the “experts” said the Celtics should run out of the playoffs with relative ease.

The only trepidation I have for writing their obituary now is the perverse way they play better after putting themselves in a position when their backs are against the wall. But after doing that multiple times in the last two postseasons it doesn’t feel like they can do it this time. Especially since no team in history has ever come back to win after trailing 0-3.

We’ll do our autopsy next week.

Sports 101: What do 1950s-’60s NFL stars Paul Hornung, “Jaguar Jon” Arnett, John Brodie, Ron Kramer and Len Dawsonhave in common?

News Item – More Last-Minute NHL Heroics: The Bruins learned the hard way you have to play the Florida Panthers past the final buzzer. That was the case again in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup semifinals, a game that appeared headed to a fifth overtime before Matthew Tkachuk did it again with 12.7 seconds left in the fourth OT to give them a 3-2 win over Carolina.

News Item – Greatest Team Sports Prospect Ever: That’s what NBA info guru Adrian Wojnarowski drooled out about 18-year-old French hoopster Victor Wenbanyama after Houston won the NBA lottery last week. I get it, at 7’5” he’s mobile with skills of a guard while also being a top rim protector. But that’s what the slobbering New York press said about the now on his third team Kristaps Porzingis.And best ever? Sorry, I’m a skeptic with a sense of history who knows monumental all-timers Wilt Chamberlain, Lew Alcindor and LeBron James all lived up to that title, while Greg Oden and Ralph Sampson did not. Said another way: I’m curious, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

And, one more thing. Not sure if this is a bad omen, but when I saw his picture for the first time, I thought it was Sampson.

News Item – Durability Need Not Apply: Who can be surprised that in the age of the detestable “load management” Jayson Tatum was the only all-NBA first-teamer to play even 70 games. The others, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, ranged from 63 to 68.

Ditto for the second and third teams, where only three were over 70, while Steph Curry, LeBron James and Damian Lillard played 56, 55 and 58 respectively.

Alumni News

Xander Bogaerts: After going hitless in 11 at-bats during their weekend series, he was hitting .257 with 6 homers and 16 RBI. Which isn’t much more productive offensively than Kiké Hernandez and Yu Chang’s combined 6 homers and 24 RBI from shortstop so far in 2023.

Michael Wacha: After Chaim Bloom was too cheap/dumb to give him a two-year deal after going 11-2 last year, he has moved to 5-1 with a 3.58 ERA after 6 shutout innings in the Padres 7-0 win on Sunday. That his cheaper replacement, Corey Kluber, lasted just 2.1 innings in dropping to 2-6 with an unsightly 6.26 ERA was interesting.

The Numbers:

4 – major championships now won by Brooks Koepka after taking the PGA championship Sunday to move him within one of tying Phil Mickelson for most majors won among active players.

205 – home runs the Red Sox are on pace to hit after hitting just 155 last year.

515 – length in feet for the monstrous homer hit by the demoted Bobby Dalbec last week while playing for AAA Worcester.

Random Thoughts:

Jayson Tatum — pink shoes on Friday night. A long way from high black Cons or Pumps.

I’ve heard him recently compared to Vlade Divac, Magic Johnson and Bill Russell (as a rebounder), but position aside, with his feel for the game and ability to influence every aspect of every game with no apparent athleticism, for my money Nikola Jokic is the only player I’ve ever seen that reminds me of Larry Bird.

Sports 101 Answer: Those players were picks 1 through 5 before Jim Brown was taken sixth by Cleveland in the 1957 draft.

Final Thought: There’s a difference between being the most valuable NFL player ever (Tom Brady) and being the best actual football player ever.

In my not so humble opinion the latter was the indestructibleJim Brown,who died last week at 87. The stat rationale is too long, so I’ll just comment on an ESPN poll that had him the GOAT of running backs. The great Barry Sanders was second, but check out the difference between him playing on grass vs. artificial turf. JB just had grass.Trust me, with the highest yards per carry average ever he was the best.

RIP, big fella.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Celtics Move On To ECF: Say one thing for the Celtics, they certainly like to make it hard on themselves. For the second straight postseason they went down two games to three by coughing up Game 5 at home to put their season on the brink before barely surviving Game 6 on the road and then closing out the bad guys with a blowout Game 7 win at the Garden.

The series brought to the forefront the continued frustrating inconsistency of Jayson Tatum, though his spectacular all-is-forgiven final 53 minutes of the series is the bigger story than said inconsistency, which included three of the worst shooting first halves in Celtics playoff history.

But it was a seven-game series, not one of just first halves, and despite his terrible first three quarters he saved Game 6 and thus the season by banging out three gigantic threes and a deuce over the final four minutes to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat before delivering the best Celtics Game 7 performance these eyes have witnessed.

It leads the Cs into their third Eastern Conference Finals meeting with Miami in the last four years, a team with the best coach in the NBA and who plays them (and Tatum) tougher than anyone.

Could be a nerve-wracking two weeks for Celtic Nation, so buckle up.

Sports 101: In going for 37 points and 23 rebounds this man had the greatest NBA Finals Game 7 by a rookie in NBA history. Name him.

Thumbs Up – Al Horford: Tatum’s sensational Game 7 might overshadow what Al Horford did on Sunday in the history books, but let’s hope not. The 36-year-old Horford’s spectacular defensive effort on Joel Embiid was vital to the win in harassing the league MVP into 5-18 shooting in his not good enough 15-point, 8-rebound afternoon.

News Item – Pats to Honor Tom Brady: Not sure how I feel about Brady being honored on Opening Day in Foxborough. Stems from his never mentioning the Pats or their fans in his social media posts following the first retirement. That snub and lack of appreciation did not sit well in this space. So I’m not for doing it in his first official game of his retirement. Too soon for me.

I also think, with the likes of Jerry Rice, Jim Brown, Lawrence Taylor and a few others in the conversation, Bob Kraft calling him the “best player in history” in the announcement is up for debate. However, with his seven titles, I’m fine with calling him the most valuable player in league history.

News Item – Rough Week for Sox: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water of thinking the Sox might be better than most thought, last week happened. They entered the week 21-14 and on an eight-game winning streak. But it was all downhill when it ended on Sunday leading to a 1-5 week, concluding with a sweep at Fenway by the last-in-the-NL St. Louis Cardinals. The main trouble was the pitching giving up seven runs a game in the five losses. The good news was Chris Sale made it three straight solid games, his best one yet coming Saturday when he went eight innings while holding the Cards to three hits while striking out nine before Kenley Jansen blew a second straight win in the ninth.

The Numbers:

6 – organization record at any level for stolen bases swiped in one game set by Sox all-name team prospect Ceddanne Rafaela for AA Portland last week.

10 – losses in 16 Game 7s coached by Doc Rivers, which are the most by any coach in NBA history.

12.5 & 34.5 – points averaged by James Harden in Philly’s four losses to the Celtics and in their three wins in the series respectively.

54 – all-time Celtics record for points scored in a playoff record set by the late great John Havlicek in a 1973 win over the Atlanta Hawks.

Random Thoughts:

One more thing about Doc Rivers’s playoff record. Four of his six Game 7 wins came while coaching the Celtics.

For the record, the best Game 7 performance by a Celtic player I’ve seen before Sunday came in 1984 when Larry Bird went for 39 (13-24 and 12-12 from the line), 12 rebounds and 10 assists as the Cs closed out the Knicks in the semi-final round.

The best by an opponent came in the dramatic 1988 duel between Dominique Wilkins and Bird when Nique scored 14 and Larry 20 in their tit-for-tat fourth quarter, before finishing with 47 and 34 respectively.

Sports 101 Answer: The greatest Game 7 by a rookie was authored by Tommy Heinsohn in one of the NBA’s greatest games ever, when Game 7 of the finals went to double overtime as the Celtics beat the St. Louis Hawks 125-123 to claim their first NBA title. Bill Russell, also a rookie that night, went for 19 points and 32 rebounds while Hawks all-timer Bob Pettit had 39 and 19.

2023 Prediction Record: Was right on three of four in taking Miami (in 6), Denver (6) and Boston (7) in the last round while missing on Golden State vs. L.A.

NBA Conference Title Predictions: Denver over L.A. in six. Celtics in seven overMiami.

Final Thought: To all those praising Joe Mazzulla’s “adjustment” to the double big line of Al Horford and lob-it-to-Rob Williams in Game 6 vs. Philly like he invented plutonium, I’ll remind all we said upon his return in January that bringing him off the bench was a bad idea because it made the defense and rebounding worse because they were too small and there was no way he’d be able to play the 30 minutes per night they needed off the bench. It also killed Grant Williams’s confidence by taking away his regular run.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Surging Red Sox: We still have a very long way to go, but the pole position between Chaim Bloom and his critics (of which I’ve been a very vocal one) as to who was right and who was wrong about the 2023 Red Sox goes to Bloom after the first five weeks of the season. The Sox have quickly rebounded from a slow start to go 15-7 since April 13. That’s the second best mark in baseball over that span and included an eight-game winning streak that ended Sunday in Philly. Thus, for the moment, all is looking up for Red Sox Nation.

Sports 101: With the passing of iconic ’70s Oakland A’s hurler Vida Blue over the weekendwe were reminded he was one of only five guys to start an All-Star game for both the AL and NL. Name the other four.

News Item – New Baseball Rules Working: Over the objections of its whiny players, baseball instituted new rules for 2023 that are having a very positive impact.

According to AP baseball reporter Ron Blum, the pitch clock has dropped the average game length from three hours, five minutes in 2022 to 2:37 in 2023.

And thanks to banning shifts to keep the shortstop on the left side of second base, the batting averages of left-handed hitters have risen from an average of .229 to .243, while for righties it’s .234 to .250 and runs scored are up 1.1 per. And limiting pick-off attempt throw-overs has led to a 40-percent jump in stolen bases.

News Item – Betts Trade Finally Paying Dividends: It’ll never be an even deal. But with Alex Verdugo providing spark while hitting .300+ in the lead-off spot and Connor Wong splitting time at catcher while hitting .257 following last week’s 4-4, two-homer game vs. Toronto, two of the three players who came back in the Mookie Betts deal are finally having an impact in Boston. Throw in being out from under their share of David Price’s gargantuan contract, and it’s looking a lot better than it did 12 months ago.

News Item – Glass Half Empty or Half Full for Sale: An interesting question since Chris Sale had three brutal early starts along with two very goods and a third pretty good one. He’s trending up by winning his last two, one when he gave up three hits and one run in 6.1 innings, then striking out 10 over six innings to beat the Phillies 5-3 Friday. And most importantly he walked just one in those outings.

News Item – A Father’s Conundrum: A sidebar story of the Warriors-Lakers playoff series is the question, who is Klay Thompson’s father rooting for? That would be one-time ’80s Showtime Laker Mychal Thompson, who these days is color analyst for Lakers radio broadcasts. So who is he rooting for? Klay said going in he thought dad would be for L.A. all the way!

Random Thoughts:

Who knows how one failed first overall pick in the NBA draft contributed to both teams in the 76er-Celtics series?

That would be Markelle Fultz, who of course was taken first by Philly in 2016 after they flipped picks with Danny Ainge, which gave Boston an additional first in 2017. It dropped them to third overall, where they took their supposed first choice all along, Jayson Tatum. Then, after a rash of issues led to Fultz’s flameout in Philly, he was dumped in a trade for Orlando’s first pick in the 2019, which turned out to be 20th overall that Philly used to take speedy Tyrese Maxey out of Kentucky.

Doc Rivers is right — Tatum did push Maxey off on his huge 3 at the end of OT on Sunday. But his whining would have a lot more credibility if James Harden didn’t get three calls a game he doesn’t deserve after flopping after 3-ball attempt like he was shot by an elephant rifle, or that Joel Embiid is never called for smashing defenders with his chest first to create space push to shoot before they come back with contact and then goes to the line. Sorry, Doc, one’s an offensive foul and the other should get a T.

The Numbers:

.331 –batting average for ex-Fisher Cat Bo Bichette when he left Fenway last Thursday after going 7 for 16 in the Sox’ four-game sweep of the Blue Jays. The 2023 stat line also included 7 homers and 21 RBI in 32 games.

1 – error committed in 30 April games by Sox third baseman Rafael Devers, which didn’t even happen until the final day of April. Of course he then made one in each of three consecutive games to start May to bring the total to 4.

3 – walk-off game-winning hits by Alex Verdugo after clubbing a ninth-inning homer to give the Sox a 6-5 win over Toronto on Monday.

Sports 101 Answer: The other AL and NL All Star starters are Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Roy Halladay and Max Scherzer.RIP, Vida.

Final Thought – Patriots Hall of Fame: Enough already for holding the petty 30-year grudge that makes it harder for Bill Parcells to get in the Patriots Hall. It happened again last week when the deserving Mike Vrabel got in over Tuna in the fan vote.

The one-per-year thing is fine except when an overwhelming case can be made for a guy as age enters the picture as it now has for the 81-year-old Parcells.

The Kraft family made an exception for the deserving contributions of longtime line coach Dante Scarnecchia this year and the same thing should be done for Parcells. Because while they didn’t win the Super Bowls, he and Drew Bledsoe are as important to team history as Coach B and Tom Brady because they turned the Pats from a joke franchise to one everyone took seriously in these parts. It’s time to do the right thing and put him in.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story: There are actually three. (1) The shocking end to the Bruins’ magical season. (2) The Celtics moving on to Round 2 of the NBA playoffs after barely surviving a major scare from the 41-41 Atlanta Hawks in a series that wasn’t supposed to be that tough. (3) The Patriots’ choices in the NFL draft, showing more evidence Bill Belichick has slipped from his perch as the smartest guy in football.

Sports 101: Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1966 the Patriots have had the first overall pick in the NFL draft four times. Name the players they selected.

News Item – Celtics Up and Down vs. Atlanta: There were highs in the series to be sure. Most notably how dominant they were in the first halves of games 1 and 2, and most importantly the poise showed in the face of a raucous, hostile crowd over the final four minutes to close out a sensational series in Game 6 on the road in Atlanta. But their infuriating inability to stay focused with big leads also returned in games 1 and 2 and when they were overrun by Trae Young while blowing the lead with mistakes in the final minutes of their Game 5 loss.

But two games into their Round 2 playoff series with the 76ers let’s hope they’ve cleaned up their appalling lack of boxing out and woeful weak side 3-point defense that Atlanta murdered them with in the last three games.

News Item – Panthers Shock Bruins: Short of a ball going through your first baseman’s legs at the moment of truth, it’s hard to imagine a worse way to be eliminated from the playoffs than how the Bruins were on Sunday night by Florida.

One minute away from looking like they had survived blowing a 3-1 series lead to an 8-seed they coughed up the game-tying goal by Brandon Montour to send it to OT tied 3-3. And with karma gone the magical season somehow ended 8:56 into OT when Carter Verhaeghe sent the SRO crowd into the night crushed and wondering what might have been.

News Item – Coach B On The Slide: They say the worst thing you can do is chase needs by reaching for players at position of need ahead of more talented players on your draft board. Normally I agree, especially for the dynasty Patriots, who rarely had immediate holes to fill.

But not this year. They went into this draft with one need above all else: to find out whether Mac Jones is or is not the QB of the future. And to do that they needed to give him help to improve 2022’s fourth-worst offense in football. Specifically that meant getting a solid left tackle to improve his protection and a game-changing wideout to open things up on offense.

Yet the ever stubborn, now-living-in-a-2004-time-bubble Bill Belichick used his picks in the first three rounds, where impact players most often come from, on defense. To, I guess, combat the AFC East now having three dynamic passing attacks. While not taking even one guy who was a full-time tackle in college among his 12 picks and no wide receiver until Round 6.

I get that reaching is bad and those two big needs are hard to come by. But if he hadn’t cheaped out on Orlando Brown in free agency, when the Bengals added him to protect the blind side of their young QB, they could have given up the top of their draft to get the game changer. Or he could have traded up to get ahead of the run on tackles they liked.

All of which shows that Coach B is living in the defense-dominates NFL past, which is what got all the great coaches I’ve seen (Shula, Landry, Noll) at their end.

Thumbs Up – Malcolm Brogdon: Being named NBA 6^th Man of the Year after finally giving the Celtics a game-changer off their bench is a well earned honor.

Word of the Week – ‘Ironic’: Hard to come up with a better word for Joe Dumars, who played on the dirtiest team in NBA history, being the guy handing out the punishment for Draymond Green. Not that Joe played like that, but most of his teammates with the ’80s-’90s Pistons did and the league let them get away with it. And now he’s the warden.

Random Playoff Thoughts:

Love the old-school NBA every-other-day schedule for the first six games of the Philly series.

You’d think Charles Barkley would learn after being almost always wrong making predictions. But there he was again guaranteeing Sacramento would “whomp” defending champ Golden State in Game 5 of their playoff series. Then after they lost Game 5 he doubled down for Game 7. But sorry, Charles, wrong again. They lost by 20.

I’d call the Mavericks passing on reasonable money for their own guy Jalen Brunson last summer in lieu of having to now give Kyrie Irving a bigger amount this summer, along with their only two good defenders and a future first-round pick, a colossal mistake.

Brunson was a key to finally lifting the Knicks to a new level, while the Mavs went from the 5-seed out West when he arrived, to missing the playoffs entirely in just 23 games.

The Numbers:

50 – all-time NBA record for points scored in a deciding Game 7 playoff series by Steph Curry Sunday when the Warriors eliminated Sacramento with a decisive 120-100 win.

Sports 101 Answer: The Patriots’ four first overall picks were Jim Plunkett (1971), Kenneth Sims (82), Irving Fryar (84) and Drew Bledsoe (93).

Final Thought – Round 2 Picks: Denver over Phoenix in 7, Golden State over L.A. in 6, Celtics over Philly in 7, Miami over N.Y. in 6.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – NFL Draft: While knowing Coach B won’t follow the script by trading up, down and around the board, the Pats are now scheduled to step to the podium around 9:35 p.m. tonight (Thursday) to make the 14th selection in the NFL draft. It’s an important draft for a team that hasn’t won a playoff game since 2018. Whether they do it with savvy picks or draft capital in trades doesn’t matter; they just badly need to come away with a ready-on-Day 1 left tackle and a game-breaking wide receiver. Anything else is gravy.

As for the rest of the draft, it mostly centers around QBs likely being taken with the first two and maybe third picks if Arizona trades out of the spot, along with what could happen with agitated veteran QBs like Aaron Rodgers and Lamar Jackson.

Sports 101: Name the future Hall of Fame offensive tackle once taken third overall who also was a pitcher for USC when their baseball team won the national championship in 1978.

5 Questions Going Into The Draft:

(1) With the Jackson situation in flux at best, what will the Ravens do this weekend?

(2) With whispers growing that his hometown 49ers want in on the Aaron Rodgers sweepstakes, are the Jets going to screw it up like they always do to be left at the altar for refusing to give up a first-round pick when they’re ready to win if they get a good QB?

(3) After being stripped bare with salary cap-forced cuts and having no high draft picks to get there, were the L.A. Rams just a one-and-done champion?

(4) Two years after handing L.A. their QB to win that SB, is Detroit in a better position going forward thanks to all those picks they got from L.A., which include the totally unexpected sixth overall pick they get this year from them that seemed like a high 20s pick at the time?

(5) With rumors swirling about Mac’s future in Foxborough, is he Coach B’s guy going forward or not?

Random Thoughts:

The Patriots haven’t drafted a defensive player in Round 1 since tackle Malcolm Brown in 2016.

More Matt Patricia stuff. You rarely see a team give up on a guy so quickly when taken as high as Jeff Okudah was by Detroit. So quite a comedown for the first draft pick of the Patricia era when the Lions traded the former Ohio State star to Atlanta for a measly fifth-round pick just three years after Okudah was taken third overall in 2020.

In Case You Missed It: NFL followers went into comical overdrive with NFL Draft lingo humor when it leaked out that former President Donald Trump weighed in at 6’1” and 270 during his arraignment at the NYC courthouse. NFL Combine maven Dave Kluge tweeted, “If he runs a sub-4.5, he’d comp historically to Dwight Freeney and may have a chance to go in the first round of the NFL Draft.” Former agent and Packers capologist Andrew Brandt tweeted, “Some teams have now taken him off their Draft boards.” And @Nati_Sports said Trump was “too small to protect my franchise quarterback. Day 3 grade.”

A Little History – Best and Worst Draft Picks of Belichick Era:

Worst 5 First-Round Picks: Dominique Easley, 2012 (29), lasted two seasons for work ethic and attitude issues. N’Keal Harry, 2019 (32), perpetually hurt and couldn’t get open. Laurence Maroney, 2006 (21), most indecisive runner in history. Sony Michel, 2018 (30), nice 2018 playoff run was high point, downhill after that. Isaiah Wynn, 2018 (23), because of durability and declining play his last two years were more disappointment than bust.

Best 5 Non-First Round Picks: Tom Brady, 2000, R6 (199 overall), GOAT. Gronk, 2010 R2, after trading up and down to get the 42nd pick. Julian Edelman, 2009 R7 (232). Matt Light, 2001 R2 (48), solid for 10 years. James White, 2014 R4 (130), always reliable and immense vs. Atlanta in 2016 SB. Deion Branch, 2002 R2, SB MVP in 2004 and could have been in 2003.

Interesting Picks:

Stephen Gostkowski, 2006 R4 (110), notable for three reasons: Bill had to get it right because he had just let Adam V walk in free agency; he became the best pick in the sorry 2006 draft class; and he became the franchise’s all-time scorer.

Neither Kliff Kingsbury, 2003 R6, nor Kevin O’Connell, 2008 R3, did anything in New England, but both wound up as NFL head coaches.

2007— even though they only got one player, first-round pickBrandonMeriweather, you can argue this was one of Belichick’s best drafts as by using their second on Wes Welker and the third on Randy Moss it kickstarted the 16-0 season that immediately followed that draft.

Sports 101 Answer: The OT/pitcher for USC was 6’6” 280 Anthony Munoz, who, given his immense size, I’m betting wasn’t a junkbaĺler.

Final Thought: I don’t know about you but I’m getting a little sick of Coach B reportedly being ticked at Mac for seeking advice/help from outside the building during his 2022 struggles. Sorry, Bill, he’s not the one who put incompetents in charge of the offense and the development of a highly drafted second-year QB — you did. And if you want a glimpse of how incompetent Matt Patricia and Joe Judge have been in those roles, take a look at how much the play of Jared Goff and Daniel Jones immediately improved after they were fired by the Lions and G-Men respectively.

Your fault, Bill, not that of the kid in need of real help because he wasn’t getting any and that’s what you’re supposed to do and didn’t.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].