Category: Sports

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 the NFC and AFC play their title games on Sunday, where it’ll be the 49ers trying to get to the Super Bowl behind a rookie QB with just seven NFL starts to his name vs. the Eagles, followed by KC’s injured star Pat Mahomes facing the red hot Bengals in a rematch of last year’s AFC title game.

While the NFL commanded the most attention, that wasn’t the only thing that happened. Here are a few thoughts and outright pontifications on recent events.

Mahomes’s injured ankle is reminiscent of Tom Brady getting knocked out of the AFC title game in Pittsburgh during the run to their first title in 2001. That brought opening day starter Drew Bledsoe off the bench to save the day. He wasn’t lights out, but he did throw the decisive TD pass to the late David Patten that got them to the big game. Then we wondered all week if it would be Drew or Brady as QB on Sunday (there was only one week off because of the 9-11 attack). As everyone knows, Brady did play, and while he led the game-winning drive with Adam V sending his FG try right down Broadway, TB only threw for 145 yards.

Think Red Sox owner John Henry got the message that the natives are not happy when he and his over-his-head GM got booed off the stage at their ticket sale pep rally in Springfield, Mass., on Friday night?

I don’t know about you but the premise for the movie House Party of having one at LeBron James’ house, unbeknownst to LBJ, sounds like a funny idea in an Animal House kind of way.

I’m starting to sports-hate Steph Curry because he flops on every play. Sorry, but it’s not possible to fall as much as he does. Yet he gets the call all the time even though replays show defenders clearly are not touching him. Thought we were done with that nonsense after Michael Jordan retired.

Didn’t hear many of the yahoo M-V-P chants for Jayson Tatum in last week’s game vs. Golden State, did we? He did do something remarkable, though, by having a terrible game (outside of a few late plays) despite a 34-19-6 stat line that suggests otherwise. And his statement afterward that it was just one of 82 shows that, despite all the brilliance, he still doesn’t get it. Because there are five or six a year that aren’t one of 82. And after he choked against the Warriors in the Finals and again in their first meeting this year, they/he needed to make a statement on Thursday night. Which they did not by lucking out in OT vs. a team that has struggled all year except in two games vs Boston. Like the Pistons getting by Boston in the ’80s and then Jordan’s Bulls finally doing it to Detroit, emerging teams have to show they can beat their nemesis, and the Cs didn’t do that. That’s why if they meet in the Finals again I’m taking GS unless and until Tatum figures it out.

Things are progressing nicely for Wenyen Gabriel. He’s played in 38 of the Lakers’ 47 games when he’s getting about 16 minutes a night off the bench while averaging 6 points, 4 rebounds per while shooting 62.4 percent from the floor.

Everyone loves what Nate Eovaldi did in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series. But after winning just 24 games in four full seasons with the Sox while averaging just 101 innings per season, how much of a loss is he to the Red Sox? I know in the pitching world of today expectations are different than when you’d check the papers to see what the pitching match-ups would be on a daily basis. But six wins a year is not worth $20 million per year.

What a difference a year makes. A year ago there was outrage that Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich wasn’t getting at least Rooney Rule interviews to be a head coach after two stat-filled years with Brady. This year he just got fired/blamed for TB’s less than stellar offensive season.

Is it ironic, or just interesting, that amid all the talk of the negative brain drain impact on the Patriots coaching staff, the coaches who killed them the most were pre-drain returning Super Bowl vets Joe Judge and Matt Patricia?

Robert Williams is hurt again. This time after banging his left knee (the bad one) with Jaylen Brown. Celtics Nation and the brass are just going to have to live with the fact that the guy is fragile and likely never will be able to play a full season.Which means they need insurance for the playoffs.

Here’s another thing that’s wrong about how the steroid era is treated by Hall of Fame voters. Guys who came clean like Andy Pettitte don’t get in, while guys everyone knows were users are rewarded with induction by staying silent. I know it is complicated for some, but that seems wrong to me.

For the record, in addition to his record (by far) 18 post-season wins, Pettitte’s 256 wins in the five-man rotation era are more than the following Famers from the four-man rotation time: Carl Hubbell, Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Don Drysdale, Jim Bunning, Catfish Hunter, Stan Coveleski, Bob Lemon, Rube Marquard, Dizzy Dean and Sandy Koufax, as well as Yankee Famers Waite Hoyt, Whitey Ford and Herb Pennock. And he’s also got more than fellow five-man rotation guys Pedro Martinez, Jack Morris, Roy Halladay and John Smoltz.

My money is on a Philly-Cincy Super Bowl.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

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 Jo White Celtics in the 1970s. They are at their best when pushing the ball. And third is seeing the obvious growth in the key players. It suggests that, with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and the two Williamses (Robert Williams and Grant Williams III) still shy of their primes, the best is yet to come.

What I Don’t Like: They have a nasty habit of playing down to the competition when they are facing bad teams. Five of their 12 losses were mail-it-in jobs against Orlando (two), Chicago (two) and Oak City (one), who were a combined 55-71 at the start of the week.

Who To Fear: With as many as six teams who get to the Finals out of the East and five more out West, the NBA is the most balanced it’s been in decades. So it depends on who’s hot and healthy at playoff time. Having said that, there isn’t anyone to fear. But, while both are languishing around .500 at the moment, the two I’m most wary of are Golden State and Miami because their coaches have a way of frustrating Tatum and Brown more than others. Plus I underestimated GS last year and won’t do that again until the dragon is slayed. Especially after how they took the Celtics apart in December on national TV. That said, to me their slow start had a lot to do with post-championship motivational issues.

Top Story: Are Brown and Tatum The Best Duo? It wasn’t that long ago that the experts on talk radio were saying “break them up because they can’t play together.” Now most wonder if they’re the best duo in the league. Aging, injuries and knuckle-headedness have eliminated most competitors, so I’d say they are there with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, though when/if Jamal Murray gets to full strength after ACL surgery he and two-time MVP Nikola Jokic probably challenge them.

A more interesting question to me is, are they becoming the best 1-2 duo in Celtics history? It’s moot if they don’t win multiple titles, and it’s doubtful either will match Larry Bird’s all around game. But right now they’re scoring more per game than Bird and Kevin McHale ever did. And they’re just approaching their primes. Get past them and it’s Bill Russell with whoever (Cousy, Hondo, Sam Jones). So probably not. But it’ll be fun watching it play out.

Hard Work Pays Off: I have my issues with both at times, but I admire the wide-ranging improvement to the offensive games of Jaylen Brown and especially Grant Williams because it is obviously a product of hard off-season work. When Brown first arrived his scoring was limited to things that came from his athletic gifts. Now he scores inside, outside, off the dribble, spotting up to catch and shoot and at the basket. The last piece needed to be among the most complete players in the league is improving his handle. As for Williams, he could barely make a lay-up as a rookie. First came spot-up three-point shooting from the corner last year, and this year he’s scoring by taking it to the basket and posting up. Next comes a jump shot off the dribble. It would also help if he stopped yapping after every foul call.

Robert Williams – Start or Off The Bench: What difference does it make if he starts or comes off the bench as long as he plays 32 minutes and is in at the end of tight games? I like him with the second unit because it makes it better and that gives a chance to get a big plus/minus edge. Plus it means he or Al Horford will always be on the floor through the entire game.

Malcolm Brogdon: Been campaigning to bring him here since he was in Milwaukee and he’s still exceeded my expectations.

Derrick White: I didn’t know much about him when they got him from San Antonio and thought the price to get him was a little high. But Brad Stevens was right when he said the trade was “a no-brainer.” I love this guy because he’s unflappable and plays the same way every game as he does his job with no ego and unselfishly.

Joe Mazzulla: Not sure his jaw can last a whole season with the way he works the gum during games, but so far so good. He’s making the case about bringing Ime Udoka back next year a hard one.

Pritchard Time: Sam Hauser had a great start making 50 percent of his 3-balls in November, but it’s been 29 percent since Dec. 1. And since he’s only out there to make threes his time should go to Payton Pritchard. They give up some size, he’s better defensively and as a spark off the bench. Plus he showed he can shoot the long ball. Wasn’t great in the playoffs, but that was his first time around and I expect that should improve.

Ime Udoka: Could Stevens trade him for a protected first-round pick? Might make sense for a team with young players and a lot of first picks like Oak City who need a coaching jolt.

Danny Ainge: Several of his alleged draft miscalculations actually turned out to be pretty valuable. Grant Williams (22nd), Payton Pritchard (26th) and especially Robert Williams (27th)have all defied expectations for where they were picked. And those who didn’t — Romeo Langford and Aaron Nesmith — were traded for White and Brogdon. All are key players. So Danny gets belated props for those picks.

MVP Chants: The fan support for Tatum is nice. April or May maybe. But sorry, doing it in November is yahoo city.

I know. I’m no fun.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

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 on Sunday. Which leaves a chance to look at some of the interesting stories of what I thought was one of the more mundane, dramaless regular seasons in recent memory.

Exhibit A was the Patriots’ somehow missing the playoffs by just one game after losing games in the following fashions: (1) After coming back from down 22-0 they lost to the Bengals 22-18 because they fumbled inside their own five-yard line in the final minute of the game. They needed a TD instead of the easy FG they would have taken after not scoring on any of their three PAT attempts by failing on the two-point try they had to do because Nick Folk missed two extra point kicks. (2) They were thoroughly embarrassed 31-14 on Monday Night Football by the Bears, who finished with the worst record in the NFL. (3) They suffered the most humiliating NFL loss since the 2012 butt fumble game by handing the Raiders a win on the final play in the final seconds in the game that will be forever known as the Las Vegas Lateral game. (4) They lost by 12 in a must-win final-week game in Buffalo after giving up not one but two kick returns for TDs.

The only thing missing from their debacle of a season was Bill Belichick nearly getting electrocuted by a mic at a press briefing like Clive Rush almost was when introduced as new HC of the NEP’s in 1969.

From my pre-season preview here’s what I got right: (1) Matt Patricia would be a disaster as OC. (2) Kyle Dugger would be the man in the secondary. And what I got wrong: They’d badly miss JC Jackson in the secondary. They didn’t.

Biggest NFL Surprise: Jacksonville coming back from four games behind Tennessee, to win their last six to win the AFC South, including their winner-take-all Week 18 showdown with the Titans.

Biggest Disappointment: What a difference a year makes, where the 5-12 Rams had one of the worst hangovers on record after winning the Super Bowl.

Boy, finishing first in the NFC South after forcing out Bruce Arians as coach of the Bucs (to get Tom Brady to un-retire) for one-time Jets failure Todd Bowles really worked out great. Of course they did it by being the sub .500 division winner ever to be un .500 at 8-9 after looking in complete disarray all year.

And if the 7-10 Titans, who were 7-3 on Nov. 17 before losing their last seven games, had beaten Jacksonville last Saturday night it would have been two. I think it was emblematic of a lot of bad football played in 2022, which I attribute to fatigue and added injuries from the 17-game schedule.

The vastly improved play of Trevor Lawrence in Year 2, by the way, puts him in the lead among the vaunted QB 2021 draft class, where (as predicted by me on draft night) Brett Wilson appears headed for bust-ville with SF’s Trey Lance not far off. Justin Fields improved some, at least as a runner, but the Bears still finished with the worst record in the league. So despite his awful season, Mac Jones pulls up in second place.

Incidentally, I only said Wilson would bust because the Jets took him and history said they’d screw it up. Like with their last big QB hope, Sam Darnold, who, oh by the way, was better in Carolina than Wilson was in NYC, after being dumped for Wilson. Speaking of projecting the future for QBs, while there’s a long way to go for most of them, in Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Pat Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert and depending on injuries Lamar Jackson there are no fewer than seven QBs who look like Hall of Fame material if they stay on the same trajectory.

Once again Green Bay did not live up to its pre-season Super Bowl contender billing. Something done annually more on the reputation of their star QB than substance. At 8-9 they missed the playoffs again as their string of SB wannabe failures hit 12 years and counting.

Back to the Rams. Their troubles may continue if the chatter is correct that Sean McVay is really thinking of stepping away from coaching. And if he does, it’a significant historical NFL story, as while there’s still eons to go, by already having 60 wins by age 36, he could get the all-time record by the time he reaches 60 if he averaged the same 11 wins per Coach B has in 22 years with the Pats. For context, his 60 wins are 60 more than Coach B had at 36.

BTW, Belichick finished the year with 329 wins, 18 behind Don Shula’s record 347.

Another rumor going around has free agent Tom Brady reuniting with Josh McDaniels in Las Vegas. It’s partially being driven by owner Mark Davis wanting star power because he doesn’t like Vegas being a tourist destination for opposing fans who fill his stadium with nearly as many out-of-towners as Raiders fans.

They’d better hurry with that one as after making the 2021 playoff their 6-11 finish has Josh in peril entering Year 2, just as he was during his first HC try in Denver when he got fired mid-way through his second season.

Finally, with Lamar Jackson missing every game after Thanksgiving for the second year in a row, the old adage seems truer than ever that while running quarterbacks add an extra dimension to the offense, it’s usually not worth it because if they run a lot sooner or later they’re gonna get killed.

I’ll have a fuller autopsy of the Patriots’ season in a few weeks.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

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 England and announces Patricia has been “re-assigned” to a front office role. Heavyweight boxing is heard from for the first time in decades when, during an appearance on the Hitman Hearns podcast to commemorate the 50th anniversary of George Foreman winning the Heavyweight crown in 1973, the two-time champ asks what ever happened to Heavyweight boxing. And no one knows the answer.

February: After digging themselves out from the 13th western New York blizzard in 30 days, Buffalo wins the Super Bowl over surprise NFC entry New York Giants. With the Bills a 16-point favorite, the G-Men consider bringing Tom Coughlin out of retirement to engineer another massive SB upset, but decide against it. They then lose by 17 to make the folks giving the points happy dudes. In a bid to break Michael Jordan’s record for most retirements by a GOAT, Tom Brady retires again.

March: John Henry acts like an owner and talks to the media for the first time in two years early in spring training. But he soon retreats to the bunker after being bombarded with questions about his team’s epically low 2023 expectations.

April: When the “I’m sorry, I’ll do it your way” bid fails to get Yoko back, Brady unretires again and is traded to the hometown 49ers. The Sox go into 2023 with an average age of 43 for its starting rotation. The good news is, it beats the Vegas over-under of 45 after ancient Rich Hill somehow gets another team to give him a contract leaving him to flee faster than a guy finding an open lifeboat seat as the Titanic was on the way down.

May:After 47 trade-down and trade-up moves in Rounds 1 and 2, Bill Belichick selects punter Ray Guy IV with his top pick. Tampa Bay uses an all-time record 32 pitchers in a rain-shortened six-inning dumpster fire game at Fenway that takes 6 hours and 31 minutes to play.

June: In a first ever for the gentle sport of golf, a massive on-course brawl breaks out between LIV players and old-guard PGAers to mar Day 1 of the U.S. Open. After going down early in the marquee “animal” match-up between a Tiger and a Shark, Time magazine’s “Sports Weasel of the Year” Greg Norman squeezes his way out of the bottom of the scrum to start throwing sucker punches from behind like he’s Mickey Rivers in 1976’s famed dust-up between the Sox and the Yanks. The Celtics return to the NBA Finals, but this time they win in a sweep of Golden State when Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown live up to the billing. In the NBA draft, 7’4” Frenchman Victor (the victor) Wembanyama falls one letter short of Michael Olowokandi’s all-time record for having the most letters in the full name of a first overall pick.

July: Not that anyone but puckheads notices, but the Bruins join the Celtics as world champs when the ice hockey season concludes in the calendar year’s hottest month. Raffy Devers is sent packing at the trading deadline to complete the destruction of the Red Sox franchise for a raft of young players ballyhooed by the Sox brass but described by most baseball insiders as “worse than the box of rocks Chaim got for Mookie Betts.” At the presser announcing the move, Boston’s sports answer to George Santos says Devers will be his top priority to re-sign in the off-season.

August: Patricia is detained by security at Pats pre-season camp when he breaches the 200-yard boundary he’s required to maintain. He then quits in protest after learning the restraining order was actually taken out by owner Bob Kraft.

September: Patricia quickly finds work as offensive coordinator at Memorial High and vows he’ll resurrect the dormant-for-decades Crusaders offense. Mayor Joyce Craig immediately tries to overturn the move by telling (shouting at, actually) the school board in front of an overflow open SB session crowd, “Didn’t you people watch the Patriots offense last year?” For her strongly worded commendation, Craig gets an immediate 15-point bump in the polls ahead of her mayoral campaign.

October: Betts and the newly acquired Devers hit six homers off Nathan Eovaldi in Game 7 as the Dodgers top Texas to win the World Series.

November: Xander Bogaerts wins the National League MVP Award in a unanimous vote.

Despite scoring only 21 points on offense all season, Memorial somehow wins the Division 1 Football crown for the first time since Dave Croasdale was a pup. After years of hibernation, UCLA comes out of nowhere to finish in the Top 4 ranked teams in college football to set up an all-Manchester opening-round match-up (in January) between Chip Kelly’s Bruins and fellow Central alum (and Chipper’s old QB at the U) Ryan Day and Ohio State. The Manchester PD begins planning for handling lines at Billy’s Sports Bar, expected to snake past the back entrance to Elliot Hospital.

December: Devers signs with the Yankees in free agency. Mac Jones throws his 40th TD pass to help the Pats clinch a playoff spot, but resists the temptation to flip off the now adoring crowd that was calling for his head just 60 days earlier. After accepting MLB’s new Harry Frazee Team Wrecker award at a lavish gathering at New York’s No No Nanette Theater for discarding Betts, Bogaerts and Devers with astonishing speed, John Henry announces on what’s left of Twitter that he has sold the team to Elon Musk. He’s then installed by Vegas odds-makers and DraftKings as the odds-on favorite to win MLB’s Be Careful What You Wish For award in 2023.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

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 up to the hype. It ended with an overtime game with uber star Lionel Messi winning what some thought might be his final game. It had underdogs advancing, and the Americans made it out of group play. Best of all, TV ratings were great, which may signal soccer’s day as a spectator sport for the U.S. masses may have arrived.

Here Comes The Judge: Seeing clean cut, non-juiced good guy Aaron Judge chase Roger Maris’s and the Babe’s cherished single-season home run record in the AL was the feel-good story of the year. It was a “he’s got it the whole way” laugh in, until the palms got sweaty the last 10 days. But No. 62 finally came and the record, most importantly to New Yorkers, stayed in the Bronx.

Astros Blast Off in World Series: After being scorned by the baseball world since it was discovered they used an elaborate sign-stealing system all throughout their championship season of 2017, the Houston Astros finally got the monkey off their back. It happened by beating the Phillies in this year’s Fall Classic four games to two. It won’t erase the taint of 2017, but it does validate that after going to four Series since 2017, they have been one of the best organizations in recent memory.

Kyrie Irving’s World Implodes: The world’s most self-indulgent, delusional athlete wrote another chapter for the “why I (sports) hate this guy” book by derailing his team, not once but twice.

The first time was railing about the man in refusing to get vaccinated during the pandemic, which ran afoul of New York City’s mandate for having to be vaxxed to be part of mass gatherings. It led to his missing 53 games, which sent NBA favorite Brooklyn into a lurch that eventually led to their being swept out of the playoffs in Round I by Boston.

The other was getting suspended eight games after refusing to back down to the league-wide storm that followed his posting support for an anti-semitic documentary.

It all cost him close to $70 million in lost NBA salary and his canceled Nike deal.

And for those who still think he’s worth the trouble, the Nets were 11-18 in the 29 games played last year and the count this year was 2-6 before he was suspended and 5-3 in the games he missed.

College Football Playoffs Expands to 12-School Format: It won’t happen until 2024 at the earliest and maybe not until 2026. But the decision by the NCAA to begin a 12-school national tournament for Division I Football was met with near unanimous approval when announced in September. Its time had come for the following reasons: (1) D-1 football is the only sport in the NCAA without a season-ending playoff. (2) With New Year’s Day Bowl games no longer the unofficial ending of college football, it needed a better ending. (3) With schools like USC and UCLA headed to the Big 10, the once recognizable conference picture is a total jumble and this gives a better focus going forward. (4) Given the success of the Men’s Basketball Tournament, is there any doubt this will be a wild success too?

Golden State Proves Me Wrong Twice: First, I said in my NBA pre-season preview that after two injury-ravaged years I didn’t see the Warriors ever returning to their championship level form. SPOILER ALERT — They did. Then when they met the Celtics in the Finals I picked the Green and — SPOILER ALERT — they didn’t, after I underestimated how good their team defense was, their coach Steve Kerr was and historically how great Steph Curry is, which became more apparent as he dominated all but one game in the series. As for the history, winning for a fourth time in eight years cements them as one of the best multi-year run winners, while Curry pushed his way into my Top 10 greatest players ever.

Hot Seat Is Warming for Coach B: Due to repeated personnel miscalculations since 2013, his usual stubbornness, the team’s most mortifying loss since getting run over by the Bears in SB 20 and a major misguided choice for offensive coordinator, things are not going well for Bill Belichick three years into the post-Tom Brady era.

It has folks wondering the once unthinkable: If Coach B does catch Don Shula’s all-time record for wins, will he do it coaching in Foxborough?

I sense a clash coming between the owner and Coach B. One where Bob Kraft demands (as I would) he get some fresh perspective to help get things back on track by going outside the organization to hire a personnel guy with a track record of drafting success and another to lead the offense and develop their highly drafted young QB in a way Matt Patricia can’t.

Will he get stubborn and say no? Then what? Another year to fix it his way, or will a refusal push Kraft into making a “do what I say or else” decision most never expected would ever happen?

Brittney Griner Comes Home: This isn’t a sports story but an international news story involving a well-known American athlete that was in the news most of the year. Given the danger posed by the arms dealer she was swapped for in the prisoner exchange, the question is did it happen because of her celebrity? Or, more likely, because she was an innocent pawn taken hostage by a hostile country in retribution for the action taken by her country in support of Ukraine after it was invaded by a power-hungry dictator?

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

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 every pro team, including seven titles in the 2000s and four more in the 2010s, couldn’t last forever.

Well it’s now the 2020s and he was right. Those were the good old days. But what he didn’t say was how much of a disaster it would be when things went bad.

Consider the last week.

The Patriots: So much for the old adage “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” said to contain embarrassment over crazy things people do on visits to Sin City. Unfortunately for your New England Patriots, their actions played out on national television as they put the exclamation point on my recent pronouncement that their dynasty was dead with the single dumbest play in the 103-year history of the National Football League, a mortifying play that led a Bill Belichick team to be mocked worse than anyone since Mark Sanchez’s butt fumble in 2012. Except it was far worse, since it turned a game headed to OT into a dynasty-ending (and probably season-ending) loss as time expired.

I’m not going to go into the gory details. If you somehow missed it, count your blessings, ’cause it was gruesome.

In addition, by allowing the Raiders to score 14 points in the last 32 seconds to snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat, they gave the NFL its 21st-century answer to 1968’s infamous Heidi game.

The Red Sox: Can anyone tell me what Chaim Bloom is doing? This week he followed up the year-long lie that retaining franchise icon Xander Bogaerts was the team’s top priority when he plainly wasn’t by designating Jeter Downs for assignment, who was the alleged jewel prospect he got for Mookie Betts. A day later it was the same thing for heralded low-cost steal (in August) Eric Hosmer even though all the September at-bats at first base would be going to top prospect Triston Casas. So after 45 at-bats he’s DFA’d. Next was the two-year deal given to ex-L.A. third baseman Justin Turner. Except they already have a third baseman. Which after the Bogaerts lie-athon should have people planning Raffy Devers’ going away party.

Beyond getting (and overpaying) closer Kenley Jansen, please tell me what the plan is. That is, if there is one.

The Celtics: Just 10 days ago they were up on Phoenix by 45 in the third period and had the best record in the NBA. But then came the latest Jayson Tatum choke in a marquee game vs. Golden State to send them off on a four-losses-in-five-games tailspin. Two of which came at the Garden vs. Orlando, who had the worst road record in the NBA. While it could be just a mini-slump, one of the things they need to work out is finding how to score when the threes aren’t falling, because they became too dependent on three-balls as they ran out to their 18-4 start. And can we stop with the “Tatum is the best player on the planet” talk, Scal? Because until he can stop shrinking from the moment anytime he’s facing Steph Curry (who owns him) he ain’t that.

The Bruins: I’m not saying anything about them because I don’t want to jinx them.

Here are a few more thoughts of a positive nature to send us all off in the holiday spirit.

Congrats to the estimable Patrice Bergeron for joining the 1,000-career-point club.

Ditto to Bogaerts for his big score in San Diego and thanks for representing the region with such class.

Make it three for the American team for advancing out of group play in the World Cup. A fourth for the WC itself. But they have to go to a play-till-they-drop format to decide the winner of the world’s greatest event. Deciding it on penalty kicks is like seeing Game 7 of the NBA Finals decided by a free throw shooting contest.

While the loss to Vegas was a killer, the bright side could be it may help save the struggling Josh McDaniels’ job.

You certainly can make a case that a WNBA player for an international arms dealer wasn’t an even swap. But it is nice to see an American hostage freed and that Brittney Griner will join an effort that will try to help Paul Whelan and other Americans be freed from prison in Russia.

I’m hoping Mac Jones gets a real offensive coordinator, a QB coach who’s played the position, two good (and speedy) wide receivers and a major shot of confidence for Christmas, because right now that boy is lost.

Finally, for those who don’t know the story of the Heidi game. After the Jets scored a TD in the final minute of their 1968 game to make them look like sure winners, NBC cut away to air their hyped holiday special movie Heidi, starring the still big former child star Shirley Temple. But two minutes into the movie a crawl came across the screen saying the Raiders had scored twice in the final seconds, to stun everyone who’d seen the game. It was all anyone talked about the next day, as NBC got blasted for pulling out of the game. Though Patriots fans wished it was the opposite, so they didn’t have to see Chandler Jones (of all people) give viewers the most stunning ending since Pittsburgh’s Immaculate Reception win over the same Raiders. Which, oh by the way, happened 50 years ago this Saturday (Christmas Eve). Which makes me wonder, when you throw in the Tuck Rule, how do the Raiders always end up in these weird-ending games?

A happy and safe holiday to all.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].