Category: Sports

The Big Story – Mayo Out After Final: Well, that didn’t take long. But seeing Mike Vrabel interviewing to be HC of the NYJ’s last week likely gave Pats owner Bob Kraft the sense of urgency he needed to do the right thing and put Jerod Mayo out of his misery immediately. Stay tuned to see what, if any, changes are coming next, over what should be the eventful weeks ahead.

Sports 101: Name the NFL team and players that had their QB named MVP one year and his backup win it for them the next year.

News Item – Ohio State Rolls in CFP: You’ve got to love what Ryan Day’s OSU Buckeyes have done in dismantling Tennessee (41-17) and Oregon (43-23) in the first two CFP rounds. And it wasn’t just Chip Kelly’s offense, which pretty much ended it for the undefeated Ducks by midway through the second quarter. The D did their part in holding OU to an astonishing minus 23 yards rushing on 28 carries.

Up next: Texas in Dallas on Friday night.

News Item – QB controversy in Foxboro: While it was an exhibition kind of game, it’s hard to say anything bad about the debut of rookie sixth-round pick Joe Milton in the Pats’ franchise-damaging 23-16 win over Buffalo. And to think he had to transfer out of Michigan to start elsewhere his senior season after struggling in Ann Arbor. He was cool, calm, athletic and dynamic in going 22 for 29 for 241 yards and a TD while running for another. Which pretty much matched anything Drake Maye did all year. Throw in the standing back flip the 6’5” 250-pounder did after scoring his TD and it’s a legend in the making. Hey, wait, a sixth-round pick from Michigan competing with a more highly drafted guy for the QB job. That sounds familiar. Hmmm.

News Item – Darnold Seeing Ghosts Returns: Did the clock strike 12 on Sam Darnold’s Cinderella season? He sure looked like he did in his Jets days during Sunday’s showdown for the NFC Central title, where he was 18-41 for 166 yards and an 0-fer on TD’s the five times Minnesota got in the red zone. The easy 31-9 Detroit win gave the top-seeded 15-2 Lions home field throughout the playoffs and a Week 1 bye while 5-seed Minnesota face the Rams in L.A.

The Numbers:

24.1 – Christmas Day Chiefs-Steelers TV rating on Netflix, compared to the 5.25 NBA games averaged on ABC/ESPN the same day.

57,471 – careerminutes played by LeBron James as he passed Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s all-time record.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Detroit Lions Trick Plays: The best was the “stumble bum” just before Christmas where Jared Goff faked like he stumbled and fumbled as RB Jahmyr Gibbs dove on the ground like he was trying to recover the fumble. After the Bears bought it hook line and sinker, Goff straightened up and threw a 21-yard TD pass to a wide open Sam LaPorta. And the hook and ladder from Amon-Ra St. Brown to Jameson Williams vs. SF the next week for another shock TD was sweet too.

If it ain’t gonna be Vrabel, Bob Kraft, make it the guy who thunk them up to be the next HC of the NEP’s: Detroit OC Ben Johnson.

Thumbs Down – JimmyButler: Hearing a guy who forced his way out of Chicago, Minnesota and Philadelphia demanding a trade because he “lost his joy” in Miami is beyond laughable.

Best Commercial on NFL Broadcasts – Uber Eats: Matthew McConaughey is very funny in the clever spot as a guy seeing NFL games as conspiracies for getting viewers to buy food.

Random Thoughts:

I hate that the portal transfer rule allows senior QB’s, like Ohio State and Oregon had, to pick a team to move to alter the balance of college football every year.

Latest example why I hate Nike’s influence on the tradition of sports were the garishly awful red pants worn by Ohio State last week over their beautiful silver pants with the red jerseys.

Sports 101 Answer: Johnny Unitas was the 1967 MVP and after he went down in pre-season Earl Morrall stepped in to win it by leading Baltimore to the league’s best record at 13-1 in 1968.

Final Thought – Pats’ Plan Going Forward: Give Bob Kraft credit for admitting his mistake and firing his hand-picked not-ready-for-prime-time head coach Jerod Mayo after just one season.Mistake 2 was keeping the staff in place who helped Bill Belichick the GM compile an abysmal drafting record dating back to 2014. Which is why they came up with a 2024 draft that gave them nothing after Maye (and maybe Milton). The next step is getting a GM with a track record for creatively finding, acquiring and drafting talent to maximize their huge cap space edge and draft position. Then hire a coach who can help a young team grow into a winner.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – A look ahead to 2025: It’s our annual set of predictions for sports, 2025 edition.

Sports 101: With the newest members to be announced this week, name the youngest per­son elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Predictions – What I think will happen:

Ryan Day and his OC/local friend Chip Kelly win their first national championship when Ohio State beats Boise State 28-23 in the CFP title game

Juan Soto struggles to live up to his astronomical paycheck in Year 1 with the Mets with a not bad, but not worth $50 mil­lion 28-homer, 91-RBI, .273 BA season.

The Sox are able to find a trade partner/ sucker to take Masataka Yoshida off their hands to let them move Raffy Devers to DH.

In a Super Bowl for the ages the Josh Allen-led Buffalo Bills outlast the Detroit Lions to win the Super Bowl 45-42 in OT.

After his spectacular Cy Young season Chris Sales’ return to health lasts as long as Bill Walton’s famed one-season injury sab­batical did with the Celtics in the ’80s and it’s sadly back on the DL for CS.

Led by uber cheerleaders Brian Scal­abrine and sideline reporter Abby Chin, local green teamer homer-ism flashes large when Jayson Tatum is not named the MVP, because Cleveland has the league’s best record behind actual Award winner Dono­van Mitchell.

The surprise of the NBA playoffs are the Orlando Magic, whose outstanding, ultra-physical defensive game takes them all the way to a nail-biting final-minute sev­enth-game loss to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The youth influx begins as the Red Sox’ ballyhooed Top 3 prospects, Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell, make their Fenway debuts with Campbell becoming the regular second baseman by year’s end.

After winning 105 in the regular season the Dodgers win the World Series by beat­ing the retooled Yanks again.

North Carolina jumps out to a 4-0 start before losing to Clemson and after being coached up by Coach B eventually finish­es 9-3 to grab a spot in the much-coveted Scooters Coffee Fresco Bowl.

Wishes – What I hope will happen:

Sox sign Alex Bregman to be their new third baseman to juice/save their advance ticket sales efforts.

After the Sox are unable to trade him in the off-season Triston Casas goes for 30-plus homers and 90 RBI to show how dumb it would’ve been to give up on him because of his injury-plagued 2024 season.

Brayan Bello continues his upward tra­jectory to lead the Red Sox with 16 wins.

After another terrible draft besides Drake Maye, owner Bob Kraft finally comes to his senses to realize it wasn’t just Bill Beli­chick behind all those bad drafts since 2014. So he cleans house and hires a real GM to start replenishing their barren roster.

BK also sees how foolish it was to hire a guy who wasn’t ready to be a head coach and lets the new GM hire a new, offen­sive-minded head coach.

After their Super Bowl loss Lions OC Ben Johnson heads to Foxboro to become HC of the Patriots.

Thanks to the presence of Maye, the newly hired Johnson and a boatload of cash, the Patri­ots finally land a top-tier wideout by signing Bengals star Tee Higgins in free agency.

In the most talked about move on draft night, with major input from minority own­er Tom Brady the Raiders trade up to get the second overall pick from TB’s old team to let Deion’s kid Shedeur Sanders bring his Rolls Royce to Vegas to be their QB of the future.

Meanwhile for dropping down the Pats also get the Raiders’ second pick this year and their first- and second-rounders in 2025. Which gives them a first, two seconds and two thirds in this draft. Then they take the best OL available when LSU left tackle Will Campbell slides to them at 6.

Peyton Pritchard becomes the second off-the-bench player in NBA history to be named Finals MVP.

After his initial interest, Celtics Nation is relieved Elon Musk realizes he’s too busy messing with the country to buy the C’s. Instead the new owner is a crypto king bil­lionaire no one ever heard of. Phew! I think.

Predictions – What I’m sure will happen:

The Red Sox trade Merrimack’s Mickey Gasper to Minnesota for a pitcher I’ve nev­er heard of.

Sports 101 Answer: After retiring at 30 due to chronic elbow pain, in 1972 San­dy Koufax became the youngest elected to Cooperstown.

A Little History – 1973: The new year was rocked when Curt Gowdy announced during the Rose Bowl broadcast that while on a mission of mercy to earthquake-dev­astated Nicaragua Roberto Clemente died when his overloaded-with-supplies plane crashed on takeoff in Puerto Rico. That summer he became the second youngest person to enter the Hall.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – 2024: Timefor our annual look at the big stories and best athletes.

Sports 101: In 2024 Jaylen Brown became the sixth Celtic to be NBA Finals MVP in 2024. Name the other five.

News Item – The Year’s Top Stories:

Patriots are at the Bottom of the NFL: We knew it was going to be bad, but not this bad.

Summer Olympics: The U.S. earned the most gold, men’s basketball beat France for the gold, and the women’s soccer team regained the top rung in their game worldwide behind, of all people, Dennis Rodman’s daughter Trinity.

Chiefs First to Win Repeat Since NE in 2003-04: After down goes SF for their third, get ready, Patriots fans, because with Patrick Mahomes not even 30 yet and the league’s best coach, Andy Reid, possibly around for another 10 seasons, six or (gulp) more SB wins are not out of the question.

Dodgers Destroy Yanks 4-1 in Series: It had it all: big stars in Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, the L.A.-N.Y. TV markets and their history of 11 previous World Series meetings. But with four homers, 12 RBI and a walk-off grand slam to win Game 1 Freddie Freeman stole the show as L.A. won in a walk. Judge put up similar numbers to what Dave Winfield had in 1981 that led George Steinbrenner to mock his star as “Mr. May.”

UConn Men Win Again: A feel-good story of their being the first to win back-to-back college basketball team titles since Florida in 2006-07 and coach Dan Hurley shunning big bucks from the Lakers to stay and go for three.

Belichick Gets Fired: A once un-imaginable ending to his reign in Foxboro. Got it thanks to horrendous drafting, the lunkhead move of putting incompetent Matt Patricia in charge of the 2023 offense and his prickly stubbornness finally catching up with him. Which gave us all the definitive answer to “Was it Brady or Belichick?”

Celtics Win NBA Crown: Breezing to the title mostly without injured center Kristaps Porzingis was nice. But the real prize was re-taking the lead for most NBA titles at 18 to put the dastardly Lakers back in second place.

The Numbers:

3.798 – grade point average at Colorado for Heisman Trophy-winning two-way guy Travis Hunter to make him an actual “student-athlete” as opposed to what many college sports kids are illegitimately called.

186 – string of second most playoff games without winning an NBA title that ended for Al Horford.

… Of the Year Awards

Biggest Shock – Belichick Leaves NFL Behind: There isn’t one sports pundit anywhere who saw him jumping to college football coming. Not one.

Player of the Year – Shohei Ohtani: After getting the richest sports contract ever ($700 million) he delivered for the Dodgers as he had the first 50-homer and 50-stolen-base season in baseball history, he was named the NL MVP and his team easily won the World Series.

Biggest Achievement – Caitlin Clark Popularizes Women’s Game: The stats and all-time records were impressive. But the fact that her presence in the sport led to the Women’s Final Four having higher TV ratings than the men’s FF is a heretofore never imagined feat and the most monumental moment for women’s sports since Billie Jean King took out Bobby Riggs in straight sets 51 years earlier.

Lifetime Achievement Award – LeBron James: For two things: (1) breaking Kareem’s all-time NBA career scoring record and still chugging along at 38 to pass 40,000 points, and (2) having the amazing durability and longevity to be the first to play in an NBA game with his son, which he did with young Bronny on opening night.

DumbestEvent: The 112-year-old Mike Tyson fighting doofus Jake Paul.

Thumbs Up – Clark: For her magnanimous comments about those who came before her to build the WNBA throughout her Time Magazine Athlete of the Year profile. Classy.

Thumbs Down: Among the sports luminaries we lost in 2024 were Willie Mays, Jerry West, Bill Walton, Whitey Herzog, Dikembe Mutombo, Pete Rose, OJ Simpson, Orlando Cepeda, Larry Lucchino, Jimy Williams, Louie Carnesecca, Luis Tiant and Rickey Henderson. RIP

A Little History – Lakers 17: Sorry, L.A., that’s a bogus number. Because five of them came in the early 1950s behind the great George Mikan and the boys in Minneapolis, which has had zero connection with L.A. since they left town. So the number for the L.A. Lakers is really 12.

Sports 101 Answer: Since the Finals MVP was first awarded in 1969the six Celtics to win it areJohn Havlicek (’74), Jo-Jo White (’76), Cedric Maxwell (’81), Larry Bird (’84 and ’86), Paul Pierce (’08) and Brown (’24).

Final Thought: Happy holidays to all.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Coach B Heads to Chapel Hill: Well, I was wrong — Bill Belichick was serious about coaching in college. And it was such big news here that it blew the Red Sox trade for the top-of-the-rotation pitcher (Garrett Crochet) they desperately needed off the front page.

BB moves to college as the leader in Super Bowls won with six. The move likely finishes his quest to pass Don Shula as the NFL’s winningest coach in history. But it accomplishes two important things. (1) It ensures he will coach in 2025. (2) It gives him complete control to run the program and pick his own groceries as he did for 20 years here. Not exactly the ending to the legendary career I hoped for, but it apparently is what he wanted.

Sports 101: Name the seven players who have won the Cy Young Award in both leagues.

News Item – Sox Get Top-of-the-Rotation Starter: After losing out on free agent lefty Max Fried when he signed with the Yankees for giant money, the Sox pulled the trigger on the long-rumored deal for White Sox lefty Garrett Crochet. To do it they (sorta) went the Brad Stevens route of proven production over future promise by sending four minor-leaguers west, including highly touted catcher Kyle Teel.

I say sorta because Crochet comes with red flags. Only deranged stat geeks can proclaim a guy who was six games under .500 (6-12) and never pitched more than four innings in any start after July 1 “among the AL’s best pitchers last year” as Boston Globe beat writer Julian McWilliams did Sunday. But at 25 the stuff was good enough to strike out 208 in a career-best 146 innings. So they rolled the dice on that and the much cheaper annual price tag over the red flags.

News Item – Alumni News Yikes Department: First there was one-time walking Patriots disaster Jonnu Smith killing them with Miami. Today it’s last year’s couldn’t make a big kick if his life depended on it Chad Ryland. He was three for three on FG tries for Phoenix in Sunday’s dismal 30-16 loss. He also has three-game winning walk-off FG’s to his credit already.

The Numbers

16 – million-dollar increase to North Carolina’s NIL recruiting money from last year’s $4 million to the $20 million it’ll be with Belichick as HC of UNC.

1 – billion with a B that the Dodgers now owe in deferred payments to players after signing Blake Snell.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Nico Collins: “It was definitely worth it ’cause it was caught by a kid” – Texan wide receiver in response to being fined $5,000 by the NFL for throwing a ball underhand to that kid after he caught it for a TD.

In Case You Missed It – Teddy Bridgewater:The one-time first-round NFL pick’s Miami Northwestern won the Class 3A championship in his first year as a high school coach with an epic playoff round run where they outscored their five opponents 262-12.

Random Thoughts:

A Little History – Team Support: Before the geeks whine that Crochet got no support from the horrible White Sox: Steve Carlton won 27 games for the Phillies when they won 59 in 1972.

Sports 101 Answer: The seven NL and AL Cy Young winners are Gaylord Perry, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Roy Halladay, Max Scherzer and Blake Snell.

Final Thought – Should Jerod Mayo Return? The real issue for a change is not improvement, it’s is he the right fit for the circumstances? And since the Pats’ biggest priority is maximizing the development of their prime asset, Drake Maye, the answer is no.

We’ve learned two things in recent years about the Coach-QB relationship: (1) the right QB is more important than the coach, no matter who he is; (2) Matt Patricia and Mac Jones clearly showed that the wrong coach overseeing a young QB can kill his development. How is Mayo’s background any different from Patricia’s? Answer: in this crucial area, not much.

Instead they need an imaginative offensive mind guiding Maye. Like Detroit OC Ben Johnson, who leads the NFL’s highest-scoring club and, outside of KC, its most creative attack. He also helped Jared Goff evolve into an MVP-caliber player after the 2016 first overall pick floundered in L.A. before being dumped for Matthew Stafford. And look what draft bust turned MVP candidate Sam Darnold has done under ex-Patriot QB Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota.

If Mayo were taking over the defense-dominant 1985 Bears I’d probably stick with him. But that’s not what the Pats are. It’s an offensive league now and Maye is key to their revival.

So Bob Kraft, admit your mistake and then go get someone like Johnson, O’Connell or a young Andy Reid. Because that’s what’s needed going forward.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Soto Goes to the Mets: The Juan Soto sweepstakes ended Sunday with him getting the highest deal in history, an astronomical $765 million for 15 years from the New York Mets.

We’ll never know if the talk of signing him was just Red Sox PR speak. But the good news is (a) he’s not a big enough difference-maker to justify spending all their free agent money on when their biggest need by far is pitching; (b) it wounds the Yankees deeply, not just in losing him but in the top prospects they gave up to get him for just one year, and (c) since people here barely know the NL exists he’ll rarely be thought of again.

Now open the checkbook for pitching.

Sports 101: Nine current NBA teams have failed to win even one league title. Name them.

News Item – Sox Sign Aroldis Chapman: It’s nice to see them spending, but $10.75 million for an eighth-inning set-up man seems pricey.

The good news is at 36 he struck out an astonishing 98 batters in just 61.2 innings, which says he still has major juice on the fastball. The bad news is the 3.79 ERA and 1.346 WHIP are the second-worst of his career. That suggests command is enough of an issue to make the Nation squeamish in tight games. But it’s a one-year deal, so good move.

News Item – Alumni News: Among the recent Patriots I found most vexing was Jonnu Smith, who was a calamity waiting to happen. Balls he should have caught weren’t just dropped, they bounced to defenders for interceptions or, worse, pick 6s, which happened twice. Think of his role in the humiliating loss on a bonehead series of final play laterals in Las Vegas that wouldn’t have happened if his mindless motion penalty hadn’t taken a TD off the board in lieu of a FG that kept it a one-score game.

And now he’s in Miami, where his 61 catches are more than any Patriot has now and the meager 55 he had in two seasons in Foxboro. It includes 14 catches for 149 yards in two Miami wins over NE and his game-winning TD in OT vs. the Jets on Sunday.

The Numbers:

3.1 – million dollars bet on Philadelphia to beat Carolina by some guy in Kentucky for a $422,000 payout that was in doubt until a final-seconds Carolina TD was overturned on replay to make Philly the winner.

235 – most receiving yards ever in a first game against the team that traded the player by Cleveland’s Jerry Jeudy in a 41-32 loss to Denver.

… Of the Week Awards

Doink of the Week – KC Chiefs: They lucked into another win. This time while down one to the L.A. Chargers when third-string kicker Matthew Wright hit the crossbar on a point blank FG try to give beyond belief lucky KC a 19-17 win.

Dumb Gamble of the Week – Dan Campbell: I know the analytics crowd will laud him for going for it on fourth down, especially because it worked. But while I like the faith he has in his team, passing on a 38-yard field goal attempt in lieu of going for it on fourth and one from the Green Bay 21 with 43 seconds left in a game tied 31-31 seemed like too big a risk. Especially when his kicker had two walk-off game winners already. Plus they nearly botched it when the center stepped on Jared Goff’s foot and he had to lunge just to make the hand-off falling to the ground. So what did it gain?

Wow Moment of the Week – Ja Morant Dunk: Caught it in the corner, the 6’2” guard drives the baseline, goes up with back to the basket but pulls it down against a double team, then double pumps and dunks it backward on 7’4” Kristaps Porzingis.

I’m guessing only Dr. J and Michael Jordan could have pulled that off.

Those new Denver Broncos uniforms with the white helmets are You-gly.

Sports 101 Answer: The nine teams to never win a NBA title are the Magic, Jazz, Nets, Clippers, Hornets (originally Bobcats), Pacers, Grizzlies, T-Wolves and Pelicans (originally Hornets).

Thunder have never won, but they did as the Supersonics in Seattle.

Final Thought – Suspension Policy All Wrong: Sorry, folks, the three-game suspension given to Houston’s serial cheap shot artist Azeez Al Shaair for the one that ended Trevor Lawrence’s season was not outrageous. The penalty should be that if a guy hurts someone with an intentional cheap shot he should not play for as long as the player he hurt is out.

The QB is the most important player on every team, so why should the player who takes him out with an intentional cheap shot only miss three games while Jacksonville’s QB misses the rest of the season? If you want this stopped make the penalty onerous.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Will Jerod Mayo Be Back? Expect that to be the talk until Bob Kraft decides to stop it either way. I know 13 games is a short trial. But after Sunday’s excruciating 25-24 loss dropped them to 3-10 his progress bears watching closely. The best barometer to gauge how he’s doing is, do you think they’re improving? Sunday said yes and no. We’ll keep asking until we know the answer in January.

Sports 101: With 1,499 rushing yards and 267 receiving Saquon Barkley is threatening to break both the single-season rushing and total yards marks. Name the players who hold those marks.

News Item – Sox Lose Out on Blake Snell: With the Red Sox in need of pitching help it might seem odd that the Dodgers’ signing the best free agent pitcher was a good thing for them. But the $186 million deal likely takes L.A. out of market for another starter. And with the Yanks and Mets focused on Juan Soto it might give Boston an opening for the pitcher who fits their young core best, 23-year-old Japanese import Roki Sasaki. Since he can’t get big money by posting rules they’ll be big competition. I’d sell him on the success Japanese players have had in Boston and for him being a key piece added to a young core that is about to make noise.

News Item – Another Sunday, Another Excruciating Loss: This time it came on the game’s final play for the Patriots when Indy QB Anthony Richardson ran in the two-point conversation to make it 25-24.

But it wasn’t all bad news. They had 200 rushing yards and Drake Maye continued to grow. He went 24-30 for 238 yards and a TD, ran for 59 more, including a 41-yard first-quarter scramble, and led another TD drive that gave them a fourth-quarter lead. Plus they stayed in contention for a needed Top 5 pick.

The Numbers:

4 – consecutive years Michigan has beaten Ryan Day’s Ohio State Buckeyes after Saturday’s 13-10 verdict, dropping Day to 1-4 vs. OSU’s archrival while being 47-1 against everyone else in the Big 10.

5 – days Jim Montgomery was unemployed between the Bruins firing him as head coach and the St. Louis Blues hiring him to be theirs.

7 – Patriots penalties for 88 yards that took two TDs off the board that later became just FGs to play a big role in Sunday’s 25-24 loss to Indy.

… Of the Week Awards

RIP Little Louie: The St. John’s basketball coach Lou Carnesecca died last week a month short of his 100th birthday. His heyday was as the Big East was formed and evolved into a national power. Never won a national title, but the 524-200 record was deemed Hall-worthy in 1993.

Random Thoughts:

How did they score that play on SNF when Josh Allen’s short pass to Amari Cooper bounced off him back to Allen, who then ran it in for a TD — TD pass from Josh Allen to Josh Allen with a hockey assist from Cooper? Never seen one like that before.

Not a huge LaMelo Ball fan, but hard to ignore him putting up 50 and 44 in back-to-back games vs. the Bucks and Magic last week.

Of course, since it’s the Hornets, then he got hurt and will miss three weeks.

Is Al Horford an eventual Hall of Famer? Answer? If Chris Bosh is in, YES!

Sports 101 Answer: Barkley is on pace to run for 2,124 yards and get 2,503 total yards. That would take him past Eric Dickerson’s 2,105rushing record and fall just short of Chris Johnson’s total yards mark of 2,509.

Final Thought – No Empathy for Bob Kraft:

After seeing him once again denied entry as a contributor to the Pro Football Hall of Fame it’s obvious some voters are sticking it to the Patriots owner.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the three SBs he won 150 years ago cruised in. But not BK, who doubled that and went SB four other times. He also saved the franchise from moving to St. Louis and built the new stadium with his own money rather than moving them to Hartford for a free one.

And why would you make a guy in his 80s wait over picking Ralph Hay, who’s been dead for 80 years and passed over every year since the Hall opened in 1963?

But having said all that I have no empathy because Kraft’s doing exactly the same thing to the 80-something Bill Parcells when it comes to the Patriots Hall of Fame. Yes, he left under less than desirable circumstances. But outside of founder Billy Sullivan, Coach B, Tom Brady and Drew Bledsoe no one has meant more to the overall building of the Patriots’ success and popularity than Tuna. Which he did from the ashes left behind by Victor Kiam.

Kraft can fix this, and until he does, I hope the Hall keeps him waiting, because what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].