DHL Dan - LXIX - Picked Up Pablum

Not content with shitting on a team with the best record in baseball (see previous post), Shank turns his sights onto other matters, which of course includes offseason criticism of the five-time super Bowl champion New England Patriots:

Picked-up pieces while pondering conflicting messages from local sports ownership . . .

■ Put me down as captain of Team Belichick in this Bill/Tom/Bob soap opera. Like everybody, I wanted to see Malcolm Butler in the Super Bowl, and Bill Belichick owes us an explanation for that, but Tom Brady’s no-show at OTAs flies in the face of everything he’s stood for during his time here.

The QB jets off to Monaco while his teammates are sweating in Foxborough? He’s “unappreciated” even after they traded his replacement? It’s outrageous. I’m betting that Brady’s cult-like attachment to a nefarious trainer will end badly for everyone.

First off - these OTA's are not mandatory. Second - not considered by Shank for even a moment - suppose you've been doing this for nearly two decades, you're married to one of the hottest women on the planet and you have a family - do you think his priorities might have changed just a wee bit?

■ Here’s a portion of Bob Kraft’s statement from last Sept. 24 when it was clear a good number of Patriots were going to protest during the national anthem in the wake of President Trump’s suggestion that owners fire protesting players: “Our players are intelligent, thoughtful, and care deeply about our community, and I support their right to peacefully affect social change and raise awareness in a manner that they feel is most important.’’

My take? If you feel that strongly about it, do it on your own time, not your employer's. How many of you would get fired on the spot if you did this on the clock? I'd say every one of you would get axed.

■ And then we have Red Sox chairman Tom Werner. While riding shotgun with principal owner John Henry (also the Globe owner) in a successful effort to have the “Yawkey” name stripped from the street that runs in front of Fenway Park (because of Tom Yawkey’s “racist legacy”), Werner at the same time chose to go back into business with known bigot Roseanne Barr.

Back in April, when I asked Werner about Barr’s incendiary Twitter history, the chairman had no comment. The same was true the night Barr famously desecrated the national anthem before a Padres home game in 1990 when Werner was managing general partner of the team. According to the Los Angeles Times, on the night of Barr’s disgraceful performance, “Werner . . . producer of Barr’s television series . . . informed the media that he would be unavailable for comment.’’

Question for Shank - do you feel the need to answer for your employer's harassment of women by higher ups in the Globe's management structure?