DHL Dan CCLXXXV - You're Saying There's A Chance?

Shank looks at the AFC Championship game in Denver:

The Patriots have a chance to finally win a playoff game in Denver, and other thoughts

DENVER — Picked-up pieces while waiting for Sunday’s AFC Championship game kickoff …

⋅ Denver.

This place.

Again.

When I was in college a thousand years ago in the early 1970s, those of us in little New England thought Denver was the coolest place in America. New Mexico-born John Denver certainly thought so. He changed his name from Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. to John Denver and wrote about “comin’ home to a place he’d never been before,” in his fresh-air anthem “Rocky Mountain High.”

Colorado chic was all the rage in those days. The coolest guy in the world, Robert Redford, played a character from Colorado in “Downhill Racer.” “Mork & Mindy” lived in Boulder. Teen heartthrob Robby Benson skated at Colorado Springs’ famed Broadmoor in “Ice Castles.” Shelley Duvall hit Jack Nicholson with a baseball bat (Carl Yastrzemski model) in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Shining” at a fictional hotel in the Rockies.

And let’s not forget Coors beer, that coveted frosty “brewed by pure Rocky Mountain spring water,” which — in the early ’70s — was harder to score than front-row seats for the Bobby Orr Bruins. Time magazine reported that Vice President Gerald Ford smuggled cases of Coors to Washington after ski trips to the Rockies. We believed. You certainly couldn’t find Coors in Worcester.

DHL Dan CCLXXXIV - Feeling Old Yet?

You just might feel old if you now start seeing the grandchildren of athletes you grew up watching:

The grandson of Darryl Stingley will be trying to keep the Patriots from advancing, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for Sunday’s kickoff at Gillette …

⋅ The Houston Texans are a threat to the Patriots because they have a ferocious defense. One of the best players on that unit is fourth-year cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., No. 24 in your program.

Stingley is the grandson of Darryl Stingley, who caught passes for the Patriots for five seasons in the 1970s before he was paralyzed by a Jack Tatum hit in a mid-August preseason game against the Raiders in the summer of 1978.

Darryl Stingley spent the rest of his days in a wheelchair and died of complications from his quadriplegia at the age of 55 in 2007. His son, Derek, grew up to play three years of minor league baseball in the Phillies system, then five-plus years in the Arena Football League, before settling in Baton Rouge, La., and becoming a football coach.

Churning Out A Win

Shank surprises us with multiple columns in a one week period:

No electricity in this defensive slugfest, but Patriots get it done to beat Chargers

FOXBOROUGH — This was old-school, leather helmet stuff. T formations and flying wedges. No style points. No artistry. It was the Waltz of Sub-Zero refrigerators, nothing like the thrills and grid artistry that electrified fans across America at playoff games in Charlotte, Chicago, Jacksonville, and Philadelphia.

But Patriots fans waited six years for this moment and there were no complaints at the end of Sunday night’s 16-3 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers at Gillette Stadium.

The first three quarters were not easy on the eyes as the Pats and Chargers bored Football America with punts, fumbles, and stalled drives. It wouldn’t have surprised me if fans across the country petitioned the NFL to kick them out of the playoffs altogether and bring back the Jags or Packers. Such was the state of this defensive slugfest.

DHL Dan CCLXXXIII - Tom Terrific II?

That's where Shank seems to be heading with this week's Picked Up Pieces column:

Will second-year QB Drake Maye do for the Patriots what Tom Brady did 24 years ago? And other thoughts.

Picked-up pieces while waiting for Sunday night’s kickoff at Gillette . . .

⋅ It was 24 years ago in a January snowstorm, and New England’s kid quarterback was a complete unknown, playing his first playoff game, a weekend, prime-time special against a West Coast team that came into the league in 1960, same year as the Boston Patriots. The New England Patriots of 2001 hadn’t won a playoff game in four years, and no one knew what to expect from a quarterback who was only two years out of college.

The Patriots won that night, beating the hated Raiders, 16-13, in overtime — the final game in the history of old Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium — and the next day’s Boston Globe featured a Page 1 story by yours truly, which started, “With wonderboy Tom Brady at the controls, the Patriots magic bus rolled on a carpet of packed powder last night. It appears the football gods won’t stop pushing this team until it arrives in New Orleans for Super Bowl XXXVI.”

Moronic hyperbole, for sure. Only a dope truly believed that Brady and the 2001 Patriots were bound for the franchise’s first Super Bowl victory.

Here we are almost a quarter of a century later, and the Patriots are sending 23-year-old Drake Maye — two years out of college — out to face the Chargers on “Sunday Night Football” at Gillette Stadium. It’ll be the first playoff game of Maye’s young career and it’s hard to know what to expect from a kid who might end up being MVP of the NFL for 2025.

DHL Dan CCLXXXII - In Hot Water

Shank weighs in on the recent legal troubles of two New England Patriots players:

Patriots’ push to the playoffs took an unexpected and unfortunate turn this past week, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the Patriots’ playoff road map . . .

⋅ Nobody likes it when nasty, real-world issues get in the way of our sports enjoyment. Fans invest energy, emotions, and hard-earned dollars in local teams, hoping for magical seasons of diversion, enjoyment, and maybe even the reward of a championship parade. The Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, and Patriots are here to take us away from the serious stuff that makes life hard and sometimes scary.

For four months and 16 regular-season games, the 2025 Patriots have been an unexpected gift, bringing joy and expectation back to Foxborough. The Patriots weren’t expected to do much in the wake of back-to-back four-win seasons, but under the direction of new coach Mike Vrabel and MVP candidate Drake Maye, they look like a team that can make a deep run in the NFL playoffs, with a possible shot at making it back to the (gulp) Super Bowl.

...

Unfortunately, these games are played by real human beings with real problems, and New England’s Feel Good Express went off the rails in the final two days of 2025, with back-to-back news reports citing criminal complaints against Patriot players. Star receiver Stefon Diggs and defensive lineman Christian Barmore are the alleged offenders, and charges include felony strangulation (Diggs) and domestic violence (Barmore).

The Patriots, who have a lot of history regarding their players and criminal charges, reacted to the bad news the way they generally do: They said they were already aware of the episodes, stressed that these are only “allegations,” and pledged not to jump to any conclusions. Vrabel went so far as to say that the news was “not disappointing at all.”

My prediction - Diggs pays off his accuser and Barmore, who had a run-in with Providence, RI police last year, gets cut after the season.

It Will Stay Broken

Shank does a column on the current state of college sports:

NIL. Congress. Eligibility. Is the college sports system broken?

It’s a huge week for big-time college sports. We’ve got bowl games every hour, with a national championship at stake. Meanwhile, NCAA basketball repeat violator John Calipari (two Final Four appearances vacated) is delivering lectures about the evils of NIL and the transfer portal. Cal, who has coached for eight NCAA and NBA teams, is shocked, shocked, that college basketball players keep transferring.

The vaunted NCAA — overseer of the once-glorious Pac-10, Big Ten, and Big East — has yielded to a Wild West of “straight cash, homie” and regionally random, power conference monopolies. The system is irreparably broken, yet more popular than ever.

God bless to folks who still love it. I understand the lure of rooting for Old State U, “boola boola” and all that. If you live in a yahoo town with no real professional sports, it’s good to have a legacy college program in your midst. This explains football mania in Columbus, Ohio, State College, Pa., Athens, Ga., and Tuscaloosa, Ala. When March Madness takes hold, it’s the same deal in Lexington, Ky., and Spokane, Wash. All of America loves a nice little 16-seed beating a 1-seed and CBS’s shining moments can make grown men weep.

...

All of which brings me to recent conversations I had with a couple of former Ivy League basketball players: Harvard’s Charlie Baker and Dartmouth’s Peter Roby. They played against one another a half-century ago. Both are tall enough to eat candy off my head. Both graduated in 1979.

Most of you know Baker. He went on to become governor of Massachusetts for eight years, and today he serves as president of the NCAA, a lucrative ($3.15 million per year) yet thankless five-year gig that will take him halfway into 2028.

If you think Charlie Baker's going to fix anything, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to see you. Charlie Baker is the ultimate corporate yes-man who will never, ever rock the boat or come up with any innovative ideas that are his own.

Passing The Torch

... or hopping on the bandwagon?

After Drake Maye’s electric fourth quarter in Patriots comeback, consider the torch passed from Tom Brady

BALTIMORE — This was a Tom Brady/MVP moment for Drake Maye.

The young, upstart Patriots were staggering. They blew a 21-point lead to the Bills last weekend and were on the brink of a disastrous Sunday Night Football loss to a 7-7 Ravens team playing without two-time MVP Lamar Jackson.

The reeling Elvises trailed, 24-13, at the start of the fourth quarter. With five minutes left, they still trailed, 24-21, and were pinned on their own 11-yard line. It looked like they were going to lose a huge December road game to a six-year backup QB named Tyler (Don’t Call Me Chet) Huntley.

It was going to be total exposure. The Fools Gold Patriots would be colored as a nice team that beat the bag out of Tomato Cans all year, but fell short against playoff-tested teams from Buffalo and Baltimore when it mattered.

Then, Maye took over and had his Brady moment. Eighty-nine yards on nine plays in 2:55. Seven completions in eight attempts, all of them dimes. Finally, he handed off to Rhamondre Stevenson, who darted 21 yards to paydirt and history.

DHL Dan CCLXXXI - The Little Brother Column

Shank makes a few interesting comparisons in this week's Picked Up Pieces column:

Note to Boston front-office folks: Draft the player with many older siblings, and other thoughts

Picked up pieces while listening to Mitch Miller Christmas carols …

⋅ There’ll be a lot of pressure on Drake Maye in Baltimore on Sunday night. He’s coming back from a lukewarm game, 5-for-12 passing for 47 yards and a pick in the disastrous second half against the Bills, trying to get the Patriots back on the winning path and perhaps advancing his MVP candidacy. Oh, and he’ll be doing it on “Sunday Night Football” against a talented, desperate team that’s coming off a 24-0 victory.

Maye is still only 23, but I think he can handle it. Never doubt the guy who grew up playing with three talented older brothers.

Call it the “George Brett Syndrome.”

Brett, Kansas City’s Hall of Fame infielder, had three older brothers, one of whom (Ken) broke in with the Red Sox and pitched in the 1967 World Series less than a month after turning 19.

Baby brother George came to the bigs six years later and was never bothered by anything. He almost hit .400 one season (.390 in 1980), won a World Series in 1985, and cruised into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1999.

Same thing with a kid named Larry Joe Bird. Larry had two older brothers and came to Boston with confidence and attitude uncommon for a quiet rookie.

DHL Dan CCLXXX - Back To The Top?

Sorry, Buffalo - Shank thinks you were just filling in for the Patriots for the past few years:

Patriots can win the AFC East title against the team that’s been ‘filling in,’ the Bills, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for Patriots-Bills kickoff . . .

⋅ They are the Mike Vrabel-Drake Maye Patriots now, and Sunday at Gillette Stadium they have a chance to clinch their first AFC East championship.

Not so long ago — when we watched the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady Patriots, winning the division was something that happened here annually — like February Fenway Truck Day, the Pops on the Fourth, and Allston Christmas on Labor Day Weekend. From 2001-19, the Patriots won the AFC East 17 times in 19 seasons.

That all ended when Brady left. Belichick lost his way, and the Patriots wandered aimlessly across the NFL landscape. Five long years came and went with no division titles and no playoff victories.

Now it is the holiday season and we have this unexpected gift of the 2025 Patriots. A franchise that won four games in each of the last two seasons comes into this weekend with the best record in the NFL (tied with the Broncos), 10 straight victories, and a chance to win the AFC East Sunday.