Kick Start

After yesterday's thrilling 33-27 win at Miami, Shank wonders if that game's the start of something good for the New England Patriots:

Mike Vrabel’s Patriots may have started a return to good fortunes at, of all places, the Hard Luck at Hard Rock Stadium

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Years from now, maybe this will be where it all began.

Maybe the Patriots will be good again and folks will point to a hot and humid Sunday when they finally threw off the Hard Luck at Hard Rock Stadium, refused to fold, and got a few breaks in a 33-27 road win vs. the Dolphins.

The lasting video clip will be the one of Mike Vrabel attempting to run stride for stride with 27-year-old burner Antonio Gibson while the kick returner was winning the game with a 90-yard dash to daylight, seconds after the Pats had allowed a 74-yard punt return which had all of Patriot Nation moaning, “Here we go, again.”

“We had just given up the punt return, but then Gibby answered,” said Vrabel, who no doubt submitted his best 40-time since he was a rookie linebacker for the Steelers in 1997. “I felt like we were willing to get into a street fight. We had a little lull, but we didn’t pack it up and quit.”

Street fight indeed. At times this looked like two teetering drunks trying to slug it out in the Seaport after last call. Vrabel’s first win as Patriots head coach was a sloppy 60 minutes between two NFL wannabes, but it was wildly entertaining.

DHL Dan CCLXVIII - Fair Or Unfair

Seeing this is a column from Shank, I'll go with unfair:

Fair or unfair, the pressure is quickly mounting on Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces en route to a “big game” for the Patriots in Miami . . .

⋅ Fair or unfair, it feels like every Patriots game now is a referendum on second-year quarterback Drake Maye.

Love the Drake? Hate the Drake?

Drake is the next Drew Bledsoe. Swell.

Drake is the next Mac Jones. Boo.

Maye just turned 23. He has played only 14 NFL games, starting 13. Only once has he won a game in which he started and finished (19-3, at Chicago in November).

He is earnest, athletic, has three older brothers who are all athletes, and was anointed our franchise quarterback when the Patriots made him the third pick of the 2024 NFL Draft.

We know we have to be patient with any young NFL quarterback not named Tom Brady. We remember Bledsoe losing eight of his first nine games in 1993, then finishing his rookie season with four straight wins and taking the Patriots to the playoffs (a 20-13 loss to Bill Belichick’s Browns) in his second. Two years later, Bledsoe had the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

So Predictable!

Yesterday, I mentioned it would take Shank a few losses by the New England Patriots for him to start ripping the team. Boy, was I wrong!

Patriots’ opener was supposed to supply some answers but instead left questions about Drake Maye

FOXBOROUGH — Can we blame this on Bill Belichick, too?

Pete Carroll and the Las Vegas Raiders beat the Patriots, 20-13, Sunday, in New England’s much-anticipated season opener at Gillette.

It rained all afternoon. Top draft pick Will Campbell got beat on a couple of bull rushes and committed a crushing pre-snap penalty late in the fourth. Mike Vrabel’s decision to punt from near midfield, down by 10 with 4:53 left, was right out of the Joe Judge-Matt Patricia playbook. New England generated virtually zero offense in the second half.

Oh, and after the Pats took a 10-7 halftime lead, second-year quarterback Drake Maye threw an interception that tipped everything in the Raiders’ favor early in the second half.

Let’s blame the Hoodie. Relations between the Krafts and the Belichicks are at an all-time low, and blaming Bill for everything always will be easier than swallowing the notion that this might be another long, sad football autumn in New England.

Next week's game against the Miami Dolphins (where they've tended to lose in recent history) will be a barometer for more Patriots bashing by Shank, who doesn't mind doubling his weekly column output if he can continue to take a proxy dump on Robert Kraft.

DHL Dan CCLXVII - Anticipation

In Friday's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank talks up the New England Patriots after a few years in the wilderness:

There probably hasn’t been this much anticipation for a Patriots game since Tom Brady left, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while noting that Tommy Cutlets wears the No. 16 for the Patriots once worn by Scott Zolak . . .

⋅ The NFL season is finally here and New England waits breathlessly for the beginning of the Mike Vrabel era, when the Patriots and Raiders kick off at 1 p.m. Sunday at Gillette.

Patriots Nation is agog. There probably hasn’t been this much anticipation since Tom Brady prepped for what would end up being his final Patriots game: a 20-13 playoff loss to Vrabel’s Titans in January 2020.

A lot of stuff has happened to the Patriots since that day. Most of it bad.

Brady bolted for Tampa in the middle of the pandemic and Patriots Nation subsequently endured a chorus line of QB castaways, wannabes, and never weres: Cam Newton, Mac Jones, Jarrett Stidham, Brian Hoyer, Bailey Zappe, Jacoby Brissett, and Joe Milton.

...

Those were the good old days . . . when the Patriots ruled the football world . . . when Wiggy would say, “They hate us cuz they ain’t us!"

It was great then. It could be great again. And Patriots Nation believes it’ll start this weekend against the Raiders at Gillette.

It's subtle, but still there - set up the team with high expectations so he can rip them down the road when they lose a few games.

The Class of 2029

Shank welcomes the college students who are new to Boston:

New to town, college students? Here’s a few suggestions to assure you’re getting the full Boston sports experience.

Welcome to Boston, college class of 2029. Most of you are scheduled to be here for the next four years and some of you might stick around considerably longer. Maybe forever.

The last week, we’ve seen your out-of-state license plates on the Mass. Pike and Storrow Drive: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Michigan. Hope you’re comfy in your new digs and enjoying the stimulus and fast-paced living of our cities and suburbs. Keep your heads up and ears open.

Warning: There’s a chance you’re going to become a Boston sports fan. Don’t be surprised if you adopt the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins while you’re studying and playing in your college homestead.

It happens all the time. Out-of-towners live the Fenway, Gillette, and Garden experience and carry it into adulthood. We see (and hear) them when the Sox, Pats, C’s, and B’s play in Baltimore, Charlotte, Tampa, and Texas. Boston teams are supported at venues across America and much of it comes from folks who fell in love when they lived and studied here from the ages of 18-22.

DHL Dan CCLXVI - Shots Fired

In this weeks picked Up Pieces column, Shank looks at the bad blood between Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick:

The Robert Kraft-Bill Belichick divorce is as messy as any in our local sports scene, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for Bill Belichick’s NCAA debut on Labor Day evening . . .

⋅ The NFL doesn’t start until the Cowboys play the Eagles on Thursday in Philly. Meanwhile, there’s a holiday weekend college football smorgasbord, capped with ESPN’s Monday night showcase: TCU at North Carolina — Belichick’s first game on the sideline since a 17-3 loss to the Jets at Gillette Stadium on Jan. 7, 2024.

It often ends badly with star coaches and athletes around here. Remember Roger Clemens vs. Dan Duquette? Rick Pitino vs. The Fellowship of the Miserable? Terry Francona vs. Chicken and Beer? Rafael Devers vs. Red Sox leadership?

Belichick vs. Bob Kraft ranks high on our list of local sports’ harsh divorces.

A few days after Belichick’s final Foxborough moment, we got the phony photo-op with the owner putting his arm around Bill and claiming their breakup was “mutual.” Belichick played along, calling his firing “a day of gratitude and celebration.”

That was the end of the Kraft-Belichick decorum. Since then it’s been a series of heat-seeking salvos launched across multiple platforms — a full-fury-fusillade worthy of Gavin Newsom vs. Donald Trump, Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar, and/or Schilling vs. Shaughnessy.

DHL Dan CCLXV - Milking It

In last week's Picked Up Pieces column (sorry!), Shank looks at the ways sports teams try and Hoover even more money from the fan base:

Who knows, the real Boston sports media experience may soon be for sale, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering why the head of the Tom Brady statue is so small . . .

⋅ How much would you pay to hang out with real sports reporters after a Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins or Celtics game?

Maybe we’ll soon find out. Boston’s teams seem to be missing out on a great opportunity for a new revenue stream.

This came to my attention this past week when the Associated Press reported that the Oklahoma Sooners football program is selling a “fan experience package” that includes access to postgame media interviews. For a mere $692.11, two Sooner fans can hang with handsome media types and observe Nixonian-level stonewalling as reporters try to uncover secrets of Cover-2 defenses and lower-body injuries.

Yikes. Hard to believe it’s come to this, but in the new world order of transfer portals and NIL money, big-time college programs are looking for new ways to generate cash.

Selling “Sooner Magic Memories,” Oklahoma’s ad reads, “Get exclusive postgame media access for you and one guest and see where real-time reactions unfold. Hear OU coaches and players address reporters moments after the final whistle.”

An idea so asinine, I hope it fails miserably.

DHL Dan CCLXIV - Happy Birthday, Cooz!

In this week's Picked Up Pieces, column, Shank celebrates Bob Cousy's 97th birthday:

Celtics legend Bob Cousy talks turning 97, the Green without Jayson Tatum, Caitlin Clark and the WNBA, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if I can see downtown Providence if I stand on the head of Tom Brady’s statue at Gillette . . .

⋅ Bob Cousy turned 97 Saturday.

That doesn’t stop him from hanging out with his longtime friends for dinner, cocktails, and conversation every Thursday night in Worcester.

“We’ve been doing it for over 30 years,” says Cousy. “We solve all the problems of the world. And I’m not even the oldest member. Two weeks ago, we had a cake for my accountant, who’s two weeks older than I am.”

Cooz’s Thursday ritual includes a shrimp cocktail, a cup of chowder, and a couple of Beefeaters on the rocks with a twist.

“Occasionally, I’ll stray and have a third, but my daughter, Ticia, she keeps an eye on me from the next table.”

Musings From Cooperstown

Earlier this week Shank took a trip to upstate New York:

Baseball’s split from its past feels more severe than previous shifts, and more observations from Cooperstown

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Old people think things were better in the old days. Young people like the way things are. It’s the natural order of life.

The Baseball Hall of Fame’s Induction Weekend brought this point home as I prowled the inner sanctum of the Hall’s plaque gallery, plus the ancient Otesaga Hotel where Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson were enshrined as the first Hall class in 1936.

Bet those hardball legends had quarrels with the way the game was being played at the time. Crusty old-timers always insist things were better in their day. Nap Lajoie probably told Ruth and Co. that the game was better in the 19th century, when men were men.

All that said, the current version of this universal push-pull is truly different. In the summer of 2025, baseball is largely unrecognizable to old-time greats and, even worse, today’s Hall of Famers increasingly feel estranged from the people who run the game. Analytics and new methods of teaching have removed the endearing layer of tutelage that’s always connected the sport.

DHL Dan CCLXIII - Standing Pat

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank's all over the Red Sox for doing jack shit at the trading deadline:

The Red Sox’ trade deadline inaction speaks louder than words, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while watching the Red Sox tread water at the trade deadline again . . .

⋅ The Sox treat loyal fans like chumps. They take them for granted. They continue to gaslight Red Sox Nation, making pledges about playing meaningful games in September and October, but deep down they value payroll flexibility and controllable contracts over winning the World Series.

This is the way it’s been since 2018, and nothing changed Thursday when the Sox had a chance to go all-in to support an interesting and exciting team that has put itself in position to make a serious playoff run.

Fans make an emotional investment in this team, but management doesn’t reciprocate. It’s been this way for 6½ seasons and it could not be more obvious. Actions speak louder than words. The Sox talk full throttle, then remain stalled in neutral.

Apologists and folks who’ve stopped paying attention cite “four World Series in this century,” enabling Boston ownership to perpetuate this farce.