DHL Dan CCLXXXVII - The Never Ending Feud

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank manages to get some more mileage out of Bill Belichick's recent Hall of Fame snub:

Bill Belichick’s reputation was actually helped by Hall snub, but his feud with Krafts will never end, and other thoughts

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Picked-up pieces on the trail from San Francisco to the Gulf Coast of Florida . . .

⋅ Bill Belichick had a strong two weeks after it was learned that he’d been dissed by voters for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When news of the ridiculous snub broke, Bill got a ton of support, even from longtime rivals and haters. Without making any comment, Belichick’s reputation was renewed and enhanced. It was the Hall that was embarrassed, not the coach. And folks in Canton, Ohio, will probably fix the voting process to make sure Belichick is enshrined in the summer of 2027.

The Patriots’ awful performance in Super Bowl LX was also good for the Hoodie. It was a reminder of how hard it is to win a championship. Lack of halftime adjustments made by Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels featured a sharp contrast to Belichick’s work with the Patriots in nine Super Bowls. The Pats lost three of those nine games, but were never blown out and could have gone 9-0. Bill somehow pulled out a game after trailing, 28-3. The 2025-26 Patriots, on the other hand, were almost historically bad in the Super Bowl — the first team in 51 years to go scoreless for the first three quarters — no threat to overcome a puny, 9-0 halftime deficit.

All in all, despite the Hall snub, Belichick quietly restored his image and reminded all that he’s one of the greatest coaches of all time.

I think people are inclined to forget the most recent things when evaluating a person's professional career. I don't think Belichick got any sort of boost from this, and this Hall of Fame rejection was little more than other folks in football delivering a righteous 'fuck you' to Belichick, who was a dick to pretty much everybody, and that might be soft pedaling things.

A Record Setting Patriots Team

No matter what happens in tonight's Super Bowl, Shank's here to remind us that the New England Patriots will be setting a record, win or lose:

The Patriots have been our region’s best local sports franchise this century, and it’s not even close

SAN FRANCISCO — When the 60th Super Bowl is over and confetti is sprinkled across Levi’s Stadium’s natural grass surface, the Patriots will have a new place in NFL history.

They will be the winningest team in the game’s archives, with Bob Kraft hoisting a seventh Lombardi Trophy toward the California sky . . .

. . . or they will be the losingest team in Super Bowl history, moving ahead (behind?) of the Broncos with a sixth defeat in the ultimate game.

The Patriots already hold an NFL record with 11 Super Bowl appearances. Sunday’s joust with the favored Seahawks gives New England four more Super Bowls than the Steelers, Cowboys, 49ers, and Broncos.

In the 21st century, the Patriots have been our region’s best local sports franchise, and it’s not even close.

The new millennium Red Sox have won four championships, the Celtics two, and the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in Vancouver in 2011. That’s seven trophies since 2004 compiled by the Sox, C’s, and B’s.

Thanks for the reminder, Shank!

No Respect?

Continuing in the 'sideshow' theme of his last column, Shank now plays the Rodney Dangerfield card:

Hall of Fame snubs, Tom Brady’s indifference: The Patriots are feeling plenty disrespected before the Super Bowl

SAN FRANCISCO — Game day is almost upon us and New England’s Disrespect Card gets heavier by the hour.

This is the Patriots’ 10th trip to the Super Bowl this century and by now we know the drill: Your Pats can’t be in a Super Bowl without equal helpings of “they hate us cuz they ain’t us” and “nobody thought we could do it.”

New England’s season presented as warm and fuzzy for four months, right through the AFC Championship game. Football America seemed freshly receptive to the fresh-faced Drake Maye-Mike Vrabel Patriots. Everybody loves a humble team short on star power. After five post-Brady seasons of finger-pointing and losing, the coming-out-of-nowhere Patriots were kind of lovable.

Frankly, it felt a little unnatural, traveling with a team that suddenly has fans across the land.

But events since snowy Denver have rekindled anti-Patriot themes that followed your favorite franchise during two dynasty decades at the beginning of this century. It started when we learned that Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft were snubbed in Pro Football Hall of Fame voting.

It's Always Something With These Guys

It looks like Shank's at the Super Bowl this week, so let's look at some past Patriots Super Bowls and the side themes:

Super Bowl week is seldom about the game when it involves the Patriots

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s always something with the Patriots during Super Bowl week.

Seriously. Can’t New England’s Flying Elvises just show up and play a football game? Can’t they be like every other Super Bowl team and inspire normal grid speak about cover-2, read-option, long snapping, and “contain?”

Nope. When the Patriots come to the Super Bowl, we get a big bowl of distraction. In a record 12 trips to the ultimate game, the Patriots have alternately made the Super Bowl about cocaine, a coach-owner squabble, spying, perfection, ideal gas laws, and revenge.

Now the Patriots are back with a lovable, underdog team that won only four games in each of the last two seasons. Drake Maye, New England’s ah-shucks quarterback, and his wife are America’s Sweethearts and there’s barely been any controversy on the path to Sunday’s game at Levi’s Stadium.

All of which makes it unfortunate that instead of Patriots-Seahawks, we’re talking about Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former longtime coach Bill Belichick both getting blocked from the Pro Football Hall of Fame . . . and Kraft’s name in the Epstein files . . . and MAGA Bob’s new bestie, the polarizing president of the United States.

DHL Dan CCLXXXVI - Lazy Narrative Established

Shank has the first of his Super Bowl columns out, and it covers some well trodden ground:

Patriots need to finish the job to avoid being called ‘lucky’ to get to the Super Bowl, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while still wondering if the Fortunate Sons of Mike Vrabel are truly great or just really lucky …

⋅ It’s a tired issue — ever a hot button — but won’t go away. New England is an underdog against Seattle in next Sunday’s Super Bowl, and if the Patriots are routed by the Seahawks (unlikely), this stuff will rear its head forever.

It happened once with our local football team. The 1985 Patriots came out of nowhere, ran the table on the road in the playoffs, winning at New York, Oakland, and Miami (gulp), then were destroyed in the Super Bowl by Mike Ditka and the Refrigerator Perry Bears, 46-10. Ouch.

Far be it from me to go all negative at a swell moment like this, but I’m a little worried as we head to Santa Clara, Calif., for Super Bowl week. The Patriots have been the real deal in these playoffs, and the Seahawks are not the ’85 Bears … but here’s hoping we don’t get a Boston belly flop at Levi Stadium next weekend.

If that happens, Patriot Haters Inc. and cynics (like me) no doubt will fall back on the lazy narrative that the 2025-26 Patriots were the product of good luck as much as anything.

I get the feeling the lucky label gets slapped on the Patriots, win or lose - they had a historically easy regular season schedule, few bad and serious long term injuries during the season to their own roster, then key and timely injuries to playoff opponent's players just before those games are played. Granted it's not the only factor involved (ace QB, solid coaching staff, ascendant defense, etc.), but the lucky factor is established fact by now.

Singing A Different Tune Now?

Shank's feigning outrage over Bill Belichick not making it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame:

What’s the point of the Pro Football Hall of Fame if Bill Belichick doesn’t get in on the first ballot?

Ridiculous.

Also petty, embarrassing, unprecedented, stupid, and preposterous.

In his first year of eligibility, Bill Belichick failed to get enough votes for induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

It’s a farce.

The election process is somewhat complicated. Belichick was rejected by a Hall panel of 50 voters comprised of veteran media members, plus a handful of Hall of Famers, including Bill Polian, Tony Dungy, Dan Fouts, and James Lofton. Belichick needed at least 40 votes to gain admission, but according to an ESPN report, the Hoodie came up short and was informed of the snub by the Hall last Friday.

According to ESPN, in response to the rejection, Belichick asked associates, “Six Super Bowls wasn’t

Among all NFL head coaches, dead or alive, Belichick ranks first in Super Bowl wins (six), conference championships (nine), and playoff wins (31). His 333 total wins places him second only to the late Don Shula, who won 347 for the Colts and Dolphins. As a head coach and assistant, Belichick coached 49 NFL seasons, winning eight Super Bowl rings — six with the Patriots and two as an assistant under Bill Parcells with the Giants.

Count me out as someone believing this new change of heart by Shank towards Belichick. Do any of you remenber this one (links go to the DSW column we wrote at the time; old Boston Globe links are 404'd now) from September 2015?

Let's review a few other positive Shaughnessy columns about Bill Belichick, shall we? We all remember last year's Kansas City Massacre, right?

By the end of the night, the darts and arrows were coming from every direction. Bill Belichick was grilled about his musical-chair offensive line and the notion of starting two rookies in front of Brady in a loud enemy theater. The coach was asked if he might have to “evaluate” his quarterback position; the question from CSNNE’s Mike Giardi elicited a smirk with no comment.

There were hysterical calls for out-of-work Charlie Weis to replace Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator. Darrelle Revis was compared to Carl Crawford (OK, that one was me). It was noted that no Belichick defense had ever surrendered 300 yards in a first half. There was a television graphic explaining that the Patriots offense ranks last in the NFL, averaging 4.6 yards per play. We were told that Brady has missed his target more than 25 percent of the time.

“I’ve never seen a team so unprepared,’’ former Patriot Rodney Harrison said on WEEI.

And who can forget the infamous '4th and 2' column?

This was as bad as anything the Red Sox ever did. Had it been a playoff game, it would be right up there with Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner, Aaron Boone, and History Derailed in Glendale, Ariz.

And Bill Belichick played the part of Grady Little.

...

Even the legions of zombies who say “In Bill We Trust’’ and the formidable pay-for-play Patriot media machine will have a hard time defending the brilliant coach on this one.

As we noted at the time, this is the column Shank has been waiting nearly a decade to write. He hates the Patriots (and Bill Belichick) so much, he wrote another column about that loss the next day.

The Patriots spin machine was in overdrive yesterday (speaking of spin, nice try by the Red Sox - raising ticket prices on the day after Belichick channeled Grady Little).

There are New England football fans who’d support Belichick if he pledged to eradicate indoor plumbing. And the Kraft family’s media partners do a nifty job spreading the gospel of Bob, Bill, and Tom. But the blind loyalty was put to the test on the day after the disaster at Lucas Oil Can Boyd Stadium.

And now Shank is singing Belichick's praises, probably from the wrong end of a gun. Who's buying this? We sure as hell aren't, and this insincerity will be amply demonstrated if the Patriots lose big this season.

You can read about Shank's columns with respect to Spygate here, but as these columns make clear, Shank was no friend of Bill Belichick when he was coaching the New England Patriots.

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.

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.

Prime Time

A few months ago Shank predicted seven wins for this year's New England Patriots. Currently sitting at eleven wins, his attitude towards the team has changed quite a bit:

Drake Maye, Mike Vrabel certainly have these Patriots ready for prime time

Back in prime time on “Monday Night Football,” the Patriots thrashed the New York Football Giants, 33-15, Monday at Gillette Stadium.

This means 10 straight wins for the 11-2 Pats — the best record in all of the NFL — and a legit shot at the top seed when the AFC playoffs begin next month.

“Players are coming in here each and every week and practicing and executing,” said first-year coach Mike Vrabel. “Ultimately, it’s on the players. We try to give them a plan they can execute. I’m proud of them and happy they can have some success.”

Extending Thanksgiving weekend an extra 24 hours, quarterback/MVP candidate Drake Maye (24 for 31, 282 yards, two touchdown passes) carved up the New York turkeys for another easy win against a pathetic NFL wannabe.

“Drake is ... realizing what he can be and the impact he makes on this offense,” said Vrabel. “We are very appreciative that he’s our quarterback.”

To some people, the Patriots have suddenly became a very good team. Then there's Shank:

The Patriots have a well-earned bye week. No game Sunday. The bad news is that the March of the Tomato Cans — easiest schedule in NFL history — is suspended for a couple of weeks. They will be legitimately tested twice in December, with a home game against the Bills on Dec. 14 followed by a rugged road trip to play the smashmouth Ravens in Baltimore.

DHL Dan CCLXXVIII - On To Cincinnati

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank looks at the New England Patriots' latest road game:

Even with the Patriots ‘on to Cincinnati’ again, there’s very little sports history between our cities, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while revisiting “We’re on to Cincinnati.”

⋅ It was 11 years ago. The Tom Brady Patriots had just been smoked by the Chiefs, 41-14, on “Monday Night Football” when ESPN’s Trent Dilfer buried the New England dynasty, telling America that the Patriots “aren’t good anymore!”

Bill Belichick didn’t want to talk about any of it in his postgame press conference and answered most questions with, “We’re on to Cincinnati.”

A week later, the Patriots welcomed the Bengals, spanked them, 43-17, and they wound up in the Super Bowl, where they beat the defending-champion Seahawks, 28-24, in the Malcolm Butler/Pete Carroll game. It was the start of a five-year run in which the Patriots went to four Super Bowls and won three.

That’s when “We’re on to Cincinnati” became a local sports rallying cry, alongside, “Beat LA,” “No days off!” and “Don’t let us win this game tonight!”

DHL Dan CCLXXVII - Bandwagon Hijacked?

I think Shank's coming around on the current New England Patriots team, yes?

Must-watch Patriots are proving each week to be an unexpected gift that keeps on giving, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while rolling my eyes when I hear that the Red Sox are “in on” every free agent …

⋅ It is mid-November and the 9-2 Patriots have the best record in football.

Let that sink in for a second.

A team that finished 4-13 in each of the last two seasons … a team with a 23-year-old quarterback … a team that was supposed to be in a rebuilding year … has the best record in all of football.

Six games remain. Five of those games are against teams with losing records. The other is against a team that the Patriots already beat this year — on the road.

So these Patriots might finish 13-4 or 14-3; sorry, not going for 15-2. They might get a first-round bye. They might go deep into the playoffs. They might (gulp) make it to the Super Bowl.

Where he'll not get another invite to the Patriots pre-game Super Bowl breakfast? Stay tuned!

DHL Dan CCLXXV - MVP! MVP!

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, is Shank a week or two away from jumping on the Drake Maye bandwagon?

NFL MVP Drake Maye? Probably not, but his candidacy is no joke, and other thoughts.

Picked-up pieces while remembering days when Notre Dame at Boston College was a big deal around here . . .

⋅ Drake Maye for MVP?

Patriots fans certainly believe. They love the Drake. They were chanting “MVP!” late in the third quarter of last Sunday’s rout of the Browns at Gillette. Days later, oddsmakers listed Maye as the third-leading candidate for MVP, trailing only two-time winner Patrick Mahomes and last year’s winner, Josh Allen.

Count me as one who doesn’t think it’s going to happen. It’s fun, and a far cry from this time last year, when Maye had three starts under his belt for a rudderless, 2-6 team bound for 4-13, and a head coach firing. The Patriots have had only one NFL MVP in their history: Tom Brady, who won the award in 2007, ’10, and ’17. Boston Patriots Gino Cappelletti and Jim Nance were AFL MVPs in 1964 and ’66, respectively.

The NFL MVP tends to be a quarterback. Peyton Manning is the league’s MVP king with five trophies, followed by Aaron Rodgers (four), and Johnny Unitas, Brett Favre, Jim Brown, and Brady, who won three each. Vikings tackle Alan Page (1971) and Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor (1986) are the only defensive players to cop the award since the Associated Press made it a regular thing in 1957.

If the Patriots keep on winning, Shank's singing a different tune in about a month.

DHL Dan CCLXXII - The Mike Vrabel Column

This week's Picked Up Pieces column focuses on first-year head coach of the Patriots Mike Vrabel:

The Patriots aren’t there quite yet, but they sure have the coaching part figured out with Mike Vrabel, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering when Bill Belichick can put UMass on the Tar Heels’ schedule to pick up a much-needed win . . .

⋅ We’re not going to get all Super Bowl silly on you. The Patriots have a lot of work to do and, realistically, are in no position to think any upcoming opponent is an easy win. New England is still a very young and flawed football team.

But the Patriots have the coach part figured out. They have Mike Vrabel.

Five games into this new regime, it’s pretty clear that Bob Kraft made a great move when he admitted Jerod Mayo was a mistake and switched to Vrabel at the end of Mayo’s single season as head coach in Foxborough.

It couldn’t have been easy. Kraft’s ego is bigger than Gillette’s new lighthouse, and he probably wanted to honor the commitment he made to Mayo and give the neophyte coach a second chance.

Taking shots at ownership - check!

The Other Type Of Shank Column

By now we're all familiar with one type of Dan Shaugnessy column - the ones where he's second guessing a team / coach / player and / or crapping on the team's ownership. Today we get the opposite type of column, the heads version of the coin. When a team's on a winning streak, their opponents all of a sudden turn into small aluminum things!

Maybe we shouldn’t be thinking playoffs for the Patriots just yet, but their softer-than-soft schedule says otherwise

The Patriots just enjoyed their best win in five years, are over .500 after five games for the first time since the Brady era, and we are seriously talking playoffs again.

Not a moment too soon. The Red Sox thrill ride has been over for a week, and with the Bruins/Celtics launching seasons of low expectations, the Patriots have come to our emotional rescue.

Sunday’s wildly entertaining 23-20 victory over the unbeaten, Super Bowl-favorite Bills at Highmark Stadium put Gillette back on the NFL map. After two straight 4-13 campaigns and five years of front office frostiness, draft day boobery, personal vendettas, and abject incompetence — patterns and pettiness that put the franchise on the road to irrelevance — the Patriots are a team on the rise.

The prudent thing, of course, is to pump the brakes and remind everybody that the 2025 Patriots couldn’t beat the awful Raiders, losing 20-13 in Foxborough Sept. 7. Two weeks later, they committed five turnovers in a ridiculous 21-14 home loss to the Steelers.

The lords of television buried the Patriots in the anonymous 1 p.m. Sunday slot for at least 13 weekends. And they did it for a reason; the Patriots were not expected to be interesting.

But thanks to Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye, they’re suddenly a must-watch. And thanks to the easiest schedule these eyes have ever seen, the Patriots are a threat to return to the postseason and possibly even contend for first place in the AFC East.

It’s all about the schedule, people.

Seriously. Not enough has been made of the clear path the Patriots have been handed.

Welcome to the March of the Tomato Cans, 2025.

THat's right - it's not because our team's good; it's because everyone else sucks!