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.

DHL Dan CCLXXIX - Goodbye, Matthews Arena

Shank pays homage to a place that's steeped in local history:

It’s the end of an era for Matthews Arena (formerly Boston Arena), and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the wrecking ball at the old Boston Arena …

⋅ Northeastern University’s Matthews Arena, the ancient sports palace formerly known as Boston Arena, is a humble building in a humble neighborhood. It’s a multipurpose athletics hall that for 115 years has been home to events featuring magic and star power on par with Fenway Park, both Boston Gardens, and the long list of gridirons that have housed your Patriots since their creation.

Sadly, it’s time to say goodbye to this bastion of New England entertainment that first opened its doors on St. Botolph Street in April 1910. The curtain falls for good Dec. 13, when the Northeastern men’s hockey team hosts Boston University at 7 p.m.

From the jump, the old Arena was a place for big names, often folks with three names: James Michael Curley, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover, and Jerry Lee Lewis all spoke/performed at the Arena. George Herman Ruth, a Red Sox pitcher and slugger of some renown, played pickup hockey games there during his baseball offseasons, circa 1914-18.

Ruth wasn’t the only champion hanging around St. Botolph Street in those early days. Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, and Joe Louis sat ringside for Arena prize fights, and Olympic skating champion Sonja Henie performed at an ice show in 1930. Later in the 20th century, the Rev. Billy Graham spoke at the Arena, as did General Dwight David Eisenhower.

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 CCLXXVI - Forgiven?

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank wonders if certain (i.e., juiced) baseball players will make it into the Hall of Fame this time around:

Sports seem to be in an all-forgiving mood. Is the Baseball Hall of Fame next? And other thoughts.

Picked-up pieces while wondering if folks at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will take action if HOFer Chauncey Billups goes to prison for his alleged role in a gambling and money laundering scheme.

Probably not. O.J. Simpson was never kicked out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. As far as I can tell, Alan Eagleson is the only person expunged from any of our four major sports Halls of Fame. Bobby Orr’s corrupt agent resigned from the Hockey Hall in 1998, shortly before the Hall’s board was set to expel him.

What about baseball, you ask?

At this hour, baseball seems to be all about forgiveness.

Look no further than the Fenway Park dugout. Alex Cora is one of the great managers in Red Sox history and his unfortunate role in the 2017 Astros’ cheating scandal seems to have gone away. MLB suspended Cora (a bench coach then with the Astros) and Houston manager A.J. Hinch for a year, but both are back in the dugout with playoff teams and nobody really brings it up anymore.

Swell.

So, how are we going to feel if next summer in Cooperstown we’ve got Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and Carlos Beltrán on stage holding Hall of Fame plaques?

I'm not sure myself, but a connection, albeit a strong one, is not a determination by some governing body or a conviction in court. Should it still bar these guys from HOF consideration? It'll come down to the 'ol character clause and how stongly it's employed.

Instant Classic

Shank wraps up last week's World Series matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays; Games 6 and 7 were the best games I can remember in a long time:

Dodgers-Blue Jays World Series Game 7 was one for the ages, as well as one for all ages

It’s been several days and some of us are still talking about the seventh game of the World Series that unfolded late Saturday in Toronto.

In the ninth inning alone we saw Miguel Rojas’s (zero hits in a full month, 57 home runs in 12 seasons) unlikely homer . . . Toronto pinch runner Isiah Kiner-Falefa called out as he slid across home plate when he should have run straight up . . . Andy Pages making a Series-saving catch seconds after being inserted for defense. And there was so much more.

When baseball is played well in high-stakes games, it provides indelible moments frozen in time, easily summoned decades later.

Even though the 1975 Series was a half-century ago, Baby Boom New Englanders still carry on as if the thing ended last weekend. And why not? That epic had Looie’s shutout, Armbrister’s bunt, Fisk’s homer, Dewey’s catch . . . oh, and what do you think would have happened if Darrell Johnson hadn’t pinch hit for Jim Willoughby in the bottom of the eighth of Game 7?

Make the column about Boston - that's our Shank!

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 CCLXXIV - Driving Ms. Russell

This looks like an interesting column:

Bill Russell’s daughter had never met Bob Cousy. Until now.

WORCESTER — It’s Sunday morning in mid-October and Worcester is looking unusually colorful and picturesque.

I am driving Karen Kenyatta Russell to Bob Cousy’s home because we’re new social media friends, and she texted that she was going to be in town for the Celtics’ season opener, mentioning, “I am going to try to see Mr. Cousy.”

So, I am driving Ms. Russell to meet Mr. Cousy.

Russell and Cousy are New England sports royalty. Bill Russell and Bob Cousy were pillars of the greatest dynasty in American professional sports, built by Red Auerbach.

Karen Russell is the 63-year-old daughter of Bill Russell, who died three years ago at the age of 88, 53 years after winning his 11th championship in his 13th and final season with the Boston Celtics.

Bob Cousy is the 97-year-old last survivor of the first Celtics championship, won in 1956-57, which happens to be the year Russell brought his talents to Boston.

Cousy and Russell are NBA Hall of Famers, NBA MVPs (Russell five times!), Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients, have their own statues, and won six championships together before Cousy retired in 1963, one year after Karen Russell was born.

DHL Dan CCLXXIII - Looking Back

With the Boston Red Sox no longer in the playoffs, Shank looks back a half century:

Why are we still looking back at the 1975 World Series 50 years later? Because it’s who we are, and other thoughts.

Picked-up pieces while blissfully remembering what life was like when the World Series was here 50 years ago this weekend . . .

⋅ A half-century later, the October 1975 and 2025 calendars align perfectly.

Game 4 in Cincinnati was Wednesday, Oct. 15. That’s when Luis Tiant whirled and twirled for 163 pitches and went the distance in a 5-4 series-squaring victory. The Reds’ Game 5 win was Thursday, Oct. 16. Then everybody flew back to Boston for Game 6 on Saturday.

In October 1975, Kevin Paul Dupont and I were 22 years old, covering high school football for the Globe for the princely sum of $35 per game. Through the kindness of veteran Associated Press sports editor Dave O’Hara, we also were quote-runners at Red Sox games at Fenway Park ($7 per game), which is how we happened to be at the Park Plaza for the food-and-booze World Series hospitality feast on Friday, Oct. 17, the eve of Game 6 — originally scheduled as Bill Lee vs. Jack Billingham. There was a threat of rain all weekend.

While inhaling our free Lobster Newburg, we learned that the Globe was looking for Peter Gammons’s World Series notebook. Nobody on Morrissey Boulevard could find Gammons and we were tasked with cobbling together some notes for the next morning’s paper.

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!