It’s been all downhill for Boston since Glendale
Four months ago Monday, the Patriots won the Super Bowl.
It seems like four score and seven years ago.
Boston has been in a sports free-fall ever since, with the Red Sox, Deflategate, a tarnished Olympic bid awash in rancor, and a Garden spring that never bloomed, all adding to gravity’s pull.
The NBA and Stanley Cup Finals begin this week featuring teams from Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Chicago, and Oakland. Think about this fact, kids. If the Tampa Bay Lighting win the Stanley Cup, they will have twice as many NHL titles as the Bruins since 1973. The just-plain-bad Bruins missed the playoffs, fired their general manager, and have left their coach limping like a wounded rhinoceros waiting for the fatal poison dart. It’s hard to remember your Celtics briefly participated in the post-season before serving as a four-game speed bump for LeBron James and the Cavaliers on their rampage the finals.
Sunday’s Red Sox calamity in Arlington is hopefully some sort of crash spot, a place where everything stops going awry and the metaphorical recovery begins.
Clay Buchholz was supposed to be pitching Monday night at Fenway Park for the 22-29 Red Sox. But the game was postponed due to rain and Mother Nature’s mercy.
The last-place Red Sox are only four games out of first. That is the best thing that can be said about their plight. May was full of maydays as Boston went 10-19. In 2012, the second wild card was the opiate of the masses. This year, it’s the woeful AL East. The craptacular state of the division will mean the Red Sox should never be more than a week out of first.
Sunday’s excruciating defeat in Texas had it all. Sloppy fielding, 10 men left on base, a blown save, crucial errors, questionable managerial decisions, and a walk-off loss.
These are your father’s Red Sox once again.
The Red Sox are tremendously mediocre. They’ve excelled in underachievement and inconsistency. The team went 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position Sunday. No one in the starting lineup is hitting over .290.
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Meanwhile, Boston’s 2024 Olympic bid is mired in controversy, rancor, and distrust. Last week, Boston Magazine and Boston Business Journal released the 2024 Bid Book thanks to a freedom of information request. Turns out all those claims of not using public money were premature and optimistic. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and other supporters say bringing the Olympics to the city is necessary to help fix potholes, failing bridges, and the MBTA.
That’s like replacing the toilet every time you need to flush.
This disclosure of public money being needed after we were told it wasn’t going to be needed occurred while the Boston 2024 honchos were meeting behind closed doors with IOC officials at their headquarters in Switzerland. If those optics don’t trouble you, you must have a brother-in-law lined up to get one of those cushy consulting jobs or construction contracts.
The potential for cost-overruns, corruption, and patronage for any Olympic Games in Boston is historic. This boondoggle is a Hollywood script waiting to be produced. Think Big Dig meets NFL, with Sepp Blatter in charge of it all.
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The Patriots offseason began with the annual dispatch of key veteran players who want market value for their services, including Darrelle Revis, Vince Wilfork, and Shane Vereen.
No surprise there.
Then Deflategate went from a punch-line to a kick in the groin.
Robert Kraft once stood with all the resolve of Don Corleone in demanding an apology from Roger Goodell. He ended up going full Fredo on the Patriots and their fan base by capitulating to the NFL in the name of “rhetoric.’’
You broke our heart, Robert. You broke our heart.
That Kraft put his personal legacy, his wallet, and his stature among his fellow NFL owners ahead of his quarterback’s interests, or the wishes of millions of customers who have turned his football team into a financial powerhouse should not have surprised anyone.
Remember Kraft in 1998 used the state of Connecticut as a human shield to get the State of Massachusetts to kick in $70 million in infrastructure improvements in Foxborough, NFL loan guarantees, and commitments from the Boston-area business community for luxury suites. His latest plan for a soccer stadium in Boston calls for the city to build it and then finance the deal through a tax on tickets.
Here’s a suggestion, Bob. If you want a soccer stadium for your MLS team, dust off your wallet, write a check, and pay for it yourself. That’s what the billionaire owner of the MLS franchise did in Orlando when the Florida state legislature held up $30 million in promised money. He decided to fund the entire $115 million project himself and reimburse the city of its infrastructure costs. This way, the team keeps every dime the stadium generates. And the taxpayers spend nothing.
When it comes to personnel decisions and salary cap management, the The Patriot Way is usually given the earned benefit of the doubt. But when it comes to the Cult of Tom Brady, the Patriot Way has met its match throughout New England.
And the Cult is kicking ass.
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Whatever “innocence’’ existed between this Patriots ownership and the core of the team’s fanbase was violated the day Kraft waived the white flag. Intellectually, the move made sense. Emotionally and otherwise, it was unconscionable.
Kraft’s greatest miscalculation was in believing his paying customers give a damn about anything but seeing their team win. They care nothing about camaraderie between owner and commissioner. Or the unity behind the shield. No one has ever bought their kid a No. 12 Kraft Patriots jersey.
That so much damage has been done to the Patriots’ brand both inside and outside New England in the past 120 days in astounding.
The name “Brady’’ has become a four-letter word to so many west of Lee and south of Waterbury. Millions have been baptized by envy and self-righteousness in their anti-Brady zeal. They’ve gleefully discounted nearly every Patriots scoring play since Mo Lewis’ hit on Drew Bledsoe’s back in 2001 as needing an asterisk. New England’s next Super Bowl victory may or may not hinge on whether or Tom Brady’s attorneys and the NFLPA can thread the needle in federal court.
One thing is certain. Unless David Ortiz, Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez start hitting their respective weights with runners in scoring positions, this summer’s biggest dramas will take place away from the field.
Danny Ainge is in the Big Green Bunker trying to concoct a plan to escape the clutches of ordinary. Does he have a plan to make a splash on draft day? Will there be another “Summer of Love’’ in Boston.
Perhaps Claude Julien should hide out with Tim Thomas so he doesn’t have to answer his phone in case Don Sweeney is calling with bad news.
It is, however, the fate of Brady and the fireworks surrounding his June 23rd appear that have captured our collective hearts and minds.
The biggest game of the summer in New England will be seeing how many games Brady ends up missing in the fall.
If that answer ends up being zero, it may feel like time for another Duck Boat parade.
2015 Patriots schedule
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