Boston kids born in the twenty-first century take it for granted that, in the words of Mick Jagger at a Rolling Stones concert at Fenway Park in 2004, “Boston is a championship city.”
Those of us who’ve been around a little longer don’t take these things for granted. So an occasional reminder just before the start of another NFL season seems appropriate.
The German translator's English is not so good, but Patriots fans will cut him some slack. It is rare to be able to look inside Chancellor Goodell's NFL Bunker and see what really happens there after an exciting weekend of NFL football.
I went to Summer camp this morning, in Foxborough MA, with about 10,000 other New England Patriots fan(atic)s.
It was very hot, and free, and absolutely wonderful to see football back for another season.
And Tom Brady was already in his teammates' faces to push harder. He even chewed out a ball boy for getting in his way.
A WBZ-TV reporter interviewed me on camera about my expectations for the team during TB12's four-game regular season suspension.
"3-1" I replied. No hesitation.
It's on...
This time next month, it will be Patriots pre-season!
After the Primary debates ceased to be fun anymore and I suspended my political campaign, I've been getting more and more excited about the upcoming NFL season.
Outside of rooting for my fellow Penn State alum Christian Hackenberg to get drafted by a decent team tonight, I care as much about the NFL Draft as I do about fantasy football. Which is zero.
With the almost-certainty of Jimmy Garoppolo playing quarterback for the New England Patriots while Tom Brady serves his four game regular season suspension, I can't wait for the new season to start.
NFL training camps will open in about ninety days, just after the Republican convention in Cleveland. TB12 will only have played his first couple of regular season games and we will have a good idea of whether or not this will be the "Fuck You" season that Patriots fans had hoped for last year, one that ends with another Super Bowl victory.
And not long after Brady returns from his suspension, we will finally know whether the next President of the United States will be Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
As it was for me during the late 1960s, I am once again blessed to live in interesting times.
That's just what we do.
I believe that I have now cycled through each of the three stages of grief, following the New England Patriots' elimination from the NFL Playoffs by the Denver Broncos.
Tom Brady, after the Patriots were eliminated from the NFL Playoffs by Denver.
Yesterday sucked even worse than Sunday night. It was hard to find the spark to begin the day, or get out of bed. But life has a way of kicking your ass, and getting you moving. So I moved directly to caffeine and sports talk radio - the fellowship of the miserable in New England, the grief counsellors - and that helped.
Watching the game again helped, being able to see more clearly what Denver did to take away the plays and players Tom Brady most depends on. The Broncos defense played an outstanding game, and their Defensive Coordinator had the perfect scheme to take away our best players, through formations, blitzes, and match ups, and the Broncos defensive line played on a level well above our offensive line - so much so that our Offensive Line Coach was fired yesterday.
I'm back. On to next season.
Emptying the Brady-Manning photo files one last time, while waiting to see who goes to Super Bowl 50. I'm not sure we'll ever see another sustained rivalry between two such exceptional and competitive quarterbacks, so savor it today,
Dear God, please tell me that they're not really going to wear these...
