By Ryan McGowan
When the lights went out for the last time in Dillon, American television got a little darker.
Ryan is a teacher, writer, journalist, basketball coach, sports aficionado, occasional real estate agent, and political junkie. He graduated from both the College of the Holy Cross (bachelor's) and Boston College (Master's), and knows anyone who has never heard of Holy Cross probably would never have gotten in there anyway. He is an unabashed Boston sports fan and homer who, according to lore, once picked the Patriots to win for 25 straight weeks on the "NFL Picks Show," which he co-hosts with Vin Diec, R.J. Warner, and Burton DeWitt. He is also an original co-host of SportsColumn's "Poor Man's PTI." He is married, lame, and a lifelong Massachusetts resident (except for a brief sojourn into the wilds of Raleigh, NC) who grew up in North Attleboro and currently lives and works in Everett.
By Ryan McGowan
When the lights went out for the last time in Dillon, American television got a little darker.
By Ryan McGowan
“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” –Obi-Wan Kenobi, Revenge of the Sith.
I hate when one of my teams makes a big trade. If only because I’m pretty much guaranteed to want to poke my ears out after a few days of listening to the reactions on sports radio, especially when said trade happens in the dog days of February when the only other option for discussion is whether the Red Sox will start Felix Doubront or Stolmy Pimental in the exhibition opener against the BC Eagles.
By Ryan McGowan
Bob Rafter was there at the beginning, and it wasn’t pretty.
“I was at the first preseason game with Elvis,” Rafter, 28, of Phoenix, but a Franklin (Mass.) native, said, referring to the current Patriots logo, which debuted in 1993 to replace the original “Pat Patriot”, the beloved icon that adorned the team’s helmets since the franchise’s first season as a charter member of the AFL in 1960. “There were literally planes flying overhead dismissing Elvis.”
Rafter is not alone in Patriots Nation in his nostalgia for the original red-dominant uniforms. Despite the franchise’s extended run of success since that ’93 season (which, not coincidentally, was the beginning of the Bill Parcells/Drew Bledsoe era), many fans clamor for a full-time return to the iconic jerseys of the team’s past.
Since the chance of jinxing the team’s success by switching uniforms at this point is pretty much moot, it needs to be said: the Patriots need to bring back the red jerseys and the Pat Patriot logo.
The AFC this year is quirky—so many teams, so few clear-cut favorites. There isn’t even a clear-cut worst team in the conference, as the Raiders shouldn’t be quite as horrid as past years. In fact, the conference title is wide open, pretty much for whichever team can conceal its flaws long enough to grab it.
Let’s get right to it.
[NOTE: Of course, everything in this column might be completely moot by 10:00 EDT tonight. The author reserves the right to say “I told you so” but also to backtrack 100% in case of something completely unforeseen.]
By Ryan McGowan
There’s only one word to describe tonight’s “The Decision”—embarrassing.
Freaking embarrassing.
By Ryan McGowan
The last three years were more than I ever would have hoped for on May 22, 2007, when I sat down at my old Brighton house on Newton Street to watch the NBA draft lottery.
At the time, we Celtics fans were hoping for the mathematical near-certainty of landing at least one of the top two picks, widely expected to be Ohio State center Greg Oden or Texas phenom Kevin Durant. When the ping-pong balls fell in the other direction, landing the Celtics at #5 and the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle SuperSonics at 1 and 2, the collective chests of Celtic Nation breathed a huge sigh of disappointment.
Another crappy year gone. Another hopeless offseason coming up. And certainly another year without a banner, 22 and counting since perhaps the greatest Celtic team ever ramrodded the Association for Banner #16 in 1986.
By Ryan McGowan
Dave Cowens, #18 himself, said it best on Friday night.
“Go out there on behalf of the NBA and Red Auerbach and all Celtics present and past,” he said, as he presented the Eastern Conference championship trophy to Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck, “and bring home No. 18.’’
By Ryan McGowan
It’s almost May, and the Bruins are still alive in the playoffs, so you know what that means—I’m a hockey fan again.
By Ryan McGowan
A local radio host (Andy Gresh of 98.5 the Sports Hub) got me thinking Sunday morning. Tom Brady, Gresh said, is Boston sports. With all due respect to Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Josh Beckett, and maybe Jason Varitek, when people think of sports in the Hub, #12 shows up in their minds as the physical incarnation of our fair city’s athletics.
But, like a lot of Patriots realists, Gresh is starting to see Brady’s career as kicking into the back nine and into irreversible decline. So, he opines, who will become “the” icon of Boston sports when Brady is gone later in this decade? And then, who is currently “the” icon of the other major sports cities of America? When you think of a city’s sports scene, who embodies that city? And who will be next?
By Ryan McGowan
February is the dark month in the sports calendar. The Super Bowl is over, baseball hasn’t started yet (unless you count “Truck Day”), the NBA is just going through the motions until the home stretch, and the NHL is shut down for two weeks. We didn’t even have the Pro Bowl this February to kick around. I don’t consider Daytona to be a sport. February is the sports equivalent of a six-month hookup dry spell which can only be cured by a visit from a certified slump buster.