As I sit down to write this, it’s been exactly a week since terrorists detonated two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. As somebody who’s been writing a Boston sports blog for a long time now, I felt compelled to weigh in with my take on this story. Given the sensitive nature of the subject matter, I decided to wait a little while before publishing my thoughts – I didn’t want to write anything overly political or have my fresh-from-the-gut emotions spill onto the page without careful consideration.

In lieu of all the events of this past week, I’m happy I waited. Suspect #2, whose name is not worth printing, was finally captured – everyone could not be more relieved about that. While the investigation is ongoing, for the residents of Boston and the neighboring communities, there’s no doubt a chapter of sorts was closed when Suspect #2 was pulled from the boat without harming anyone further.

As far as my own experience last week goes, I took Marathon Monday off from work to head down to the race (something I’ve done each of the last three years). When the attacks occurred I was at Rattlesnake Bar and Grill, which is on Boylston street a few hundred yards from where the bombs went off. I had walked directly through the corridor where the bombs exploded just an hour or so prior. I was in the bathroom when the explosions actually occurred, and I did not hear them. We were asked to stay at the bar, so despite my proximity to the attack I did not see the carnage or aftermath that everyone watching on TV saw. The sounds of ambulance sirens and helicopter traffic soon washed over me, but for someone who was so close I could not have been farther away. Eventually we were led through the kitchen and out the back entrance of the bar, and were told to get out of the area promptly. With public transportation shut down I walked to Boston Common and eventually found a cab home.

That wasn’t the end of my close (only in proximity) encounters with this event. On Thursday night I was riding the subway (we call it the “T” here in Boston) home when we paused for a bit at Kendall Station, which sits directly below MIT. I was sitting underground, with just a few stories of concrete separating me from the terrorists as they killed the MIT officer who was responding to the scene. As we now know, the terrorists would eventually take off from the area, leading police on wild chase while engaging them in a firefight and hurling explosives out the window. Again, I had no idea of the mayhem happening in my immediate vicinity when it was occurring.

On Friday, work was canceled and I spent the day, like everybody else, largely locked inside watching the news as law enforcement officials worked furiously to capture Suspect #2.

There’s no doubt that last week was the craziest week I’ve has while a resident of Boston. Following Suspect #2′s capture on Friday evening, the atmosphere in the bars throughout Boston resembled a championship celebration for one of the city’s sports teams. Chants of “USA, USA!” lingered throughout the night. But as I walked a couple of blocks home that night, down very safe streets, I couldn’t help but notice that something felt different. The streets that have long been so familiar to me, part of my everyday routine, just didn’t feel as safe as they once had.

It seems clear to me that the older brother became a follower of radical Islamic beliefs in the past few years while living in the US. I hate to speculate, but I’d be shocked if his trip home in late 2012 didn’t include some sort of meeting or training with other followers of similar beliefs. He then imposed his views and will on his younger brother, who it sounds like was a much more “normal” kid of just 17 or 18 at the time. When you’re that age a 26-year-old brother’s influence, I imagine, can be quite substantial.

Whatever the beliefs are that led to this attack, and whether you believe them or not, the attack was cowardly. I don’t care if you pray to Allah or your pet rock, killing innocent bystanders is never admirable in the eyes of any person, group, or entity capable of rational thought. But I do think that American’s need to be  less naive with regards to where this anger may all stem from. There are countless countries, sects, and groups of people who lived much more suppressed lives with much less freedom than we are afforded in the US.

The US military is engaged in countless countries throughout the world at this very moment. Whether we’re there to take down the Taliban, stop genocide, or play peacemaker in some capacity – really regardless of why we’re there – to the people of those countries not directly involved in the conflict our presence can be terrifying. They are looking outside their windows and seeing army men with automatic weapons walking by. When we miss a strategic target (and we do) we are killing innocent bystanders. While we can (and do) rationalize our involvement, the reality is that we’ve often brought terror to innocent people in those areas. It’s not “terrorism,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not terrifying. And while Boston got a taste of what that feels like this past week, there are places throughout the world that deal with similar (and much worse) incidents on a nearly daily basis.

There’s no doubt that Boston’s reaction to this tragedy was incredibly heroic, coordinated, and impressive. Barack Obama, Jon Daily, and Steven Colbert all shared some pretty spectacular sentiments about Boston this past week, sentiments that definitely were heard and appreciated by the city’s residents. Trust me everyone – I’m already starting to get annoyed with the “Boston Strong!” slogan just as you are. And yes, I think that the residents of any major US city would have responded just as heroically as the people of Boston did.

All of that said, there is something unique about this city and its residents. You all know our city’s loyalty to our sports teams, and we have been something of a different bread from the get-go. We did up and move to this place (America) in the first place. We did throw a bunch of English tea into our Harbor, and we did fight the American Revolution. It certainly has something to do with the size of this city, but there’s just a sense of community in Boston that I’ve never found in another city and know that I never will.

I’m leaving Boston to move to San Diego in a month, and it didn’t hit me how much I’ll miss this place until very recently. All the things that have long pissed me off about Boston I’m now looking at with a sense of nostalgia. And all of the great aspects of the city remain. I’ll always be happy to return.

So a note to all those TITs out there (terrorists in training) – “this is our fucking city” – David Ortiz said it best. And if you fuck with us, then you’re fucking with all of us. That goes for Boston, that goes for America, and that should go for everybody who realizes the cowardice of people who turn to terrorism in an attempt to make their own voice or rational heard.

In the past few years golf’s major tournaments, and the Masters in particular, have grown exponentially in popularity amongst the population of sports gambling aficionados. US Masters odds are now a big deal, and Masters pools frequently ride the gambling wake left by March Madness – especially with those of us who won our bracket and have money to burn, or those of us who lost their shirt and are in search of some redemption.

So who is my pick? With all the hype surround Rory and Tiger’s recent return to form, I’m going with Phil Mickelson. This is Phil’s favorite tournament, and I for one am buying into his use of Callaway’s new “Phrakenwood.” This club is shorter than the standard for today’s modern drivers at 44.5 inches in length, yet contains a driver shaft. It also boasts a head similar in size and technology to a three wood, although it has 9 degrees of loft. It’s essentially a slightly shorter, smaller headed driver – or something of a 2-wood in Michelson’s hands. This should help Phil work the ball with ease, and generally keep the ball in play.

My thinking is simple – if Phil has a great week off the tee, he’s going to be very tough to beat. Just one man’s opinion.

If you want in on the action, Paddy Power golf betting is just one destination where you can hedge your bets. Go Phil!

By Hannah Miller, howiGit Contributing Writer, Boston, MA

With the 2013 season underway, the Boston Red Sox are all about putting a dreadful 2012 campaign behind them. They started things off the right way with a strong showing against their rivals in New York, but looking at the big picture, what should people expect out of Beantown?

On paper, the American League East looks to be arguably the best division in baseball. Baltimore is coming off a great season, while Tampa Bay has been a thorn in the sides of the Red Sox and Yankees for the last few seasons. Even the Blue Jays have added so much talent that they believe they will be in the hunt for the title at the end of the season. As for the Yankees, well, they are the Yankees. They will always at least contend.

That puts Boston in a unique situation. They are a mix of talented players and up and coming prospects trying to put together enough wins to stay in contention by the end of the summer. Veterans, and solid fantasy baseball picks, such as Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli and David Ortiz (when healthy) should give Boston solid run production. It also allows them to ease in some of their younger players, instead of simply blowing everything up and going young across the board.

Pitching seems to be more of a concern, mainly because of the struggles their starters have had in the past. The rotation of Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Ryan Dempster, Felix Doubront and John Lackey is not really striking a lot of fear in lineups around baseball. Considering their #1 and #2 starters both had ERAs north of 4.50 a season ago, they lack one true ace to turn the ball over to.

Getting off to a strong start and staying in contention is the key for Boston in 2013. If they stumble throughout April and May, expect more changes as they attempt to get younger and pick up young assets. They have veterans teams will target, but fans will obviously want to keep them in Beantown. They should finish with more wins than a year ago, but it won’t be enough to survive the American League East.

As a lifelong Red Sox fan, David Halberstam’s The Teammates was an interesting read. In a nutshell, it tells the story of Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, and Dominic DiMaggio – the four core members of the Boston Red Sox throughout the 1940′s. These guys came up together, played almost their entire careers together, and became lifelong friends in the process.

I do have to first give it up for this book in the sense that it was the perfect distraction during the off-season from what is the modern-day Red Sox organization – talk about a good time to catch up on teams of Red Sox past (one benefit of the current squad being in shambles is I got 28-1 odds of them winning it all this year – check out your odds here before placing your bet on your favorite team in MLB.)

The book is set with a backdrop of Johnny Pesky and Dominic DiMaggio driving down to Florida to say good-bye to Ted Williams, who is essentially on his deathbed. My knock on the book is that Halberstam is clearly writing about his boyhood idols – he’s much to quick to heap praise upon each of the men, while limiting his criticisms, and the whole book reads much like Tuesdays with Morrie in the sense that it has a gushy, reflective feel to it.

That said, it’s clear to me that these guys were all great players, and Williams aside, humble, genuine people. Growing up with parents who were fans of a different generation of Red Sox greats, I learned at a young age all about the games of Carl Yastrzemski, Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans, Carlton Fisk, and Luis Tiant. While I was well aware of the names of Williams, Doerr, Pesky, and Dimaggio, aside from Ted Williams I couldn’t tell you much about these guys as players except for their position. This book was a great read for me in the sense that I learned a lot more about the Red Sox organization as a whole in the 1940′s, and these players in particular. I’ll leave you with one point of interest with regards to each:

Johnny Pesky – A lifelong Red Sox in one capacity of another, Johnny Pesky was known as “The Needle” because of his pointy nose. He led the American League in hits his first three seasons in the league, despite taking three years off after his rookie season to serve in World War II.

Bobby Doerr – A 9-time All-Star, Doerr averaged 19 homers and 108 RBIs per 162 games for his career – as a second baseman.

Dominic DiMaggio – At 5’9 and 168 pounds Dominic lacked the size and grace of his more famous brother, Joe. Best known for playing a feverish variety of center field, most historians believe the Red Sox would have won the 1946 World Series had Dominic not been injured late in game seven. A 7-time All-Star, Dominic averaged 121 runs per 162 games for his career. Ted Williams, for one, thought he should be a Hall of Famer.

Ted Williams – A 17-time All-Star, Ted Williams would undoubtedly be close to unanimous pick for the title of “Best Hitter Ever” had he not missed nearly five years in his prime while serving in both World War II and Korea. One of my favorite baseball stats of all-time is Williams’ career on-base percentage – .482, good enough for best all-time (ahead of Babe Ruth). That included 5 seasons where Williams had an OBP over .500.

All in all, The Teammates was a nice winter distraction, as well as valuable read for historical perspective it gave me on the Red Sox teams of the 1940′s.

Wes Welker is headed to the Denver Broncos, and all I can really say is “shame on you, New England.” Welker has been the most productive receiver in the NFL for years now, yet apparently he’s not worth $12 million over two years to New England. If you ask me, that’s a certifiable slap in the face.

I’ll give you one stat on Welker’s production – in the last 6 years, he’s had 110+ receptions 5 times. In his entire NFL career, Jerry Rice had 110+ catches exactly twice. Don’t get me wrong, they’re very different players. But I think you get the point.

Welker’s production aside, what makes me the most angry about the Pats letting him slip away is this – sure, I see Danny Amendola as well as Julian Edelman as more than capable replacements. Both are younger and faster than Welker. But it could very well take Amendola two or more years to develop half the chemistry with Tom Brady that Wes Welker has right now. Welker is 32 – it’s not like he’s that old – and the window of opportunity for Tom Brady (and Wes) to win in right now. Why the need to bring in new blood and pass on a known (and incredibly productive) commodity?

Sure, it’s the Patriots schtick to stick it to the player and make it known that no one is that valuable and the cogs in their wheel are all mostly interchangeable. But it’s also the Patriot way to look for players, regardless of size, who know their role and compete on every single play. Wes Welker mine as well be the poster boy for that mantra. If I was Tom Brady, I’d sure be ticked.

As for Danny Woodhead, although he plays a different position he mine as well be Welker Jr. Both guys left it all on the field, were pound for pound two of the toughest guys in the entire league, and contributed to the Patriots in a big way. Neither was making unreasonable demands, and both were good for team morale.

Sure, Wes Welker has become something of a scapegoat for the Patriots’ two most recent and brutal playoff loses. But I can just see him in my mind’s eye catching that beautiful touchdown pass from Tom’s biggest rival, Peyton Manning, that sends the Patriots packing in the final seconds of next year’s AFC championship. On second thought, I can see him dropping the pass and New England rejoicing. Whatever the outcome, one thing is for certain – the Patriots better make some moves or they won’t have the opportunity to play against Welker in next year’s AFC championship.

You may have noticed a bit of a hiatus since I last wrote an article; after the Patriots loss to the Ravens, it’s been a bleak winter on the Boston sports landscape. The Celtics’ window of opportunity is clearly behind them. The Red Sox are busy stocking up on players with too many injury issues and too little talent (although I must admit, I was recently in Las Vegas and placed a $20 bet on the Sox to win it all this year with 28 to 1 odds). And the Bruins play in a league that almost ceased to exist. Get used to it New England – Tom Brady may be our only source of sporting joy for some time to come.

That was certainly the case this week, when I woke up to news of Tom Brady’s 3-year, $27 million contract extension. You can read all the Deadspin articles you want, but at the end of the day it boils down to this: Tom Brady took WELL below market value in order to A) hopefully retire a Patriot, and B) give his team the best chance of winning another Super Bowl before he retires. Yes, Brady did receive a signing bonus that is in essence a pay raise over the course of the next two seasons. His actual salary was also slashed dramatically, down to $1 million next season. The result? The Pats will have an extra $15 million in cap space to play with. It’s now up to the Patriots front office to bring in the right players to surround Brady with the talent needed to land a 4th Super Bowl ring.

It’s amazing to me how quickly people want to jump on Brady, discredit this move (which he is making for the TEAM), merely citing that he’ll make more money over the next two seasons. Look at the full scope of the deal and what it does for the team, let alone the fans. I can sleep easy knowing that the Patriots are fully committed to fielding a winning team and Tom will be leading that team for years to come.

I for one could not be happier about this. Few teams have ever had such a complete quarterback, in terms of talent, in terms of leadership, in terms of intensity, in terms of always saying the right thing. And in this case, yes, in terms of personal sacrifice for the betterment of the team. WEEI, who desperately wanted to talk to Brady this morning, instead received a written memo from Brady saying he’s happy to be tied down in New England long-term but he doesn’t want to discuss his salary, whatsoever.

“I dont want to talk about this on the radio or anywhere else for that matter,” Brady wrote. “Athletes are always talking about money at a time when everyone else is struggling so badly to make it. We all make way more than our fair share. And I just think it reflects poorly on myself and my teammates.”

Pinch yourself, New England. Make sure you’re appropriately appreciating the next few seasons.

Before this NFL season began, I was brimming with optimism. The Patriots has addressed their biggest needs in the NFL draft, and I predicted they’d go 13-3 and make the Super Bowl. And after watching the Patriots all season, I’m convinced that they had the personnel this year to win it all. That’s what makes this past Sunday’s loss to the Ravens so difficult to swallow.

First off, let’s give the Ravens some credit – they played a hell of a game. If there are two players I’ve been ridiculed for hyping, it’s been Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco. I’d say that with their respective performances in this year’s playoffs they’ve addressed their critics. But at the end of the day, all the Bud Light in the world can’t wash away the deflating feeling of what could have been for the Pats this year. As I awoke in the wee hours of the morning following Sunday’s game, the reality of the loss quickly washed over me. Left to the confines of my own mind, the following thoughts came to me and seem to have since gained staying power.

1) Wes Welker’s drops have become a problem – I have long been, and will continue to be, one of Wes Welker’s biggest proponents. This is a guy who had led the NFL in receptions 3 of the last 6 seasons, while racking up 1000+ receiving yards in 5 of his last 6 seasons. Any way you cut it, he’s one of the most productive players in the NFL.

The elephant in the room is obvious – despite Welker’s value, he likely cost the Patriots a Super Bowl last year. I for one did not blame him – not nearly to the extent that I blame Asante Samuel for his drop the first go ’round against the Giants. Drops happen, and that’s that. But Tom Brady did exactly what you’d want your quarterback to do in support of a player who has made a big drop – he went right back to him in a crucial situation, and any analyst worth their mettle will tell you that Welker’s drop on 3rd and 7 against the Ravens was the turning point in the game. The Pats had a chance to step on the Ravens neck, Tom threw a perfect ball, and we all know what happened from there. Oh yea, and then he dropped another crucial pass.

Do I think the drops are in Welker’s head at this point? No, I don’t (although I admit that they may be). As Tom Brady said, this guy is the heart and soul of the Patriots. Few players, if any, play as hard every single down as Welker does. To think that this guy hasn’t won a Super Bowl in his years with the Patriots is absurd – he surely deserves one, but unfortunately he’s got himself as much as anybody to blame. Do I want him back? Hell yes I do. But if he doesn’t return to New England there’s no way around it – his drops will have sealed him fate as much as anything.

2) The injuries to Rob Gronkowski and Aqib Talib were too much to overcome - Over the last two seasons, Rob Gronkowski has been the best red zone player in the NFL – fact. When Aqib Talib joined the Patriots secondary this season, there was immediate improvement – fact. My point is not that the Patriots couldn’t win without these two guys – it’s that their odds of winning went down drastically. We saw field goals instead of touchdowns, where we could have used Gronk (not to mention his blocking). If last year’s Super Bowl taught us anything it’s that we aren’t the same team without him. And perhaps even more ironically, Aqib Talib was injured on a play that he successfully broke up. Joe Flacco looked lost up until that point in the game, and looked like Joe Montana once Talib left the game. I realize everyone is going to jump on this as me making excuses. To those people let me ask you this – can you name one team in the NFL that could win without their second best offensive and defensive players? Take Ray Lewis and Torrey Smith off the Ravens… how much of a shot would they have ?

3) Game balls to Brandon Lloyd and Aaron Hernandez - In this game, it wasn’t all negative. I was very impressed with the play of Aaron Hernandez (9 catches, 83 yards) and Brandon Lloyd (7 catches, 70 yards). Both guys brought their A-games, executed, and made some crucial and very difficult plays for the Pats. They should continue to be weapons at Tom Brady’s disposal in future years. Was Brandon Lloyd the missing deep threat, the replacement Randy Moss that we all thought he might be? No. But he’s sticky as hell and fantastic along the sidelines.

4) Season game ball goes to the O-line – Going into this season everyone knew that the Patriots defense would be improved, and it was (although there’s still a long way to go). The real weakness that had me most worried entering the season was the Patriots offensive line. This crew was viewed with extreme skepticism throughout New England, especially early in the year. All in all, the O-line was not a problem for the Patriots this year. They kept Tom Brady healthy, and usually gave him a decent amount of time in the pocket. We did not lose to the Ravens because Tom Brady was under severe pressure, as we’ve seen in most of the Patriots’ recent losses. We lost to the Ravens because they beat us in all facets of the game.

5) Looking into the future – Looking into the future, I can honestly say that I think Tom Brady has 3 productive seasons left in him – he’s 35 now. But realistically, especially given his age, he may have 1 or 2 seasons of those three where he’s not derailed by injury. Not to jinx the guy, but he’s been pretty lucky in his career thus far.

I’m firmly in the “Tom Brady needs to win a 4th Super Bowl” camp, and one or two shots at another title is not a whole lot. The good news is that the Patriots are young, have their primary weapons locked up, and should be an even better team next season. If there is a football God (aside from Roger Goodell), Tom Brady will lob a game winning touchdown pass to Wes Welker to win his fourth Super Bowl, and Welker’s first, in the next few seasons. Once again we’ll have to wait and see.

So who do I want to win the Super Bowl, the Ravens or the 49ers? Who cares.

By Jimmy Cunningham, howiGit New York Writer, Manhattan, NY

Tom Brady began his NFL career winning 9 straight play off games, throwing 3.6 touchdowns for every interception, completing 62.5% of his passes for an average of 216 yards per game, and an had average quarterback rating of 91.5. He did all of this before his 30^th birthday. HE IS JUST A WINNER!

The success the Patriots have had is something that is very rarely seen on the NFL level; you could argue the 1970’s Steelers and 1990’s Cowboys are the only teams to have similar success. However that success was done with quarterbacks towards the end of their careers, both Terry Bradshaw and Troy Aikman only played 4 more years after their last Super Bowl. Brady has 8 playoff appearances since 2005. Since his last Super bowl  Brady has an 8-7 record – that sounds almost Peyton Manningish – and has thrown 1.63 touchdowns for every interception, completed 55% of his passes, and has a respectable 88 QB rating per game which is inflated by his performances against the David Garrad led Jaguars and Tim Tebow led Broncos. He’s also averaged 266 yards a game during this stretch – the only area in which Brady has not declined. Maybe his 19 picks in 15 games are why he had to throw for so many yards in those games.

This is a trajectory that I can not ever remember seeing. Most football players, especially quarterbacks, tend to get better with age. How come Tom Brady in his prime has been significantly worse in the playoffs in almost every statistical category? What could stop Tom Brady from continuing this historic pace? Injury? No, he has only been hurt one season. Then it has to be his team must have fell apart; well no –  he has won his division 7 times since then. What could it possibly be for this guy who was on pace to be the most successful quarterback of all time?

Oh I know, SPYGATE! I win more on partycasino.com than Tom Brady has since he stopped cheating. In 2007 the Patriots were caught of illegally filming the opposing teams’ defenses signals. Something that would allow a quarterback to identify coverages and blitzes prior to breaking the huddle. The narrative out of New England is “oh it really didn’t help that much, and look at his regular season numbers!” Well Brady and the Pats look a lot like the Colts and Peyton Manning since they had to stop filming signals. If a baseball player put up numbers rarely seen before, got caught for steroids and then could not replicate the same success, our very own lead writer would be first in line to give him the death penalty. But what do you Ugg boot loving homers have to say to the facts that Tom Terrific has become significantly worse in the playoffs? Please don’t give me look at the regular season.

All you cared about in the beginning of this century was winning championships – trust me I know because you would point to it every chance you got. It is no longer Tom is the best when it matters most, but instead wow look at how many TD’s he put up against the Jets, Bills, and Dolphins. Whether it be his clock management at the end of the 1^st half yesterday or his no-point, two-pick 2^nd half , overthrowing Wes Welker in the Super Bowl last year, losing to the Jets as a 9.5 point favorite in 2010, a 4-turnover loss to Baltimore in ’09, or scoring 22 points less then his season average in the first Super Bowl against the Giants, you have to wonder what Tom Brady’s legacy would be if his team was not involved in the biggest cheating scandal ever seen in the NFL.

The Patriots proved yesterday that their initial regular season beat-down of the Houston Texans was no fluke, outlasting a gritty effort by the Texans en-route to a 41-28 victory. With countless storylines swirling in the NFL at the moment, what Tom Brady is doing has been under-hyped – a direct result of Tom Brady’s consistent success. Yesterday Brady became the most winning playoff quarterback in NFL history, the day after his only true peer over the last decade, Peyton Manning, became tied for the most losing playoff quarterback of all-time. Brady will suit up next Sunday in his 7th AFC Championship game.

Next week’s AFC Championship should be a douzy – Ray Lewis, motivator extraordinaire, is retiring after this season (if you didn’t get the memo). You know that entire team, and much of the NFL, wants Lewis’ last game to be the Super Bowl. Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan, both of whom have long found an ally in this site, finally performed when it counted most. If Flacco is able to complete a few bombs against the Patriots secondary, we’re in trouble. This should be a rematch of epic proportions.

If the Pats are able to get past the Ravens, we’ll either have to deal with Atlanta or the 49ers. Matt Ryan’s accuracy and weapons should allow him to pick the Patriots secondary apart – the 49ers have looked perhaps more impressive than any team, and are a pretty good mock-up of the blueprint that the Giants have shown to be the recipe for beating the Pats. In other words, it’s going to be a battle from here on out if Tom Brady is going to win his 4th ring.

There were three other storylines in yesterday’s game that also stood out to me, the first of which is Shane Vereen. This guy was the hero yesterday, scoring 3 touchdowns for the Pats. It’s so Belichick to rely on a player in your biggest game of the season who didn’t even play in 5 games this year and is a back-up running back. Vereen had only 8 receptions in his career going into yesterday’s game, where he caught 5 balls including two touchdowns. Kudos to Bill for identifying a mismatch, and kudos to Brady for recognizing and continuing to feed the hot hand.

Secondarily (pun intended), I wanted to give a shout out to Aqib Talib. This guy has come in and truly changed the Patriots on the defensive side of the ball – that’s a lot to say for any one player. This guy is the real deal.

Last but not least, we have to talk about Gronk. It seems ridiculous to me that Gronk played yesterday, seeing as he was so easily injured by landing on his arm a single time. I don’t know who cleared him to play, but shame on them. If we learned anything from last year’s Super Bowl it should have been that we can’t win without Gronk. We don’t need him out there as a decoy, we need him out there flying around and Gronk-spiking all over. That won’t happen now. In all honestly, if Gronk was 100% I’d be calling the Patriots my flat out favorites to win it all. Without Gronk, that’s simply not the case. It’s going to take some seriously elevated play from the Patriots’ defense if they are going win next week, let alone in a Super Bowl.

Yesterday the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voted not to elect a single player to the baseball Hall of Fame for only the second time in four decades. You know that by now. What you probably don’t know is that I for one am thrilled.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely players that were on the ballot yesterday that I’d enshrine in Cooperstown if it were up to me. Craig Biggio is one. Curt Schilling as another (surprise surprise). And yes, I’m solidly in the Dale Murphy should be in the Hall camp. If anything, this year’s ballot was filled with players that in my opinion are right on the brink of being good enough to get in. That said, there’s no doubt that the ballot was also filled with a number of players whose statistics would make them automatic first ballot Hall of Famers – and none of them came even close to getting voted in. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, justice was served.

So hear me out. First off, I know that “justice is served” is a bit of an odd statement when the likes of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens haven’t technically been found guilty of steroid or PED use. This is America, innocent until proven guilty, right? While that’s true, I thought Curt Schilling made a fantastic point yesterday when he said, “I think, with a few exceptions, nobody knows [who used performance-enhancing drugs], so the whole lot of us are lumped in together. Nobody knows. We didn’t do anything about it. At the end of the day, we didn’t do anything about it. We knew about it. I think we all had an idea, a really strong suspicion, but we didn’t do anything about it. And we sat by, and we turned a blind eye, and I think this is one of the prices that we ended up paying.”

Everybody has their own opinions on who “used” and who didn’t, and in my opinion Schilling is one of the players who absolutely belongs in the Hall, didn’t use PEDs, and is not in the Hall because of the actions of his contemporaries who did use. But my point is not to convince you who used or who didn’t, who should be in or should be out. My point is that Schilling is right in his assertion that even the players who didn’t use are guilty to some extent by association – they didn’t step up, identify an issue within the game they love, and work to get it resolved. Now they are paying the consequences.

As for the growing camp of sports writers and fans whose general assertion is, “everybody did it, the best players of this generation deserve to be in the Hall,” well, I for one am disgusted by this point of view. Anyone who holds this perspective A) doesn’t love the game of baseball and B) is buying into some seriously flawed logic. Playing Major League Baseball is a privilege, not a right, and upholding the integrity of the game is part of that privilege. Because of the actions of a series of cheaters, an entire generation of baseball fans, my generation, does not have the heroes of the game that past generations had. There’s widespread disenchantment, and certainly a whole lot of bitterness. Yet you want to put these guys in the Hall of Fame and celebrate them, simply because “everyone was doing it?” Are you kidding me?

Let’s draw a parallel. I’m pretty sure the guys over at Enron broke the rules en route to running a fantastically successful business. Should we celebrate them as amazing business leaders? Not to mention enshrining them in a Hall where “character” is one of the defining criteria on which admission is granted. The guys over at Enron cheated, and their business would not have been as successful if they hadn’t. Even worse, they were far from the only business people making gains by sketchy means. So why should we celebrate any steroid user if we’re not going to celebrate the brilliance that went on over there at Enron?

The sad part is we all know that a Barry Bonds or a Roger Clemens type player never needed PEDs to get into the Hall. Any steroid user was greedy, selfish, and spat in the face of the game. And it’s worth mentioning that they all made millions of dollars more as a result of taking steroids. For all of their bitching and moaning about being locked out of the Hall, how many of those guys would give up their millions for a spot in Cooperstown? Don’t kid yourself – not a single one. These guys are babies that want it all and deserve nothing.

It’s deeply, deeply unfortunate that this will undoubtedly affect many players who did play the game the right way throughout their careers. It’s ridiculous that basically any barrel chested or stocky player, in particular, will have a much harder time ever getting elected. There’s two guys in particular who I’ll have my eyes on in upcoming years – Ken Griffey Jr and Greg Maddux (who I was happy to see Curt Schilling identified yesterday as the best pitcher in baseball history). I consider these guys to be the best pitcher and the best position player of my generation, yet both never went through any sort of body transformation nor were linked to steroids in any way. If these guys have trouble getting into the Hall on their first ballot, we’ll really know the extent to which PED users screwed over their peers who played the game the right way.

So while so many criticize the Baseball Writers’ of America, I for one applaud them for standing up for game.