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Are the Patriots in on Stefon Diggs? Should They Be?

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So Mattes and I were discussing the merits of a potential Stefon Diggs trade, which is the biggest ongoing rumor since Danny Ainge was destined to trade for Anthony Davis. Until he didn’t. It just seems like one of those things where there’s smoke there’s fire. It’s dangerous to read into social media posts with zero context, but Diggs has been subtweeting the hell out of the Vikings for months now.

I’ll admit, I’ve tweeted the eyes emoji at or about Stefon Diggs several times in the last few months.

The Patriots are in desperate need of an upgrade at Wide Receiver so there’s definitely a need for the player, but does it make sense for the team? First off they should definitely consider the move, but I can’t see the Pats trading away draft capital and then paying his huge salary. Diggs has four years left on his deal too and you don’t see guys with that many years left getting dealt too often.

What would it take to get a guy like Diggs? Well with that many years and his level of production (165 catches, 2,151 yards, and 15 TDs the last two years) it would seem like a 1st rounder would have to be included. With the Patriots having their highest pick of their own in years it’s hard to see them dealing that away to chase yet another veteran receiver that may or may not pan out. If Diggs really pisses in the Cheerios in Minnesota and forces his way out then maybe the Pats can swing in with a lowball offer, but they’re not going to pay premium prices only to then have to pay Diggs top dollar on top of that.

In other big receiver trades of yesteryear, New England traded a 4th rounder for Randy Moss and just 2nd and 7th rounders for Wes Welker.

The Patriots did however trade a 1st for Brandin Cooks and a 4th, but they only had to pay him $1.5M, and then subsequently flipped him to the Rams for a 1st. That’s value.

Diggs is set to have cap hits of $14.5M, $15M, $15M, and $12M before becoming a free agent in 2024. I find it extremely hard to believe the Patriots would be willing to roster that kind of contract at the receiver position, especially with their highest paid WR in Julian Edelman at $7M next season.

And thats before we even get to the purple cow in the room that is one Thomas Edward Patrick Brady. The Patriots have a potentially gigantic problem looming with his contract and dead money. Basically if Brady re-signs before free agency begins on March 18th his dead cap hit of $13.5M would be split up over the next two seasons. However Brady seems pretty intent on testing free agency. So if he stays with the Patriots, but re-signs after March 18th, that massive cap hit stays on top of whatever New England pays him in 2020. Even if Brady leaves to sign with another team, the Patriots are still stuck with that $13.5M in dead money.

Yikes.

So thats kind of a problem. If he stays in Foxborough, it’s even more money eating into the team cap, which I am more than OK with, but the reality is the team will be utilizing a much larger percentage of their cap to roster Brady than they probably are used to.

So would I love to see Stefon Diggs running fly routes for TB12? One hundred percent, but I just don’t think it’s realistic unless it’s an AJ Wright level discount or Diggs is willing to significantly restructure his contract. Never say never with Bill Belichick though.

The Red Sox OWN a Newspaper, Yet Were Reaching Out to Social Media Influencers to Spin the Mookie Betts Trade

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Hey Red Sox, where was my offer? I’m out here defending the Mookie Betts trade for the price of on the house and now I hear about this? What exactly does something like that even go for these days?

So another glowing story in the news for the Sox who are batting a thousand this offseason. Red Sox CMO Adam Grossman spoke to WEEI in response to that report down in Fort Myers on Wednesday morning.

“We started probably about seven years ago. In some ways, it has always been there. Celebrity-driven marketing … We have fans like Matt Damon or Cardi B, we want to attach ourselves to those. But also as social has taken off these individuals who have become influencers have become more important. What we started to do about seven years ago was connect more to parents. With parent bloggers and influencers. We have had meetings with them about seven years ago when we created this Red Sox Mom’s Group. That was at it’s early stages about seven years and it has expanded. Again, as we look at all of the assets we have influencers are a channel in that.”

Normally I would just chalk this up to typical bubbly PR speak, except he repeats the words “seven years ago” four different times in the span of one paragraph. Hmmmm

Grossman’s right, influencer marketing is a strategy thats been around for a long time so this is nothing new, but if the team really was out there asking local influencer’s to spin the Mookie trade then that is hilarious. I mean the team literally owns a freaking newspaper so they could always use the State Sponsored Media, but even John Henry probably knows the kids aren’t checking boxscores in the paper anymore.

Any time your team is getting compared to the Fyre Festival on it’s own flagship network though means maybe it’s time to reassess your public perception.

This Kid NAILS Impressions of Mel Kiper, Colin Cowherd, and Nick Saban

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Legitimately laughed out loud when I heard this spot on Mel Kiper Jr. impression. This guy just nails the idiosyncrasies of Kiper that we’ve all been hearing on ESPN for the past 20 years without even realizing it.

The Colin Cowherd impression is pretty good, but its the delivery and the content of the clip that really brings it home. Cowherd LOVES dragging guys that wear their hats backwards for some reason.

Spot on impression of Nick Saban, who is the only football coach more irritable and pissed off to have to talk about football than Bill Belichick

The XFL is Recruiting a Massive Free Agent: Guy Fieri

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Everybody knows that Guy Fieri is a taste maker plain and simple. The man has gone through the black hole of pop culture and come out on the other side only more popular. A guy that became famous for his wacky personality and bleach blonde hair on a Food Network TV show was ripe to be mocked in the age of twitter. Except he sort of owned it and because of that has endeared himself to the entire internet. Seriously, he’s even getting his own Funko POP figure!

And now the entire XFL is out hunting to secure Guy Fieri as the celebrity face of their franchise.

It’s part social media marketing, part legitimate business growth strategy; the guy has incredible visibility. I’ve seen him on TV at the NBA All-Star game and the Super Bowl in the last month alone. He’s even best buds with one Julian Edelman.

Plus who doesn’t love crushing a few eps of Triple D on a lazy Sunday afternoon?

By sharing and retweeting basically any meme out there about him, Guy Fieri has gone meta and come out more popular than ever. If marketing is about branding then Guy Fieri a marketing master because people know him and they know exactly what he’s about.

It’s actually a strategy Mike Bloomberg is now throwing his money behind in an attempt to become the next viral presidential candidate.

Who knew the key to the XFL’s success may have been hiding in Flavortown all along?

Fire Flames Jersey Alert: Baby Bruins Are Going Back to the Future

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A lot of Back to the Future content here on The 300s lately, but have you seen these jerseys? My goodness. I gasped when Big Z tipped me off to these bad boys. *This* is how you do a minor league jersey promo.

Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.

Bravo Providence Bruins, bravo.

Kyrie Irving Elected VP of NBA Players Association. HAHAHA

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Kyrie Irving is now second in command of the NBA Players Association, and his fellow players just put him there. Only in America.

But seriously, Kyrie is the real life version of Michael Scott who says things just to see what happens.

The guy who famously said ridiculous things like “What does government mean to you?” and “Fuck Thanksgiving” is now going to have a hand in shaping the future of the league.

This is a list of ridiculous stuff Kyrie said in 2017 alone. That is who now has his hand on the bag representing every player in the league. Good luck guys. I’m sure negotiations will go well when he tells Adam Silver he’s not woke enough and moves to have all Christmas Day games cancelled.

But seriously, Kyrie is going to say something outrageous in a meeting sooner than later and then blow up when it becomes a news story.

You are a celebrity that gets paid millions of dollars a year so yes people pay attention to what you say. And now Kyrie’s in a position where his words and actions will have a real affect on his NBA peers, which is something he has not shown a willingness to accept in the past.

So we’ll see how this goes because Vice President of the Players Association is far from a symbolic position.

Twitter is already batting a thousand with reactions to the news.

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Deepfakes Are Wild. Check Out Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland IN Back to the Future

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Deepfake videos are an absolute trip and probably will start a war one day. But as we do with all new technology in it’s infancy, we utilize it in utterly ridiculous ways until we figure out what to really do with it. When people truly perfect deepfakes and then combine that with machine learning audio, then we are all truly in some deep shit.

This Obama deepfake from a couple of years ago gets pretty close.

Until then enjoy the harmless fun of seeing the buddy cop duo of Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland dropped into a completely different cinematic universe together.

Red Sox Ownership Defiant in the Face of Fan Backlash

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Boston.com – Red Sox fans are not at all happy, and the team knows it.

Well before the Red Sox traded away one of the best players in Major League Baseball, fans had begun to tune out, either by turning off NESN or not filling the seats at Fenway Park toward the end of last year’s 84-win, playoff-whiff of a season...Kennedy said last fall that attendance over 79 games at Fenway Park last season was down 0.7 percent, while NESN ratings dropped 23 percent.

The day after the Betts trade, Kennedy said overall ticket sales were behind last year’s pace by more than 15 percent, and that the renewal rate of season-ticket holders was down from the usual percentage in the high 80s to the low 80s.

Ticket sales are down. Season ticket renewals are down. Ratings were *significantly* down already last year. THEN the Red Sox traded Mookie Betts and David Price. I wrote extensively about the trade and how I’m not losing any sleep over it, but Betts was a fan favorite and arguably the best player in the game so a little fan backlash was to be expected. Yet, Red Sox ownership somehow still looked wildly unprepared for the heat. John Henry, Tom Werner, and Sam Kennedy had their annual picnic table presser down in Fort Myers this morning and it went about as well as a Jeb Bush pep rally.

Henry then released a statement on the team’s twitter account that compared trading a former MVP to the time they traded a burnt out, broken down player in Nomar. Not exactly the same, John.

“I know many of you – particularly our youngest fans – are angry or disbelieving or sad about it. I know it’s difficult and disappointing. Some of you no doubt felt the same way when we traded Nomar in 2004.”

I am amazed at how poorly the Red Sox handle the media year after year. Few organizations in America would benefit as much as the Red Sox from a complete PR overhaul. Henry was not only glib to the reception of the Mookie trade, but he openly scoffed at legitimate criticisms.

Kennedy said nobody has asked for a refund – “I think you underestimate our fans,” said Henry at the suggestion – and that the team will not roll back the ticket price increase, another idea that amused Henry.

“As a result of making trades?” he asked.

Red Sox fans don’t complain about paying one of the highest ticket prices in the league, but thats only because they expect the team to compete and spend, every year. It may not be fair to expect the Sox to have the top payroll in the league every year, but it is fair for fans to be upset when the team raises prices (again) and subsequently dumps two of their best players to shed payroll.

Henry can continue to spin tall tales every time he denies this trade was a salary dump, but thats exactly what this was. As I said in my blog about the trade last week, I am an adult and I understand there are budgets in business so while fans may not be happy about it, I get it. But when Henry continues to outright deny it after saying it *himself* just a few months ago is a bad look for the team.

Both Henry and Kennedy wanted to alter, by almost 180 degrees, the prevailing and understandable perception that the Betts trade was made for purely financial reasons. It’s a line of reasoning that was launched last September by Henry himself when he told reporters “This year we need to be under the [competitive balance tax].”

Henry downplayed the notion that financial tailwinds steered the trade.

“…It’s surprising that anyone would think we would outspend every other team in baseball every single year. To me, that’s a little surprising…it has nothing to do with CBT.”

To be fair, this could still be a very good Red Sox team heading into the 2020 season. With young studs like Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Eduardo Rodriguez and veterans like JD Martinez and Chris Sale (if healthy) – it would not shock me to see this team in the mix for a playoff spot. Boston fans aren’t stupid though. This team could be pretty good, but this trade was still a way to shed payroll while recouping assets. Both can be true.

Henry and co. tried to stump on their track record of spending, which includes leading the league the last two years, and never being outside of the Top 5 in terms of payroll since they took over.

Guys, thats what you’re supposed to do.

The Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group as a whole are one of the most valuable franchises on the entire planet. You don’t get credit for acting accordingly.

Not to mention, A LOT of that spending that Henry and Kennedy are fond of pointing to is littered with horrific contracts that nearly sunk the team for years at a time. Carl Crawford, Pablo Sandoval, Rusney Castillo, David Price, Nathan Eovaldi etc. etc.

So we are now just 38 days away from Opening Day, but it seems like the noise surrounding the team is only rising. This is before we even get into Alex Verdugo’s stress fracture in his back and the troubling allegations against him, injuries to Sale and Eovaldi, the term “Opener” being thrown around a bit too much for my liking, and the fact this team still doesn’t have a real closer.

It seems like 2020 could be quite the rocky ride for the Red Sox as they prepare to cross what ownership doesn’t want to admit this is; a bridge year.

Kevin Garnett is Officially Getting His Number Retired by the Celtics

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So the Boston Celtics dropped a bomb on everyone last night with a surprise video announcing they would be retiring Kevin Garnett’s No. 5 next season.

With all due respect to Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett will forever be my favorite Celtics player of all-time. Passionate, proud, psychotically competitive, and willing to do anything to win. They do not make them like KG anymore.

After Pierce had his No. 34 retired two years ago it was only a matter of time until KG had his number raised to the rafters. Some may question why the C’s are retiring yet another number (currently at 22 numbers), let alone for a guy who only played six seasons in Boston. Garnett changed the entire culture of the franchise; that’s why.

Without KG the Celtics simply do not win that title in 07-08 and who knows where the franchise winds up. Maybe they continue to suck, maybe Pierce gets shipped out of town, and an entire generation of Boston kids never care about the Celtics. Garnett was that impactful.

Credit: The Ringer

People forget just how bad the Celtics were in 2006 as they went an abysmal 24-58 led by the likes of Al Jefferson, Delonte West, Ryan Gomes, and Wally Szczerbiak. That team also rostered a young Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair, Perk, Scalabrine, and the immortal Michael Olowokandi. Not exactly shocking they were the worst team in the league not named Memphis.

That 06-07 season was a mere 12 months before the Celtics would become the best team in the league and complete the biggest single season improvement in league history. In 2007-08 the newly constructed Celtics led by KG, Pierce, and Ray Allen came out the box fully assembled and rocketed to 29-3 start as they ultimately went 66-16 en route to beating the Lakers in the Finals.

To put it simply, Garnett made it fun to be a Celtics fan again. He adopted the city and it’s attitude like few before him ever had. At a time when superstars only played in LA, Chicago, Miami and other glamor cities, Garnett lit a fire in Boston with his blue collar, bring your lunchpail to work attitude.

He was an absolute savage on the court too averaging 18.8 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, while winning Defensive Player of the Year, making First Team All-NBA and of course bringing home the team’s first championship in 22 years.

All of that in his first season! Garnett made five All-Star teams and was First Team All-Defense three times during his Celtics career. If Pierce was the face of the Boston Celtics, Garnett was the heart.

People loved Garnett because he was the definition of selfless and it rubbed off on everyone else. This was the 2004 MVP who came to Boston after eight straight All-Star appearances in Minnesota while averaging 22-24 points per game. He was fine taking a step back with his own production dipping down to 15.7 points per game in Boston all while being the de facto team leader.

Not to mention he was a Hall of Fame shit talker.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, will ever bring me as much joy as watching KG laughing it up every time Gino Time played at the end of blowouts.

Garnett is also the guy that coined phrases like Grit and Balls, Honey Nut Cheerios, and was always an A+ interview.

Congratulations to Kevin Garnett for a well deserved honor and good luck to everyone at that game because it’s going to get a little dusty watching them raise No. 5 up to the rafters.

Fire Flames Hat Alert From the Washington Nationals Double-A Team; Harrisburg Senators

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Fire flames cap that could burn down the diamond. As an unabashed hat guy I have far too many random hats to even count at this point. My team’s hats, random team hats, Cape Cod Baseball League hats, Chicago Cubs bucket hats, but I think Minor League Baseball hats may be my sneaky favorite. Besides their oftentimes ridiculous names (looking at you Rumble Ponies), they take chances that major league teams simply won’t take. For example, I own a New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Blue Jays Double-A) hat, but it’s not even their actual hat. It’s a hat for the team name they *almost* went with and actually quite timely; the New Hampshire Primaries.

Or my Osos Polares de Pawtucket hat.

Give me all the ridiculous hats, keep em coming.