SUBTWEETING LEBRON IS BACK! Kyrie just went off for 35 points and carried the Celtics down the stretch for a tight win. He was hitting off balance shots, draining huge 3 pointers with no space, and iso-ing guys to kill the clock and ice the game. In other words he was doing what a franchise player does. I loved it. But you know who didn’t? LeBron James.
Bron Bron grammed that at 10:07 pm, which was about six minutes after the Celtics game ended. LeBron was straight up triggered watching “the kid” go off as Kyrie carries a franchise to a 9-game winning streak. All while LeBron’s Cavs are stumbling without Kyrie, sporting a 4-6 record and currently sitting at 12th place in the East. Haven’t seen LeBron this shook since the Celtics broke him in 2010 and forced him to run to Miami.
Nothing gets me ready for the holiday season better than a Samuel Adams Winter Lager on a 72° day in Boston!
Look, it’s hard to rag on Jim Koch. There are definitely a few too many varieties of Sam Adams these days but he is the granddaddy of the American craft beer movement. He was making beer in his kitchen before it was cool. Still, I can’t help but point out the absurdity of the Sam Adams seasonal schedule.
The Sam Adams seasonal schedule is no longer based in reality. Summer Ale at Fenway Park on April 1 is comical. Seeing Summer Ale get pushed aside for Octoberfest when it’s still hot-as-balls in mid-August is depressing. Popping open a Winter Lager on 72° day is preposterous. And the poor old spring seasonal White AleNoble PilsAlpine Spring Cold Snap only gets about six weeks every year. At least it’s around for the Super Bowl.
And it’s probably going to get worse. With global warming and el niño, how long until Octoberfest becomes a beach beer?
The net worth of John Schnatter, founder and CEO of pizza chain Papa John’s, fell $70 million in less than 24 hours after the company released its third-quarter financial report on Tuesday afternoon. The business beat estimates on earnings and revenue, but it lowered guidance on same-store sales for the coming period…
Schnatter blames part of the downturn on the National Football League, which has faced turbulence amid widespread national anthem protests in the past year. “The NFL has hurt us by not resolving the current debacle,” he said on a conference call on Wednesday. Papa John’s is the league’s official pizza sponsor.
How about the balls on Papa John? Papa John blaming sagging pizza sales on NFL protests would be like the Ninety Nine Restaurant blaming sagging sales on the Dennis Eckersley incident. [Of course that would never happen at the Ninety Nine. Who doesn’t love Gold Fever Wings with a $2 Bud Select?] It’s long past time for Papa John to take a good long look in the mirror and in his recipe book.
Domino’s Pizza has had a resurgence over the last ten years. Their stock closed at $2.83 per share on November 20, 2008. At the start of trading today, their stock was at $178.44 per share. That’s an increase of more than 6,000%. What happened? Domino’s realized there were problems. Their recipes were stale and their service was subpar. Just as bad, they weren’t “cool.” So they very publicly reworked and improved their pizza recipes in 2009. They tweaked their menu. They introduced the Pizza Tracker. They were no longer the company with delivery drivers allegedly killing people on the roads to deliver pizzas in 30 minutes. They became a hip, self-deprecating company, a social-media darling that served affordable pizza in tough economic times.
Papa John’s has had no such soul searching. Their pizza tastes the same today as it did the first time I had it in college. At least then I could pay for it with convenience points my dad’s money instead of my own hard-earned income. Today I won’t even consider ordering Papa John’s unless the local team won the night before and it’s 50% off. Otherwise it’s $14.99 (plus tax) for a large pepperoni.
You’ll never realize the criminal mark up on pizza until you see what it goes for when it’s 50% off a few times a week. Why not just make a large three-topping pizza $7.99 all day every day like Domino’s? Cut out the gimmicks. Those “better” ingredients can’t be that much more expenses.
There’s also the problems with Papa John himself. Maybe a whiny rich guy who doesn’t want to pay more taxes shouldn’t be the mascot for a low-end pizza chain.
Sounds like you’ve got a “you” problem, Papa John. Why don’t you go figure it out yourself and leave your business partners out of it. I can’t believe I am going to stick up for Roger Goodell here, but there are enough things that he has screwed up in the past year and deserves the blame for. Sagging sales of your shitty, overpriced pizza are not one of them.
ESPN – Tony La Russa joined the Red Sox in a vice president’s role, and he will assist president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, the team announced Thursday..La Russa spent 33 seasons as a manager, beginning in 1979 with the White Sox when Dombrowski was an administrative assistant in the organization. La Russa won the World Series in 1989 with the Oakland Athletics and in 2006 and ’11 with the St. Louis Cardinals. He retired from managing after the 2011 season and worked in the commissioner’s office before joining Arizona’s front office.
How do I feel about the Red Sox bringing HOF baseball guy Tony La Russa into the fold?
Player personnel has been relatively good for the Sox, basically its been hit or miss over the years like any team. Chris Sale was a stud and was the front runner for the Cy Young until he faltered down the stretch. David Price has been disappointing for the most part. Eduardo Nunez? Excellent trade! Travis Shaw for Tyler Thornburg? Not so much. My point is the personnel moves have been, for the most part, pretty good. But the front office? Holy shit, thats been a soap opera for the past 15 fucking years. Ever since John Henry and co. took over the team. Lets run though some of the highlights.
Theo Epstein quits on Halloween night in 2005 and leaves the office in a gorilla costume.
Jed Hoyer and Ben Cherington take over as co-GMs and immediately trade Theo’s most coveted prospect in Hanley Ramirez (worked out OK).
Theo returns, but ultimately quits again in 2011 after yet another pissing contest with Larry Lucchino. Lucchino retires 4 year later, while Epstein has not only resurrected the Cubs and won a World Series, but has turned them into a juggernaut.
Beloved manager Terry Francona gets absolutely TRASHED in the media on his way out of town in 2011.
Bobby Valentine is hired in 2012 and immediately makes a mockery of the franchise and is shit canned after just 1 season.
John Farrell is kept on as Red Sox manager after 2016 and the team lets his replacement in waiting, Torey Lovullo, leave for the Diamondbacks. Lovullo goes on to lead Arizona to a 93 win season (+24 from 2016) and the Red Sox promptly fire Farrell one year later anyways.
So now finally, after years of a reality TV show running the front office we finally get an adult in the room. La Russa is a legend in baseball so its a huge win for the Sox to bring him on board.
Apparently La Russa and Dombrowski are buds, so I would assume it was Dave’s idea to pluck him out of Arizona’s front office to help right the shaky ship that is the Boston Red Sox.
The Red Sox now have a respected, experienced, strategic guy in the front office to complement Dealer Dave. So when Dombrowski wants to trade Rafael Devers, Mookie Betters, Xander Bogaerts and Andrew Benintendi for Giancarlo Stanton and his $300 Million contract Tony La Russa can slap the phone out of his hand. Plus he’s the only one with the stones to tell David Price to pipe down if he tries to mess with his boy Dennis Eckersley again.
First things first, I don’t know how Gabe beat out THIS guy for the Phillies job.
Incredibly savvy move to leapfrog Manager John like that. Anyways, good for Gabe Kapler getting his shot as an MLB manager. He’s one of those glue guys that always played his balls off and all his teammates loved. You knew he would be a manager someday.
He started out managing in the minor leagues for the Red Sox farm system before moving on to player development where he’s killed it for the LA Dodgers. I’m happy with the Alex Cora hiring for the Sox, but I would have loved to had Kapler in that dugout as well. Smart guy who’s young, has a wide variety of experience and seemingly will have no problem communicating with his players. Plus he’s yoked and is a fan of the banana hammock so I mean that right there basically sells itself.
He may even get a few of his guys to start eating organic peanut butter the way he converted me with his blog.
PS – As a hustle> talent guy I was a big fan of Kapler’s growing up and I was *this* close to buying a Gabe Kapler Yomiuri Giants jersey when he left the Red Sox for Japan.
Ehhhhh. These literally look like the jerseys the generic hockey players would wear in a Winterfresh chewing gum commercial.
These look like something the actor would be wearing in a Peppermint Patty commercial when he takes a deep icy breath after crushing a two pack of patties.
These look like a Minnesota Timberwolves practice shirt.
These kinda look like shit, and twitter dot com was not much kinder. What is wrong with classic stars and stripes? Just give me my dose of patriotism and testosterone with some stars and stripes and lets call it a day.
Its been too long, ESPN. I haven’t read a good Patriots hit piece in a few months. ESPN the Magazine just dropped this article today on Tom Brady and the TB12 Method. It used to be Greg Easterbrook randomly attacking the Patriots as part of his weekly 8,000 word diatribes. Then it was Mark Brunell crying on SportsCenter about DeflateGate. Well, now we’ve moved on to Tom Brady and the TB12 Method. Listen, I haven’t bought the book so take this with a grain of salt. I don’t know all the ins and outs of Brady’s program, but I do know a hit piece when I see one. So lets break it down.
“He tried his best, as he always does, but he was alone against a younger, faster opponent, and when he dove, he missed by a foot rather than by an inch and appeared simply to fall down, in pieces. Even those who root against him might then have pitied him, because it was one of those moments when the essence of sport is revealed to be cruelly and coldly biological: Tom Brady, in the course of throwing a pick-six to Robert Alford of the Falcons in the second quarter of Super Bowl LI, had grown old.”
Wait did the Patriots lose that game? Did Brady play terribly? Oh no, it was the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history in which Tom Brady won his fourth Super Bowl MVP and finished the game 43-62 with 466 yards for 2 TDs and 1 INT. Decent.
“He doesn’t just want to play until he’s 45; he has to play until he’s 45, or else he’s not Tom Brady, architect of the impossible.”
I’d say he’s doing alright thus far. While it would be a surprise for him to retire now after years of saying how he wants to play well into his 40’s, I don’t think anyone would necessarily fault him. I might weep like a small child, but certainly no one with a rational brain would put a negative spin on him retiring “early” if he did so.
“When [Tony] Robbins, smiling toothily in his headset, leads the crowd in rhythmic clapping, Brady gamely claps along. He is wearing his own headset, smiling his own toothy smile, and he appears for all the world to be an aging athlete doing what aging athletes have always done — trying to find a way off the field by turning himself into a salesman.”
Jesus christ, I mean I didn’t buy the TB12 book either, but this ESPN writer is out for blood. Maybe Brady is exaggerating? Or maybe the guy who is playing at the highest level a QB his age has ever played at is on to something? I don’t know.
“He answers questions about concussions by saying that his body is none of your business even as he begins to build a business around his body.”
First real valid point of this article. But also, if you’re Brady why would you want to open yourself up to constant questioning about your personal (alleged) concussion history when you’re still lining up every Sunday. Maybe after he retires, but doing so now would just, all together now, create a distraction.
“The TB12 Method offers a portrait of a ferociously limited human being, albeit the world’s “most hydrated” one.”
Hey fuck you buddy, being hydrated is half the battle. Plus Tom Brady is the absolute antithesis of the all-time great QBs. He wasn’t handed a starting job on a silver platter or gifted golden NFL legacy genes like Peyton Manning. He was a backup in high school on a winless team and then was behind about half a dozen other guys on the QB depth chart in college. Sure, he has world’s more athletic potential than any of us, but I don’t fault the guy for harping on the limitations he overcame to get here. Because its exactly what he did. I mean have you ever SEEN his NFL Combine pic?
“In fact, two years ago, I took a hit on my knee during a practice, requiring an MRI. The doctors who read the MRI joked afterward that my knee looked so healthy, they seriously doubted I played professional football.”
Alright thats a bit of a hokey stretch from Tom, but again the guy has already torn his ACL horribly. Legitimately required multiple surgeries to fix it after nearly ending his career so is it out of the realm of possibility that Brady’s “pliability” work has helped avoid further injuries like this? Watch him play and he really does “know how to fall.” Thats a legitimate skill. Its why only children and old people break their arms when they fall down.
“However, if Alford had caught the ball Brady threw to him instead of Edelman, or if the ball had followed its natural course and fallen to the turf instead of being held up by a thicket of arms and legs — or if Pete Carroll had just handed the ball to Marshawn Lynch in Super Bowl XLIX — we might be having an entirely different conversation about Tom Brady. He wouldn’t be an immortal, and instead of talking about the efficacy of the TB12 Method in prolonging prime performance, we’d be shaking our heads about another NFL great reduced to chasing his own ghost. Brady didn’t only get good against Seattle and Atlanta, he also got lucky.”
If David Tyree the insurance salesman doesn’t make the luckiest catch in NFL history or if Mario Manningham doesn’t make that absurd sideline catch then Tom Brady could have SEVEN Super Bowl rings right now. Or Vinatieri could miss all of those clutch field goals and Brady could have none.
“The quarterback was still trying to adjust his game after five years of postseason struggle. Smart defensive coaches had started challenging him, clogging the middle of the field in order to force him to throw outside. In 2013, Brady’s yards per attempt had fallen to 6.92, his lowest since 2006, and he completed only 17 of 68 throws beyond 20 yards.”
In case anyone forgets, 2013 wasn’t exactly the kindest year as far as Tom Brady’s offensive weapons were concerned. While this was Edelman’s breakout season with 105 catches, Rob Gronkowski got hurt and played in only 7 games, Wes Welker left for the Broncos, Danny Woodhead went to the Chargers, oh and Aaron Hernandez got arrested for murder. The Pats signed Danny Amendola, who got hurt and played in parts of only 12 games. The Pats also brought in hugely disappointing rookies in Aaron Dobson, Josh Boyce, and Kenbrell Thompkins. Just a little perspective. Moving on…
“The Chiefs drubbed the Patriots on Monday night early in the 2014 season, and Brady played so poorly — so creakily — that talk turned to whether he was, at long last, finished.
Yes the Pats had just drafted Jimmy G before the 2014 season, and yes people like Trent Dilfer danced on the Patriots’ graves.
But the team was not in this freefall that this article seems to suggest. Do we already forget what Belichick’s response was to people asking if Brady would be supplanted as the starter?
“A few days later, Belichick asked running backs coach Ivan Fears to speak to the team. Fears spoke about the importance of attitude, then turned to Brady and, with the entire team looking on, said, “Your body language reeks of fear.”
Thats the beauty of the Patriots as Tom Brady himself has said many times over the years, no one in that locker room is above criticism.
“On the night of Oct. 30, that question was answered — for now, at least — when he traded Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers for a second-round pick. The trade came out of nowhere, surprising people close to Belichick, Brady and Garoppolo. But while it’s easy to see the move as a demonstration that Brady is and always will be the one exception to the Belichick Method, it instead serves as confirmation that the Method will always win. Did Belichick trade his backup out of loyalty to a 40-year-old quarterback, or because cutting bait at exactly the right time is what he always does and always will do?”
Literally NO ONE believes that Belichick traded Jimmy Garoppolo because he’s pals with Tom Brady. He did it because he saw an opportunity to get a draft pick that he valued more than he valued Jimmy G at this current time on his current contract. Thats it.
“[Brady] said, ‘I’m at the point where I want to be the best in every possible way. I came across the exercises in Popular Science, and I can already see the difference in my brain function. This kind of brain training is like physical conditioning. It can help anyone.’ “That’s just not how we thought of brain training before,” Mahncke says.”
Taking advantage of underutilized tools in unconventional ways. Very Moneyball of you, Tom.
“He has little sympathy for anyone whose experience might contradict the overarching TB12 narrative. “Players say the biggest reason [for early retirement] is their fear of the long-term effects of playing while injured. I don’t have that fear. They have no idea they can have a body or a career free of the pain that athletes of the past have endured.“
Okay, yes, if I was a fellow NFL player dealing with injuries this line would drive me up a wall.
“What would count as a failure for Tom Brady? Playing until he’s 41 instead of playing until he’s 45? Never winning another Super Bowl? Getting released at age 43 from the Patriots and spending the last days of his career hobbling around for the Browns, still angry that they took Spergon Wynn in the sixth round of the 2000 draft instead of him? Or getting all he wants — playing until he’s 45 and winning two more Super Bowls — only to discover 15 years later that he has recurring headaches and his memory is hazy and he can’t follow the route to the nearest TB12 training center?”
Pretty morbid from ya boy over at ESPN especially when all Brady is trying to do is mitigate the chances of injuries like that. Not glorifying CTE inducing hits like *your* employer ESPN used to do back in the day with the JACKED UP segment.
Then these guys completely forgo subtlety and all but blame the TB12 method for not helping prevent Julian Edelman’s torn ACL, or Dont’a Hightower’s torn pectoral muscle, or Amendola’s concussion. Listen, I’m not a disciple, but this book is not being sold to people as a way to never get injured again. Brady has said himself that its about preventative measures and recovery more than anything else.
I don’t know, if you want to read the article its pretty in depth, but I got a very haterade vibe to the whole thing; not just towards the TB12 Method, but towards Tom Brady himself. Color me shocked.
Jimmy Garoppolo was going to be the centerpiece of either Bill Belichick’s Herschel Walker Brooklyn Nets trade or Josh McDaniels’s post-Brady rebuild on the fly. Now he’ll be neither.
Reports of multiple first round picks being offered for Gaoppolo over the summer now seem to have been greatly exaggerated, according to Ian Rapoport.
When #Browns made an offer for Jimmy Garoppolo during the draft, they didn’t offer a 1st. Just a 2nd & change. Pats wait & take this deal.
Looking at things objectively, that makes sense. How can you trade one first round pick, never mind multiple first round picks, for a guy who has started only two NFL games? Matt Cassel had been in the league for four years (as opposed to Garoppolo’s two) and went 10-5 as a starter in 2008 by the time the Patriots traded him in 2009 and the Patriots still had to throw in Mike Vrabel to pry away just one second rounder from the Cheifs.
As a fan, it’s disappointing. Not only do the Patriots not get the haul fans had been teased about, but the trade doesn’t help them out now. It doesn’t do anything for this year’s team other than leave them without a life preserver in the case of an emergency. The only excuse for not trading Garoppolo before the season is if Belichick still holds a grudge against Cleveland. You gotta respect a good grudge.
Garoppolo could have been the next Steve Young, taking the reigns of an established dynasty after the retirement of a legend and keeping the dynasty going for another decade. Now he follows in Steve Young’s footsteps by taking the reigns of the San Francisco 49ers. It’s nothing like the team Young last played for in 1999, though. Garoppolo is set to be San Francisco’s 16th different starting quarterback since Young last took a snap in 1999.
It would be interesting to find out if Garoppolo had a say in any of this. Given the choice, would he rather have been the Prince of Wales in New England or a starter immediately anywhere else? Seeing so many good quarterbacks have their careers ruined by bad teams, being the Prince of Wales in New England sounds a lot better than being the King in Cleveland, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Minnesota, Chicago or San Francisco.
NFL careers are short, though. Maybe Garoppolo would rather get paid now than sign a team-friendly deal to stay in New England. Who knows when Brady will actually call it quits? There’s no glory in being the President of the Tom Brady Backup Club, the most prestigious backup club since the Brett Favre Backup Club closed its doors in 2008.
With no one left behind him, though, Brady better stick around for at least another two seasons. Otherwise, the 2018 Patriots could look a lot like the 1999 San Francisco 49ers. And no dynasty (or coach) survives an 18-year quarterback search.
Normally this is the most boring trade deadline in all of sports. Rarely do blockbuster moves take place, whether its because it truly is the No Fun League or if its just too hard to incorporate pieces into a football team mid-season, you just don’t see big trades as often as you do in the NBA or MLB. BUT, that changed last night when the Patriots dealt the presumptive QB of the future in Jimmy Garoppolo to the 49ers.
And just minutes ago the Dolphins traded their starting RB in Jay Ajayi to the Eagles for a 4th round pick.
Blockbuster: The #Dolphins are trading RB Jay Ajayi to the #Eagles.
LETS GO! Give me all the trades. I want to see teams getting after it. The Eagles can smell blood as they’re one of the best teams in football this year and they want to strike while the iron is hot, which is great. More teams need to do that. Or accept the fact that your mediocre team ain’t doing shit this year and jump into the trade market.
Twitter never reacts positively to ANYTHING, so this isn’t too surprising, but the wrath is real. I don’t remember this many people questioning a Belichick move in a long time. Usually most fans are like eh its Belichick he know what he’s doing, I trust him. But now? People are in open rebellion against the crown. Keep crushing that avocado ice cream Tom because whether you were serious or not, you’re gonna have to play until your 50 now.
I’m officially not going anywhere. I’m never retiring. I’ll be your quarterback long after 49ers’ Jimmy G retires. I’m yours forever now. pic.twitter.com/JpNQSawpdK
“In fact, two years ago, I took a hit on my knee during a practice, requiring an MRI. The doctors who read the MRI joked afterward that my knee looked so healthy, they seriously doubted I played professional football.”
The 300s 