2009 New England Patriots Draft Preview: The Defense

One season ago, the Patriots got lucky and landed the 10th overall pick in the draft, selecting linebacker Jerod Mayo from Tennessee. I think it’s safe to say he’s a keeper and added some much-needed youth to a position that has been rapidly aging for the past few seasons.

So today, we turn our attention to Bill Belichick’s favorite side of the ball and attempt to unearth some treasures that will take pleasure in dishing out pain and punishment on the opposition in ’09 and beyond.

If you missed Monday’s look at the offense, here you go.

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Jasper Brinkley – ILB – South Carolina

Brinkley is a
bit of a hidden gem and looks like a prototypical Patriots-type
player.  He is a violent run-stuffer who can play both inside and outside
and is probably suited best in a 3-4. Brinkley (seen above) is an excellent tackler and has
made up a large part of his collegiate career racking up solo tackle
totals.

The fact that he also transferred to South Carolina from the
Georgia Military College also lends itself to sounding like a player of note
for the Patriots.  That being said, Denver, Miami, Cleveland, San Diego,
Pittsburgh, and Baltimore may all also have interest in Brinkley’s
services.  He is a on most draft boards as a 4^th or 5^th
round pick.

Scott McKillop  –
ILB – Pitt

Scott McKillop is a
very intriguing prospect and has a bruiser mentality that seems to fit perfect
in the Patriots ILB position.  McKillop has been very productive for four
seasons at Pitt and amassed a total of 288 tackles and seven sacks in the last
two years.

He is also a candidate for the Butkus Award, but the biggest
“drawback” is that he is only 6’1″.  There are a few ILBs to be
had this year after James Laurinaitis and Rey Maualuga come off the board in Round
1 and McKillop projects as a 4^th round pick…but may go higher.

Connor Barwin – OLB – Cincinnati

The
“Patriots-type player” everyone seems to be associating with New
England

right now is Barwin, an outside linebacker from
Cincinnati.  Barwin has drawn comparisons to Mike Vrabel and is lauded for
his ability to play on both sides of the ball as he is a recently converted tight end.

Barwin (seen right) blew folks away in Indianapolis during the NFL Combine
when he posted a sub-4.5 40-time.  He also showed teams he had the
ability to play the hybrid DE/OLB position at the NFL level.

The Bills,
Jets, Patriots, Bengals, Dolphins and Jaguars all appear to have an interest
in Barwin and have held multiple private workouts signaling a strong market for
his services in 2009. He is slated as a late 1st round or early 2^nd
round pick.

Zack Follett – OLB – California

Follett comes from a
collegiate program that utilized a base 3-4.  He is a productive playmaker
on the outside that can play inside in a pinch. Follett’s stock has risen as of
late and he may find himself going to the NFL late in the round.

Larry English – OLB – Northern Illinois

English was a
stalwart on defense for Northern Illinois, logging field time on over 98% of the
defensive snaps.  English projects to be a 3-4 hybrid DE/OLB in the
NFL.  He won the MAC’s MVP award last year and scored highly on the Wunderlic.  English is a 3^rd round pick in 2009.

Alphonso Smith
– CB – Wake Forest

Are you looking for ball-hawking cornerback with
swagger? Then Alphonso Smith is your man.  He reminds people of a young
Asante Samuel as he’s fast, undersized, flashy and has a knack for the
ball. Smith is good at reading plays and jumping routes —  racking
up 21 interceptions at Wake Forest and is now the ACC’s all-time interception
leader.

“They’re going to get a player that’s extremely smart,
understands the game, works extremely hard and they get a natural winner,” Smith said recently. “All my life, I’ve been a winner. All my life, I’ve had this
attitude where I don’t care who you are, where you’ve been, who your father is,
who you play for, I don’t care. It’s me vs. you, and I’m going to try and come
out on top. That goes for everyone.”

Darcel McBath – FS – Texas Tech

McBath is known to
have received an extensive look from Patriots secondary coach Josh Boyer. 
Typically when the position coaches spend extensive time, it means the player
is of specific value.  McBath was a vocal leader in the Red Raiders
secondary and is said to have great closing speed and excellent ‘read and react’
skills. McBath figures to come off the board in the 3^rd round.

David Bruton – FS – Notre Dame

Rising stock! Bruton
(seen left) is coming from the Fighting Irish who have been nothing but bad lately. He was the captain of the Notre Dame defense and is considered a special
teams ace.  With Charlie Weis’ ties to New England and the fact that
Bruton is a beast on coverage, he may fit in to the Patriots plans figuring it may only require a 5^th round pick to secure the safety.

 

Rashad Johnson – SS – Alabama

Johnson may never
actually pan out as a starting safety in the NFL but he possesses many
characteristics sought after by the Patriots.  He is fast, smart,
aggressive and a playmaker. Johnson sounds like a fit but his biggest detraction remains his size.  At 6-foot and 190 lbs, Johnson may
not be big enough to sustain a career in the NFL as he plays with a level of
aggression and abandonment seen be safeties with 30 more pounds on them. There is, however, a lot
to like about Johnson. 

He is former running back and walk-on to the
Alabama program run by previous Belichick disciple Nick Saban. Johnson
completed his Crimson Tide career as an All-American with 224 career
tackles and 11 interceptions. He was known as the team’s “quarterback”
on defense knowing every position on the field and the  responsibilities
associated with each of them. 

Johnson impressed many across league as he
lead the Alabama defense to a top-5 Division I defense in the nation.  In
13 games, Johnson had 94 tackles, 6 interceptions, a sack, a forced
fumble and was credited with 8 passes broken up. He very well may
find himself donning a flying Elvis logo in 2009 if he is still on the board in
Rounds 3 or 4.

There are plenty more
players I’m sure the Patriots will consider draft-worthy. This is a
partial list that just scrapes the surface but I think these guys are worth
keeping an eye on.  New England could easily draft some of them or perhaps
none of them.  We’ll find out in a month or so.

Darryl Johnston is the New England Patriots beat writer for New England-based sports blog Small White Ball.

Patriots Rumor Mill: Understanding Julius Peppers

If the rumors turn out to be true and the New England Patriots are able to work out a trade for Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers, who exactly are the Patriots getting? Sure, the name is familiar, but what is he going to bring to the table?

To help you catch up, here’s all the details and background as the clock strikes midnight on St. Patrick’s Day:

– The deal is rumored to be for New England’s 2nd round pick (34th overall) which they acquired in the Matt Cassel to Kansas City deal.

– Peppers was tagged with the oh-so-beloved franchise tag by the Panthers, meaning he is due to make $16.68 million this season. It’s expected that if a deal happens, he would be asked to restructure his contract so it fits into the Patriots’ current salary cap needs.

– While a defensive end, it’s believed he would be move to outside linebacker – something he apparently wants to do.

– The upcoming season will be his eight in the NFL. In seven seasons with Carolina, Peppers has amassed 70.5 sacks and over 330 tackles. He has only two seasons where he didn’t record double-digit sacks and is coming off a career-high 14.5 quarterback corrals last year.

– He is a four-time Pro Bowler, two-time All-Pro and was the Defensive Rookie of the Year in ’02.

– He is durable, playing a full 16 games in five of his seven seasons.

– Peppers is 29 years old and is an imposing 6’7″, tipping the scales at 283 pounds.

While the Panthers have denied any trade talks, there is a reason according to Boston Herald scribe John Tomase (yes, THAT John Tomase):

“They
aren’t allowed to have any trade talks involving Peppers until he signs
his one-year tender – or until his agent brokers a deal with another
team and comes to Carolina for approval.“

A guy that doesn’t want to play under a franchise tag…a defensive-minded team that he wants to play for…and a team that apparently wants him. Sounds like a done deal to me.

Josh Nason is the publisher and head janitor of New England sports
and media blog Small White Ball. He can be reached at josh [at] smallwhiteball [dot-com].

Patriots Shocker: Mike Vrabel Traded To Kansas City

One of the most popular linebackers in recent memory will no longer wear #50 for the New England Patriots as the team traded Mike Vrabel to the Kansas City Chiefs Friday for an undisclosed draft pick.

The 33-year-old joined the Patriots in 2001 after four seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He spent eight years on defense for Bill Belichick, becoming an unlikely team leader and helping the club to three Super Bowl championships and an undefeated regular season in 2007.

In 12 years, Vrabel racked up 55 sacks, 11 interceptions and 641 tackles with his 12.5 sacks in ’07 a career-best. He also became popular for lining up on goal line possessions on offense at the tight end spot and has eight career receiving TDs on just 11 yards.

While the connection to Kansas City is obvious with former Patriots GM Scott Pioli running the show there with a young team, what could the Patriots be up to? They clear $3.35 million in cap room and could be targeting a specific free agent or perhaps be preparing for the acquisition of Carolina Panthers defensive menace Julius Peppers in a rumored deal for quarterback Matt Cassel.

This offseason officially became very real for Patriot Nation, who will undoubtedly miss cheering for #50 on Sundays.

Josh Nason founded the New England and media centric sports blog
Small White Ball in 2007. He can be reached at josh [at] smallwhiteball
[dot-com].

Why The New England Patriots Need to Make The DeAngelo Hall Signing Happen

The Boston Globe speculated today that based on their interest from last season, the New England Patriots might be interested in bringing on impending free agent cornerback DeAngelo Hall if Washington doesn’t sign him the Friday free agency deadline.

It may be a panic button move on my part, but all I can think is “God yes, please do it.”

As a whole, Pats fans are pretty confident in the team’s personnel decisions, forged by years of quality decisions by the Bill Belichick/Scott Pioli braintrust. But when defensive backfield presences like Asante Samuel, Eugene Wilson and Randall Gay up and left after the ’07 season, there didn’t seem to be a big push to replace them with anyone of name or high value – surprising for such an important position.

Combined with the rest of the club getting older in key positions, there had to be a point at which the levy broke and this past season, it did. The Globe mentioned that out of 32 teams, the Patriots ranked 26th in 3rd-down conversion percentage against and 31st in red zone defense. And I’d venture to say that if you asked fans what they thought the team’s main weakness was, they would say the secondary.

The signing of Hall would be a big step toward helping fix that problem.

Currently, Ellis Hobbs sits atop the depth chart at corner but the 25-year-old is entering his fifth season and has only nine career picks. Personally, I think of Hobbs for one of three things: celebrating after nearly every play, getting burned or being checked out by trainers on the field. He is not meant to be a No. 1 corner, but the 5’10” Hall is.

The 25-year-old Hall will begin his sixth pro season after four years with Atlanta and a split ’08 with Oakland and Washington. The former 1st-round pick has 22 career interceptions in 72 career games. He is also durable as he’s only played less than 15 games once (his rookie season). And like so many others, there are concerns about his attitude but let’s face it – he was in Atlanta and Oakland which weren’t exactly bastions for fostering goodwill toward fellow men.

But we’re talking about the New England Patriots, seemingly the halfway house for bad attitude players like Corey Dillon and Randy Moss to become team guys that simply play and perform. If Belichick was to give his approval on Hall, that’s fine by me. It seems every season that the Patriots add one impact player on defense (Adalius Thomas, Jerod Mayo), but they have taken a few seasons off from adding to the defensive backfield.

Here’s to hoping they don’t make that mistake again.

Josh Nason founded the New England and media centric sports blog Small White Ball in 2007. He can be reached at josh [at] smallwhiteball [dot-com].

Worst Week: A Bad Seven Days in Boston Sports

Listen, we get it. New England fans are hated due to our success and seem to be thought of as a group of dense fools that drink too much, talk funny and relentlessly torment other fan bases due to multiple championships and winning teams.
(Actually, parts of those stereotypes might be right. Keep reading anyway.)
Whether it’s karma or not, there is no denying that the average Boston sports fan had a terrible week. Even with Christmas a few days ago and New Year’s coming up (both great excuses to get together and throw down 12-14 Sam Adams or a fifth of Allen’s Coffee Brandy), the past seven days was a big ol’ glob of bird crap on our shining championship trophy of a region.
> Tuesday: It began with the news in the late-afternoon that the New York Yankees had swooped in and signed first baseman Mark Teixeira to an eight-year, $180 million deal. Why this had specific significance to Red Sox fans was that we fully expected big Tex to be swatting home runs out of the Fens while wearing the home whites. Now, he’ll be in pinstripes and helping the Evil Empire open up a new stadium.
The swiftness and ninja-style signing was what caught us off guard the most, making us upset at what we never had to begin with rather than focus on what we did have. In our minds, incumbent third baseman Mike Lowell was out, Kevin Youkilis was moving to third and Teixeira would be a cornerstone player at first. It was like the day we heard that Alex Rodriguez was traded to the Yankees, another superstar we wanted. New York came in (again) and simply provided a better offer, leaving the front office to have egg on their face and for Red Sox Nation to have a little more red in theirs.
> Wednesday: As fans attempted to deal with the Teixeira news, the Boston Globe reported that Youkilis and the team were far apart on a long-term contract and that they would go to either arbitration or sign a one-year deal for ’09. Normally, this wouldn’t be huge news but when you take Sox owner John Henry’s post-Teixeira ‘monumental challenge’ comments into consideration, the team suddenly began looking cheap. Call me crazy, but I have a bad feeling about where this is going. If Teixeira was worth $20+ million, how much is Youk worth? $15 million? Will that be too much money?
> Thursday: Christmas is supposed to be a day for relaxing and celebrating the holidays with friends and family. The NBA has added a triple-header of games to the tradition and their marquee match-up this year was the Celtics vs. the Lakers, a rematch of last year’s Finals.
With both teams having great years and with Boston riding an 19-game win streak, it was destined to be a great game. Of course, the Lakers won fairly convincingly, breaking the streak and causing national media to essentially proclaim that L.A. was the Finals favorite. So much for celebrating.

> Friday: You’d figure that a day removed from dropping that Lakers game, the Celtics would be ripped and raring to go against an injury-plagued Golden State team that entered the game at 8-22. Well, that didn’t happen as Boston lost its second straight, 99-89.
> Sunday: Two things needed to happen for the Patriots to make it to the playoffs: they had to win at Buffalo and either Miami or Baltimore had to lose. The Dolphins were playing against the NY Jets in the Meadowlands, a game New York had to win to keep their hopes alive. Baltimore got a home game against a surprisingly hapless Jacksonville squad, so it was really up to Brett Favre and company to make it happen. As expected, the Patriots took care of business in Buffalo, winning a game that was played in Hurricane Jack Wilson.
But the Jets just plain sucked, doing just enough to tantalize New England fans but ultimately coming up short. This rivalry is so good for so many reasons and their inability to take care of their business just escalated it. Buffalo also deserves some blame here as their play-calling against said Jets a few weeks ago likely cost the 11-5 Pats a postseason berth. Meh, bleh and poppycock to it all.
Also reported by somewhat irrelevant NBC Sports.com Sunday was that Tom Brady is ‘well behind schedule’ in rehabbing his surgically-repaired knee due to scar tissue that might have to be surgically removed and – the kicker – the ACL and MCL are ‘loose’. I’m not a doctor, but if true, that doesn’t sound good. Of course, this info is coming from a ‘league source’ and reported by Tom Curran. Who knows how accurate it is?
But if true, this might force the Patriots to make an unexpected decision on free agent-to-be Matt Cassel and perhaps put a franchise tag on him if Brady’s not ready. That obviously raises more issues, but I’ll leave those for another day of discussion.
However, things are starting to look up as the Boston Bruins have extended their win streak to nine, their longest since 1993 and that team is green is still playing ok despite their Tuesday loss to Portland. And all in all, given the success that the local teams have enjoyed, we were due to have some low points along the way, so maybe things aren’t that bad after all.
Pass that coffee brandy, will ya?
Josh Nason – josh [at] smallwhiteball [com] – is the publisher and main writer of Small White Ball, an all-encompassing sports blog that began in 2007. You can also read on mixed martial arts, boxing and pro wrestling at brother site RopesRingandCage.com. If you’re using any part of this post, please link back to http://www.smallwhiteball.com. Thank you!

Labels: boston bruins; new england patriots; boston red sox; Boston Celtics, Boston sports;

Top Boston Sports Stories of 2008: #1-10

A star quarterback out for the season. A return to glory. A season full of injuries. A beloved player exiting amidst national controversy. A club previously belittled and mocked making their stand.
And that was just in the last 12 months.
In Wednesday’s review of the 11th-20th ranked Boston sports stories of 2008, we took a look at Bill Buckner’s emotional return to Boston, the Red Sox almost pulling off another magical comeback, a quarterback transforming a shaken fanbase and more. As we look at the Top 10 stories that dominated the region this past year, it’s a smattering among the three major entities in the city and for the first time in a long time, a certain club in black and gold entered the conversation.
Compiled with the help of some trusted advisers and by requesting feedback on sites like Yardbarker, Bleacher Report and Ballhype, here are the top 10 Boston sports stories of 2008, courtesy of Small White Ball.
10) The emergence of Matt Cassel – If you would have predicted in August that some Patriots fans would broach the subject of trading Tom Brady and keeping backup Matt Cassel during this season, you probably would have been tossed in the Charles River. But Cassel’s jump into the line of fire in the wake of Brady’s injury has been much better than expected, causing many to look at a similar time when a young Brady came in for Drew Bledsoe. The Pats likely need to win out in order to make the playoffs, but at 9-5, they’re a lot better than most expected thanks to Cassel.
While the concept of dealing Brady has thankfully subsided, the story of a guy that hadn’t started a game since high school has been an interesting one for a fanbase that is used to dominance – especially coming off Brady’s MVP season just a season ago. The USC product came into this situation at a perfect time as he’ll be a free agent at the end of the season and is likely looking at a Matt Schaub-style payday. Who expected that of out of Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Cassel, it would be the career clipboard holder making all the noise?
9) Tex, Tek and what the Sox should do with both – It’s very possible by the time you read this that Mark Teixeira will be a member of the Red Sox and manning first base for the better part of the next decade. It’s also very possible he won’t if you believe owner John Henry. Regardless of what happens, everyone has an opinion. The amount of Teixeira chatter is equal to how GM Theo Epstein should proceed with catcher Jason Varitek. For Red Sox fans, what to do with two guys named Tex and Tek has become a daily discussion point ’round here.
The other threads attached to this unraveling Sox sweater are what to do with Mike Lowell if Teixiera comes on board, who the Sox would have at catcher if Varitek doesn’t re-sign and what the long-term solutions are if Varitek comes back. The amount of chess moves that some with less brain power have come up with (moving Kevin Youkilis to shortstop or left field, trading David Ortiz, having Varitek apprentice a young catcher as if he’s a blacksmith, etc.) are staggering. All signs point to Teixeria coming in, Lowell heading out and Varitek returning due to a weak market and a need on both ends. Regardless what happens, the opinions of armchair GM’s everywhere will be heard.
8) The Boston Bruins play hockey again – Oh wait…they were here all along? Every bright light needs a shadow and the Bruins have been dancing in the dark for a long time. Partially because of owner Jeremy Jacobs, partially because of long-time GM Harry Sinden and partially because of the collapse of interest in the NHL here in the States, the Bruins fell so far off the Boston sports map that the Revolution threatened to take them over. Then, this season happened and things have taken a turn for the better…extremely better.
As of this writing, the Bruins are leading the Eastern Conference with a 22-5-4 record. They’ve won 12 of their last 14 games and are 17-2-1 in their last 20 games. They are dominant at home and posted an 11-1-1 record overall in November. Their goaltending combo of Tim Thomas and Manny Fernandez has been lights out, while Milan Lucic, Phil Kessel, Marc Savard and a host of others have helped knock the opposition’s lights out. The big bad Bruins are back and I’ll be damned if the fans aren’t responding to them in kind. Can the duck boats swim on frozen ice?
7) Jon Lester throws a no-hitter, becomes ace of 2008 season – In September 2006, 22-year-old Jon Lester was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Three months later, doctors pronounced him cancer-free and he became an unlikely face to associate with The Jimmy Fund, the long-time children’s cancer charity that has become synonymous with the Red Sox. Lester went 4-0 in 12 starts the following year, winning the final game of Boston’s World Series sweep of Colorado. But his starts were excrutiating to watch, routinely lasting five innings and 100 pitches.
Fast forward to 2008 and #31 was a different person, posting a 16-6 record with a 3.21 era. He showed two important ‘ity’s: velocity (consistently mid-to-high 90s) and durability (210 innings). But if there was one start that stood out, it was his May 19th no-hitter against Kansas City, the 18th no-no in Boston history. The emotion shared between coach Terry Francona and Lester post-game was as raw and real as you get in this day and age. In a season where Josh Beckett struggled with control and Daisuke Matsuzaka struggled with respect, Lester became the ace Boston needed and brought his heroic story full-circle.
6) Tom Brady out for entire 2008 season – The second Tom Brady didn’t pop right back up from Bernard Pollard’s tackle, we knew something was wrong. Our miracle man, our Joe Montana, our quarterback was hurt and the season of the Patriots went into the hands of some other guy we barely knew. We hoped that Brady would come back, that he’d be wearing that damn boot for a few weeks and then be ready to throw some bombs to Randy Moss just like old times. But that never happened thanks to a torn MCL and ACL and Brady faded away to some address in California to get surgery and rehab.
Can Brady can come back as good as he was before? Will he be a Daunte Culpepper or Carson Palmer? Will he be in the position to throw 50 TD’s again? Can Tom Brady be Tom Brady? On that September day, the cocoon of success Patriots fans have enveloped themselves in was ripped open and we were all treated to a glimpse of the way things used to be. In less than eight months, we’ll see how things will be. Your guess is as good as mine on how that’ll turn out.
5) The MVP season of Dustin Pedroia – Out of all the positions in baseball, second base is the one that is starting to emerge as a place to look for offensive output. Chase Utley, Dan Uggla, Brandon Phillps and Ian Kinsler are showing that it’s not only shortstops that can be regarded for their ability to swing the bat. Last season, Boston got in on that mix with a prospect that wasn’t highly regarded by anyone else but themselves. He hit .317, scored 86 runs and drove in 50 on his way to earning AL Rookie of the Year honors. No one expected what would happen in his sophomore season.
The 5’7″ West Coast kid finished second in the AL with a .326 average, slugging 17 homers and driving in 83. He ranked 1st in the league with 118 runs, 213 hits and 54 doubles. He started the All-Star game for the first time and won his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards. He became only the third player to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in consecutive seasons (Cal Ripken, Ryan Howard) and became the first second baseman to win the award in almost 50 years.
To top it all off, the team bought out some arbitration years and signed Pedroia to a six-year, $40.5 million contract. In a year where David Ortiz was not David Ortiz and despite the Manny Ramirez circus, Pedroia went out day after day and did his job, even batting cleanup on occasion. Now, that’s an MVP.
4) Spygate comes to a close – By the end of the ordeal that involved football, Bill Belichick and videotapes, ‘Spygate’ became a dirty word around these parts and was uttered approximately 2 million times in a span of six months. The story that began in ’07 really got its media wings in 2008 when a former lowly assistant named Matt Walsh decided to get off the golf course in Hawaii and dig out some old tapes he had kept. Claiming he had evidence that wouldn’t make the team look good, the fires raged over what was on those tapes he had. As we know now, apparently nothing of consequence. The push to get Walsh to talk with NFL Commish Roger Goodell was its own story altogether, dragging out over months because of Walsh wanting immunity. Ultimately, it didn’t matter.
Along the way, we got too familiar with Senator Arlen Specter and writer John Tomase, one that was hell-bent on finding some further wrong-doing and the other apologizing for claiming he had a source that said the Patriots taped the St. Louis Rams’ walkthrough practice prior to Super Bowl 36. We got too familiar with analysts opining on how the Patriots cheated and what you could summise from tapes. We got a smug Belichick claiming he misinterpreted the rules. Finally, we got closure. Until compiling this list, I hadn’t thought about Spygate in months. I can’t wait to forget about it all over again.
3) The Manny Affair – Back in August of 2007, I wrote a column called Manny: The Final 14 Months. I speculated on what things would like as we rounded the bend of his final contracted season with the Red Sox, but I didn’t seen anything of this coming.
Perhaps I should have, starting with the signing of Scott Boras as his agent and Ramirez’ erratic and eccentric past. It made too much sense for everything to go awry given the particular variables involved. A massive contract, questions about desire and health and a super-agent eager to get his man out on the market and paid with a new contract all were combustible elements and boy, did they explode.
Apparently not wanting Boston to pick up the two $20 million options, Ramirez either did or didn’t do yeomans work in attempting to sabotage that decision. Among the highlights: shoving traveling secretary Jack McCormick after the denial of his game-day request for 16 tickets in Houston, a televised dugout scuffle with Kevin Youkilis, his two-game sit-out due to knee ‘injuries’ (which knee was it again?) and the subsequent MRIs that showed nothing, the public comments on ownership and everything else that encompassed the final few months of the Manny being Manny era.
And just when we thought he’d be here to stay, the announcement was made that ManRam was dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-way trade involving the Pirates. He made nice with the L.A. media, said he loved it there and hoped he would stay, much like we thought he would. He tore up the National League’s pitching and helped the Dodgers make the postseason, much like we thought he would. And last week, the free agent Ramirez began to whine about retirement because he’s not getting the offers he expected…much like we thought he would.
2) New England carries undefeated season into Super Bowl, get upset by NY Giants – The stage was set for the coronation of the king, but somebody forgot to tell the New York Giants. The improbable became reality and as Michael Strahan, Plaxico Burress and Tom Coughlin celebrated amidst the confetti and adulation, the Patriots and their legion was left wondering exactly what the hell happened on that Arizona field.
It was a season that seemed too good to be true: an offense led by Brady, Randy Moss, Wes Welker and others that sits among the greatest of all time, a defense led by last-chance veterans mixed in with emerging talent and a coach that had gone 3-for-3 in previous Super Bowls and seemed hell-bent on revenge for Spygate. But in the week leading up to the game, everything began to disintegrate. It started with the questions about Tom Brady’s ankle and escalated with all of the questions that had to be answered about supposedly filming a walkthrough practice prior to Super Bowl 36.
After the game began, it was a lot tighter and tougher than people expected. The Giants defense swallowed the Patriots’ offensive line whole and the storied offense sputtered. But Brady connected with Moss like he did all season and with 2:42 left, the Patriots had the lead and trusted their defense to shut the Giants down. Alas, it was not to be and fans will always wonder what might have been if Asante Samuel and Brandon Meriweather had made those interceptions, if Rodney Harrison could have swatted down that pass to David Tyree and if Eli Manning had fallen down after having his jersey nearly ripped off while scrambling. As New England fans found out, coronations aren’t guaranteed and neither are perfect seasons.
1) Celtics renew rivalry with Lakers, defeat LA in six games to win 17th World Championship – There was a time when the Boston Celtics were among the most respected franchises not just in basketball, but in sports. The team had won a record 16 World Championships, taking home a record eight straight from 1959-1966. After establishing a big three of Hall-of-Famers Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale in the 1980s, glory returned to the hallowed Boston Garden, earning titles in 1981, 1984 and 1986. Since that last title, the luck of the Irish began to fade away with the deaths of Len Bias and Reggie Lewis, failed draft picks and a general malaise that befit a once-proud franchise.
Things couldn’t have got any lower following a 24-58 record in ’06-’07 when expectations of drafting Greg Oden or Kevin Durant evaporated with the pull of a lottery ball that said #5 on it. Who knew that would be the catalyst for what would happen next? First, the team made a trade for shooter Ray Allen that was grumbled about because of his ankle surgeries, followed up by not taking ‘no’ for an answer and pulling off a huge deal for power forward Kevin Garnett. For the first time in a long time, Paul Pierce had playmakers around him and there was cautious optimism over what this new Big Three could do.
What they did was spectacular. Garnett’s intensity was off the charts and the TD Banknorth Garden went from a hospital atmosphere to a raucous atmosphere. The Celtics started the year 26-3 and were the beast of the Eastern Conference with a 66-16 mark, their best since the ’85-’86 title year. After hard-fought series with new rivals Atlanta and Cleveland and a six-game victory over Detroit, it was time to renew their long-time rivalry with the Los Angeles Lakers. It was David Stern’s dream come true.
Closing it out at home in six games, the final 131-92 blowout gave us time to reflect on what we had seen the entire season. A team went from horrendous to top of the world in a year’s time, fueled by three players who set their egos aside and just went out to win. Danny Ainge’s drafting brilliance came through as homegrown talent like Leon Powe, Rajon Rondo and even Glen Davis played big roles.
A region that wanted to believe was suddenly revived and the Celtics joined the Red Sox and Patriots as contenders in the market. Most importantly, they established an expectation level that fans should come to expect the Celtics to be competitive from here on out. In other words, no more 24-58 seasons.
The Celtics made basketball matter in Boston again and that’s why they’re the top Boston sports story for 2008.
>Top Boston sports stories: #11-20
Josh Nason – josh [at] smallwhiteball [com] – is the publisher and main writer of Small White Ball, an all-encompassing sports blog that began in 2007. You can also read on mixed martial arts, boxing and pro wrestling at brother site RopesRingandCage.com. If you’re using any part of this post, please link back to http://www.smallwhiteball.com. Thank you!

Labels: boston bruins; top 10 boston sports stories of 2008, boston celtics, Boston Red Sox; New England Patriots, Kevin Garnett; David Ortiz, Paul Pierce; Tom Brady