* If you’re the manager or coach of one of the Boston pro teams these days, perhaps it’s best not to buy any green bananas.
The Patriots’ decision to “part ways” with legendary coach Bill Belichick means that Alex Cora is now the longest tenured of the group — and that’s true even if you start the clock with his rehiring after the 2020 season. Both Jim Montgomery and Joe Mazzulla are both halfway through their second seasons, while new Patriots coach Jerod Mayo will be formally introduced later this week.
All of which seems very different than, say, 15 years ago when championships were being won with regularity, the champagne was always flowing and Belichick, Terry Francona, Doc Rivers and Claude Julien looked like they were lifers in town.
Eventually, of course, the bell tolls for everyone. The shelf life for managers/coaches seems shorter than ever, with more money at stake and expectations adjusted accordingly.
Even Cora, who is revered by ownership, may have a relatively short leash. Two straight last-place finishes will do that. It’s hard to imagine he could survive a third, especially since that would require an extension. And even if he does survive, he could well elect to pursue free agency. Craig Counsell put himself on the open market last fall and landed a five-year deal that pays him $8 million per season — or, about three times what Cora is currently earning.
Cora has a ring, and Counsell doesn’t. Think Cora hasn’t considered that and assessed his options?
* The decision by the Red Sox to scuttle the “Town Hall” portion of the next week’s Winter Weekend in Springfield can’t come as a surprise. Last January, principal owner John Henry, team president Sam Kennedy and then chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom were hooted and razzed by fans in attendance, though NESN later edited out much of the negative reaction in its rebroadcast.
If only the team spent much as energy and time on improving the roster this winter as it did studiously avoiding contact with its paying customers.
* I’m not sure we’re appreciating David Pastrnak enough. Not only is Pastrnak obviously an elite goal scorer, with 86 goals in the last season and a half, but he’s also made himself into a more responsible two-way player. The giveaways are down from a season ago — though, as with all other scorers, he’s going to have more than the average player because of time on ice and the amount of times he handles the puck — and he’s a far better player in his own end than he once was.
Add in his somewhat zany personality, and his penchant for interesting fashion choices, and it feels like Pastrnak should be an ever bigger star than he already is.
* Seems like there was plenty of dysfunction at One Patriot Place in recent seasons: secret succession plans, plenty of infighting, and various factions working against one another. No surprise, then, that the team’s play on the field reflected that behind-the-scenes chaos. As that noted pigskin philosopher Leo Tolstoy once wrote: “Happy (teams) are all alike; every unhappy (team) is unhappy its own way.”
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* Without Brandon Carlo, Linus Ullmark and Matt Poitras for the foreseeable future, Montgomery has his work cut out for him. So far, Montgomery has proven to have all the answers — in the regular season, that is. This stretch may well be his toughest test yet behind the bench.
* As seemed inevitable last spring when it was first publicized, the NFL’s decision to farm out a playoff game to a streaming service is not going over well, and the outcry grew louder as the kickoff drew closer. Sports fans long ago made peace with the fact that some of the biggest games would be shown on cable only, but moving Saturday’s Miami-Kansas City game to Peacock is a whole other level of avarice and greed.
The fact that 96 out of the top 100 TV telecasts in 2023 were NFL games wasn’t enough for the league — they couldn’t resist the additional $110 million payout from NBC to show the game where only a small percentage of fans can watch. The league is proverbially “too big too fail,” but that sure doesn’t stop it from making disastrous PR mistakes like this one.
* The footage showing Nick Saban being escorted to his car in an otherwise empty parking lot, behind a guarded gate, by two Alabama state troopers, should be shown on an endless loop on America’s Funniest Home Videos. This was a football coach leaving the workplace, not a head of state navigating through a war zone. Talk about self-importance.
* I forget: who appointed Tony Dungy the Unofficial Conscience of the NFL? Dungy’s moralizing long ago became tiresome. He was convinced that the league would implode if a player came out as gay, but was only too happy to throw his support behind Ray Lewis, implicated in a double murder. Now, Dungy is railing against Taylor Swift, claiming that most NFL fans are “disenchanted” because Swift’s relationship with Travis Kelce is unfairly “taking away from what really happens on the field.”
Yup, the NFL is really scuffling, coach. Save the holier-than-thou schtick for the pulpit, please.
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* Pet peeve of the week: fans who feel the need to pound on the plexiglass at hockey games. This proves….what? Even watching on TV, the resulting noise is highly grating. Can’t imagine what it would be like sitting next to that fan in-person.
* So much for that undefeated home season for the Celtics.
* Movie recommendation of the week: Anatomy of a Fall, a French-made courtroom thriller that will have you sucked in from the opening minutes.
* The Red Sox continue to guard the identity of their third base coach like it’s some state secret. A month before pitchers and catchers report to Fort Myers, the Red Sox refuse to reveal their complete coaching assignments for the upcoming season, even though any changes will be internal.
* Lastly, condolences to family and friends of Joe Giuliotti, who passed away Friday. Giuliotti was a giant in our business and covered both the Bruins and Red Sox in his long career with the Boston Herald. He was a newspaper man’s newspaper man — old school to the end, armed with great news instincts and endless contacts throughout the game. I’ll never forget how he welcomed a young reporter to the beat and unselfishly showed him how the job should be done. RIP, old friend.
