Should a special teams guy be in the Football Hall of Fame? Yes. And it should be this guy. Matthew Slater is as good a football player as we’ve ever seen. Listed as a wide receiver on the roster, Slater has one career catch, and yet he has been an absolutely indispensable leader on three Super Bowl championship teams in Foxboro. There’s a reason he’s made the Pro Bowl eight times. He changes games with his coverage of punts and kicks, dictating field position in a way few ot

I was hoping to have a few more weeks before getting to TB12. I was hoping this last Patriots team with him at the helm would be able to find a little more smoke and a few more mirrors to hide their deep flaws and make one last run at the mountaintop. I was hoping Tom Brady would end his career like Bill Russell did, bullying his aging body and mediocre team to one last improbable title. I was hoping the balloons would stay in the rafters at the Forum. I was hoping for a fair

I never saw Cousy play, of course. He retired from professional basketball when my parents were sophomores in high school. My first exposure to The Cooz was in his capacity as a TV announcer for Celtics games alongside Tommy Heinsohn when I was a kid. His gravelly gravitas (and merciless Boston accent) was a tonic for Tommy's homer hyperbole. Later, I began to learn more about Cousy's singular career. He was the first great point guard in NBA history, leading the league in as

When I was a kid, long before the advent of the Boston Sports Millennium, we had to search out the bright spots of our fandom. One of these was Andre Tippett. A ferocious pass rusher who would eventually - and rightfully - make his way into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Tippett was an outside linebacker in the mold and class of Lawrence Taylor, Rickey Jackson, and Derrick Thomas. During his eleven seasons with the Patriots he recorded 100 sacks, was a five-time Pro Bowler, a

2020 is certain to be a year of tension and conflict as our national political drama builds. For a brief daily diversion, I’ll be posting a profile of a New England sports figure who I rooted for as a kid, who my kids root for now, or who I’ve enjoyed reading about from the past. As I thought about where to start this project, my mind kept turning back to my first favorite player. When I was nine or ten in the mid-eighties and just starting to watch sports with any awareness,