Patriots Blues

For the umpteenth week in a row, the New England Patriots could not put together 60 solid minutes of football. The defense was okay, but failed to come up with big stops when needed, such as on the 4th and 5 play in the forth quarter when Charles Clay escaped a tackle on a screen pass to get the first down and keep the drive going (I’ll give credit where credit is due, that was a very nice play). It’s blatantly obvious that this defense is not a very good unit without Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo and Tommy Kelly in the middle. While guys like Joe Vallano, Isaac Sopoaga and Chris Jones have given their maximum effort all year and been suitable replacements, it is clear that they have a disadvantage when it comes to their front seven against almost any line in the league. They continue to show that they can’t stop the running game, and therefore almost any quarterback in the league can torch the secondary for big gains (ie. Jason Campbell, Case Keenum, Geno Smith). Essentially, there is mediocrity across the entire roster and Tom Brady’s career is just sand in the hour glass being wasted by a lack of personnel. 

Image courtesy of ESPN.com

Tom Brady is 36 years old right now. Time is of the essence, and while the Pats still have this gift from the Gods, we as fans should be outraged at the Patriots’ inability to put some solid players around him. The depth at the wide receiver and tight end position coming into this season was already am absolute joke, and it seems the entire organization and fan base was banking on Gronk to come in and save the day. When he was on the field this offense was clearly much better than when he was not on the field, but in the NFL you need to have more depth. At wide receiver, the starters from this past game against Miami were Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman and Josh Boyce who stand 5’ 11”, 5’ 10”, and 5’ 11”, respectively. This is a joke, in my opinion. I am aware that Dobson and Thompkins are hurt, who are 6’ 3” and 6’ 1”, respectively, as well as Gronk who is 6’ 7”, but the lack of size at the wide receiver position is definitely a concern. 

On the subject of the offensive struggles... WHY ARE WE NOT RUNNING THE BALL?? Especially in the redzone, where our lack of size without Gronk is blatantly apparant. We all know Ridley has had his fumbling issues, but c’mon Bill and Josh you gotta give the guy a chance. He’s the best runner we have, in terms of down hill running and making guys miss. Their offense takes on a different element when he’s out there, especially when he’s running the ball in the way he’s capable of. Blount can not do some of the things that Ridley can do on the field. We need Stevan Ridley down the stretch Bill, let the dude play!

The offensive line is a big issue right now. Tom has been hit far too often this year, especially in the past couple games. He hasn’t had enough time in the pocket to let the plays develop in the way they’re supposed to. The loss of Volmer was fixable, but losing Solder is a whole bigger problem. He has had two head injuries in a matter of a week, along with some type of lower body injury he was working on with trainers before the game. If they lose Solder for an extended period of time, that is a big problem for this offense as he has been one of the best tackles in the league this year and a huge (literally) piece of this offensive line. 

Basically what I’m trying to say is that this team is in a lot of trouble, to put it bluntly. They’re not getting to the Super Bowl, and they would be very lucky to get to the AFC Championship game at this point given the injury situation and lack of personell The NFL is all about match ups, and Bill has his hands full trying to make match ups that will go in his teams favor.

What In The World is Going on? (Patriots Talk)

Hey Everybody,

As most of you know, I was born and raised in the Boston area and therefore I am bound to be a fan of the Boston sports teams for all eternity. For some it sounds like it would be easy to root for teams who all have had so much success in the past years, respectively. However that is not the case recently. 

Being a Boston sports fan this week has sucked, to put it lightly. First the Bruins lost in game 6 by giving up two goals in 17 seconds, then Doc Rivers bolted for Los Angeles, and of course the Aaron Hernandez debacle.

Thanks for the Memories, Doc.

Patrice=Warrior 

                                       

Let's start off with what seems to be the number one issue in the news over the past 2 weeks or so, Aaron Hernandez. I have been following this situation since it was reported that there was a body found near Hernandez's home almost 2 weeks ago. I don't think I'm alone when I say that watching the whole situation unfold in front of our very eyes has been enticing to watch, yet so agonizing knowing this guy is so young and has so much damn talent on the gridiron. 

AHH Shit I forgot about that!

When this story first broke, we didn't really know all that much about Hernandez's past. 

However, now everything is starting to come to the surface: his friends with gang associations, past crimes (he shot a dude in the face, how did we not hear about this? BREAKING: Just got a notification he is being investigated in a double shooting in Boston, guess things can get worse for him) and his tough upbringing in Bristol, Connecticut where his father died when he was 16, which affected him deeply. 

I guess once the media gets their hands on a story, or a man (figuratively) they won't stop until every little drop of juice is squeezed out of it for the public to quench their unsatisfiable thirst for drama, particularly among those few who are deemed "celebrities" such as Aaron Hernandez. 

Along from the fact that Hernandez was just charged with first degree murder along with 5 other charges, the Patriots released him swiftly after he was arrested. From a football perspective, that is not exactly helping the Patriots.  

With Gronk coming off four forearm surgeries and a back surgery in the offseason, I'm not expecting him to be start the season which is pretty much the general consensus I'm hearing from a lot of people who know a lot more than I do. Hopefully Gronk can come back in good shape and help this offense out ASAP. 

With that being said, the New England Patriots will be playing football this year, with or without Gronk and Hernandez. 

So what does this mean for the Patriots? 

No Welker, Gronk or Hernandez, not to mention Brandon Lloyd and Danny Woodhead are gone too... Well, we still have some hope in Foxborough ladies and gents because Tom Brady is still the quarterback and Bill Belicheck is the master of puppets controlling things. With those two at the helm, I wouldn't count the Patriots out just yet. 

The big question most fans have is who will Tom Terrific throw the ball to?

The fact is that Tom Brady can make anyone a Pro Bowl receiver because that's just how good he is. While the Patriots appear to lack weapons, ask yourself when has that ever stopped them before? In 2001, our best receivers were Troy Brown and David Patten. In 2003 and 2004, Deion Branch, Kevin Faulk and David Givens were the main receivers of Brady's passes.

First and foremost, for our offense to be successful this season Danny Amendola must be productive and stay healthy, a problem that has nagged him his whole career. That applies to Julian Edelman as well, who I believe will have a career season this year filling the role of Wes Welker. Donald Jones and Michael Jenkins will also play key roles in the receiving corps this season. Look for Aaron Dobson, the rookie out of Marshall to step up and make some plays. 

What also needs to happen in order for this team to make a run in the playoffs is a change of attitude going into every game. There must be a certain physicality and toughness on both sides of the ball for this team to win the Super Bowl. No longer are the days of the high flying, throw the ball around, finesse Patriots team. This team must come into each game wanting to physically dominate and destroy their respective opponent. 

The running game has to continue to build on what they produced from last year, where they were 7th in the league in rushing. With Stevan Ridley, Shane Vereen, Leon Washington, Branden Bolden and Lagarette Blount, (solid pick up that flew under the radar) in the backfield I have faith that they can take the pressure off Tom Brady to win games.  

The defense must to continue and improve as a unit from last season, where they ranked 29th in opponents passing YPG and 9th in opponents rushing YPG. What this defense thrives on is forcing turnovers as shown by their 20 INTs and 32 forced fumbles during the season. The acquisition of Aqib Talib had a great impact for them down the stretch of the season and the unit clearly improved when he was on the field, and I believe it cost them the AFC Championship game against Baltimore when he went down with a hamstring injury in the first quarter. To have that kind of defender that is able to man up on the number one receiver is huge for this defense because it allows the pass rush time to create pressure on the quarterback; part of the reason the Patriots forced so many turnovers last season was in part because of the addition of Talib and the flexibility he allows Belicheck with respect to play-calling. 

Also, notice all the off season drama that has surrounded the Patriots has been on the offensive side of the ball. On the low, the defense has quietly been improving this off season with most the attention on the offense. There is a whole lot of young talent to be excited about in that unit, and I'm anxious to see what Belicheck and his staff has up their cut off sleeves. 

Interesting tidbit, out of the 38 defensive players on the roster right now only five players are 30 years or older, Adrian Wilson, Steven Gregory, Vince Wilfork, and new comer Tommy Kelly. So the good news is our defense appears to be pretty set for a while.

Patriots fans, it's OK... Breath, relax... Inhale... exhale... 

Repeat after me: The Patriots will be OK. 

Admittedly, I have had my doubts about the Pat's in the past before, but have no fear, Belicheck is here. The truth is as long as Belicheck is coach and Tom Brady is the quarterback, we have a pretty good chance to win at least 10 games, make the playoffs, and make a run at the Lombardi. 

What has to change for the Patriots is their style of play. We can't put every game on Tom Brady's right arm anymore, that won't work now. He's 35 years old, and not getting any younger, and he doesn't have Randy Moss walking through that door anymore. We need to give it to Stevan Ridley, establish the run game, play some power, smash mouth football, control the clock and keep our defense off the field, and let Brady throw the ball when he feels necessary. 

To go back to my original point, it's a terrible situation for the families of Odin Lloyd and Aaron Hernandez, and I send my prayers to both families. Aaron Hernandez was a hell of a player with a lot of talent and probably could have been a special player in this league had he stayed healthy and out of trouble, but he didn't and that's why the Patriots cut ties with him. They don't need anyone, especially arrogant thugs like Hernandez. Everyone in that organization and locker room is a part of this well-oiled machine that has been running beautifully, for the most part, for the better part of this century. They will win games (enough to make the playoffs? YES) and they'll also lose games, and they'll recover from those losses and move on. That's what the Patriots do: they move on, like that girlfriend you wish you never let go. This team has shown to be resilient in the past, and I expect no less from them this season.

Thanks for reading, 

-RB

For my Dad.

Hey Everybody,
First off, I want to say Happy Father's Day to all the amazing fathers out there. I've been thinking today about my father, who passed away about 5 years ago when I was in 8th grade. He had a blog as well, called Bourland.com, which definitely helped inspired me to get into blogging and writing. My mom says that I have his writing voice, which is a good thing I suppose. So I'm not going to write a whole big blog post because I need to go help make dinner for my family and I'm visiting my Dad's grave but I just want to make it quick for my readers:
Always appreciate your family and support system around you, because when you struggle and you might be feeling a little bit down, that's who you need to rely on. Treasure your time with them, because you really never know what's going to happen in life.

To my dad (Because I know he has a Macbook and is reading this in heaven),
Thank you for raising me and instilling your values and morales in me, you helped me get to where I am today. Thank you for coming to my baseball games and football games in the cold and heat, and supporting me through it all. Love and miss you.

Now go spend time with your loved ones..
Thanks for reading,
-RB

How can you not love these Bruins?

Hey everyone,


Bruins fever has officially taken hold on most of New England and boy, it is infectious. You really don't have to know all that much about hockey to appreciate what this team has done, which is kind of what makes this team so awesome to watch. Everyone from the casual fan to the diehard 40 year old beer league hockey veterans to some teenage girl who hasn't watched a minute of hockey before in her life can truly watch and love what the Bruins have been doing this post season.

It all started with the Boston marathon bombings and the tragedy that shook the city, both literally and figuratively, in each of our hearts. I was actually in Boston on that beautiful Patriots Day. I was just coming back from the Redsox game where they won on a walkoff double by Mike Napoli on the way back to my car with my mom and stepdad when I heard two loud sounds off in the distance. When we got in the car and turned on the radio, we heard that there had been explosions at the finish line of the Boston marathon and within 10 minutes, they were saying it was a bombing. Naturally, I was rocked to my core... this was my city, and no one was going to fuck with it. As Big Papi said so beautifully... "This is our fucking city". Admittedly, I was a little scared as well, I have been going into Boston on Patriots Day to watch the Redsox game and marathon for a couple years now and to have that tradition robbed of it's innocence angered me as well as frightened me. Safe to say that's how many Bostonians felt that day.

Then the Bruins game came along vs the Sabres, and some sense of normalcy returned to the city of Boston.


I still get goosebumps whenever I watch that video, because it truly was our city coming together as one and despite all the hardships we had faced, we were still blaring our national anthem with pride in our hearts. And even though the Bruins lost that game, they sure as hell battled with that same pride the fans showed in the pre-game anthem.

Fast forward to Game 7 versus the Toronto Maple Leafs where the B's were down 4-1 and appeared to be on their way to the golf course. However, bit by bit they fought back. With that same resiliency we the Bostonian people showed just a couple months earlier, they battled back and won the game and series. They showed heart, and finally got their offense going in the latter stages of the game when they needed to. It truly was classic Boston. Since that moment they have been truly playing some great hockey, in the process they made a mockery of the Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins; which was arguably the most talented team in the NHL all year.

Now here we are in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks, with 2 games in the books and a combined 4 overtimes played, we have a pretty good idea of how this series will play out... A grind it out, physical, low scoring series appears to be imminent, which is perfect for the Bruins. They have the offensive firepower to score 4 or 5 goals, yet the defensive prowess and toughness to grind out a low scoring game. Both these teams are tough, but the Bruins are on another level: They are Boston Strong. Bruins in 7.

Thanks for reading,
Go Bruins.

-RB

Moving Forward...

Hey everybody,

As of right now it is 12:00 midnight, which means one thing: a new day. But today is not just any ordinary day, today will be an extraordinary day. Today, I graduate from high school and get ready to officially embark on a new journey that will take me to God knows where. 

What I do know is that I will be attending University of Alabama in the fall, and I will fly down for orientation next week, register for classes, meet new people, and yet again turn the page on a chapter in my life.

For starters, let me summarize my latest "chapter" of my life:
I was never supposed to attend North Andover High School, that was never in the discussion for me. Even in 6th grade my parents had me looking at private schools for high school. At the time I was in the Andover school system, so I would have been going right to Andover High, which never much appealed to me.

Long story short I ended up at Tilton School where I enjoyed 3 years of school, met some great people, had different experiences, some good and some bad. I made some mistakes, however, and was forced to leave Tilton, and ultimately wound up going to NAHS.

I can still remember the first time I walked into NAHS, I actually got lost trying to find the locker room for football (I was late too, classic Roger move). Nervous, excited, scared were probably the three main things I felt right then. Everything I had heard about public high school was negative, and I hadn't quite experienced anything like it.

The first kid I met at North Andover High School was Glen Hartford, and my first thought of him was here's Mr All American a classic jock, probably can't even read but he's a sick linebacker or something. I'll never forget it, he came up to me and shook my hand (almost broke it), introduced himself and asked me what position I played, to which I replied nervously, "Oh, um outside linebacker and tight-end" and he said "Same here, glad to have you on the team." That's kind of when I knew I had no chance of starting... Haha.

I had no clue what the hell I was doing for the first couple weeks, so Coach Van Horn just told me to follow Glen since we played the same positions (Van Horn also told me to move to defensive end, so I did). Obviously after watching him for a little bit I knew he had talent and could play some football. What I didn't realize right away was how good of a kid he was. Never once did I get a sense of arrogance from Glen, and he truly was Mr All American. This attitude spread through out the team as well, and I've never really seen a more humble, hard working group of guys like that team. We had fun, but we worked hard, and most importantly we were really a team. Although we didn't have the best season in terms of wins and losses, I loved being a part of that squad because we never gave up and we worked our asses off.

That football team, to me is a microcosm of this town and school. I came into this year not knowing what to expect and reluctant about having to go to a public high school. What I gained from this whole experience is a knowledge that I'll carry with me forever. And it's not the type that you learn in math or science class. Rather this knowledge is simply how to be a good person overall, and how to be a functioning member of a community. Whether that community is a team, school, office, dorm: whatever the case may be, the criteria is always the same: Be respectful, courteous, and willing to work hard for others. My classmates and teammates this year were all of these things, and for that, I thank you. Right now I can safely say that I am a better person because of all the experiences that have happened in the past year, and everyone kind of contributed to that.

I've made some great friends, had different experiences, good and bad, but in the end I'm a better person and I'm ready for the next chapter in my life. I truly hope you feel the same way I do, Class of 2013, because I believe each and every one of us has the potential to do some great things in this world.

I'll truly miss y'all, and I wish I got to know some of you better.

Thank you all...

Good Knight (See what I did there?)

Thanks for reading,

-RB

Thoughts on Hangover 3, the Movies, and our society

Hi Everybody,

Last night, I went to the movies to see Hangover 3 with one of my buddies and to be completely honest with you, I hated every second of it. The movie itself was a complete disaster, and I highly recommend that nobody waste his or her money on seeing it because it was garbage. Also, the whole movie going experience just sucked in every way possible. This experience really validated my reasons I have for not going to the movies. Let me explain…

So first off, we arrive at the Loop and there is literally no parking anywhere to be found. We had to drive around for 15 minutes before we finally got a spot in the back of the theater about 2 football fields away from the entrances. Walking into the theater was like walking into a zoo, I mean literally there had to be at least 500 people in that main lobby. As a guy that just really doesn’t like people for the most part, I hate that shit, I can’t stand big crowds full of loud and obnoxious people, because it makes me lose faith in humanity. After making our way through the mass of people we finally get to the ticket line, and the line is 30 people long at least, with only 2 people working the ticket stands. At this point I’m saying “Yea let’s just be out and go home instead,” but no instead we wait 20 or so minutes in line to get a ticket. When I finally get my chance to purchase a ticket, I almost had spontaneous heart attacks… one because the tickets were $12.50 (ridiculous) and two because I lost my debit card somehow in this whole shit show and I only had a $10 bill with me. Luckily my friend had some money he could lone me, so I was good there.

After we get our tickets my friend goes to get some food and a drinks, and while he was willing to wait in a 10-minute line and pay $5 for shitty artery clogging popcorn and an overpriced sugary chemical liquid in a cup, I was not and went into the theater to get seats. I got my ticket stub ripped and started walking down the hall. As I was looking around, more specifically at the floor, I noticed the floors were covered with popcorn.  Literally everywhere I looked there were remains of kernels or flattened pieces of popcorn. That annoyed me, like really no one in this goddamn place has a vacuum? So I go into the theater, up the stairs and 2 couples are making out right there in the back row, tongue and everything. Wow that was like the universe saying BOOM! IN YOUR FACE! You’re single! I hate PDA, btw, lol. (See what I did there?)

I made my way past the land of the babbling idiots, the line of agony, the food concessions of obesity, the dreadful floor of flattened popcorn, the awkward PDA couples, and I’m finally in my seat, ready to watch a movie and relax. This movie is gonna be pretty funny, I thought to myself... Just sit back and enjoy it. Boy was I wrong. Well the problem is that we were pretty early to the movie. Usually when you’re early to a movie they play some stupid trivia game hosted by some no name host with corny one liners who can’t act or do anything to amuse you. Apparently that’s not how it works anymore. As I’m sitting there waiting for this movie to start, there was a never-ending flow of advertisements being force fed to this audience of people who seemed mesmerized by each of the ads, almost appearing to be hypnotized.

Doritos, Taco Bell, Pepsi, Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Old Spice: those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head, all had ads promoting their products.

What I actually saw on the screen was not good advertising in any sense, and it blew my mind because I realized what advertisements are all about at their core nowadays: mind control and propaganda.

See, if you step back and take a look at our world and our society right now, everything is essentially fed to us through media outlets: TV, internet, newspaper, Twitter, magazines. What do all of these media outlets have in common? Advertisements. Ads with these preconceived ideas that are force fed and drilled in your head constantly. They all say look this way, dress like this, drink this, eat that, or you won’t be cool. That’s really all ads are about now; trying to promote being “cool” and to fit in with what these companies WANT you to think is the normal way to be, or the normal way to think or look like.

They want you to feel less beautiful because you maybe aren’t as good looking as Meagan Fox, or not as handsome because you’re not Bradley Cooper. But in reality, these people, these celebrities, are just as real as Santa Claus. They are figments of our imagination, made out to look like “perfection”. Well let me tell you something, there is no such thing as perfection.

What I’m really trying to say is this: Don’t be a victim of the society we live in now. Most of the time the information you see or hear is false or distorted in some way, especially on the Internet and anything involving Hollywood stars. Advertisements are made for people to feel like they’re not good enough in some way, unless they have this product. Well let me tell you something… Every single one of you is awesome, and however you are made up is how you were meant to be. God didn’t put you on this earth to be a copy of everyone else, you were put on this earth so you can be yourself, to grow into your own person, think your own thoughts and live your own life.

This whole world the media and Hollywood creates for people is fake; a bullshit portrayal of what reality is. People who are reading this: stay real, stay true to yourself, and don’t let anyone or anything think you’re less than what you are.

Oh yeah back to my original point:

·      Movie theaters are shitty

·      Hollywood is just a bunch of schemers

·      Illuminati is setting their plans for total world domination in motion as we speak, and they are trying to program us through the internet, movies and TV so whatever controversy happens in Washington seems like a movie, thus distorted our view of reality.

That’s all I got. Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all the veterans who have served our country.

God Bless America.

Thank you for reading,

RB

I'm Back

Hey Everybody,

I want to first apologize for those people who actually read my blog regularly and were starting to like and follow it, when I abruptly just stopped posting a while ago. Some things needed to be worked out on my report card, so I had to set my priorities straight and focus on school rather than blogging.

But now it's third trimester of my senior year, and I'm so checked out of school at this point to be honest. I feel like a caged animal when I'm in that place... sometimes feel like yelling out "I'm A PEACOCK, YOU GOTTA LET ME SPREAD MY WINGS AND FLY BOSS" in a Mark Wahlberg voice, but I don't of course because that would be really weird. (Props if you get that reference)

Anyways, pretty much what I'm saying is that I'm back like Jordan, wearing the 45, blogging for my millions of fans across the globe. 

You're Welcome...

-RB

It Ain't Easy Bein Green (or is it?)

Hello Everybody,
Contrary to the title of this post, I am pretty happy with the state of the Celtics right now. Right now some people are fretting that Danny Ainge didn't add enough talent at the trade deadline to first, compete this year, and secondly, be competitive for years to come. Frankly, I like the strategy Ainge is using and I'm not overly concerned about this year or the up coming years. Here is my reasoning why:

First off, let's face the facts: the Boston Celtics team as assembled this year with or without Rajon Rondo, is not going to beat the Miami Heat, or even the Pacers or Knicks for that matter, in a seven game playoff series and go on to win the NBA title against: pick your poison, Spurs, Thunder, Clippers, whoever it may be.

Honestly, I like the way they're playing basketball right now. They're moving the ball much better, playing great defense, running the floor, essentially doing things that they weren't really doing with Rondo on the court. While Rondo is a great (at times, when he wants to be) player, his play at times has hurt this team. He can be a bit selfish with the ball, holding the ball until late in the shot clock before forcing a shot from 20 feet out, or driving to the lane and shooting an off balance, stupid shot. On defense, he gambles to steal and plays passing lanes too often while falling asleep in his coverage. Without Rondo, the Celtics appear to be just having fun and playing basketball the way it should be played.

When Rondo went down, I was one of the people who thought they should blow it up completely, and I mean completely. Literally, Pierce and KG, Terry, Lee, the washing machine, whatever and whoever they could get for some young talent to build for in the future. When they won that thriller against the Heat at TD Garden, my mind changed a little bit. It reminded me of the "old" Celtics of 2008 when Pierce and KG were dominant, hitting clutch shot after clutch shot, making big defensive stops, getting the crowd amped up, classic shit. And when they kept winning, my mind changed even more.

That 2007-2008 Championship team with The Big Ticket, Kevin Garnett coming to Boston along with Ray Allen to join The Truth aka Paul Pierce, my longtime favorite player, was the team got me really into the sport of basketball. I remember trying to emulate Garnett's post moves at the basketball court next to my house in the rain, snow or heat, day or night, whenever it may be, I would try to be Kevin Garnett on the court. He quickly became my favorite player and a role model to me, and was part of the reason I signed up to play basketball in seventh grade.

Now here we are in 2013, and although Garnett is still a productive player and All-Star, he is clearly not the same player he once was. And with the Celtics in a place of uncertainty and uncharted territory for many of us that follow the team, many people are ready to jump ship and hit the panic button. I've heard all the trade rumors with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, and none of them sounded appealing to me in the least bit. Garnett has been here for six years, and ever since his arrival this team and franchise changed itself completely. He has been the defensive anchor, emotional leader, and everything you could ever want in a teammate. On top of that, overall he's a helluva player and it's been a honor to watch him these past seasons.
All this can be said about Pierce as well. The difference is that he has been around since the shitty Celtics days where he literally had to put the team on his back every night if they had a small chance in hell to win. He is The Truth, a legend, and undoubtedly will have his number in the rafters of the Garden right next to Larry Bird when it's all said and done.

I'm very content with the Celtic's deadline moves, which were basically nothing. And to be honest, it would've been agonizing to see either Pierce or Garnett go to another team. Both of these men clearly bleed Celtic green, and deserve to retire as members of the Boston Celtics. I understand, basketball is a business along with all the other professional sports. But c'mon people, where's the loyalty here? Where's the love? These guys have given their heart and soul to this team, this franchise, this city, and brought the Celtics back to glory. Now you want to trade them for what? Josh Smith, Deandre Jordan, Eric Bledsoe?!? Jesus people get your heads out of your asses, these guys will NEVER EVER even hold a candle up to Garnett or Pierce, even in their "old age". Is winning right now that important where you would be more than willing to give up the two faces of the franchise for players who aren't even that great?

These two have brought the Celtics franchise back from the depths of basketball mediocrity, to the highest level a franchise can be at. While they haven't always stayed consistently at the top, they have been pretty damn close. So thank you KG and Paul for being great players, and role models to me and to tons of other fans across the region and country. The Truth and Big Ticket have stayed loyal to us the fams, through thick and thin, and we should do the same for them.

For the Love of The Game...

"You may say I'm a dreamer..."

Hey y'all,

I would like to apologize for not consistently writing on this blog lately, as you can tell from my greeting above, I just got back from Alabama where I was looking at the University of Alabama this weekend with my mom. 

I wasn't sure what to expect going into it, honestly. I guess a lot of trailer parks, white trash, in bred families, basically the part from Harold and Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay where they end up in Alabama and the redneck guy kills a dear, invites them over, and it turns out he's hiding his inbred baby that he had with his sister in the basement of the house. As hilarious as that scene was, I never experienced true hardcore redneckism quite like that when I was down there. 

First of all, one of the reasons I want to go South is for the weather. For the most part it was nice out the whole duration I was there, it got a bit chilly at times but of course it was much warmer than Massachusetts. 

Another reason I want to go South... Southern Hospitality. It's bizarre to us Mass-holes that people can actually be nice to one another, and act polite and friendly. From the time I landed in Atlanta, the whole atmosphere changed; people were like "Yes sir" or "Yes Ma'am" or "How are you today sir?". I love it. There are still good people in this world. The best was in Atlanta between our flight to Birmingham I went to Chick Fill-a to get a sandwich. I got in line and there's this nice African American lady standing in front of the fridge full of drinks enthusiastically asking people if they would like a drink, it was awesome. See I'm more of a friendly guy myself, I like to be polite and treat others with respect. That's one of the reasons I love the South, the majority of people are just respectful, polite, caring people, which is really something that's rare up in these parts. 

Anyways, so fast forward two days from me getting that Coke to the University Day at Bama. Of course they bring us to the football stadium to have lunch, just to impress us. What you have to understand is that football is literally the religion at the University of Alabama. They live, breath and die with Bama football. Every time they talk down there, they start off or end whatever they say with a "Roll Tide!". Football is the alpha and the omega, the yin and the yang, the cats pajamas, the bee's knee's... you get my point. It may seem a little ridiculous to some people, but I was looking for school spirit when I was looking at colleges. Sports, most of all football, is a huge part of my life and I want every one to share that enthusiasm. Well, it is safe to say the enthusiasm for football is extremely high at Alabama, and this did factor into my decision for college.

After walking up six flights of stairs, they brought us all to this massive room that was more like a conference center in Bryant Denny Stadium with glass windows all across the room that overlooked the football field in the north end zone of the stadium, a place called "The Zone", predictably. While we were eating our lunches, and my mom talked and talked with some strangers, I sat there mesmerized by the football field. 

I remember in seventh grade I had a writing assignment to write a short essay about my goal for the future. I have no idea where that actual paper went, or if I even salvaged a copy, but I still remember the general basis of what I said. I remember saying my goal was to play college football at the University of Florida (I had just visited the stadium, they were winning, so I liked them at the time don't hold it against me). I can remember writing about 100,000 screaming fans going crazy, running out onto the field from the tunnel, hearing the marching band, and playing football. Pretty sure I wrote that piece after a game which I recorded 10 tackles and an interception in one of my AJFL games (I'm kind of a big deal) so my confidence was pretty high at the time. That being said, I did make a goal that I wanted to play college football. So back to me staring at the field... 

In that moment, I realized how much I loved football. Not just watching it on TV or in the stands, but actually going to battle, putting on the uniform, and playing football.

Overall, my football career was up and down. In 7th grade I was pretty good, in 8th grade I sucked for the most part, freshman year I was awful, I went to preseason sophomore year and quit after five days... which to this day is the worst mistake I've made in my life, and I've made quite a few. I decided to come back and play football for my junior year. That junior season was probably my best season of my life, I stepped in for our injured captain at outside linebacker and got some pretty good time there, along with being the back up tight end to a post grad and getting some reps there. I scored my first ever touchdown that year (I was a lineman my whole career before, cut me some slack) and I was probably going to be starting both ways if I was at Tilton this season... but hey, shit happens. 

So here I am, senior season at North Andover High. New team, new system, new problems. Most of my time and energy was spent on work or reapplying to Tilton in the summer, so I came into the season out of shape. My first practice was a nightmare, for me at least. I couldn't do shit, and I hate not being able to do shit. I didn't know who anybody was, I had no friends and no idea what the plays were. I was on the verge of just leaving the team after a couple practices. Even throughout the year there were times when I wanted to just quit for good, and be done with football. I didn't get a single meaningful snap on varsity this year, which to my standards is just disappointing. I'm a perfectionist, and I'm very hard on myself which is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that it helps me to improve myself and reach my potential, a curse in that if I'm not the best at something or I'm not succeeding at whatever it is, I'll just say "Fuck it" and quit. I really wanted to help make an impact for the team, I felt I was capable of doing just that, but as the season went on I realized I wasn't going to play on friday night. Although it was frustrating I knew I needed to stay positive and not give up. Each day I thank myself and God that I had the power within myself to stick with it this year because even though I didn't get much time, I had a great experience, met some great people, and had some fun along the way. 

With all that being said, I'm not satisfied with my football career being over with right now. It's kind of a cliche that every high school player says this after their senior season is over, but my case is somewhat different. Most players get four years with the same coach, same school and same system. Me... I didn't play sophomore year, got the boot from my old school after my junior year so I had to join a new team and play catch up with the team, both physically and in terms of knowing the plays. Honestly, I'm having difficulty coming to grips with the fact that I'll never play football again. I feel I could've been a pretty good player had I just played all four years of high school in one system, be it at Tilton or at North Andover High. 

Now I'm looking onto the field at Bryant Denny Stadium, visualizing 100,000 crazy fans, the marching band playing, the Crimson Tide football team comes storming out the tunnel... and there I am, number 85 on my helmet. I go out on kickoff coverage and make a tackle at the 23 yard line, I get up, pound my chest and point to the sky for my dad. Then after a 3 and out by Auburn, we line up on offense and there I am at tight end... flanked left, the QB motions me in with a leg raise... crack block on the d end, Boom, off to the races for TJ Yeldon. Touchdown Bama! 

Then I woke up...

The whole point of this is that first and foremost, I love football. Secondly, I have dreams. Not just the dreams where you wake up at the end, but the dreams that stem from goals set long ago by a little 14 year old kid at Doherty Middle School who didn't know the reality of how difficult it is to play division one football. Football is more than a sport to me, it's a way of life. In my darkest times in my life, it's kept me out of trouble, got me through the death of my dad, and also blessed me some amazing experiences and friendships along the way. Now for the real shocker, I'm still debating whether I should try and walk on to the Alabama football team and try to pull some kind of "Rudy" story. I've been taught to never give up on your goals, no matter how ridiculous or impossible they may. So right now, I'm setting a goal for myself to get onto the football team at the University of Alabama. I want to do this for myself, to prove that I can do it, and also, for my dad, because he never, ever gave up in his life, and neither should I. If my dad could beat testicular cancer at the age of 18, survive four heart attacks, and battle death for so many years... Why can't I make a football team? (that happens to be the best in the nation and has NFL talent everywhere, but who said it would be easy?)

Where there's a will, there's a way. Through hard work, anything is possible. If I come up short, so be it, because I will know in my heart that I tried my hardest and worked for something... that is the ultimate satisfaction.

Thanks for Reading, God Bless, and Roll Tide

-RB

Super Bowl Prediction

Hello everybody,
You know I needed to post my Super Bowl prediction in my blog, of course. I need to make it fast though because I'm going out to eat for the big game. So here it goes:
I got San Fran winning in a thriller 27-24.

Frank Gore and Vernon Davis will have huge games, respectively. I got Frank Gore as the MVP of the game. This game will come down to the last second, with Kaepernick having to lead his team down the field to win in the last 2 minutes. This will go down as one of the greatest, most epic superbowls ever. I cannot wait for this game to get underway and chow down on some bomb food. But before I go I want to make my prediction on some prop bets, if you don't know what that is read this...
http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/1513628-super-bowl-xlvii-prop-bet-tracker/page/2

1. National Anthem- I got under 2 minutes 15 seconds on the national anthem, that seems like a stretch to me...
2. Super Bowl coin toss- I got tails on this one. 50/50 chance I get it right...
3. Jay Z- I got over 2 times he's shown on the broadcast.
4. Team to score first- I got the Ravens scoring first.
5. Highest number of tweets per second- over 15000, easily. I might do that singlehandedly.
6. Times called Harbaugh Bowl- over 2.5, easily.
7. Times ray Lewis mentions god in post game interviews after game- over 3. Guy is ridiculous.
8. Gatorade shower color- red. Go miners
9. Post game handshake- over 6.0 seconds. This one could get emotional.
10. Superbowl MVP thanks first-family.


Thanks for reading
Go niners!
-RB

Airborne Thoughts

Hello everybody,

Right now I’m sitting in the Atlanta airport at my gate waiting for my connecting flight to Birmingham and I have a little time so I figure I would write a little post in the meantime. For starters, I should say that I’m not a huge fan of flying. Not because I’m afraid of crashing, as the odds of that are too miniscule to even spend energy worrying about. Rather I hate flying because I’m with a bunch of strangers in a flying tin cylinder, all sharing the same oxygen, and packed in like sardines. For tall people like me, my legs always seem to be cramped even when we’re in the section with more legroom. To go with that, there’s almost no elbow room to stretch out, so I get very claustrophobic.

Other than being a bit claustrophobic and being a germaphobe, I don’t think flying isn’t that bad. It gets you from point A to point B faster than if you were to travel by car, train or boat. My favorite part of the flight is always taking off and descending. One, because it means that you’re that much closer to being OFF of the plane, and also because you get to look at the world from a completely different point of view than our usual earth-bound view.

Looking down on everything from a bird’s eye view gives you a different prospective, makes you think about things a little different, at least it does for me... What I mean is that it really puts things in prospective, it makes me realize how small we as people really are. You look down and see trees, roads, buildings, cars, trucks, all these things that humans think are huge objects are so tiny relative to everything else. We, the people that occupy this earth, are just specks, barely visible in an airplane. It’s kind of trippy to think about really… That we are actually so small and everything else is so big.

(Note: I started this in the airport, but had to finish it now. I will be posting another blog post soon…)

 

Thanks for Reading

-RB

South Park is this society, just way funnier...

Hello everybody,

Last night I was watching some TV, switching between the Celtics vs. Kings game and the Miami vs. Brooklyn game, when all of a sudden… I got really bored of watching basketball. I don’t particularly like the Nets, I despise the Heat, and the Celtics were blowing out the lowly Sacramento Kings and without Rondo the Celtics just aren’t that fun to watch anymore. My third option whenever I’m watching TV is always Comedy Central, so I turned to that to see what was on, and low-and-behold South Park is on. South Park just happens to be one of my favorite shows of all time, so of course I switched to that.

The thing that I really love about South Park is, for one it’s hilarious, outrageous, offensive, and I totally dig it. What some people don’t realize is that a lot of the time the episodes are just satirical, humorous portrayals of our culture. Some will think that South Park is just idiotic, trash mouth, adolescent humor, which actually it kind of is, but the show itself has some intelligent humor to go along with it. They don’t just make random jokes about things that the majority of people won’t understand, like Family Guy often does, rather they (the writers of the show) pick a topic out that’s relevant or controversial in popular culture and put a hilarious twist on it.

Back to the episode last night that I watched… I was excited because I hadn’t seen this episode before, since I’ve seen the majority of the episodes, I rarely see ones on TV that I haven’t seen. So I was watching it and it was hilarious, just South Park at it’s finest.

Cartman gets called fat by Kyle, so he comes to Kyle saying that he’s going to make a change about his weight and stop being such a slob and all this stuff. What does Cartman do? He gets an electrical scooter to ride around, because his insurance will pay for it. He tries to go into Kyle’s bathroom to take a dump, but his scooter doesn’t fit through the door so he threatens to sue him. The episode goes on and eventually it gets too Honey Boo Boo, whom I loathe entirely (if you get that reference, pat on the back). Basically Kyle is upset because we’re watching fat white trash on TV for our enjoyment and he wants to do something about it…

I feel like I’m kind of ruining the episode so I’m going to stop and get back to why I wanted to blog about this. While South Park may seem like mindless, nonsensical humor that just appeals to teenage boys, or stoners or any unintelligent person for that matter, it is actually quite the opposite.  For example, in this episode the topic the writers chose to base their episode around was about the growing issue of obesity in America. So what they do is just apply the issues and controversies surrounding that topic in our society, think of ways to make it funny, and of course a bit controversial, and apply it in an episode.

So, Cartman gets a scooter for free from his insurance, he gets to cut lines at amusement parks, park in the handicap spots, board airplanes first, and it’s all because he’s obese. In terms of the Honey Boo Boo references, while the writers are obviously making fun of the Honey Boo Boo show itself, it’s more like they’re making fun of US… the people, the consumers, the ones that sit and watch this fat, spoiled, white trash, wanna-be beauty queen little girl for our personal amusement.

People actually make money off of Honey Boo Boo, which is the scary thing, and they point this out in the episode as well. Kyle tries to make a documentary to raise awareness about obesity by following Cartman around with a camera and Token said he would edit the footage Kyle got, make it into a good documentary, and finance it to get on the air. Instead, Token makes the footage of Cartman funny, rather than serious, because he knows he can make money off of it. He knows it’s wrong to exploit Cartman like this, but he does it anyways. Why can he make money off the footage of Cartman? Because the bar has been lowered so far to the point where our society actually watches and enjoys shows like Honey Boo Boo.

It’s really a sad portrayal of our society…We’re the fattest country in the world, our education system is failing, we’re in a 16 trillion dollar debt which is always growing, and the ratings of TV shows like Honey Boo Boo are soaring. Honestly, I worry about what our world will be like in the future. We are really not going in a positive direction in any way right now. In terms of the actual planet Earth that we call home, we fucked this place up excuse my language. The planet is way beyond over capacitated, there is in fact a weight limit for earth and recently America just put it way over that limit. That was a joke, but seriously the earth is way too overpopulated and we don’t have the resources to support all these people anymore. The ice in the North Pole is melting, which means Santa has to find a new address along with all the elves, like c’mon man where are they going to make all the toys for Christmas now? Seriously though, there’s a reason that it’s been a bit warmer lately, with not as much snow fall, and more severe storms… Its called global warming people, why is that all of a sudden a non-issue with the people and our politicians?

See this is what happens when I start talking about the problems of our society, one thing leads to another and somehow I go from Honey Boo Boo to global warming… So right now in the interest of time because I have to do an essay that’s about a week overdue, I will make a list of all the problems with our world in order of significance…

1.     Illuminati

2.     Global Warming

3.     Cancer

4.     Overpopulation

5.     Aids

6.     Honey Boo Boo

7.     World hunger

8.     Poverty

9.     Obesity

10.  McDonalds

11.  Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian

12.  Murder

13.  Gang Violence

14.  Justin Beiber

15.  Kids with iPhones

16.  Racism

17.  Roger Goodell

18.  David Stern

19.  When a coach gets fired for discipline… (Happens everywhere nowadays, not just NA)

20.  New NFL rule changes

21.  Mass Mental Softness

22.  Mass Ignorance (is bliss, for everyone…)

23.  Mass Stupidity

24.  Mass Laziness

25.  Greed among the few, rich and powerful (see #1)

26.  The US government

27.  The debt our country is in

28.  George Bush (see 24, 26)

29.  Black Friday

30.  Biggest Loser (watching people on TV lose weight… America)

31.  Alex Rodriguez

32.  The New York Yankees

33.  The New York Jets/ Giants

34.  The Vancouver Canucks

35.  The Montreal Canadiens

36.  The fact that the Super Bowl is in New York next year

37.  New York

Ok, that’s all I got for today. That was good to get off my chest though; people need to realize that New York is a huge problem for the world, not just Boston. But seriously, all the things I named above are just things that I just hate… Now go watch South Park and notice the humor as it relates to our culture.

God Bless America.

Thanks for reading

-RB

North Andover vs Central Catholic Game Reaction

The final buzzer sounded, the scoreboard read: North Andover 58 Guests 52. The North Andover faithful stormed the court... it was absolute pandemonium and jubilation as the Knights had just knocked off the number 1 team in the state.

Let's go back way before the final buzzer sounded in this game to see where the big moments were...
Central controlled the game for most of the first half, especially on the boards, where it seemed as if they were getting every rebound and converting easy second chance looks close to the basket. The Knights were simply being physically dominated, as Central had a size advantage at almost every position, especially the guards and wings. Central lead at half time, 28-19 and heading into the 3rd quarter they started off hot, but North Andover kept battling and hanging tough with them

The real turning point of this game was a 60 foot prayer at the end of the third quarter that Derek Collins drained which cut Central's lead to 9 points, gave the fans something to cheer about, and got some momentum back with the Knights.

From that point on, the North Andover student section got louder and louder with each possession. As one of the people in the front of the crowd and a leader of chants, I was proud of the passion that our fans showed throughout the game. Although there's still some things we need to work on as a unit for next game, we were definitely a factor in the win and showed that we are MVC ready. So good job people...

Back to the action on the court... Isaiah Nelson was absolutely phenomenal this game. He ended the game with 20 points and hit big shot after big shot when the team needed him too. The biggest shot all night was a 30 foot, bank shot, 3 pointer with 39.1 seconds left in the game, with the shot clock about to expire, and the game tied up at 52. Talk about clutch, this gave the Knights the lead and after Central Catholic missed a shot on the other end and fouled Derek Collins, it was all over and the celebration started in the Crozier Gymnasium.

In the fan section, we successfully executed the classic "I Believe That We Will Win" and also the "Winning team, losing team" chant before the end of regulation. That's how you know we're MVC ready...

In case you didn't know, I was at Tilton School for 3 years before I ended up at North Andover High School. When I say to people that I went to Tilton, they usually say something along the lines of  "Oh dude that's sick did you know Nerlens/Wayne/Georges?? The basketball team is nasty right?" Well yes, the basketball team has been pretty damn good the past couple years. I've seen a lot of Tilton games over the past couple years, against some amazing competition like Brewster Academy, St Marks, New Hampton, to name a few. In the Tilton vs Brewster game last year at Brewster, which is one of my favorite games ever, literally everyone on the court was going to play division 1 basketball, there were about 2,000 or more people at that game, and it was one of the craziest games I've ever seen in person. Of course, North Andover does not have the talent that Tilton had, and Central Catholic wasn't as talented as Brewster was... That being said, tonight's game at the Crozier Gym was the best game I've ever been too. This game had it all, crazy fans, (only one side showed up, Central stayed at home because they were scared) good play on the court, the underdog storyline, there was times in the game where they looked like they were going to blow us out, but we kept fighting back. When Derek hit that 60 footer at the end of the third, when Isaiah hit that crazy bank three pointer with 39 seconds left, and when the upset was complete and I stormed the court along with the other members of the "Black Hole", the joy and excitement I got from that I've never felt before. I've seen big games before with some crazy talent on the floor, but it's not the same. The Knights showed heart, determination, commitment, passion, grit, toughness, all these things they needed to beat a talented Central Catholic team who is currently the number 1 team in Mass. They never gave up, believed in each other, and out hustled the opposition. That, to me is what you call great basketball. You don't need dunks and crazy blocks and all that, although it's not bad to watch. Basketball is basketball, sport is sport, and it all comes down to heart and who wants it more. Today, the Knights wanted it more then they did. Today, I can call myself a Knight and be proud of it.


Go Knights
-RB 


Watch these videos and get a sense of what I'm talking about above about Tilton basketball, I was at  these games and I'm saying I thought this game was better...