Much of the time, I tend to take a very Boston-centric view to the sports world. While I certainly keep up with the sports world outside of New England, there much out there that I could take or leave. The Super Bowl media hype for a game not involving the Patriots is one of those. Especially when much of the media focus seems intent on trying to compare Ben Roethlisberger to Tom Brady or trying to determine the real “team of the decade” – even though we’re firmly in a new decade by this point.
When Sunday comes, I’ll be watching the game, but until then, I’m not too interested in the coverage leading up to it. I can’t avoid it, but that doesn’t mean I’m enthralled by it.
Patriots should think outside the system – Mike Reiss does tie a Super Bowl angle to the Patriots, looking at pass rushers LaMarr Woodley and Clay Matthews, both of whom were available to the Patriots in the draft, and wonders if it is time for Bill Belichick to adjust his thinking on the position.
Twitter’s got the NFL by the tail – Tom E Curran has an interesting look at the problems that Twitter is causing for the NFL, as the league can’t control the things being tweeted by its players.
Management was so impressed with Tony “Miserable” Massarotti’s straw-man-laden Boston.com column yesterday – “Don’t Count The Lakers Out Yet” that they repackaged it and put in the Globe sports section today – “Too early to plan Celtics parade.” I’m wondering exactly who these people are who are counting the Lakers out and already planning the Celtics parade route for June.
Some, like Chris Forsberg, are writing that the Celtics the best, and getting better – but no one is saying that they are unbeatable and are a lock to win the NBA title. Gerry Callahan writes today that the Celtics are Leaving it all on floor – but he also acknowledges the possibility that the Celtics could “run out of gas and come up short of a championship.”
It’s just like Massarotti to take a very convincing and satisfying victory and do his best to discount it and make fans miserable.
Did Kevin Garnett Turn Down A Ball Boy With A Bin Laden Reference? – Deadspin.com follows up on the disappearing Tweets of J. A. Adande and Marc J Spears about KG’s treatment of a Lakers ball boy. They report:
Twitter being what it is is also what led both writers to take down the messages within minutes of being posted. We’re told that the sheer number of people retweeting the messages — thousands of them — were overwhelming the writers, making Twitter unusable. The easiest thing to do was to simply delete the Tweet and move on, the news already having been put out there.
So there you go. No misquotes, no warnings from Big Brother Stern. Just the limits of mobile technology.
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound just right to me. Adande in particular doesn’t tweet enough for this to impact his ability to use Twitter. Deleting the original message has a limited impact. If people are using a third-party twitter client – which many people do – the message is still going to appear. Most of those clients also have the ability to turn off viewing of retweets, an option that the writers could’ve used to keep on working. There was no limit of mobile technology in play here. Limited knowledge by the user, perhaps, not the technology.
Celtics aiming to keep focus – Julian Benbow has the Celtics looking to avoid a letdown in Sacramento.
Red Sox brass discuss Pedroia, Yanks, TV ratings – Sean McAdam reviews the Red Sox “town meeting” held last night. Michael Vega and Alex Speier also cover the event.
Sox just want Beckett to be Beckett – Scott Lauber says that management doesn’t want Beckett to try to do too much.
Bruins find a keeper in Steve Kampfer – Joe Haggerty examines the circumstances which led to the defenseman landing in Boston.
Bruins may shut down Marc Savard – Joe McDonald has Peter Chiarelli acknowledging that shutting down the center might be the best decision.
Boston Sports Media Watch 
Tony Mazz "supported" his argument by noting that the Celtics beat the Lakers in LA during last year's regular season, but couldn't get it done in the Finals. What Tony failed to note was that Kobe did not play in that game. Had the Patriots made it to the AFC Championship Game, I suspect that Tony would have written a column about how Pittsburgh buried the Pats at Gillete in '08 to "prove" that the Steelers could beat the Pats in Foxborough.
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Massarotti is Italian for "Felger lap dog". I use to respect the guy but he has decided to use the same schtick as Felger and always be a contrarion and claim to know more than anyone else because of that.
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Larry,
I've been laughing at this for 2 days now because it;s obvious from listening to him that Mazz has no idea Kobe didn't play in that game. He also sounds like he doesn't know the Celtics lead the league in FG% this year and are the only team shooting 50%. And since Sunday's game was the first Lakers game he saw this year, he has no idea whether they actually had their head up their asses or not. All a daily talk show has done for him is expose him as a one-trick pony. Outside of baseball he is completely clueless. It's partly why he just agrees with everything Felger says about the NFL.
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John, I think you are giving Maz too much credit. I think he is as brain dead about baseball as he is all sports.
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Should we really be tuning in to a Boston sports station and hearing that Kevin Garnett is a punk and have the hosts completely unable to argue that point? If you're going to be argumentative like Felgie, you need to back up the point with something other than the fact that you're a whiny Bucks fan. That is really the weakness of Felger and Mazz: they can not intelligently discuss the Celtics.
I'm not shocked that Mazz conveniently forget KobeJesus' absence last year… it doesn't further his point. And I would disagree that the big story was that the Lakers couldn't play defense on Sunday. I would say that the Celtics team was able to beat the Lakers because they suddenly became the Kobe Show: they're much more dangerous when Gasol, Bynum, Fisher and their bench are contributing….
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Massorotti lost all credibility with me back when he insisted that the Red Sox trade Clay Buchholz for Jarrod Saltalamacchia a couple of years ago. Remember how bad he ripped Theo and the Red Sox for NOT pulling the trigger? I'm amazed how foolish he sounds at times on 98.5. Unfortunately, I think Felger's extreme idiocy has rubbed off on him.
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At the time that would have been a good trade. In hindsight (always 20-20), it would have been a bad trade. I'm not a fan of Maz but you can't fault him retroactively.
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There are some things Felger and Mazz do well; they actually discuss the Bruins, they do make decent comments about the Sox and the Pats on occasion – but the weakness of the obsession with not "kissing the Patriots ***", being utterly unable to talk intelligently about the Celtics, and bizarre ideas like trading Bucholz – these are weaknesses on par with D and C's Obama fetish.
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I wouldn't call D&C's Obama fetish a weakness. Lots of people around here don't like him (including yours truly).
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I'll file that away with your feelings about the Bruins.
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Bruce, here's an idea for a new poll. Who is the biggest blockhead in the Boston Sports Media community. Mazz would go deep into the playoffs here.
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Mazz, as I recall, was also one of the few media people sticking up for Grady Gump after his inane managerial decisions in Game 7 of the 2003 LCS. I distinctly remember hearing him on The Big Show the following day arguing with the other hosts and belittling fans who disagreed with him (big surprise there).
He's just not very bright and he takes that fact out on his readers/listeners.
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Tony was being a giant douche bag on Monday. He used the Celtics victory as a launching point for an all-day anti KG diatribe. I tried to call in at one point, but the line was busy for a few minutes.
One thing in particular that he said that was ridiculous. KG isn't a "physical presence" therefore they were forced to sign Shaq. No one claims that KG is a big player in the paint. No one claims that he's a center. What were they going to play KG at center and start Baby?
He couldn't just say that they needed a backup center or two because Perk was injured and even with Perk they only had one with Wallace dissapointing and retiring. Or maybe he didn't understand that or maybe he just wanted to needle the fans.
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