
Confetti flies over fans as the New England Patriots parade through downtown Boston on Feb. 7, 2017, to celebrate their 34-28 overtime victory against the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl. Charles Krupa/Associated Press
Nothing lasts forever. And so this is my final column for the Portland Press Herald.
For more than 10 years, I have written about Boston sports in this space. What a time to do it. This is “The Golden Age of Boston Sports,” an unmatched stretch of success that has seen the duck boats roll along the Charles River for 13 championships since 2001.
The 2017 parade for the Super Bowl champion Patriots was held on a Tuesday, hours after a snowstorm ripped through Boston. The snow didn’t chill out fans still buzzing about the overtime victory against Atlanta, one of the most remarkable comebacks of the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady era. Bostonians were running on lots of Dunkin’, and little sleep, when the crowds started to gather.
Covering the event for NESN, I arrived early and waited for things to begin. While standing on the media platform getting ready to go live, I saw a family walk by. A young boy asked his parents if they could go stand in their usual spot. The place they always went to watch champions roll by.
I chuckled. Imagine having a “usual spot” to watch championship parades. Try telling that to football fans in Buffalo this week.
That family, a few years older, was probably back in their favorite spot to watch the Celtics after winning Banner 18 at the Garden last June. That championship run ended a “drought” of more than five years. Some local kindergartners had never witnessed a Boston championship!

Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics won the NBA title last June, giving Boston another reason to have a celebratory parade. Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
If it weren’t for the Celtics, these would be dark times. The Patriots are a mess, coming off back-to-back four-win seasons. The hope is that the combination of Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye can become Belichick/Brady 2.0. It’s been six years since the Red Sox won it all, the longest stretch without a title since John Henry and Tom Werner bought the team in 2002. The Bruins have an interim coach, the fourth man running the team in eight years.
What’s great about Boston is anything short of a championship is a failure. The fans will not stand for mediocrity. Not in this era.
There’s no better place to be a sports fan. And because of those fans, there’s no better place to cover sports.
In 2023 the Press Herald was sold to the National Trust for Local News, a group dedicated to preserving and strengthening local news. It’s an impressive group determined to continue the newspaper’s history of journalistic excellence. It is trying to go against the considerable headwinds facing local papers. And they need their resources to fight the good fight.
This paper will focus on local stories that you can’t find anywhere else, as it should. You’ll have more than a few places to find my thoughts on Boston’s teams.
You’ll see me on NESN, reporting from sunny Fort Myers, Florida, in just a few weeks. You’ll hear me on WBLM with the Captain and Celeste. And you’ll find me at Fitzpatrick Stadium this summer, as a minority investor in the Hearts of Pine soccer club that will play its first game soon.
Feel free to drop by, say hello and tell me what you think the Red Sox should do to improve the bullpen. Or how the Bruins can improve their power play.
Or since I’m part owner, tell me what you think about the Hearts midfield.
I’ll probably say “no comment.” That’s what owners do.
Thanks for reading my comments here for more than a decade. Hope I bump into you at a game soon.
Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN.
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