Sports reflect society, and the folly of everything America celebrates was on graphic display in Saturday night’s AFC wild card playoff. We all get a pulpit these days, and within minutes of the Cincinnati Bengals’ implosion against the Pittsburgh Steelers, most of us piled on as if we were diving for a loose football in […]
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Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Sometimes it’s Patriots’ time, and other times, time’s up
Timing is everything in sports, and it has become alarmingly apparent that this year’s edition of the New England Patriots is cosmically impaired. Matthew Slater and/or Bill Belichick and/or referee Clete Blakeman’s inexplicable decision to say Stephen Gostkowski would kick after the Patriots won the overtime coin toss on Sunday, leading directly to a 26-20 […]
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Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Gifts of gratitude from an honored observer
Yes, it is better to give than receive. Let’s be honest, however: If you are paid to wear a badge around your neck and write about young adults playing children’s games, you’re receiving in abundance, almost daily. We are taught to be thankful at this time of year, and when you are immersed in Maine […]
Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Making a few quick drives to the hoop
For every action in sports, there is a swift, exaggerated overreaction. You can thank the glut of cable networks, talk radio outlets and social media platforms for that. As a wise man (Winston Churchill? John Lennon? Bugs Bunny?) once said, if you can’t beat them, join them. My highly caffeinated Twitter feed attests to my […]
Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Gruesome loss, but no time to panic
Let the overreaction begin. It is how fandom operates in the National Football League, that once-a-week train wreck we all criticize ruthlessly but from which we can’t look away. Eight days ago, both real and bandwagon followers of the New England Patriots were obsessed with the meaningless goal of running the regular-season table. Ridiculously meaningless, […]
Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Football repeat? Difficult. Four at once? Ridiculous.
Meet the new champs. Same as the old champs. In the space of about 23 hours this past weekend, the four reigning high school football state champions evolved into four repeat high school football state champions. Those of us paid to write and broadcast such details reported this anomaly with disarming, matter-of-fact, oh-by-the-way detachment, as […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine
Summit Project carries stones and stories so Maine’s heroes are not forgotten
In mid-October, as part of the Summit Project, I carried the stone and the story of Marine Corps Sgt. Kevin Brian Balduf to the summit of Cadillac Mountain at Acadia National Park. In reality, Balduf carried me. Kevin, as Balduf has become known to me, was a Marine Corps radioman who lost his life in Afghanistan’s […]
Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Advantages in public vs. private debate vastly overstated
A funny thing happened Saturday while I watched Lisbon celebrate a double-overtime field hockey playoff victory over North Yarmouth Academy. I realized that we were all gathered at a private school. We were standing on expensive artificial turf. And the underprivileged, impoverished public school children had somehow eluded fate and advanced into the next round. […]
Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Stop giving Patriots’ detractors so much credit
We’re five games into the New England Patriots’ 2015 season. Past the four contests that caused us all such consternation when we thought Tom Brady might be suspended, plus the Sunday night game against the overmatched opponent that was 99 44/100% responsible for the absurdity. Can we move on now? I know, I know. Asking […]
Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Patriots muffle another chatty would-be nemesis
When will the rest of the National Football League, teams and paid observers alike, learn? Just shut up. Stop treating Week 1, Week 2 or even Week 10 of the regular season when you’re playing the New England Patriots as if it’s the be-all, end-all of your franchise’s existence. Don’t advertise your hatred in the […]