There were three Celtics playoff games this week. There were three Bruins playoff games this week. The Red Sox were swept by the Yankees. The Boston Marathon record was shattered. It was NFL Draft week.
It was all overshadowed by the ever-evolving Mike Vrabel scandal.
The personal side is Vrabel’s business. But I do think it is fair to talk about the implications for the Patriots as a football team. And as Sports Illustrated Senior Reporter Albert Breer noted on an appearance with Michael Holley on 98.5 The Sports Hub, this is becoming a football issue.
As a leader of men, ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ puts you in a dangerous, hypocritical position. Many players will likely forgive his transgressions, but has he lost credibility when questioning their judgment and self-discipline, or when making decisions like parting ways with Stefon Diggs, in part because his off-field drama distracted the team?
Perhaps even more importantly, Breer shares that Vrabel has understandably lost some of his swagger over the past couple of weeks since the story broke. The Patriots’ swagger as a team in 2025 stemmed directly from their head coach’s swagger, energy, charisma, confidence, and enthusiasm.
Going one-on-one with Will Campbell before the draft. Shaking hands and even hugging some players after games on the way back to the locker room, even after a discouraging Super Bowl loss. Sticking with Rhamondre Stevenson through his fumble issues.
The Patriots feed off Vrabel’s energy.
Even if Vrabel is 90% of the “full Mike Vrabel,” as Breer puts it, in terms of energy and enthusiasm — and that would be impressive given the situation and the road ahead — the Patriots will feel it on the field. Watch Breer’s full segment here.
Football coaches are famous for putting in long hours. I have never heard of an NBA head coach sleeping on the couch in his office, but it is almost a badge of honor among NFL coaches. Coaching matters more in football than in any of the other major sports. The preparation during the week wins games on Sundays.
Will this be a distraction during Bills week when they need to devise a plan to slow down Josh Allen? And even if it is not, if they lose, will the media speculate it was and ask the players eight ways until Sunday?
It is a tall task, even for the reigning NFL Coach of the Year, to repair your marriage, restore your family, and be all-in while leading nearly 100 players and staff through an NFL season.
And when the next cleat drops, and there will be more, does he go to counseling during the week, too? After all, nothing is more important than family, other than Days 1 and 2 of the NFL Draft.
Vrabel made a mistake as old as time. He and the Patriots are betting he can compartmentalize his personal life and football and still be the full Mike Vrabel the team needs.
That is easier said than done.
* Disclosure: I write about baseball for On SI, part of the Sports Illustrated family and si.com.
The Joy of Tatum
There is a cliché in sports that the worst thing a team can say is “I’m just happy to be here.”
For Jayson Tatum, it might be the best thing.
Ten months ago, Tatum was carried off the floor of Madison Square Garden with a ruptured right Achilles tendon. The next day, he had surgery. He missed 66 games, watched his teammates from the bench, and spent the better part of a year doing what no elite athlete ever wants to do — waiting.
He returned March 6. He’s played 19 games since.
After Game 3 Friday night — a 108–100 win in Philadelphia where he hit the dagger three with 27 seconds left and pounded his chest as the Xfinity Mobile Arena went quiet — Tatum was asked how he felt. His answer was not what most superstars say after a big playoff win.
“Obviously, I’m not 100 percent, but expectations of what people want me to do is the last thing that has crossed my mind,” he said. “It’s just the amount of joy I’ve been able to find just being back out there and being out there with my teammates — that’s all I think about.”
And then: “It may not seem like it because I’m back playing, but it was a very, very long time for me not to be doing what I love to do. I can’t stress it enough — the fact that I just get to put my uniform on and run out there with the team is a win for me.”
That perspective — that pure, uncomplicated gratitude for being present — is not a weakness. It is rocket fuel.
The Celtics have been here before. They know how to win playoff series. In Game 3 Tatum became the second-youngest player in NBA history to reach 3,000 career playoff points. Only LeBron James was younger.
He also joined a list of players with 3,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, and 500 assists in playoff history — LeBron, Jordan, Kareem, Kobe, Shaq, Duncan, Bird, Magic, Chamberlain. The complete list reads like an All-Time All-NBA Team.
When Tatum came into the league he was a scorer. Now he is doing whatever it takes to win. He is playing with all of that experience and pedigree — plus the perspective of someone who wasn’t sure he’d be doing this at all.
The series is 2-1. Game 4 is tonight in Philadelphia. Joel Embiid — out since his April 9 appendectomy — is showing signs of returning. The Celtics know what’s coming. Tatum pounded his chest and walked back to the bench anyway.
He’s just happy to be there. That’s the most frightening thing about him right now.
The 16-hour surgery that made this playoff run possible. The Wall Street Journal’s behind-the-scenes story of Dr. Martin O’Malley and the procedure that got Tatum back less than a year after a ruptured Achilles.
From press row in Philadelphia, as Allen Iverson watched and the crowd roared: how the Celtics’ championship pedigree won Game 3.
The Tatum dagger, Pritchard’s shot-clock buzzer-beater, White’s redemption rebound, and Edgecombe’s collapse. Eight tight observations from the most important Celtics win of the year.
▶ Jayson Tatum Game 3 DAGGER — Clutch 3 Gives Celtics the Series Lead — NBA on ESPN. The dagger, 29 feet, chest pound. Watch it again.
Three different angles on the same remarkable story.
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The Bruins Are on the Brink
The Bruins are not finishing games. They are not finishing good scoring attempts. They are not even finishing penalty shots.
If they don’t address that starting this afternoon, they will be finishing their season.
Game 1 was the heartbreaker they might rue all summer. A 2-0 third-period lead was gone in the blink of an eye.
In the third period, the Buffalo goals piled up faster than lake effect snow. The Bruins took a dumb penalty. Buffalo scored one goal. The Bruins panicked. Buffalo scored another goal. Sturm did not use his timeout. Buffalo scored a third goal. An empty-netter put Buffalo up 4–2 before a Pastrnak goal with just eight seconds left closed the scoring.
According to ESPN Research, “Buffalo’s furious comeback made them only the second team in NHL postseason history to overcome a multi-goal deficit in the final eight minutes and win in regulation — the other being the New York Americans in 1940.”
Josh Allen, who knows a thing or two about quickly blown playoff leads, was on hand to bang the drum for Game 2. Once again, the crowd was in a frenzy. Once again, Josh Allen was part of a losing playoff effort. The Bruins tried their best to cough this one up, too, in the third period, but this time, a 4-0 advantage and Swayman’s insistence on a timeout were enough to stem the tide and tie the series at 1.
The Bruins returned to Boston with home-ice advantage. Only home ice has not been an advantage for the Bruins in the playoffs lately. Beginning with the 2023–24 season, the Bruins are 3-9 in their last twelve home playoff games versus 7-4 on the road.
In Game 3, the Bruins missed a penalty shot and came up empty on two power play opportunities in the last eight minutes. Pastrnak was held without a point for the first time.
The penalty box has been standing-room only with double-digit minors for roughing through three games, including a fight-filled third period in Game 2.
The Bruins’ best hope is Swayman. The Buffalo crowd serenaded the Alaska native for most of Game 2 with ‘Sway-man, Sway-man’ and he didn’t flinch. He has stepped up once again in the series with a .931 save percentage so far and a 2.38 GAA, both besting his regular-season marks.
The Bruins will need to finish their scoring chances and/or have Swayman absolutely stand on his head to win Game 4. If they don’t, your favorite Bruin might be coming soon to a tee box near you.
The most honest local take on what went wrong in Game 1 — and why the Bruins’ identity is being tested earlier than anyone expected.
Arvidsson, Zacha, and Mittelstadt had been quiet. In Game 2, they showed up when it mattered most. The redemption arc that tied the series.
The most holistic view of the series — covers all three games through a single fascinating lens: the Sabres play loose when the pressure is off them. Read this before Game 4.
▶ Bruins vs. Sabres Game 3 Highlights — NHL. The most recent game — and the most urgent context for today’s must-win Game 4.
The Patriots Are Moving On Up
I love watching drafts.
It could be the NFL Draft or the 50 states selecting fruits and vegetables:
Todd McShay, after Hawaii picks pineapple at #1: “If you can get past the prickly outside, it is very sweet on the inside. Look at the tape of kids eating it at a luau and the joy on their faces.”
Mel Kiper Jr., after Georgia trades up, but picks Vidalia onions over peaches: “Georgia needs peaches. Every street in Atlanta is named after a peach.”
My brother and I faked being sick in 1982 to skip school and watch the NFL Draft. The Draft started at like 10 AM on a Tuesday morning at the Marriott Marquis hotel in New York City. The teams had helmet phones. Like six hours later, our favorite team, the Dolphins, picked Roy Foster, Guard, USC. That should have been a clear sign not to spend my time watching drafts.
But Mel Kiper Jr. did not start until 1984, so on I went.
The next year, my parents were onto us, and we had to go to school when a quarterback named Dan Marino fell to them at 27.
Clearly, this is one of the few instances where I was ahead of my time. The Draft is now held in primetime, covered by multiple networks, and drew a record first-round crowd of 320,000 in Pittsburgh Thursday night. I guess I am not the only one who loves drafts.
I won’t pretend to have known much about the players the Patriots selected — Caleb Lomu, a tackle from Utah, Gabe Jacas, an Edge from Illinois, and Eli Raridon, a tight end from Notre Dame. I watch some college football, but certainly not Utah and Illinois games (though I do like quoting Joe Pesci from My Cousin Vinny about ‘these two Utes’). The links in the Best Reads and Watch/Listen sections will give you better draft analysis than I can.
I do like, though, that the Patriots traded up for their first two picks because it signals conviction that these were guys they really wanted. In the case of Lomu, Eliot Wolf said he was surprised Lomu was still there at 28. For Jacas, they moved up to 55, and there was some pre-draft talk that the Patriots were even considering him as a potential 31st pick.
On the other hand, there are some yellow, if not red, flags with these picks: Lomu is said to need to add a lot of strength, which seems like an important quality in an offensive lineman, and Raridon tore his right ACL twice, and the number one thing Conor Ryan said to know about him in his Boston.com piece was that the physical tools outweighed the production.
The NFL is a production business.
It also says something about the state of the roster that they were willing to trade away several Day 3 picks in the process. When you have a deep roster and a strong middle tier of players, you don’t have room for eleven draft picks to make your team. So the moves to trade some of these picks to get players with the upside to be impact players are a good sign that the Patriots believe in their current roster.
Who knows? The supposed draft experts don’t know. The teams themselves don’t even have the best track records. A West Virginia University professor analyzed the NFL draft and determined that teams fare worse when they trade up than when they trade down.
That is what makes watching the NFL Draft so interesting.
But New Jersey has handed in their card in the fruit draft, so I need to run. Check out the links for the full Pats draft analysis.
The definitive breakdown of the pick — Lomu’s 9.88 RAS, his “best in show” combine performance, and what he brings to Drake Maye’s blind side.
The edge rusher who was a first-round pick in some mocks — and the Patriots got him in the second. 11 sacks in 2025. His NFL comp is Matt Judon. Not bad.
The physical tools. The two torn ACLs. The Notre Dame basketball background. The high ceiling, the long road ahead. Everything you need on the third pick.
▶ Inside the Patriots Draft Room for the 28th Overall Pick — Patriots.com. Kraft, Vrabel, and Wolf welcoming Lomu to New England. Worth seeing.
🎙️ Patriots Report with Chris Price — Apple Podcasts. The Tier 1 beat writer on all three picks and what they mean for the roster.
Making All the Wrong History
Not only are the Red Sox a bad team right now, but they are also boring.
The offense is listless. Only a meaningless ninth-inning run against the Yankees on Wednesday kept them from being shut out in back-to-back games. At Fenway no less.
The pitching and defense held the Yankees to four runs in all three games, and yet none of them were even close, with the Red Sox scoring a grand total of three runs in the three-game series.
Festivus comes early to Fenway this year. In the immortal words of Frank Costanza, ‘I’ve got a lot of problems with you people, and now you are going to hear about them.’
The pitching and defense philosophy has been a nothing burger, and the lineup has been an Impossible Burger. But you already know this team is bad, boring, tofu-batted, and has a poorly constructed roster.
You may not have known how historically underpowered they are. After the Yankees series, they are on pace for 91 home runs. In 2025, the Pirates finished last in the Majors with 117 home runs. The Cardinals finished 29th with 148.
You need to go all the way back to 1992 to find a team that hit fewer than 91 home runs in a full season (not counting the strike-shortened 1994 season or the 2020 COVID year).
Five teams had more than 91 home runs in the 60-game COVID season, topped by the Dodgers with 118 (including 16 from one Markus Lynn Betts).
And then Friday night in Baltimore happened. Brayan Bello gave up 13 hits in 3⅓ innings — the first Red Sox pitcher to do so since Danny MacFayden on August 30, 1931, against a Yankees lineup that included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and four other Hall of Famers. He surrendered five home runs, including three in the first inning on just 13 pitches. The Orioles ran out of home run fireworks. The Red Sox ran out of excuses.
Change is needed. Probably some big changes.
But let me offer an unconventional starting point. Fire the hitting coach, Pete Fatse.
Why is that unconventional, you might be asking? That is a common refrain.
The unconventional part would be his replacement — Manny Ramirez.
Ramirez has actively expressed his interest in being an MLB hitting coach. He shared that with all 30 teams and has even had some very early-stage discussions with the Red Sox about it.
His credentials as a hitter are impeccable — a .996 career OPS, 555 home runs (15th all-time), nine Silver Sluggers, and he was the 2004 World Series MVP to help break the curse.
You are probably thinking, sure, but remember all the episodes of Manny Being Manny, including his infamous visit inside the Green Monster.
Ironically, I spoke with 26-year veteran Fenway scoreboard operator Christian Elias this fall, and he said Manny did not pee inside the Green Monster (“that time”).
For all his escapades, though, Manny is a student of hitting who has a serious hitting philosophy. He preaches not trying to pull the ball in the cage, but instead going up the middle and opposite field, because hitters will naturally swing earlier in games and thus pull the ball rather than hook it.
He focuses on rhythm and tempo, brings drills to help hitters wait on breaking balls rather than rushing, and emphasizes video analysis to help hitters see what is really happening rather than what they are feeling.
Plus, what hitter would not like to be told they have the power of a buffalo?
Manny, being Manny, has never been a hitting instructor before. But this team needs some goofiness and fun to take some pressure off hitters who are pressing, as Jarren Duran admitted earlier this week. And for all the gains they have made organizationally under Breslow in terms of pitching development, they need to try a different approach when it comes to hitting. Manny certainly qualifies as different.
One of Boston’s worst offensive Aprils this century. CBS Sports breaks down the power vacuum, the roster construction problems, and why patience may be running out.
Conor Ryan at Fenway as Yankees fans drowned out the home crowd. The most honest local take on what we all watched this week.
Manny reached out to all 30 teams — including the Red Sox, who never called back. Bleacher Report on why the greatest right-handed hitter in franchise history is still waiting by the phone.
🎙️ Section 10 Podcast — Rock Bottom — Spotify. Jared Carrabis and the crew on the Yankees sweep and the state of the Red Sox offense. The episode title says it all.
Three different angles on the same dumpster fire — offense, pitching, and ownership.
One place. Every game. Every network. No hunting.
| Sun 4/26 |
Mon 4/27 |
Tue 4/28 |
Wed 4/29 |
Thu 4/30 |
Fri 5/1 |
Sat 5/2 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🏀 Celtics | G4 @ PHI 7:00 PM · NBC |
— | G5 vs. PHI 7:00 PM · ESPN |
— | G6 @ PHI* TBD · TBD |
— | — |
| ⚾ Red Sox | @ BAL 1:35 PM · NESN+ |
@ TOR 7:07 PM · NESN |
@ TOR 7:07 PM · NESN |
@ TOR 3:07 PM · NESN |
— | vs. HOU 7:10 PM · NESN |
vs. HOU 4:10 PM · NESN |
| 🏒 Bruins | G4 vs. BUF 2:00 PM · TNT |
— | G5 @ BUF 7:30 PM · TNT |
— | — | G6 vs. BUF* TBD · TBD |
— |
| 🏈 Patriots | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
When Drake Maye was drafted third overall in 2024, he was 21 years and 7 months old — considered notably young for his draft class.
Caleb Lomu, the Patriots’ new offensive tackle, was drafted at 21 years and 4 months — three months younger than Maye was when the Patriots drafted him.
In New England, they’re building young.
Three Strangers on Boylston Street
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