As the hardreading staff thumbed through its Boston Sunday Globe this morning, we couldn’t help but notice this double-truck ad in a special section called The Greater Debate, subhead “Who’s more responsible for this Patriots dynasty: Brady or Belichick?”
Here’s the body copy:
Notice that nowhere in the ad do the words “Bill Belichick” appear. But he’s there in every line, right? (Clever, that “Foxborough-hole,” eh?)
Which got the headscratching staff to thinking – are they paying Belichick? Or is this just an end-around?
So we hied ourselves to the Googletron and learned that this campaign has been in the news for several days now, both the print campaign and this TV spot.
That ad will air just before kickoff tonight. As far as we can tell, Belichick is not being paid.
Is he happy about this? Is he upset? Is he amused at the creativity displayed by ad agency Wieden + Kennedy?
The hardreading staff has a serious beef with the Boston Globe’s Names column, as we noted in a recent post.
Boston Globe ‘Names’ Outs Howie Carr, Stiffs Two-Daily Town
Twice this week the hardreading staff has noted that Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr, a charter member of the Donald Trump coat holder brigade, is also now a member of Trump’s swanky Florida resort Mar-a-Lago.
We also noted that neither Boston daily had reported on Carr’s quantum leap in social status, ending yesterday’s post this way: “Hey – you Namesniks at the Globe: Wanna grab a piece of this?”
Apparently they did, since this appears under Mark Shanahan’s byline in today’s snakey local broadsheet.
Trump backer Howie Carr is now a Mar-a-Lago Club member
Conservative talk-show host Howie Carr fancies himself a man of the people, albeit one who went to an exclusive prep school (Deefield Academy), attended a fine liberal arts college (University of North Carolina), and resides in a wealthy Boston enclave (Wellesley). So it should be no surprise that, like any other average Joe, Carr has become a newly-minted member of the Mar-a-Lago Club, President Trump’s posh Palm Beach, Fla., retreat.
That, not surprisingly, went over like the metric system here at the Global Worldwide Headquarters. But, hey, that’s show biz.
Then again . . . we did seem to tap into some basic sense of decency in the Namesniks, as yesterday’s column featured something new (at least as far as we can tell) – honest to God attribution.
Of course, that does nothing for the hardbleeding staff.
Didn’t mince words? Not to get technical about it, but that’s all Belichick does.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, Steve Buckley gave a representative sample of Mr. Hoodie’s evasive maneuvers.
Media member: “Do you believe Tom Brady when he says that neither he nor anyone in the Patriots organization did anything wrong?”
Belichick: “We start training camp today. We’ll get ready for the 2015 season starting today.”
Media member: “Is there something flawed about the system here in the organization that you keep ending up in these cheating controversies? Can you explain why?”
Belichick: “It’s already been addressed.”
Media member: “Could you elaborate a little?”
Belichick: “No.”
Media member: “Why not?”
Belichick: “Because it’s already been addressed.”
And Herald columnist Karen Guregian gave the Globe a bit of an English lesson.
Robert Kraft’s on-again, off-again war with Roger Goodell and the NFL is back on . . .
There was no mincing words. Kraft believes he got screwed when he put his reputation on the line with Patriots fans by standing down and choosing not to fight the league’s unprecedented punishment of his team.
When the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots went to the White House for the customary presidential pat on the back, here’s what they got to kick off the festivities.
Pats coach Bill Belichick isn’t the only one who gave Obama’s lame joke the thumbs down. Today’s Boston Herald is in Full Snit over the Deflategate dis.
It was a day that should have belonged to the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, but in a reversal of last February’s fortune it came to a dramatic and sudden halt.
Interception, Obama.
The president called a very different play as the champs gathered at the White House South Lawn to accept an attaboy for their Super Bowl victory.
But the egotist in chief made it all about him.
“I usually tell a bunch of jokes at these events,” he mused, “but with the Patriots in town I was worried that 11 of 12 of them would fall flat.”
That one sure did.
Back at the frosty local tabloid, sports scribe Karen Guregian also weighed in.
Just like so many people at this point, the leader of the free world can’t help but chuckle at what this is, and what it’s become. So right out of the gate, he set the tone for the Patriots visit by taking a poke at Deflategate, and it became the theme of the day with Pats tight end Rob Gronkowski later piling on . . .
When Gronk was asked if he had enjoyed himself before the president’s speech, perhaps with a beverage or two, Gronk drew on Obama’s Deflategate remark.
“No, there was no drinking,” he said. “Maybe the president was wasted from his deflate joke. We’re still wondering as an organization about that, right?”
(To be fair graf goes here)
To be fair, Guregian’s column was mostly about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s foot-dragging in his investigation into the pigskin rumpus. Regardless, look for the umbrage-industrial complex to continue Obama-bashing for awhile.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, Ben Volin’s piece about Pats players (as well as owner Robert Kraft and Belichick) visiting wounded vets at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was the main story today:
Tim Tebowpalooza gets plenty of play in today’s Boston Herald, from Page One
to the double-barreled columnists here
to this Sports Section piece
to the back page of the feisty local tabloid.
But nowhere is there any mention of this from a Yahoo! Sports piece last month:
[W]hile there’s plenty of media chatter that Tebow could land with the Patriots (whose offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, was the man behind the Broncos’ decision to draft Tebow in the first round), my organizational sources tell me that’s very unlikely to happen, with one going so far as to say that Coach Bill Belichick “hates” Tebow as a player.
Belichick waited four weeks to deny that, which seems like mighty convenient timing and sort of undermines the outrage in his statement to ESPN Boston: “[F]or anyone to have represented that is the way I feel about Tim Tebow is completely untrue, baseless and irresponsible. It is unfortunate that something so inaccurate was reported.”
And not repeated in today’s Herald. A Boston Globe report by Shalise Manza Young, however, did make reference to it:
It seemed odd last Thursday that Belichick suddenly decided to dispute a Yahoo! Sports story from nearly a month earlier that cited a Patriots source who said Belichick “hates” Tebow as a player. Belichick told ESPNBoston.com that was “untrue, baseless, and irresponsible” to report that he felt that way about Tebow.
So there was Sen. John Kerry (D-Am I Secretary of State Yet?) at Gillette Stadium rubbing elbows in the owner’s box with Robert Kraft and, presumably, girlfriend Ricki Noel Landed – sorry, Lander – and rubbing etc. on the field with Bill Belichick.
Clearly this called for some scrutiny by the local dailies and, true to form, they dug right in.
The Boston Globe’s Glen Johnson went this way (web only):
Staff says John Kerry paid fair market value for tickets in Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s suite
The CBS Sports cameras made their traditional game-day pan of the owner’s box at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, catching not just Robert Kraft but also one of his highly recognizable guests: Senator John Kerry.
That prompted instant questions about how Kerry ended up in such rarified air, and whether the secretary of state-to-be paid his fair share to attend.
His staff insists he did.
To the tune of a whopping $191 – “what the team determined to be fair market value .”
Uh-huh.
Meanwhile, the Boston Herald’s Track Gals (without Megan!) went this way:
Readers real sports about John Kerry’s Bill blitz
So you think you’re pret-tay, pret-tay funny, don’t you?
Our request yesterday for an amusing caption for this photo of Sen.John Kerry bear-hugging Patriots coach Bill Belichick on the sidelines before the AFC semifinal at Gillette Stadium was met with a few funnies.
We’re partial to one sent in via Twitter by political strategist @Jake1839, who imagined the secretary of state-in-waiting whispering into BB’s ear, “I’m gonna need defense advice when I get to Washington.”
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 