Friday Four-Pack 2.23.24

Pats docuseries with two contrasting episodes. A huge issue for horse racing. NESN's Jack Edwards opens up on his health.

Not all sports betting content on X.com is people congratulating themselves for picking a winner.

It just feels that way.

No, there is some good stuff out there. This week it came in the form of almost $7,000 worth of bets on PGA golfer Carl Yuan.

It started with the above post from X.com user and sports bettor TomandMartys. And folks on the social media platform took it from there.

Over 1300 likes later, he was on the hook for $6,575 in bets on Yaun.

Yuan came into the week as the 146th-ranked golfer in the world. And listed at 100-1 this week at the Mexico Open. A household name, he is not.

The bets were played in multiple betting pools, but the exercise was not as easy as it sounds.

And the action took him to parts unknown.

No ✅✅✅ for having a winning sports bet. No celebrating that big same-game parlay. 🥳🥳🥳

Good, wholesome, betting degeneracy.

That’s what I’m talking about.

We’ve all been there. I once left my family vacation in Drakes Island, ME to get some bets in at Scarborough Downs harness track. I wish I still had the pictures. The televisions were from the late 1980s. It was like going back in time.

As of early Friday, Yuan was seven shots back but right on the cutline to make the weekend.

Go, Carl, go.

Meanwhile, we have more Patriots documentary episodes to review. And an issue so important in horse racing that I made a video.

That’s ahead in today’s Four-Pack.

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On Episodes 3 & 4 of The Dynasty: New England Patriots

Hell of a contrast in the two episodes released late Thursday.

Episode 3, “Borrowed Time,” is basically one big ice cream sundae of nostalgia for Patriots fans. It covers the AFC Title game win over the Steelers and the huge upset of the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl.

If you lived through that run as a fan, you’ll no doubt find yourself cheering, laughing and smiling through much of the episode. At least I did. It was very well done.

The celebrity fan thing is silly, but think Jon Bon Jovi spoke for most fans when he recalled thinking “Holy shit, here comes my team,” when the Patriots were introduced as one big group before Super Bowl 36.

I was shocked not to see Troy Brown’s punt return touchdown as part of the Steelers highlights, but that’s a small nitpick. A bigger one below.

Episode 4, “Spygate,” is the exact opposite. It’s a reminder of what could have been if the team had been able to beat the Giants and complete the first 19-0 season in NFL history.

My take has always been that the Patriots’ videotaping signals was no big deal.
I think most teams were probably trying to get a similar edge, something Jimmy Johnson said publically at the time.

"After seeing the footage, former Cowboys and Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson - who works as a host on Fox's pregame show - said on the show: "This is exactly how I was told to do it 18 years ago by a Kansas City Chiefs scout. I tried it, but I didn't think it helped us."

But I have to admit…Bill Belichick’s “I misread the rule” excuse all these years later…pretty wild.

More wild? The destruction of the Spygate tapes. What a win for the Patriots and Kraft. How about a young Roger Goodell saying the tapes were destroyed to avoid the team having a “competitive advantage” going forward? That’s a tough sell.

Still, was it a big deal to the team’s success? I think they proved in the long run that was not the case. But this episode is likely to rekindle THE PATRIOTS ARE CHEATERS talk online and on sports talk TV/radio.

Randy Moss is great throughout the episode. Tom Brady saying Bill Belichick was “still effed up” the morning after Super Bowl 36 was a good moment.

If I graded last week’s two episodes as “fine,” I’d call these two episodes “good.”

An electric grading system, I know.

Other assorted thoughts.

The Krafts hate Bill Parcells. Holy moly. You can practically see the steam coming out of the ears of both Robert and Jonathan Kraft when they talk about Parcells in Episode 3. All these years I thought the jaded fans of New England were the ones keeping a deserving Parcells out of the team’s Hall of Fame.

Nope, it’s the Krafts.

They focus on Super Bowl week against the Packers, and both father and son completely lay the blame for that loss on Tuna. Very little about the decision to draft Drew Bledsoe over Rick Mirer, a huge debate at the time. Or the way the coach convinced veteran players to come play in New England, an NFL wasteland in the few years before Parcells got there.

Between drafting Bledsoe and then guiding the team’s 180-degree turn into relevance, Parcells deserves to be in the Patriots Hall of Fame. To wear a red jacket. But watching this, it’s clear that is never going to happen. Which is too bad.

The music was good. After mocking the fake Ernie Adams drive to the stadium last week, some credit to the production team for their use of music this week. Black Betty in Ep. 3 and then Another One Bites the Dust in Ep. 4. Well done.

Phil Simms. I forgot we grew up with Phil Simms on the call for dozens of big Patriots games. And given the choice, I’d take Simms over Tony Romo next season.

On Belichick’s appearances. Again, he’s so human in the old clips…right up until Spygate. Different guy after that. As far as on camera, I think the only time we’ve seen Bill smile in the four episodes is when he talked about giving his hotel room to Lawyer Milloy at Super Bowl 36. He does not seem to be enjoying the documentary process.

As for Belichick’s mood during this process, Ben Volin of the Globe details how the documentary will paint Bill as the villain as we move forward.

And the entire 10th episode, which debuts March 15, is essentially dedicated to blaming Belichick for driving Tom Brady out of Foxborough and to Tampa Bay in 2020.

That might explain Bill’s attitude. Two more episodes are scheduled for next week on Apple TV.

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On an issue horse racing needs to address now…

This needs to end. Someone needs to step up.

On NESN’s Jack Edwards opening up on his health…

Wrote last week about the recent on-air struggles for NESN’s Jack Edwards.

If you watched Jack on ESPN. Or his awesome calls during the 2002 Team USA World Cup soccer run. Or the Bruins Cup run in 2011. And then you hear him now - he just sounds different.

The veteran broadcaster has fans worried about his inability to pronounce certain words and phrases without becoming very deliberate with his phrasing and speech pattern. It became obvious to anyone who has watched Edwards for any amount of time, something was up.

To his credit, Edwards opened up about his struggles to Chad Finn of the Boston Globe this week.

“I did not have some kind of accident,” he says. “I do not have cancer. I don’t have dementia. I haven’t had a stroke. All of that’s been confirmed by Mass. General neurology.

“They’ve done tests that seem like I’m going through some sort of science-fiction scene, but it’s really true. The images of my brain literally reveal nothing. That’s my joke with them.”

Edwards says one of the reasons he had not gone public to talk about his issues was because there is no clear diagnosis for what is ailing him.

“It doesn’t fit in any slot,” he says. “There have been a couple of guesses, but they haven’t made a definitive diagnosis and they’ve been working on me for a year and a half. It’s very frustrating, as you can imagine, for me to have this slowdown in my speech.”

Edwards admitted in the story he is actively trying to get better, doing about an hour of speech therapy on non-game days and then 10 minutes of the same on game days.

The big question becomes if Edwards does not get better or continues to get worse, would NESN move on? He told the Globe he is in the middle of a multi-year contract.

“I’m treating it like an in-season injury, something that’s going to get better,” he says. “If I, or NESN, decide that I’m hurting the product or costing the fans an enjoyable experience, I will say goodbye. But we haven’t had any discussions like that.

Would be a difficult call for NESN.

Glad he’s feeling okay and this is some sort of brain mystery. And good on him for finally addressing it.

On a handful of Four-Pack notes…

• We are down to just six active mobile sports betting options in Massachusetts with Betr and WynnBet officially leaving The Bay State. There are now eight (!!!) unused licenses in MA, which of course is bad for the sports bettor. Less places to shop for a price, fewer bonuses, etc.
  
  Would love to see Circa end up with a license in Massachusetts, just based on the way a lot of sharp people talk about their app and customer service. Right now they’re only mobile in Nevada, Colorado, Illinois and Iowa.
  
  The eight unused licenses are something I want to look into over the next few weeks. Massachusetts just had a third straight month with a betting handle north of $600 million. There should not be eight unused licenses, right?

• It took just one day for tickets to The Belmont Stakes at Saratoga to sell out for the main event on Saturday, June 8. The secondary market is bonkers as of Friday morning, with clubhouse seats listed well north of $1,000 each. General admission tickets are listed and selling at around $100. That’s just to get in, no seat. If you don’t get tickets, you better join us at Mohegan Sun for their annual Belmont Bash. I can’t promise any winners from me, but it is the best Belmont Party in New England.

• A quick check on the Red Sox as they get set to play their first games of the spring this weekend

  

  So good! So good! So good!

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. And if you’re a parent in Massachusetts, congrats on (hopefully) surviving school vacation week.

We are back on Saturday to preview the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. A huge favorite in the race. Is he worth betting against? Racoing in Saudi Arabia as well, with Forever Young getting big buzz. Might be a Derby player.

Comments open below for your Parcells hate.

Go luck with all your bets. Go UConn.

Good weekend.