Picked-up pieces while wishing Tom Brady a sincere welcome home Sunday at Gillette . . .
⋅ The Celtics are in Philadelphia Tuesday, which means we finally get to see Jayson Tatum playing basketball against Jaylen Brown in a regular-season NBA game.
I haven’t been this fired up for an old-fashioned Boston sports grudge match since Roger Clemens came to Fenway in a Blue Jays uniform for the first time in 1997 and glared in the direction of Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette while coming off the mound after striking out 16 batters in a 3-1 victory.
Memo to coaches Joe Mazzulla and Nick Nurse: Let there be no load management for this one. NBA America needs to see Tatum and Brown in each other’s faces for the full four quarters.
Two weeks ago, Tatum elegantly insisted that there’s no beef. “This ain’t no [expletive] Shaq and Kobe,” Boston’s surviving star insisted in a thoughtful, midnight-hour response to Brown basically calling him a liar in a social media post. Brown, who’s been the true provocateur, came back a day later and said, “There’s no beef, but there might be a little lamb chops and some gravy. He should stay ready at all times.”
Excellent!
The delightful dustup between former teammates got me thinking about other New England sports feuds of our time:
⋅ Reggie Smith vs. Billy Conigliaro. Way back in 1971, Smith made it clear that he had no use for the younger Conigliaro brother, who’d fingered Smith as a reason the Sox traded Tony C to the Angels in 1970. “I don’t want to play with him again,” Smith told reporters. Billy C was dealt at the end of the ’71 season.
⋅ John Hannah vs. Tony Eason. Hall of Fame lineman Hannah was a Steve Grogan fan and didn’t think Eason was tough enough to lead the Patriots. When Eason was repeatedly sacked and completed zero of six passes in the first half of New England’s 46-10 Super Bowl loss to the Bears, Hannah demanded the Patriots switch to Grogan, and later said Eason “should have worn a skirt.”
⋅ Red Auerbach vs. Cedric Maxwell. Red didn’t think Max rehabbed hard enough to get healthy after a knee surgery in 1985, and traded the veteran to the Clippers for Bill Walton after the Celtics were beaten by the Lakers in the Finals. Red subsequently removed complimentary references about Max from his next book, then made him wait until 2003 to see his No. 31 in the Garden rafters.
⋅ Cam Neely vs. Steve Kasper. Bruins teammates for three seasons, Neely was a 13-year NHL veteran and a superstar when Kasper became coach of the Bruins at the age of 34 in 1995. On the night of Jan. 3, 1996, Kasper benched Neely for an entire game in Toronto (a 4-4 tie), a public shaming of everybody’s favorite Bruin. Things were colder than ice from that moment forward and Kasper was fired after the 1996-97 season.
⋅ Bill Parcells vs. Bob Kraft. Parcells fumed when Kraft went behind the Tuna’s back to select Terry Glenn on draft day in 1996. Parcells told us that the guy who cooks the dinner should be allowed to buy some of the groceries and planned his escape from New England after Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans. Kraft threatened legal action and commissioner Paul Tagliabue had to fix things. The feud didn’t thaw until the summer of 2025, when Kraft finally anointed Parcells as a Patriots Hall of Famer.
⋅ Bill Belichick vs. Eric Mangini. Mangini was part of three Super Bowl championships as a defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator for Belichick. When he became head coach of the Jets and ratted out the Patriots for taping coaches’ signals on the sideline, he became dead to Belichick. Positively Fourth Street. Postgame “handshakes” dripped with hatred.
⋅ Terry Francona vs. Red Sox ownership. Tito didn’t like getting fired in 2011, and he was furious when his personal problems were leaked in a Globe expose that ran a few weeks after his dismissal. Discussing Sox owners in his 2013 biography (co-authored by yours truly), Francona said, “ . . . they’re good owners. But they don’t love the game.”
⋅ Kevin Garnett vs. Ray Allen. It was all “ubuntu” when they won a title with Paul Pierce in 2008, but things soured when Allen left Boston for rival Miami in 2012. KG would have nothing to do with Allen until March 2022, when they reconciled.
⋅ David Price vs. Dennis Eckersley. Softer-than-Dairy-Queen Price took offense to some legit TV criticism from Eck and ambushed the popular Hall of Famer on a Red Sox charter in 2017. Taking on a local hero, stand-up guy who experienced every possible baseball setback (injuries, having a teammate run off with his wife, substance abuse, yielding one of the most famous home runs of all time), Price only made himself look more ridiculous when he explained, “Some people don’t understand how hard this game is.”
Tatum vs. Brown. Tuesday night. Get your popcorn.
⋅ Quiz: 1: Name five Heisman Trophy winners who went on to win at least one Super Bowl and eventually wound up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (note: Heisman winner Doak Walker, who made it to the Hall of Fame, won two NFL championships before the Super Bowl era); 2. Name three Bruins head coaches who led teams to Stanley Cup championships after leaving Boston (answers below).
⋅ Look for Buster Posey to be the headliner on the stage in Cooperstown next summer. Jon Lester is a first-time Hall of Fame candidate who’s got a shot, and Chase Utley has been gaining with the electorate. The eight-man ballot of Contemporary Baseball Era candidates was announced this past week, and it’s one of the stronger ones in recent memory. A 16-member committee will vote on Sandy Alderson, Dusty Baker, Bruce Bochy, Joe Maddon, Lou Piniella, Brian Sabean, Ted Turner, and Bill White, and the math holds that only two or three will join Posey next summer. The announcement on this group is Dec. 6. My money is on Bochy, who won four World Series, with Baker and Piniella possibly alongside. Former Red Sox CEO, the late Larry Lucchino, did not make the ballot and won’t be eligible again until the summer of 2030.
⋅ The “playoff” Red Sox, who bow at the altar of Driveline, preaching pull-side power and launch angle, should take note of the world champion Brewers, who embarrassed the Rays, who swept the Yankees, who pantsed the Sox, 18-2, in a couple of Wild Card Series games. Brewers batters had the lowest launch angles and led the majors in hitting the ball to the opposite field. They put the ball in play.
⋅ Fenway Sports Group is one of several groups interested in purchasing part of Dodgers owner Mark Walter’s stake in the Cadillac F1 racing team. Perfect. One more asset to take FSG’s eyes away from the Red Sox.
⋅ USA Today bumped the Patriots up to No. 5 overall (ahead of the Bills) in its latest power rankings.
⋅ Who else thinks Christian Barmore is getting traded?
⋅ No matter how many times you watch, there’s no explanation for what Dolphins defensive back Chris Johnson was doing when he had a clean shot to flatten Drake Maye from behind (on fourth and 2 in the second quarter) and instead stumbled to the ground while wrapping his arms around nothing. Would love to have heard Johnson explaining this in Miami’s postgame film sessions. Suspicious.
⋅ The first-place New York Football Giants (4-2-1) are enjoying a schedule like the Patriots had last season, and they get quarterback Joe Milton and the Eagles (six straight losses) on Sunday in Philadelphia. New coach John Harbaugh is being mentioned as the Giants’ best first-year boss since Dan Reeves went 11-5 and won a playoff game in 1993. The inimitable Allie Sherman — who was hired instead of assistants Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi, went 10-3-1 with the talent-laden Giants in 1961. Tom Coughlin went 6-10 with his first Giants team, Parcells 3-12-1.
⋅ The Globe’s Gary Washburn delivered some great reporting on why there have been so many soft-tissue injuries in the NBA early this season. Lack of conditioning came up as a likely suspect and much of it was attributed to fewer preseason games, softer practices, and 21st century load management. The report reminded me of Red Auerbach, who ran his troops ragged through Navy Seal training camps, then went full-bore in the preseason. Red’s reasoning was that other teams used early-season games to “run themselves into shape” and he figured he could feast in the early weeks if he had a well-conditioned team. I looked at a few starts from the early years of Red and Bill Russell: 1957 (14-0, then 19-2), 1959 (13-2), 1961 (23-3), 1962 (13-3), 1963 (20-2), 1964 (11-0).
⋅ Watching Veronica Burton win the WNBA Finals was like watching Dennis Johnson in the Celtics’ NBA Finals seven-game win over the Lakers in 1984. Burton is a true leader who did all the little things her team needed. She was a contrast to Atlanta’s overrated Angel Reese, who scored only 8 points, 3 in the second half, of the Dream’s Game 7 loss.
⋅ Are home football Saturdays still a big deal on college campuses? All depends, right? There doesn’t seem to be any lack of interest in Ann Arbor, Mich., when we see Wolverines games televised from the Big House. But overall, there seems to be less enthusiasm coming from the Gen Z student body. I’m told that the student section at Holy Cross’s Fitton Field these days is pretty empty on home Saturdays, which was not my experience a thousand years ago. On a larger level, the University of Maryland is offering a tuition raffle to lure students to home football games, stipulating that student-fans need to stay until the fourth quarter in order to be eligible for a tuition break.
⋅ UConn women’s basketball opened with a 100-35 win over Cornell Monday. The Huskies outscored Cornell, 33-6, in the fourth.
⋅ How much longer for fraud Deion Sanders at Colorado? Now we get to see annoying nepo baby Shedeur get exposed yet again in an NFL game Sunday against the Saints.
⋅ This past Tuesday in Montreal, the Canadiens blew a 4-0 lead with 2:40 left in regulation at home against Winnipeg, losing, 5-4, in overtime. The Jets had lost nine straight coming into the game.
⋅ Hope John Turturro wins an Oscar for “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.” Turturro — seen at Fenway this past summer — played Billy Martin in “The Bronx Is Burning” and is currently directing a feature documentary on Joe Torre.
⋅ The October death of 13-year Cowboys defensive back Cornell Green kindled memories of Elijah “Pumpsie” Green — best known as the first Black player in Red Sox history. Pumpsie was Cornell’s older brother and died in 2019. Other brothers who made it to the big leagues in separate sports: Pat (Orioles) and Leroy (Browns) Kelly, Bill (Celtics) and Bruce (Cowboys) Walton, Trayce (Dodgers) and Klay (Warriors) Thompson.
⋅ There’s still time to get tickets for “Late Night with the Joe Andruzzi Foundation: Stories That Shape Us,” which will be held Tuesday, at 6 p.m., at the Cross Insurance Club at Gillette Stadium. For information, contact onecau.se/latenight26.
⋅ RIP Jerry Koosman, who beat the Orioles, 5-3, to win the clinching game of the 1969 World Series for the Miracle Mets. Koosman pitched 12 seasons for the Mets before he was traded to the Twins in 1978. The Twins dealt him to the White Sox in 1981 for minor leaguers Bambi Mesa and West Roxbury/Holy Cross great Ron Perry Jr., a promising infielder who one year earlier was the last player cut by Bill Fitch when the Celtics were assembling their 1980-81 NBA championship squad. Koosman, who won 222 big league games, died of heart failure at his Wisconsin home last Sunday.
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Paul Hornung, Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Marcus Allen, Charles Woodson; 2. Bruce Cassidy (Golden Knights, 2023), Mike Sullivan (Penguins, 2016, ’17), Pat Burns (Devils, 2003).
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.