Sorry not sorry. Is that how they say it these days? Anyway, the reason I’m not sorry is because it wasn’t my fault that these teams raised the bar so high for so many years to even create a Boston championship era in the first place. The small sliver of me that is sorry, feels that way because it’s tough to see a good thing come to an end, no matter what it is. Oh, and also maybe this:
It’s no news to anyone in the sports world that the city of Boston has walked parade after parade. As a matter of fact, it’s most likely an annoyance to anyone who isn’t a fan. Not that they win all the time, not even that they claim all of New England. It’s the fans who constantly remind us how many parades they’ve attended and chips they’ve won, when we all clearly witnessed it as well. The point is not the fans, though. The message here is to let everyone know that the Boston championship era is over. Not because I want it to be, not because they’ve won all they can ever win, and not even because I want to ruffle feathers. It just is.
The Boston Red Sox
If anyone proves this vibe wrong, it would be this team. They are reigning World Champions and the second most recent championship team out of “Boston”. The Sox have won 4 World Series rings in the last 15 years, the first of which ended a 86 year drought. It was perfectly timed for Beantown, as the other teams started to fall in line. Fast forward to today, the Boston Red Sox are an incredibly deep team with offensive potency littered within their lineup. Could they repeat? Absolutely. Will they repeat? I don’t think so.
The Sox haven’t had the noisy start to the season they, or their fans, were hoping to get. They currently sit 3rd in their division, and the New York Yankees are looking like more of a threat that anyone else in the AL East. As a matter of fact, the Sox only have the 7th best record in the entire American League. Long story short, they have the talent to make a run, but it’s all looking a bit late for the Red Sox, and the future is just looking sketchy with Tampa and the Bronx on the horizon.
The Boston Celtics
Yikes. Not big yikes, but medium yikes, I think we can agree. Super teams are dormant in the NBA for the time being, so lets pay respect to where the first “Big Three” was built. Okay, homage over. The Celtics, lately, have been doing a great job of staying afloat, but that’s about where the accomplishments end for them. Star point guard Kyrie Irving left Boston for New York (ouch) a year after telling the Boston faithful he would be happy to re-sign as Celtic if they would gladly accept him. Well… they accepted him, and he reneged. On to Brooklyn for Kyrie.
The Celtics replaced Kyrie by signing late bloomer, Kemba Walker. This isn’t a terrible move by Boston at all. They’re able to get a talented point man to replace what they lost, and Kemba seems like a laid back guy. He could gel easily with the pieces they have around him. Problem is, it won’t matter. The Sixers and Bucks are still much better teams, and once KD returns from injury, Boston will look like they are going the opposite direction of the rest of the conference. Celtics? Never were a big part of the Boston championship era, and we’re not worried about’em for a while.
The New England Patriots
The Boston Patriots? Nope. If you ask anyone up there, though, they’ll claim the title as if they were the entirety of New England. I won’t argue it, because there isn’t much else in New England and we can let Boston have this team. Worth noting, however, even the Patriots knew to stay the hell away from Boston. Anyway, this is the team you can never count out, for obvious reasons. Their system and QB/Coach tandem is the best to ever walk the playing turf, no question. However, that does have to end at some point. They are getting old. People will talk all day about how they want to keep playing until they’re blind and deaf, and that’s fine. But I’m telling you, they won’t be winning for that long.
Greatness gets old, it always does. MJ retired as it was happening, but he eventually stopped winning titles. Kobe stopped winning titles. Gretzky stopped winning Cups. A great player will age, and with it, so does the era he creates. Tom Brady is a living, walking, breathing legend, and we must appreciate him while we have him. However, with that sentiment comes a little sour taste: Brady finished with six rings (still blows my mind).
The Boston Bruins
If anyone is to blame for the end of an era, it’s these boys. Not that they were a huge help, they only captured one (just like the C’s) of Boston’s titles during this parade of parades. However, they had a golden chance to redeem themselves this past offseason, and it could not have been laid out any better for them. While Boston was battling through a grueling series with their rival, Toronto, the Columbus Blue Jackets calmly swept the scariest team in the NHL and biggest threat to the rest of the East, the Tampa Bay Lightning.
By the time Boston had made it through Columbus, the Lightning, Penguins, and Capitals had all been eliminated in upset fashion. Icing on the cake? Oh, that would be having to face the lowly St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Final. You know, the team that was in last place to start the calendar year. Low and behold, though, the Bruins couldn’t get it done. They won game 1 but it was so obviously going to go the Blues’ way that I blasted it all over twitter. I called for the end of the Boston championship era as one of their teams was just 3 games away from capturing one. When the vibe is that strong, it is always to be trusted. That’s what we’ve learned here.
We Carry On
And so life will go on. Boston fans won’t even read this far and dub this the “dumbest take I’ve seen all day”. That’s not the point of all this. The point is to recognize and appreciate what a city (plus Foxborough) of teams has been able to accomplish. And maybe they do win another title here or there over the next handful of years, but it won’t be enough to drag out the era. Unless it happens this year. Which it won’t. It’s tough to see this end, but it’s even tougher to recognize it’s ending before it actually does. It began with the Pats (2002), it ends with the Pats (2019). I look forward to the increasing silence from Boston fans going forward, and that we may all now enjoy our sports in a civilized manner.
Follow mehhh, I’m gonna lose all my Boston followers – @BellyUpZachMac
