Before ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons became one of these most popular sports columnist in the country he was simply known as “The Boston Sports Guy” writing for Digital City Boston (what Bill has described as “AOL’s digital newspaper”). More than a decade later, the Holy Cross/Boston University alum has ventured beyond the sports column and into television; as a former writer for "Jimmy Kimmel Live", documentaries; as executive producer of ESPN’s 30 For 30 series and books; his latest The Book of Basketball just hit shelves this week.
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Boston and Los Angeles don't have much in common. We have miserable winters, they have palm trees. We have Ben Affleck, they have everybody else. They have Rodney King, we have Skip Gates. It's a different world.
It's official! Tom Brady finally confirmed what we all sort of already knew: Gisele Bundchen is pregnant. As secrets go, it wasn't well hidden. He told Chris Berman of ESPN the news, and joked that the birth can't occur on a Sunday. But, if the blessed event were to happen on December 13 or 27, when the team plays in Foxboro, there may be a way Tom could witness the birth of his second child and play quarterback on the same day. The sprawling Patriot Place complex includes the Brigham and Women’s/Mass General Health Care Center. Bostonist has had an appointment there. It's an impressive facility. There must be some intern working for Bill Belichick who can check to see if it's equipped to handle women in labor.
Has everyone recovered from either or both of the humbling playoff losses inflicted upon us by the Bruins and Celtics? Well, if you have, or haven't, it's time to prepare for Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots.
-- Bikers and drivers share the "love" in this "so Boston" signage. Good thing bike lanes are on the way. [Boston Biker]
The wheels are coming off the bus. After Monday night's debacle in DC and Tuesday's shutout at the hands of Florida, the Bruins desperately needed a strong showing last night, with Toronto in town and their six-seed hanging by a thread.
Movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn once famously said of preachy movies, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union.". Well, Western Union is now out of the telegram business, so the Celtics had to send a message to Detroit some other way, playing stifling defense, fundamental offense, and grinding out a win that - well, that sends the message - that they just might actually be the best team in the East.
- The Bobcats are to the Celtics what the Giants were to the Patriots: confident, strong, capable of making a game of it (although we'd like to think that we won't see Jason Richardson celebrating a championship for at least another couple of years). The Celts barely beat the 'Cats in November, lost (embarrassingly) in January, and were challenged up until the end on Friday night, when Boston won, 108-100, at TD Banknorth Garden.
Tim Duncan and the city of Boston have had an interesting relationship over the years. It looked like the big guy would be coming here as a reward for the dismal 1997 Celtics season; Rick Pitino [make evil eye sign, spit on ground] even took the C's coaching job assuming that he'd get to coach Tim. As we all know, the Spurs' tank-job paid off, Duncan went to San Antonio, and Pitino stayed. Just to rub salt in the wounds, Duncan and the Spurs came to Boston every year, and beat the Celtics here every year.
Last night was one of the strangest games we've seen in a while at the TDBG. With the unremarkable Clippers in town, the second quarter had a playoff-like intensity to it, with technicals, an ejection, and some really scrappy play. The fourth quarter showed a surprising lineup, as Doc left the second unit (House, Powe, Davis, Posey, Tony Allen) in for almost the entire time. Most surprising of all - the bench played some fantastic defense and better-than-expected offense to close the Clips out.
"Bye-weeks. Bronco Nagurski didn't get no bye-weeks! And now he's dead! Well, maybe they're a good thing." - Moe, The Simpsons
Watch this video as reporter Inez Gomez-Mont proposes to Tom Brady. It's all his reaction shot as she essentially throws herself upon him:
Randy Moss will not be going to Florida for the court hearing involving an incident in which a woman was allegedly injured at his home, prompting her to file a temporary restraining order.
The losing streak is over! The Celtics got back on track yesterday, though it was no sure thing. They survived a valiant effort from a spirited Portland team; even sans Rondo, their offense finally clicked in the second half thanks mostly to Ray Allen and 26 of his season-high 35 points.
The San Diego Chargers are hoisting their macho flag in the sky. One player who has the first name Igor (no joke) already boasted that the Patriots are more worried about the Chargers than the Chargers are of them. Can Igor do math? A perfect record is nothing to sniff at. Bostonist heard on ESPN that Coach Norv of the Chargers told Igor to shut his trap.
Victor Thompson of New Hampshire is a bigger Pats fan than you are. Sure, he's never actually been to a game in Foxboro, but he'd like to. But that doesn't matter. Maybe you watch all the games on TV, maybe you own a Wes Welker replica jersey, maybe you've even trekked down to Gillette (or even Schaeffer) Stadium, but you haven't done what Victor's doing: getting a Tom Brady helmet tattooed on his head.
You'd think with all of Harvard's brainpower they'd be finding the cure for cancer. But instead they looked into a crystal ball and found … nothing.
Hope you sports fans were able to relax yesterday. The disappointing non-slaughter of the Jets is in the rear view mirror, the Dolphins game isn't quite as exciting since the stupid Ravens ended Miami's bid for a winless season, everything is sewn up in the AFC, and the Monday Night game wasn't that exciting. Plus, the Celtics and Bruins were off.
We could choose to be disappointed. We figured (and we weren't the only ones) that the combination of crappy weather, boisterous fans and motivated personnel would mean the Patriots would kick the Jets' butts up and down the field for three hours. We figured that, even though we're better than New York in every sport right now, yesterday would be a cathartic blowout to soothe any lingering anti-NY feelings around here.
Roger Clemens is an unhappy man today. At least, his lawyer is. Attorney Rusty Hardin responded to Roger's prominence in the Mitchell Report by saying, "He is left with no meaningful way to combat what he strongly contends are false allegations." We remember something in the report about Mitchell requesting an interview with Clemens and being turned down. Perhaps that was a mistake.
Seen on ESPN yesterday: "The Bruins are 8-4-1 in their last 13 games. Just thought you should know the fourth horse of the apocalypse is saddling up." The Bruins insist that Tim Thomas is not being Wally Pipped; he'll be the starter again as soon as he recovers from his groin injury. But for finding a backup goalie in the clearance bin, it's hard to beat what the B's have seen from Alex Auld, who...
The baseball winter meetings are over, and the Red Sox find themselves without an ace. Except for the one they have. And the Japanese guy who might yet become one. And the old cowboy back for one more year. And the two or three promising kids who might be a couple years away. But they haven't landed Johan Santana, which is either a failure (if they really were after Santana) or a success (if their...
We're not the biggest Japanese-movie-monster buffs in the world, but we honestly can't remember an entry in the series when the monster got to go home early because Tokyo didn't even make a token effort to defend itself. But Ghidorah was sent to the bench early last night; the "Big Three" were no longer needed amid the Celtics' utter annihilation of the listless Knicks last night. It was a 23-point lead at halftime, and when...
As tempting as it would have been for the Bruins to come out swinging last night, playing back the Flyers for Patrice Bergeron's concussion, that's not how they roll. And they needed the two points even more than they needed the visceral satisfaction of seeing the Flyers laid out like the wounded soldiers in Gone With the Wind. The 6-3 shellacking wasn't exactly a tea party, though. Defenseman Andrew Alberts left the game after a...
A mixed bag on Big TV day in New England. Let's start with the good: The Bills had won four in a row, and were feeling pretty good about being able to hang around with the Patriots. They even got an inspirational message on the Jumbotron from injured Kevin Everett, so they had to be pumped up. Eleven seconds later, they were down 28-0 (numbers may not be strictly accurate). We're running out of ways...
Josh Beckett got to hoist the championship trophy, ride down Boylston on the duck boats, and will get a huge ring in the spring. He earned the Sports Illustrated commemorative issue cover, the champagne and beer showers, and the reputation for serving as the ace among aces in October. He had a rich season, so we're hoping that such a reminder helps as C.C. Sabathia is toasted as the American League's newest Cy Young winner....
In the first half of the Patriots' perfect-so-far season, there were a few scary moments. There was the time Dallas took the lead in the third quarter, and....well, that was about it, actually. For eight games, the Pats picked the tune, and the opponent either danced along, or more likely, got flung out of the way. We've had our scary moments now. Yesterday was a game when the Pats not only didn't pick the tune,...
In honor of the mother of all football matchups, which will take place when the New England Patriots play the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday afternoon, Bostonist is going to compare the coaches and the quarterbacks. First up is a comparison of Pats coach Bill Belichick, known on Bostonist as the "Sexy Beast," and Colts coach Tony Dungy. When you consider the coaching talents of Bill Belichick and Tony Dungy, Belichick appears to win hands down,...
LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late-night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late-night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock to it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own such as...
In the bid to make 2007 the first season when all four LDS's were sweeps, the National League took care of business yesterday. The Rockies bid adieu to Philly, while the Diamondbacks went to Wrigley and broke Cub fans' hearts for the 99th straight season. Which, if you're a Red Sox fan, at least means that when we win the World Series, at least we won't do it on the back of long-suffering Philly or...

Week Around the Ists, November 1–7