Quarterback Drake Maye gave Patriots fans reason to believe during his rookie season.
Quarterback Drake Maye gave Patriots fans reason to believe during his rookie season.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
Picked-up pieces while noting that Tommy Cutlets wears the No. 16 for the Patriots once worn by Scott Zolak . . .
⋅ The NFL season is finally here and New England waits breathlessly for the beginning of the Mike Vrabel era when the Patriots and Raiders kick off at 1 p.m. Sunday at Gillette.
Patriots Nation is agog. There probably hasn’t been this much anticipation since Tom Brady prepped for what would end up being his final Patriots game: a 20-13 playoff loss to Vrabel’s Titans in January 2020.
A lot of stuff has happened to the Patriots since that day. Most of it bad.
Brady bolted for Tampa in the middle of the 2020 pandemic and Patriots Nation subsequently endured a chorus line of QB castaways, wannabes, and never weres: Cam Newton, Mac Jones, Jarrett Stidham, Brian Hoyer, Bailey Zappe, Jacoby Brissett, and Joe Milton.
Bill Belichick was fired after poor drafts, the Joe Judge/Matt Patricia debacle, increasing frostiness with his Kraft bosses, five seasons without a playoff win, and a 4-13 flop in 2023.
Jerod Mayo was hired, then fired after 17 games of boobery — another 4-13 season, which included a season-finale “victory” over the lay-me-down Bills that cost the Patriots the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 draft.
That’s all behind us now. The bad quarterbacks, coaches, and karma are gone.
It’s a new football day in New England. Drake Maye is a blue-chip, second-year quarterback who gave us reason to believe during his rookie season (can short-armed rookie Will Campbell block Vegas’s Maxx Crosby?). Vrabel — a Super Bowl-winning Patriot and former NFL Coach of the Year — has brought instant credibility and gravitas to the franchise. There’s been tremendous turnover on the roster. Vegas has New England winning 8.5 games, the vaunted New York Post picked the Patriots to finish second in the AFC East, and in some fanboy basements, the word “playoffs” (dare we speak its name?) is being uttered without Jim Mora’s histrionic sarcasm.
Forgive the rest of the fans in Football America if they’ve failed to notice that the Patriots are ready to rejoin the NFL party.
Network television is usually a good barometer of a franchise’s national relevance, and the Patriots this season are kings of the 1 p.m. Sunday time slot. Twelve of New England’s first 16 games are scheduled for the early Sunday ratings graveyard shift.
CBS’s broadcast team for Patriots-Raiders is Spero Dedes, Adam Archuleta, and Aditi Kinkhabwala. They are no doubt good talents but won’t be confused with Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, and Frank Gifford.
And what about poor Bob Kraft? There was a time when he’d get the likes of Henry Kissinger, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, and Elton John in his private suite. Who’s he got now? Ernie Boch Jr.? Mike Lindell? Tommy Cutlets’s agent, Sean Stellato, a.k.a. Christopher Moltisanti?
It’ll be good to see Pete Carroll on the Raiders’ sideline Sunday. Officially the oldest head coach in NFL history (74 on Sept. 15), Carroll is a Hall of Fame coach, a wonderful person, and a reminder of everything that’s gone down in Foxborough during Kraft’s three-plus decades of ownership. Pumped-and-jacked Pete was the bridge between Bill Parcells and Belichick, and delivered a Super Bowl ring to Kraft with his mind-numbing play call of a slant pass into traffic (“Malcolm, go!”) from the 1-yard line at the end of Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Ariz., in 2015.
Pete Carroll returns to Foxborough Sunday as coach of the Raiders.
Pete Carroll returns to Foxborough Sunday as coach of the Raiders.Samantha Chow/Associated Press
Those were the good old days . . . when the Patriots ruled the football world . . . When Wiggy would say, “They hate us cuz they ain’t us!“
It was great then. It could be great again. And Patriots Nation believes it’ll start this weekend against the Raiders at Gillette.
⋅ Quiz: 1. Name four Pro Football Hall of Famers who teamed with Vrabel during his Patriots days; 2. Name four players who rushed for 15,000 or more career yards (answers below).
⋅ Super-talented Christian Gonzalez is the Mystery Man of the 2025 Patriots.
⋅ Kraft says there will be a Belichick statue in Foxborough, telling WBZ-TV’s Dan Roche, “When Bill’s coaching career ends, we look forward to sitting with down with him and having a statue made to be right next to Tommy [Brady].”
⋅ The unspeakable oblique injury that shelved star Red Sox rookie Roman Anthony is reminiscent of rookie Jim Rice breaking his left hand, getting hit by a Vern Ruhle pitch on Sept. 21, 1975, just a few weeks before the greatest World Series ever played.
Roman Anthony's oblique injury brings to mind 1975, when another Red Sox star rookie was felled.
Roman Anthony's oblique injury brings to mind 1975, when another Red Sox star rookie was felled.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
⋅ Everyone ready to acknowledge that dumping Rafael Devers for a bag of balls and salary relief was a blunder? Devers’s bad behavior made it easy for the Red Sox to generate applause for giving him away, but they got nothing for the asset except salary relief for ownership. Swell. Going into the weekend, Devers (National League player of the week) had 30 home runs and 97 RBIs. Only six players in baseball had more RBIs than Devers, who had played in every one of his teams’ games. Meanwhile, the Sox are down two important hitters (Wilyer Abreu and Anthony) and we’re watching Masataka Yoshida (.242, 2 HRs, 13 RBIs) hit soft grounders to second base as Boston’s DH. “Yeah, but getting rid of Devers turned the season around,’’ you say? That’s not true, either. Boston had won five straight and 7 of 8 the day Devers was dealt. Anthony already had arrived, the pitching got better, and the Sox’ run to the playoffs was underway. This was not the same as dumping washed-up Nomar Garciaparra in 2004 when Theo Epstein came away with Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz. In this instance, you gave away a guy who has as many RBIs as Aaron Judge . . . for Jordan Hicks, who has a 8.20 ERA in 21 games for the Sox and makes $24 million over the next two seasons.
Rafael Devers has heated up in a big way for the Giants.
Rafael Devers has heated up in a big way for the Giants.David Zalubowski/Associated Press
⋅ Not to be all negative here, but the Red Sox still lead the majors in errors.
⋅ Is Arch Manning a nepo-nephew?
⋅ Watching Belichick’s Tar Heels endure a 48-14 beatdown at the hands of TCU Monday made me wonder if this is how it ends for the Hoodie. UNC will win some games this year — its schedule is pretty easy — but that was a bad demonstration of tackling and coaching. It’s all about recruiting at this level and Belichick’s 70 new players were not as good as the 50 new players Deion Sanders gets every year. It certainly feels like Bill’s NFL days are over. It’s hard to imagine another NFL team taking a chance on him now. Belichick certainly had a lot of friends in ESPN’s pregame broadcast booth, including four who worked with him (Pat McAfee, Nick Saban, Tedy Bruschi, and Randy Moss). TCU looked properly offended by the fawning Hoodie coverage and ran it up on UNC, big time. No Belichick team had ever surrendered 48 points in a game. So much for the Tar Heels hyping themselves as the NFL’s “33rd franchise.”
⋅ Brady can’t be in Foxborough Sunday. He’s working the Giants-Commanders game for Fox.
⋅ Former Boston College quarterback Tommy Castellanos produced 152 yards through the air and another 78 on the ground in a season-opening 31-17 Florida State throttling of Alabama. The Seminoles’ hot-dog QB is getting early Heisman mentions.
Former BC quarterback Tommy Castellanos helped Florida State beat Alabama.
Former BC quarterback Tommy Castellanos helped Florida State beat Alabama.Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press
⋅ The Chiefs go into this season having made the playoffs for 10 straight years. The Bills are next at six and the Buccaneers have made it each of the last five seasons.
⋅ Since the Cowboys won their last Super Bowl in 1996, the Jets are 7-7 in playoff games while Dallas is 5-13.
⋅ Mike Tomlin is starting his 19th season with the Steelers. He’s never had a losing season. He’s got Aaron Rodgers as his quarterback against the Jets Sunday afternoon in the Meadowlands.
Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season as coach of the Steelers.
Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season as coach of the Steelers.Scott Kinser/Associated Press
⋅ Bobby Shantz, a 5-foot-6-inch righthander who went 24-7 and won the American League MVP award for the Philadelphia A’s in 1952, turns 100 years old on Sept. 26. The only older living former big leaguer is 101-year old Bill Greason, who pitched three games for the Cardinals in 1954 and eight for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948.
⋅ Former Yankee/current Trumper Mark Teixeira announced he’s running for Congress in his home state of Texas. Teixeira’s announcement reminded me of his touchy negotiation with the Red Sox when he was a coveted free agent in the winter of 2008-09. Terry Francona and Epstein had a great meeting with Teixeira in December, but things fell apart when Teixeira and his agent, Scott Boras, met in Texas with John Henry, Tom Werner, Larry Lucchino, and Epstein. “When you’re being recruited, you would hope you’d be treated well,” Teixeira told me years later. “That didn’t happen. I was treated very poorly by Larry at dinner when they were recruiting to sign me.” Lucchino, who did not trust Boras, disputed the story, claiming that Boras was trying to get the Sox to bid against themselves. Teixeira wound up signing with the Yankees for eight years and $180 million, and won a World Series with them in 2009.
Former Yankee Mark Teixeira is running for Congress.
Former Yankee Mark Teixeira is running for Congress.Christian Petersen/Photographer: Christian Petersen
⋅ The Worcester Red Sox are honoring Lucchino at Polar Park on a weekend that marks what would have been his 80th birthday (Sept. 6).
⋅ Did you know that the Colorado Rockies have never had a 20-game winner?
⋅ Kudos to Newton’s Veronica Burton (daughter of WBZ’s Steve, sister of NBC Sports Boston’s Kayla, granddaughter of Patriots great Ron), a star point guard for the WNBA’s likely playoff-bound, expansion Golden State Valkyries. Burton paid her dues with Dallas and Connecticut, is now thriving in the Bay Area, and was the subject of a nice feature in Tuesday’s print edition of the New York Times.
⋅ Official attendance for Johnson C. Smith’s 45-9 HBCU Classic victory over Morehouse at Harvard Stadium last Saturday: 8,263.
⋅ How come we never had books, documentaries, and columns on “Red Auerbach vs. Bill Russell — who deserves the credit? In the latest installment of New England’s grid soap opera, Gary Myers has written “Brady vs. Belichick — The Dynasty Debate” (St. Martin’s Press), due in stores Sept. 16.
⋅ Anagram of the week: UNC Tar Heels = Reset Launch.
⋅ Hard to believe that Tom Turco’s Barnstable girls’ volleyball team this year will play in the MIAA’s Division 2 state tournament. This would be like Geno Auriemma and his UConn Huskies playing for the Division 2 NCAA basketball championship.
⋅ Congratulations to Celtic PR lifer Jeff Twiss, who this weekend will be honored by the Basketball Hall of Fame as recipient of the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hall in Springfield. Twiss is the last remaining Auerbach hire in the Celtics’ front office, and now goes on a list of previous recipients including Bob Cousy, Curt Gowdy, Satch Sanders, and Dave Gavitt.
⋅ Fifty years ago this weekend, Globe scholastic sports editor Neil Singelais trusted three, fresh-out-of-college reporters, to cover high school football in Eastern Massachusetts. The MIAA featured only four divisions. Singelais handled Division 1, Kevin Paul Dupont (now in the Hockey Hall of Fame) took care of Division 2, and Lesley Visser (a Pro Football Hall of Famer) covered Division 4. Yours truly had Division 3.
⋅ Best wishes to Globe copy desk GOAT Jim Hoban, who retired this past week, after making every writer at this paper better for the last 48 years. Most readers didn’t know “Champ,” but he was your best friend. Ours, too.
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Ty Law (2001-04), Junior Seau (2006-07), Randy Moss (2007-08), Richard Seymour (2001-08); 2. Emmitt Smith (18,355), Walter Payton (16,726), Frank Gore (16,000), Barry Sanders (15,269).
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.