The Owner's Box After Dark, Ep. 40.

It's sort of a milestone episode for me, as I will explain early on. In Episode 40, I take a soul-restoring trip to Cape Cod and let the sun into my heart at the conclusion of a busy winter sports season.

But the show ponies and unicorns didn't stick around for long, and in the second half of this podcast, I weigh in on the recent death of hate-mongering talk-show host Rush Limbaugh and the negative impact he had upon the level of discourse among Americans with differing opinions. And I don't mince my words.

It's all in Episode 40 of The Owner's Box After Dark, which came out into the sunlight for at least a brief period of time. Enjoy.

From 11 years ago, “Mosi was one of the good guys.”

I wrote the following column 11 years ago today, upon learning of the untimely death of former Patriots’ fullback and former King Philip Regional High football coach Mosi Tatupu. Rather than having you read my ramblings, I went instead to the best possible source of information — Steve Grogan, the tough-as-nails quarterback who played alongside Tatupu for so many years.

I’m still proud of this work so many years later — thus I offer it to you here.

Mosi Tatupu in uniform.

The phone had been ringing off the hook in Steve Grogan's office at his Mansfield sporting goods store Wednesday morning.

"Unfortunately," the former quarterback of the New England Patriots said, "we've reached that point in our lives where, when the phone rings, more often than not it's going to be bad news."

Grogan, like most of Patriot Nation, was shocked and deeply saddened Wednesday to learn of the death of his former teammate, Mosi Tatupu. Grogan said he was home, dressing for a day at work, when he saw Tatupu's face flash across the television screen, "and I wondered, 'What's he on TV for.'"

Tatupu died Tuesday at Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, but the news of his passing first came out of his home state of Hawaii. He was raised there and became one of its greatest high school football players before beginning an odyssey that would make him one of the most beloved sports figures in New England.

A personal friend of the family told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that Tatupu, 54, had "health issues" recently, including high blood pressure - something that few of his former teammates knew.

"I don't think anyone did," Grogan said. "I was trying to remember when the last I saw him was it was in the fall, or around Christmas-time, and he had been going back and forth between here and Seattle to be with Lofa (Tatupu's son, a starting inside linebacker with the Seattle Seahawks).

"I can't tell you how many alumni basketball games or other events that I've been to with Mosi over the years," Grogan said. "He was a fun guy to be around, a great guy. We had a lot of fun together. He will be missed."

One of the things about Tatupu that resonated with fans and teammates alike was his lunch-pail, blue-collar work ethic that fit in so well with the Patriots of his era.

"Everyone loved Mosi because he was a working man's football player," said Grogan. "Whether it was special teams, goal-line back, blocking or catching, whatever he had to do, he did it. People appreciated that."

An eighth-round draft choice in 1978 out of Southern Cal, Tatupu earned his stripes in the pros through what many would call grunt work - special teams, the hell-bent-for-leather charges down the field on kick coverage or returns that require a special mentality for the job to be done well.

Although he set a state record for rushing as a high school player in Hawaii, one that would stand for 17 years, Tatupu knew he was not destined to be the next Jim Brown in college or the pros. He was a blocker and a hitter, and he threw himself so completely into the task that he earned his own following - the "Mosi's Mooses" cheering section at the old Foxboro Stadium, a weekly celebration of a part of football that may have been lacking in glamour, but was absolutely essential to a team's success.

The current success of the team tends to obscure the past somewhat, but the Patriots of Tatupu's era were a very good team. Of his 13 seasons in a Patriot uniform, the team finished over .500 in all but three. The cumulative record was 99-101 over that time, but prior to the last two seasons (5-11 in 1989, 1-15 in 1990), the Tatupu-era Pats reached a pinnacle of 18 games over .500.

Part of the reason for the success of those teams was the camaraderie that developed among a core group of players that remained intact through much of that time, Grogan said - players of like mind, who enjoyed what they did and where they did it, despite the many obstacles placed in their way by a financially threadbare ownership.

Tatupu as King Philip’s foootball coach.

"We didn't have 20 whirlpools, we just had two," Grogan said, chuckling over the memories. "But that bunch of guys we had in the '80s, that was an atmosphere of fun and camaraderie. Mosi, he was such a great guy in the locker room and he was the same way on the practice field. He had fun out there, and because of that, he was successful."

Tatupu's career didn't lack highlights. He was a Pro Bowl player in 1986, and a national college football award for special-teamers bears his name. And, one of his best pro games as a runner is eternally remembered in New England sports lore, if for other reasons.

It was a snowy day on Dec. 12, 1982, at then-Schaefer Stadium, and the Patriots and Miami Dolphins were locked in a scoreless battle. Tatupu, with his low center of gravity, no-nonsense running style and an uncanny ability to protect the football, emerged as the Patriots' leading rusher in the game with 81 yards on 13 carries.

Grogan chuckled again over how Tatupu (born in Pago Pago, American Samoa) could adapt so well to conditions unknown to the South Pacific.

"Here was this Samoan who'd grown up in Hawaii and played his football at Southern California, and he was the best running back in the snow that we had," he said. "He was amazing at it."

Tatupu's hard running in the snow helped set up the unforgettable climax of that particular game - a moment frozen (pun intended) in time when then-coach Ron Meyer waved stadium employee Mark Henderson, a work-release inmate, and his John Deere snow-sweeping tractor onto the field to clear a path for John Smith to kick a 33-yard field goal that eventually won the game.

Tatupu spent all but five games of his career in a Patriot uniform, the last five being with the Los Angeles Rams in 1991. Like many other Patriots of that era, Tatupu remained in the area after his career ended, put down roots and became part of the fabric of our communities.

He spent from 1995 to 2001 coaching the King Philip Regional High School football team when his son was a student there. Lofa was a two-time Sun Chronicle all-star, attaining fame as a quarterback at KP, but his true calling would come on the defensive side of the ball, first at the University of Maine then at Southern Cal, and finally as a Pro Bowl linebacker with the Seahawks. Most recently, Mosi was coaching running backs at Curry College.

"So many of us shared the same core values," Grogan said. "And you can see that in Lofa. You know he was raised properly."

Amid the sadness of loss, Grogan said Tatupu left a legacy that would be a pleasure to remember.

"Mosi was just one of those guys when you think about him, you can't help but have a smile on your face," he said.

The Owner's Box After Dark, Ep. 39.

It's time for another video version of the podcast that redefined podcasting, The Owner's Box After Dark!

In this episode, it's a mixed bag, including ...

* A celebration of the 1,000th career point of Mansfield High basketball star Matty Boen;

* My recollections of a few other memorable moments on the road to 1,000 points from among the 81 young men and women that accomplished the feat in my presence, and one that didn't; 

* My explanation why I will never waste an ounce of soap from bath bars, even when it appears they have exhausted their useful life, and

* My search for understanding when it comes to why it's so difficult for me to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

It's all squeezed into under 59 minutes, so it's not as if you'll be wasting your entire day to watch. Enjoy.

Ponderous thoughts I was pondering ...

Ponderous thoughts I was pondering while wondering if I can plug in an electric heating unit inside the Macktaz Field press box without popping all the circuit breakers ...

** One of my many "bosses" these days -- and that's sort of an honorary title, as I am pretty much a free-lance announcer and truly beholding only to the Internal Revenue Service -- has a weekly column in the local daily newspaper and it's usually a good read. And this week, my friend did one of the toughest things in the world for a columnist to do -- which is, of course, to admit he was wrong about something.

He wrote that he was wrong in his initial objections to staging a winter high school sports season here in the commonwealth in the midst of a pandemic. Indeed, he and I had many discussions about that very premise in the days and weeks leading up to the winter season -- some public via cable TV, others private -- so I can assure you he wasn't kidding when he was skeptical about the potential for the season's success.

But as we enter the "Fall II" season as designated by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association as the "wedge" season created for football (as well as a few other sports), I might suggest that my friend may have actually been a little hard on himself. 

Yes, we just finished a winter sports season, and for the most part, I'd say it was quite successful. I hoped it would be from the start, and maybe I was a little cavalier in dismissing the risks at first. There were still some terrible and potentially dangerous flaws in the process, and I am not hesitant to say that if not for the grace of God -- and the incredible dedication of local athletic directors, coaches and athletes to try to make it all work -- we could have toppled into a COVID-festering pool of infection that could have had a very tragic outcome.

Granted, my opinion is tainted somewhat by a sense of dread that I experienced every time I stepped into a gymnasium or an ice rink these past few months. I've somehow made it through the past 11-plus months without as much as a non-anticipated sniffle, but I still can't get even one foot through the door at Gillette Stadium to get an injection even though I qualify for it. 

I wear the masks, like I'm told. Even when I had to call a hockey game inside a cold ice rink, I wore it -- despite the constant fogging of my eyeglasses from the captured breath inside my mask that apparently had nowhere else to exit except up.

Alex Salachi, Tom Faria and me in maskless times.

At this point, I really want to give proper props to my broadcast partners, all of whom shared one characteristic. We're old men. Alex Salachi, who worked with me on King Philip and Mansfield basketball, is 67 and one month older than I am. Tom Faria, who worked the bulk of Mansfield basketball games with me, is 64 and had to miss the first week of the season because he was recovering from a mild case of the coronavirus. And Glen Farley, who worked King Philip and Bishop Feehan hockey with me and subbed for Alex on one KP hoops doubleheader, is 65. We're all in that demographic that COVID-19 loves to pick on.

But somehow, we survived and got our games in -- but, some sports more successfully than others.

On the basketball side, it seems that the schools I covered managed to fend off the dreaded virus as it stood on the periphery of their borders. Mansfield's boys ended up playing 16 games and the girls played 14 (despite initial 10-game scheduling limits) and the only games that were postponed were caused by COVID cases among their future opponents. The KP boys and girls were sailing along smoothly for four weeks of Sunday doubleheaders (something I'd love to see considered for the post-pandemic world) until they hit a speed bump at the end of the season with eight positive cases reported within the high school. Only one of the originally-scheduled games was canceled.

Hockey was less successful. I was supposed to be behind the microphone for four games originally. All but one of those were rescheduled because of COVID, and some of those were rescheduled so many times, and on such short notice, that we just threw up our hands and pulled the plug on what was left in the final week of the season. One extra game was added to the schedule, and somehow, that managed to survive intact.

Through it all, I can't minimize the amazing commitment made by the local athletic directors to make it work. Mike Redding at Mansfield and Gary Brown at KP were always on call, adjusting schedules and checking with state agencies and even manning the disinfectant sprayer between games to keep safe  their athletes and the few fans allowed into their gyms. Ditto for Mark Houle at Attleboro, who helped me track down a few scheduling changes in the midst of the season.

I could sense the exasperation in their voices every time I'd call looking for some clarification about the upcoming schedules, especially when games were being added on short notice. No doubt, trying to conduct a high school sports season during a pandemic has been a challenge the scope of which none of them could have anticipated. And to think, we still have to worry about Fall II, Spring and the following "real" Fall season for 2011-12 coming in short order.

Players wore masks and still played on.

The bottom line for the winter season, however, is that it would never have worked if not for the commitment and sacrifices made by the coaches and the athletes. They were on the front lines of this battle and they were at greatest risk. Some coaches understandably opted out of the season to protect their families and young children from exposure (and they should not be criticized for that), but for the most part, coaches and athletes marched forward into the unknown and did everything they could to fill the competition void. 

It's been said many times that the lack of high school sports last spring was potentially harmful to the kids that look forward to sports as part of their well-rounded education, and more harmful the longer their estrangement continued. Some naysayers claim that sports is a costly luxury and not worth the financial investment, but I've never believed that -- and the importance of participation was driven home to me again this year when I saw the energy and commitment these young people put into their games. They wore the masks and used the hand sanitizer and sat distanced from their teammates as they were told to do -- and as far as I can tell, they didn't complain.

They made the 2021 winter season special, and I thank them all for their efforts. And lest I forget, my thanks also go to camerapersons Maureen O'Neill, Scott Tooker and Loren Carpenter for their excellent work for the two cable systems for which I worked this year.

** One unanticipated offshoot of the pandemic season was the proliferation of live-streamed games being televised to the general public via the Internet or on their local cable boxes. I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of positive comments from viewers of the games I did for North TV or Mansfield Cable Access -- I guess they are overlooking my frequent stumbles as a fledgling play-by-play announcer -- and they always ask if this will continue into "normalcy."

Honestly, I can't say.

Prior to this year, the MIAA frowned upon live coverage of high school sports by local cable TV, although after a quick review of the 131-page MIAA Handbook, there's nothing in it that even remotely addresses media coverage. There are links on the website to media guidelines, in which can be found regulations that cover the association's postseason tournaments .

The MIAA "owns" the rights to broadcasting its tournaments, and has given the National Federation of High Schools Network "exclusive rights" for offering live video coverage of them. Local cable systems and radio stations are expected to pay rights fees to the MIAA and delay broadcast so as not to conflict with the NFHS telecasts. I've actually worked NFHS football and basketball telecasts in the recent past.

BUT ... as with everything these days, nothing seems entirely set in stone. The MIAA often waives the rights fees and allows local cable to record the games. Last year I worked as an announcer in eight MIAA Tournament games for two different cable systems without a penny coming out of our coffers. And I know for a fact that four of those games were presented live to one cable system's home town with the only requirement being an announcement delivered in-game that the MIAA had waived the rights fees and supports educational athletics, blah blah blah.

The difference this year, however, has been the proliferation of Internet accessibility to the games. Either through YouTube, Facebook Live or the cable systems' own live-streaming capabilities, games went out far and wide to a new audience. Indeed, I was told that some of my Mansfield games were actually seen in Aruba.

As I said, the MIAA has taken at least an implied dim view of live television because it is perceived to be hurting the gate -- lessening potential in-person attendance at the host schools. It's also not cheap for a cable system to commit the resources to suddenly televise 10 games or more without receiving income to help support it.

Some cable systems, like North Attleboro and Attleboro, actually pay their on-air talent. Others don't. Some pay camera operators as free-lancers, others find volunteers, and there are many that use remotely-operated cameras provided by Hudl (the link explains what it is) or other high school sports-centric web sites, without the benefit of announcers or adjustable fields of view.

I watched a lot of games this season to prepare for the games I would be announcing. Some had great camerawork and knowledgeable announcers. Others had iffy camera work and people that would not even bother to find out who the players on the other teams were. And those wall-mounted Hudl telecasts? Well, as long as I could see the numbers, they were useful. But the eye-strain from having to sit with my nose touching the computer monitor was a pain.

Obviously, your best bet is a cable system that has a commitment to covering the events as the big boys in network TV do. But that costs money, and fewer bucks are flowing into the cable TV coffers these days.

The big providers, like Comcast and Verizon, are required by law to send a share of their profits back to the local cable systems to help fund local programming. But thanks to the Trump administration, a recent Federal Communications Commission ruling recently reduced the amount that the providers must return. That, and cord-cutting by viewers who prefer streaming apps to what the cable systems provide, is making it a financial strain to provide professional-looking local programming.

This year, one of the outfits for which I worked increased the number of games we would cover in boys' and girls' basketball from six to 10 because of the sudden popularity of live-streaming the games to fans that could not attend in person because of pandemic restrictions. But there was no added income to support the expenditure. Postponements of two of the games lessened the blow a little, but still, these games don't reach your home or your smartphone by osmosis.

This is a similar conundrum to the one that newspapers faced in the 1980s and 1990s when the Internet started hitting its stride. Because we thought we could use the new information source as a means of promoting our product, we put all the news on our websites for free -- not realizing that it wouldn't be long before readers would always expect the news for free on the World Wide Web, and not want to pay for the print edition. I've already been told one story about a woman that complained to one of my bosses that his system wasn't televising enough of her kid's games. Turns out, the complainer was not a subscriber to the local cable system and thus was not paying her minuscule share of the cost to televise the games as part of the cable service fee.

An old and familiar complaint, updated for new media.

So no, I can't tell you what will happen next year. My guess is that things may go back to normal where local cable systems are concerned, but there may be more amateur video popping up on YouTube and people will be strangely satisfied by blurry images and shaky camerawork that will be reminiscent of those first flickering pictures that were captured by buzzing cathode-ray tubes in the 1940s.

Ah, progress.

** I had more to talk about, but this has run long and you probably could use the break. I hope to have a new episode of The Owner's Box After Dark completed within the next day or two, so maybe I'll touch upon some of those topics then.

Cheers to all. Wash your hands and wear your masks, please. Stay safe.

The Owner's Box After Dark, Ep. 38.

The 38th episode of my video franchise features about 20 minutes of my audio-podcast interview with Foxboro High School girls' basketball standout Katelyn Mollica, whose stellar career ends today with a non-league game at King Philip (unfortunately, not live-streamed). The full interview appears in "The Owner's Box," of which there's a link nearby, but this version includes some of Foxboro Cable Access' fine video clips.

And in the second half, I offer my thoughts about the outcome of Super Bowl LV and on the new buddy-cop phase of the Tom Brady-Rob Gronkowski relationship.

It's a worthwhile 48 minutes. Enjoy!

 

The Owner's Box, Ep. 32.

Foxboro High's Katelyn Mollica (11) is nearing the end of her senior high school season.

The Original Gangsta is back -- my audio blog, "The Owner's Box," with a very interesting Episode 32.

My guest is Foxboro High School basketball star Katelyn Mollica, who is nearing the close of her senior season having amassed almost 1,400 career points and having been a part of two state championship teams.

It's the first time I've had an active high school athlete on the podcast. I've had a lot of coaches and former athletes visit, but a perspective that has been missing during this year-long pandemic has been that of the high school athlete. Through no fault of their own, the athletes have been asked to make sacrifices of their personal interactions, their practice time, their fans, even the games themselves, while we adults have been running around in circles trying to figure out how to keep a microscopic virus from upending our lives.

The athletes haven't complained -- or at least if they have, they keep it to themselves. They've tried to make the best out of what COVID-19 allows them to do -- playing reduced schedules, accepting bizarre rules changes thought to slow the spread, and wearing face masks while trying to go all-out in what little competition they've been allowed to experience.

I can guarantee you that Katelyn and her teammates had high expectations for their senior years, and have had to accept this "new reality" in order to glean some fun out of these bleak times. And if you ask me, they've handled it better than a lot of adults.

The talented Ms. Mollica talks openly about her joys and disappointments over the past four years, and the high hopes she has for the next stage of her career when she enrolls at Stonehill College in the fall. Listen to this podcast, and I guarantee you'll come away with a lot of respect for the younger generation.

It's all on The Owner's Box. Enjoy.

The Owner's Box After Dark, Ep. 37.

Hey, what a quick turnaround! After going about a month without an episode, I cranked out another After Dark in just five days after the last one!

In this episode, I offer my Super Bowl prediction -- and some likely controversial thoughts about why I'm fed up with Tom Brady. In the spirit of the Bucs-Chiefs matchup, I also show some vintage video of Kansas City fullback Anthony Sherman, the former North Attleboro High great, on the day he was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in 2011.

But first, some thoughts on a problem that still plagues us as a society, the equality of women. A social-media spat between the young adult daughter of a close friend and a blockheaded male of the same age set me to thinking about wrongs that should have been righted a long time ago.

That, and another fun noodle commercial from the Land of the Rising Sun. All in Episode 37, available below!