Good morning!
Earlier this month, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson told the New York Post that his son Brick “has no role in the organization.”
Johnson, the great grandson of Johnson & Johnson co-founder Robert Johnson, was pushing back on an article in The Athletic by Zack Rosenblatt, Dianna Russini and Michael Silver that ran in December 2024, and was updated Nov. 14.
The story led with an anecdote about an offseason deal that Jets GM Joe Douglas had made with the Denver Broncos for receiver Jerry Jeudy that Johnson nixed at the last moment.
Brick had told his father that Jeudy’s “Madden NFL” rating wasn’t high enough, which led to Douglas’ widely reported comment, “I answer to a teenager.”
Douglas was fired a few months later.
Brick and his younger brother Jack reportedly began sitting in on team meetings, making suggestions and criticizing players in their presence. After a Jets win against Houston, quarterback Aaron Rodgers was about to present a game ball to the coach “but before Rodgers could speak Brick Johnson took another game ball and awarded it to Garrett Wilson in a profanity-laced exclamation which the owner’s son later posted to Instagram,” according to the report in The Athletic.
Brick graduated from Deerfield Academy in 2024 and is currently enrolled at Harvard. He played varsity tennis at Deerfield, and when the Academy needed money for an $88.5 million dining commons, the Johnson family underwrote millions for the project.
During construction students ate in a temporary dining hall on Headmaster’s Field and played baseball on a new synthetic turf field next to Route 5 near Richardson’s Candy Kitchen.
Headmaster’s Field is named for legendary educator Frank L. Boyden who’d sit on the bench next to coach Art Williams and watch jocks like Pete Varney hit pitches off the Barton dormitory and over the center field bank.
The new dining hall is named for another legend, or legend in the making. Shortly after New Year’s the school announced on its Facebook page: “On January 5, Deerfield marked a special milestone with the very first sit-down meal in our new dining hall, The Brick.”
Up in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Mr. Boyden must be rolling over in his grave.
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The Baseball Hall of Fame will announce this year’s inductees on Tuesday. Jeff Kent was already selected by the Era Committee, while Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones are expected to get in the old fashioned way by receiving 75 percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Southpaw Andy Pettitte will not be getting inducted. Pettitte pitched all but three of his 18 seasons with the Yankees. He retired in 2013 with 256 career wins, an MLB record 19 postseason wins and 98 pickoffs.
Pettitte and Roger Clemens were both outed for steroids in 2008. Pettitte acknowledged using HGH to heal more quickly from an injury, while Clemens took his denials to Congress where he convinced no one.
Clemens also belongs in the Hall of Fame. He won seven Cy Young Awards, had 354 wins and 4,672 strikeouts. Mark McGwire belongs in the Hall and so does (hold your nose) Bobby Bonds.
It’s time to knock off the virtue-signalling by the holier-than-thou scribes. If one steroid user is in, they all should be in, and surely there’s more than one.
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UMass Hockey: It’s liftoff time for the Minutemen. Most of the remaining schedule is against beatable opponents and goalie Michael Hrabal is “comfortable and in charge” as coach Greg Carvel put it to radio’s Nathan Strauss after Hrabal stopped 52 of 53 shots in two games against BU.
Vaclav Nestrasil scored Saturday’s game winner versus the Terriers by faking goalie Mikhail Yegorov into leaving the puck for him behind the net and beating him to the front. “I asked him if he threw some Russian words at him,” Carvel joked to Strauss.
Longmeadow’s Cole Hanrahan has moved from being a healthy scratch in October to the second defensive pairing. “Hanrahan is one of those kids who plays physical,” emailed Carvel. “I wish we had a couple more like him.”
Kudos to UMass for taking a cue from the Springfield Thunderbirds and realizing not everyone likes strobe lights and loud noise, they just want to see a hockey game. On Saturday they reduced the PA noise and dimmed the lighting so not every game feels like the seventh game of the Stanley Cup.
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Mike Francesa said on a recent podcast “Going to a Mets game at Citi Field is a much better experience than going to Yankee Stadium. It’s not even close, the Yankees have completely lost that in their arrogance.”
That might seem surprising coming from a die hard Yankees fan, but there are current and former Red Sox fans who feel the same way about going to Fenway Park.
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ESPN thankfully won’t be televising MLB games this season. NBC and Peacock hold the rights, which hearkens back to the days of Joe Garagiola, Greg Gumble and Tony Kubek. Hopefully during games the network will keep reporters out of the dugout, microphones off the players and cameramen in the well.
According to the NY Post’s Bryan Fonseca, the network premier will be an Opening Day doubleheader on March 26 between the Mets and Pirates at 1 p.m. followed by the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.
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Condolences to South Deerfield’s John Cycz and his family on the passing of Matthew who did two tours in Iraq and was honored for saving a patient’s life while he worked in security at Baystate. May he soldier on in peace.
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SQUIBBERS: Tom Brady and Mike Francesa both criticized A.J. Brown’s play during the Eagles’ loss to the 49ers. “You gotta catch those,” Brady said after a crucial miss. “Brown has played himself off that team,” said Francesa. “If he hasn’t, you’ve got a scoop.” … PTI reported on Monday that prior to the Rams’ game-winning drive to beat the Panthers, quarterback Matthew Stafford looked at wideout Davante Adams and said, “Let’s go snatch these guys’ hearts.” … Josh Donaldson, 2015 MVP for the Blue Jays, on X about Tarik Skubal’s arbitration battle with Detroit: “Skubal wants 32 million and Detroit offers $19 mill. Trash organization.” … Zach Wilson, taken first overall in the 2021 draft by the Jets, completed six passes in four games for the Dolphins this year. … The UMass women’s basketball team takes on MAC defending champion Ball State in Muncie next week. On Wednesday the Minutewomen (12-3; 4-1) beat Akron by 14 points in front of 5,121 mostly young fans at the Mullins Center. … The Economist reports that an audit by the Turkish Football Federation resulted in 149 referees and 1,024 players being banned for suspicion of betting on matches. … BU’s longtime radio announcer Bernie Corbett on last weekend’s lack of scoring: “I feel like I’m broadcasting the Premier League.” …
The Red Sox were willing to give Alex Bregman five years and $165 million, but not five years and $150 million to Pete Alonso? Go figure. … With Ranger Suarez in the rotation the Red Sox have five starters who can keep the ball in the yard but nary a hitter who can put it out. Trevor Story led the team with 25 dingers last season and Wilyer Abreu hit 22. … After George Kittel blew out his Achilles tendon versus the Eagles, the TV camera followed him into the tunnel and getting off the cart and then hopping on one leg into the locker room. Viewers didn’t need to see it but the producer thought otherwise. … Former Patriot linebacker Keon White is playing with abandon for the 49ers. … Joe Cullen, one of the all-time great UMass nose tackles from the 1980s, is interviewing to be the Commanders’ next defensive coordinator. … At the Women’s U-18 World Championship on Monday. Canada nipped Hungary, 14 – 0. … At this writing the cheapest ticket on the secondary market for tomorrow’s Pats-Texans game was $541 in Section 240, the upper end zone. … Vince Lombardi on winning: “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com.