This season, only one team in the NFL beat both the Packers and the Steelers…the New England Patriots! So, while the Super Bowl featured two historic NFL teams, and the largest television audience ever (?) they weren’t necessarily the best teams, and the long term significance of the game is minimal. President Obama was rooting for “a good game”, that’s all it was. Not even a very good game, C’mon man for that, Roethlisberger-down by a tantalyzing six points-has to go the length of the field w/ two minutes left! Brady would have…

The point isn’t that Theo is a genius for signing Gonzales & Crawford, or that fans and sports journalists think they’ll play really well together, and that the Red Sox are now favored to win. Duh. The Red Sox offered the most money to both players, a galling amount, and now the organizational pride of San Diego AND Tampa Bay have been bought out by the power and greed of Boston. Can’t be good for baseball. Two years ago Steinbrenner & the Yankees did the same thing when they signed Sabbathia AND A.J. Burnett, and then surprise, won a final World Series for the ultimate sports tyrant. Winning corrupts? The problem with this type of strategy is that it undermines all of the most important qualities and integrity of the team game. How must Pedroia, Youkilis, & Lester feel? All three took hometown discounts with a strong nudge from management, that it would be best for the team. Soon they will feel like rubes. Other young players within the organization such as Papelbon, Ellsbury, & Bard know that to get paid fairly they must sign elsewhere. Victor Martinez took that route. Not now, but midway through the season, when the pressure is on, and they are in a foxhole of sorts, and it’s the little guys that are doing all the work, the slippery slope of resentment and envy will start corroding the Red Sox team and system.

It’s great that Adrian Gonzalez is a good baseball player, and likes to play baseball, but what about the propriety of his contract? It is expected to be a $22 million annual deal. That’s more than what Youkilis and Pedroia make, combined. It’s more than five times what Francona makes annually. Theo makes just $1.5 million. It’s probably more than what Tom Werner and even John Henry make per their ownership stake. Jonathan Papelbon, on the mound for the 2007 World Championship, perennial 35 game saver, and favorite of literally millions of Red Sox fans, is quietly being shown the door because he costs too much at roughly $11 Million this year. For 364 days of the baseball year, the Red Sox organization preaches teamwork and sacrifice in all aspects of the game, including contracts. Then, one day a year, they give Lackey $82 million, or JD $14 million, and now they have really gone Gonzo at $22 million per. How many times has Theo talked about the importance of a player willing to take a “reasonable” salary, and the implications that has for the entire team from the top down. Maybe Fenway is not so pure after all?

The Red Sox need to do something big this offseason (to keep the sellout streak alive!), and hopefully it will be Carl Crawford; then, retain Victor Martinez, Papelbon & Big Papi, and let Beltre go. Despite frequent temper tantrums about the bullpen, the only real problem this season were the injuries to Ellsbury, Pedroia & Youkilis. Hopefully, these injured players, and the journalists that dog them have learned a lesson. Be a little more cautious in your play. Youk reported that his thumb hurt in the days leading up to his season-ending injury, but he played through it. Pedroia plays with a reckless physical abandon in a half-pint body. Dirt Dogs they may be, but injured and on the bench they are no help to the team. Ellsbury runs too fast and crashes through the outfield, home plate and first base, nevermind the steals. Exciting, except not so much when you’re then out for the whole season. Take a page from the J.D. Drew book of baseball. Listen to your body when it’s injured, not to the roaring crowd. Stay thirsty my friends.

It ain’t quite over yet, sports fans! The Sox are just six games behind the Rays. In the next six days Boston plays two terrible teams, the Athletics and Seattle, while Tampa Bay has to play the Yankees and the Blue Jays, in Toronto. If the Red Sox go 5-1 during this stretch, and the Rays lose both series, Boston would then trail Tampa Bay by just three games, with ten to play. So keep playing hard!

The Johnny Damon affair is a sad reminder of the dishonor and bad behavior that is the flip side of big money sports teams like the Red Sox. Yes, Boston won two World Series titles, ending an 86 year curse, but perhaps without the lasting honor that even the losers of ‘86, ‘75 & ‘68 retain. The Sox won with acquired big contract players like Damon, Manny Ramirez, Curt Schilling & Josh Beckett, among others-fans of their departed teams were brokenhearted-(Oakland, Cleveland, Philadelphia/Arizona & Florida). But Damon & Ramirez would eventually sell-out the Red Sox just as the Sox had out-bid their previous teams and community of fans. Damon was booed brutally for several years at Fenway Park when he played for the Yankees. Okay, he makes a lot of money and can take it, but guess what, he’s a human being after all, and now does not want to return to a previous “home”. In fact, nice guy Damon is badly booed everywhere but New York and Detroit. It has all the hallmarks of a financial divorce. A lasting lifelong scar driven by individual pursuits that trump the honor of the common good.

There is barely a peep regarding a long term contract for Jonathan Papelbon. Too bad. He is more than a good player. He is a great player. A pressure performer and stud pitcher, and Papelbon is fun-which counts for something, especially to the paying fans at Fenway where he is lustily cheered and has deservedly become a 9th inning institution for the Red Sox. But familiarity breeds contempt, among some fans and management. The team blithely signs unknown quantity John Lackey to a $70M deal it could have given to known quantity Papelbon. Josh Beckett gets handed an even better deal and is arguably only the third best pitcher on the staff behind Lester and Bucholtz. Other older players such as Big Papi and JD Drew may be coming off the books soon, and that money should go to retain one of the most popular, clutch and great pitchers of recent Red Sox history. Careful Mr. Henry, or he’ll put on the pinstripes and take Mariano’s place!

Kobe Bryant can fake it as long as the Lakers are winning, but now we are going to see the real Kobe-the selfish, angry, Jordan-esque Kobe. The poor sport. The talent to put up 30-40 points a game. The guy who puts the “I” in T-E-A-M. The foul mouthed jerk who Schilling called out. Not a leader, just a terrifier. Kobe Bryant has to fake it to be a nice guy. Who else would choose to hate Ray Allen? The Lakers will stop making the extra pass if Kobe takes over, and the Celtics will have to adjust, but the longer the series goes on the better the odds are that the experienced veterans from Boston will outsmart the searing arrogance of Kobe and beat L.A. Win or lose, he still can’t hold a candle to Magic Johnson.

Sometimes we find ourselves yelling at the tv set because the announcers are not as smart as us. (mostly during ESPN basketball telecasts) Hmmm. They are calling a game with only their naked eye. Okay. But, ensconsed at home, we watch from every angle and in replay, slo-mo and hi def. This way we can be far more insightful and strategic than even the ACTUAL COACHES of the teams playings. Stupid idiots. In fact, we could coach BOTH TEAMS BETTER, and at the same time with all of our handheld technology. Memo to Steve Jobs: the IPAD & IPHONE are nice and all, but please develop an app IMMEDIATELY so that we can call Francoma directly from my living room to the dugout. Rrrrrrrrring! “Hello, it’s Chip, again. Time to take out Wakefield!”

…and anything can happen. Just ask the Bruins and Celtics. Sure, the Red Sox don’t look very intimidating right now, but there are still five months of baseball before the playoffs start in October. That’s an eternity in professional sports. It’s not just the injuries and wear and tear that will change the complexion of other teams, but also the development and emergence of unknown young new talent, perhaps on the Red Sox, that may yet turn them into World Series favorites.