It's time for David Ortiz and the Red Sox to get back to work. USA Today Sports Images





The countdown is on. 9 days 'til #TruckDay! pic.twitter.com/djQQ9SOcgc — Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) February 4, 2015

The sports psyche of Boston is layered with strata that constantly twist both emotion and attention.

One day, Tom Brady sucks.

The next, he's a four-time Super Bowl champion.

In just the span of two weeks, Bill Belichick went from Richard Nixon, to Bill Nye, to Roger Ebert, back to Bill Belichick, to Vince Lombardi.

Those who called for Jimmy G. last fall can take some solace in the fact that he now has as many Super Bowl rings as Peyton Manning, and one more than Dan Marino.

We're fickle and blessed. Fans can write off the Red Sox one day, and turn their focus to Patriots training camp the next. During certain years in the spring, we'll flip back-and-forth between Bruins playoff games, and the Red Sox playing the Yankees. Or jump between a Celtics opening-round postseason game, and checking the Patriots' latest pick in the seventh round.

This week, the Patriots were riding Duck Boats while the Red Sox were counting down to Truck Day. Boston was once a "hockey town with a baseball team." It became the unquestioned domain and property of the Red Sox from the moment Bobby Orr left town until the day Tom Brady arrived. There was a brief gap when the Red Sox and Celtics shared the throne during Larry Bird's prime.

Sometime in the past 15 years, and the moment depends on your perspective and preference, Boston became a "football town with a baseball team."

The Red Sox have won three World Series Cups in this century, but the Patriots have won four Lombardi Trophies. Where the Red Sox have mixed success with epic failure during this era, the Patriots have remained remarkably consistent when it comes to winning seasons, and playoff appearances.

In about 99 percent of the nation, this "dilemma" over which local team is No. 1 in the hearts and minds of fans seems nonsensical. The NFL team wins. Outside New England. picking between the team with three titles this century and the team with four titles this century, is much like choosing between Katy Perry and Kate Upton. Or between Gronk and Channing Tatum.

There are no wrong choices. It's really a matter of preference.

New York may be the only other big city in America where the local NFL team [teams] is not the unquestioned winner when it comes time to pick the most "popular" team in town. The Yankees dominate the conversation in the Big Apple nine months each year. They are always eager to steal the back page during football season whenever their budget allows.

Boston is a Patriots Town in February of 2015, even if the team's name says "New England" and its home games are played in Foxborough.

The Bruins claim the area's most passionate fans. But those numbers remain smaller than those who claim first allegiance to the Red Sox or Patriots. [At least until the Bruins reach the Stanley Cup Finals.]

The Celtics, meanwhile, are losing season-ticket holders, never mind casual fans. It's not that people aren't interested. They just fail to see the financial logic in spending top dollar to watch a team that's building to rebuild with players who won't be here in the long run.

The 2013 Red Sox demonstrated that Boston has potential to be a baseball city again. But that was a miraculous run, in the wake of a devastating terrorist attack, and carried a season climax unmatched in 95 years.

They followed up that with their least-interesting season since the 1994 lockout.

The Red Sox did the right thing and congratulated the Patriots for their success this week.

David Ortiz and Pablo Sandoval Tweeted their excitement over watching the Patriots' parade.

Got goosebump watching this.....@KFP48 gotta keep up with brady and get our 4th!!!! #patriotsparade pic.twitter.com/FBT0rG9qyD — David Ortiz (@davidortiz) February 4, 2015

Jackie Bradley Jr. told WEEI.com Thursday he was going "to go all Marshawn Lynch this year." Bradley hit .198 last year with 30 RBI and eight steals.

"Least Mode" to "Beast Mode."

A few members of the Patriots went to the Celtics game Wednesday night. We love it when the Patriots are cheering the Celtics at courtside. Or when the Bruins bring the Stanley Cup into Fenway Park. Or when the World Series trophy gets carried onto the 50-yard-line at Gillette Stadium.

No other city in the country boasts that kind of camaraderie among its teams. Ownership recognizes that the success of one drives the others.

The Red Sox, especially, cannot afford to take another year off on the field. Not after what happened in Glendale.

Boston fans will never be "spoiled" - at least not until my late father can see the Red Sox win a World Series in his lifetime. He never will. Therefore, all those titles will never be enough for some of us. The fans here have high expectations because they put up the cash via tickets, luxury boxes, and TV viewership, to allow it to happen.

"We're on to Cincinnati," the cries for Jimmy G., New England's 5-1 run in the middle of the season, clinching home-field, beating Baltimore and Indy, and Deflategate served to calcify and crystallize the Patriots fan base. You saw a wondrous coalition develop between the Newbies. the Red White and Blue Hats, the Old Guard, the Stat Boys, the Brady and Gronk Groupies, and the Regular Joes.

By the time Sunday's game began, whatever and whoever constitutes Patriot Nation was 100 percent unified behind the team, its legacy, its coach, and its players. That loyalty, which was forged in the crucible of 18-1, the accusations of cheating, the hate and envy of the universe, was rewarded by Brady's spectacular fourth-quarter play, Belichick's coaching cool, and Malcolm Butler's interception.

"Son of Tyree" was one final test of football skill for the team and emotional will for its fans.

After the interception, after the win, after the trophy presentation, after Gronk finally runs out of energy, after Julian Edelman checks off everyone on Tinder in his Zip Code, after the parade, we have time and mindset to appreciate what this team and franchise have accomplished.

The NFL began this season awash in criticism, and facing real questions about the league and commissioner's future. The biggest threat facing Roger Goodell now may come from Robert and Jonathan Kraft. Kraft has long been one of the league's most-powerful owners and a vocal supporter of the commissioner. Their Deflategate-fueled falling out will not have a happy ending unless the league apologizes. That isn't likely to happen.

Goodell is like "The Godfather's" Virgil Sollozzo. His failed assassination attempt of Don Corleone left him vulnerable and exposed. If you believe the NFL was out to get the Patriots, they massively screwed themselves with this bugled affair.

"What guarantees can I give you Mike? I am the hunted one. I missed my chance. You think too much of me kid. I am not that clever."

This could also be Goodell talking to Jonathan Kraft at the upcoming owners' meetings.

No matter what the NFL says about Deflategate, the Patriots are now the most powerful franchise in the most powerful league in American sports.

They're also the most successful franchise of this century. They boast the greatest NFL QB who ever played, and perhaps the greatest NFL coach ever - depending on where you put Lombardi, Tom Landry, and Belichick's mentor - Bill Parcells.

The NFL, in spite of its warts, is more popular than ever. Check the ratings from Sunday's Super Bowl. It was most-watched Super Bowl and TV show ever in the U.S. Viewing peaked at 120.8 million in the fourth quarter. About 129 million Americans voted in the last presidential election. It drew an 85 share in Boston, which means 85 percent of TV sets in use were watching the game. The other 15 percent were either watching "Breaking Bad" re-runs or are Jets fans.

The task for the Red Sox is no longer securing, or maintaining their spot, as Boston's Most Popular Team. That is gone forever. Demographics and time cannot be denied. The Patriots fan base is getting younger and the Red Sox fan base is getting older. Young people are turning away from baseball because the sport is simply too damn slow for 2015's society.

This is not a judgment, but rather reality.

David Ortiz is the lone threat the Red Sox have in terms of increasing their popularity, aside from not finishing in last place. His rise in Boston has coincided with that of Brady's. They are inexorably linked in the minds of millions of fans. But Ortiz is a DH and Brady's a quarterback.

Ortiz spoke for the city in the wake of the Marathon Bombing. His place in Boston's Sports Pantheon is secured. He would be the Greatest Red Sox Player Ever had Ted Williams not gone 39-0 during the Korean War.

Brady is sharing his family with the world on social media, and has put down his multi-million dollar roots in Brookline. He's embraced his public persona. Ortiz lives in Weston [something I had to look up] and makes public appearances for his various charities, but otherwise enjoys his privacy.

Even with Big Papi, the Red Sox are facing a fourth-and-long when it comes to achieving sports supremacy in Boston again. Two last-place finishes around a World Series title haven't helped. But interested in the Red Sox heading into 2015 seems surprisingly high. That's impressive considering last year's disastrous campaign, and the fact that Clay Buchholz continues to loom like the Blizzard of 2015 on the WBZ radar map as the Opening Day starter.

Baseball continues to tinker around the edges instead of dealing directly with the problem of slow play. I've seen countless stories and studies about how football has far more down time than we believe it does.

But this is about perception, not math. Younger viewers get restless and/or bored watching baseball. They don't watching football. Fantasy football, and the ever-streaming second screen, cure whatever downtime exists. Folks over 40 like me have been conditioned by decades of watching baseball to understand and appreciate the nuances between each play, and the anticipation before each pitch.

My son, not so much.

Folks like me are not the future of Major League Baseball. We're not going anywhere. We know that, and so does major-league baseball. Nor does baseball care a whit what we think. It would love to have more fans in my son's demographic - male between the ages of 18 and 34.

Good luck.

The league's new commissioner is saying the right things. Getting players with $50 million guaranteed contracts to buy into the fact that they're in the entertainment business, and they need to keep improving and upgrading their product, seems nearly impossible.

The Red Sox get this, and so does Ortiz. All they have to do is check this website, either local newspaper, Twitter, tune into WEEI or The Sports Hub, or turn on ESPN and the NFL Network, to see or hear how much energy the Patriots absorb before, during, and after the season.

Truck Day is next week. Pitchers and catchers will report to Fort Myers on February 20.

Rightly or wrongly, the success of the Patriots will now become the burden of both the Red Sox, and Bruins as they approach the postseason. The Celtics may be the big winners here. The euphoria of watching endless highlights of Sunday's Super Bowl will help temper the frustration and malaise gripping the "Green Teamers."

Most Red Sox home spring training games are sold out, or close to it. The stands at Jet Blue Park will be full of fans wearing their No. 12 Brady jerseys, their Super Bowl XLIX champion hats, and their "Do Your Job" t-shirts.

Their eyes will be focused on the Red Sox for as long as the rotation of No. 3 starters, and the newly re-loaded lineup, remain competitive.

Meanwhile, the NFL Combine is approaching. So is free-agency, the draft, OTAs, rookie camp, and eventually training camp and the preseason.

Last summer, baseball season in Boston was finished by July 4.

This year, the Red Sox might not even get that much time.

The OBF column is written by award-winning journalist and Bay State native Bill Speros. Bill has reported for ESPN, CBSSports.Com, and was a sports/deputy sports editor at the Orlando Sentinel, Denver Post, and several other newspapers. Reach Bill on the OBF Facebook page, on Twitter @realOBF or at his

OBF email Address. Thanks always for reading.



