Mac Jones is ripped. Matt Patricia is calling plays.

The Celtics are title favorites. And the ringer has a new Boston show.

I'm Brian Barrett, host of Off the Pike, the show covering all things Boston sports.

I'll have shows multiple times a week covering your favorite teams and with your favorite

ringer and local guests. Plus, maybe Bill will stop by to rant about the socks.

Follow Off the Pike with me, Brian Barrett, now on Spotify.

Hello fellow media consumer. Welcome to the press box.

Brian Curtis of the ringer here along with producer Devon Renaldo.

Full disclosure, I don't like journalism awards.

I don't like that with every fiber of my being.

But I make two exceptions.

One, if the award is named after the late great sports writer Dan Jenkins.

And two, if the award is also given to a sports writer who deserves it.

Over a week ago, the Dan Jenkins award for lifetime achievement in sports writing went two for two.

Because the winner was Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins.

Now there was a book about the post a few years back called Morning Miracle.

I think of Sally's column the same way.

We live in a time where a newspaper sports columnist no longer has a virtual monopoly on opinion.

But it's surrounded by a few million hot takers on social media.

We live in an age where newspapers, even the really good ones like the post have shrunken and stature.

We live in an age where strangely to me, the most prestigious gig in sports writing is the league insider who tells you what trade is about to happen.

Rather than the columnist who tells you what to think.

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