The question that is our title is one that gets asked quite a bit. Are we a podcast company? Do we focus on Boston sports? Do we produce video content or are we just blogging away?

And the answer is all of those and none of them at the same time. Trifecta Sports is a company I (Tanner Rebelo) founded back in Spring of 2016 and relaunched in Spring 0f 2017 which was just over a year ago.

The goal originally was to cover all of Boston sports, create a city-to-city model close to what The Athletic and others are doing now and go from there.

But the reason why that didn’t work, or is fairly difficult to do is simple. Others have done it before and to be quite frank the amount of coverage the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, and New England Patriots receive is beyond what is necessary for their teams and markets.

We have seen this to be true with many major publications such as the Boston Herald and the Providence Journal which have slashed their sports departments and with the introduction of The Athletic Boston have caused an immense amount of talent to join forces with the subscription company that seems to be trying to take over sports media for better or worse.

So let us circle back around to our original question, what is Trifecta Sports?

At the moment Trifecta Sports is an emerging sports media company that primarily focuses on covering the Pawtucket Red Sox and the New England Revolution and going forward will be investing time and creating more content on ESports, MLL and the Boston Cannons, and other emerging and under covered sports leagues and teams within the New England area.

We will, of course, have the traditional Boston sports stories which everyone has come to know and love, but that will not be the sites primary focus and it shouldn’t be with all the coverage they are already seeing.

Content will include video productions which will increase over the summer with live from McCoy Stadium broadcasts and other venues which will be announced in the coming weeks. Other content will be our bread and butter articles written here on Trifecta Network.

The site will, of course, remain free to all who pass upon it for the foreseeable future with the subscription-based business model still not entirly proven. But who knows what the future holds. When the VC money runs out over at the Atheltic things should get relatively interesting if they haven’t acquired the needed user base to support what has become a substantial reporter payroll.

In theory, would you want to build a roster around a 41-year-old QB? No probably not. But when that 41-year-old QB happens to be Tom Brady and is still performing at MVP type levels any GM is sort of forced to barring a move of said QB.

So if you were the GM and moving the QB wasn’t an option. Wouldn’t you, in theory, try and build a roster that has depth and puts the team in the best place to win? And while doing that at the same time try and have the QB of the future in place. Why yes you might say.

But does Bill Belichick believe that?

I think he did at one time but something had to have happened since that time. Just a year ago the franchise had a stacked offensive receiving core and a QB of the future in Jimmy Garropollo in place for the post-Brady era. But something happened, either Bill decided he had to trade Jimmy or it was a directive of some sort of ownership.

The return for Jimmy wasn’t great, in fact, it felt at the time and now as a well below market price type of deal that almost felt like Belichick was sort of sticking it to someone.

Now months removed from the move we sit at the end of another trade, this time receiver Brandin Cooks who in theory fetched a great value from the LA Rams.

But here is one concerning part.

Brady now has a depleted receiving core with Danny Amendola and now Cooks both gone. Now we don’t know what Bill will do with the acquired 1st round draft pick or what other moves he may have up his hooded sleeve. But questioning GM Bill is perfectly fine.

On Monday he rubbed shoulders with Sean McVay at some random coaching seminar and on Tuesday he already agreed to a deal. Have to wonder if he always takes the easy route when it comes to trade negotiations or if he simply is checked out and is ready to ride off into the sunset.

Checked Out Or Just Building Upon Legacy?

But would that make sense? To simply leave a team behind in rubbles after winning five Lombardi Trophies? No, no it wouldn’t. The reason that is the case is because doing that would only tarnish his legacy of building a system that is different than the rest. It is in Belichick’s best interest to ensure that the next in line has a team that is at least capable of competing.

That doesn’t mean he isn’t checked out, but it just doesn’t fit his narrative even taking less than ideal returns in moves or appearing on magazine cover shoots.

So it was Championship Night and at the local Sports Bar I was helping myself to some Wings.  8:30 pm came and went.  “When the heck are they going to start this thing?” I thought to myself.  As usual the big game was hyped up.  There was music and spotlights.  The Starters all got their names announced.  But me, I was too into my Wings and Beer to care about all that.  I mean its great and all, congratz to both Teams for making it this far.  But I just want to see them play.  Finally after 9pm it began…

It was 3 Michigan vs 1 Villanova for the NCAA Mens Basketball Championship.  I had some serious interest in this game.  First off I grew up liking Michigan.  You see my older brother was all into them and well it rubbed off on me.  Football or Basketball, it didn’t matter, we were Michigan fans.  Playing Pop Warner Football I wore Desmond Howard’s Michigan jersey to practice.  My older brother would always have his Michigan hat on.  We were Michigan fans, plain and simple.

Yet with Providence College and Villanova University being my father’s Alma maters we shared in the fandom of both of these schools.  I use to always wear a PC Hockey Sweater, sometime even for Halloween.  Neighbors would always remark, “Hey it’s a wounded Friar Goalie!”  My Older Bother got season tickets to Friar Basketball games at the Dunk’.  And with Villanova it was always the same.  We would get their Magazines for Alumni every week.  We would root for them when they didn’t play PC in the Big East Tournaments.

Now ‘Flash Forward’ to last night.  This was a big game between arguably my two favorite Teams.  I love Michigan.  I love their Team.  But I love Villanova just a little bit more.  Maybe it had something to do with me picking them to win it all, in my bracket, i don’t know.  But I just felt like they were a much better Team.

I saw them face off against a good PC Friars Team in the Big East Tournament, just before March Madness.  Boy ‘Nova looked good!  That game went into double overtime and the Friars just missed the upset.  Now Villanova has a Team that can score.  This is a Team that can put up 90 points on you.  They’ve got a lot of talent and hey can shoot threes all game long.  They’re not the tallest bunch but what they miss in size they make up for in skill.

Last night in the Championship Game I was waiting for them to go on a run.  But Michigan surprised us in the beginning of the 1st Half by getting an early lead.  It was something that they needed to do all game.  The Wolverines needed to play good Defense and keep possession of the ball for as long s they could.  If you limit possessions then you don’t have to worry about them putting up 90 on you.  This strategy worked out well for them but as the clock wound down you could see the weaknesses of Michigan.  They miss a lot of shots from 3 point land and they aren’t the best at Free Throws.

Now on Nova’s side of the ball, they were a little off their A-game.  They played comeback basketball but man oh man did we see some excellent basketball from them down the stretch.  Donte DiVincenzo played incredibly well for the Wildcats.  There was one play in particular that was just, awesome.  He blocked a shot and stuck the ball between the rim and the backboard.  Then with his other hand he tried to rip it out.  All in the air!  All in one motion!  It was something unbelievable, play had to be stopped in order to get the ball down.  Yeah he had 31 points on the night.  His 3 point shooting was just perfecto!  It was his and Omari Spellman’s rally that really got Nova back on track to their Offensive dominance.

The Wildcats took a 9 point lead at the end of the 1st Half.  And I was just thinking to myself during halftime, “it’s just too big of a lead.”  If Michigan wanted to win the game, they had to shutdown that Offense.  They would mean keeping it close.  But that’s not what happened.  Instead Nova came out red hot and started hitting all of their shots.  The 9 point lead turned into a 15 point lead, and then it turned into a 20 point lead with 5 Minutes left on the clock.  I mean that’s just the way Villanova wins games.  They flat out just score on you!  I will say this of the game though.  ‘Nova got a lot of the calls to go their way.  Some fouls were as the announcers said, “Ticky Tacky.”  But in the end, with 5 Minutes to go it was obvious that Nova would win the game.  I think everyone could tell when DiVinchenzo nailed that three pointer after letting the ball roll to half court.  Nova was just too good.  This blowout was in full swing as they won it [79-62].

As much as I found the game exciting, I found the 20 minute promo of “The Last O.G.” even more entertaining.  I mean we got to see what we wanted with the game.  Two of the best top teams facing off against one another.  Some spectacular plays on both sides of the ball.  And some solid shooting.  It wasn’t by any means close but it was something… Now “The Last O.G.” had Tracy Morgan, some good laughs, and a well thought opening sequence.  It had a hook that just made you want to watch more…

This was a historic win for Villanova as they have now won 2 Titles in 3 Years.  Awesome game guys!  You played great, as a fellow Nova fan I just got to give you mad props, Cheers!