If you click over to Sportsbook Review, you can find the online sportsbook of your choice. And when you decide which book is right for you, there you will also see that the oddsmakers from all the majors are hanging odds on the Boston Celtics to win the NBA championship at +950. That’s right, the Shamrocks are tied with the Bucks as the third choice, trailing only the Golden State Warriors (-230), and Toronto Raptors (+750). It makes sense, due in large part because the Celtics have owned the 76ers and the Raps appear to be the beasts of the East.

But as the season has progressed the Celtics have sputtered on numerous occasions. Their 37-21 record at the break is good but not breathtaking. Boston has 24 games remaining and questions linger about Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown. Hayward has shown flashes of the All-Star he was in Utah but too often he has been out of sync and overly cautious in his approach. Meanwhile, Jaylen Brown appears to be miffed about being relegated to the bench and often plays as though he wants to take his ball and go home. If there are two reasons why the Celtics are underachieving this season, there they are.

Unfortunately for Boston, their chief rivals were not content to battle with the cohort they put together at the beginning of the season. Philadelphia added Tobias Harris after acquiring Jimmy Butler in November. The Raptors, armed with superstar Kawhi Leonard, added veteran Marc Gasol as a valuable sixth man off the bench. Milwaukee wheeled a deal for veteran point guard George Hill to complement their roster. All the while the Celtics have stood still and watched their Eastern Conference rivals bolster their lineups. Danny Ainge is not the kind of general manager to take a backseat to anyone but making a move, for the sake of making a move, smacks of panic as opposed to a strategic strike.

An NBA scout, speaking on the condition of anonymity with Sports Illustrated, had this to say about Boston’s chances this season. “This team can win the East or get beat in the first round. They have great talent but sometimes they have no chemistry,” the scout told SI. “Kyrie Irving is having one of his best seasons, maybe his best. He’s the same pure scorer and one of the best fourth-quarter closers in the league. But when he gets it going, there is a tendency for everyone to watch him. When they make four or five passes, they are tough to guard.”

And that is pretty much the Celtics in a nutshell. They rely so heavily on the heroics of Kyrie Irving that they pretty much give him the ball, cross their fingers, and hope the rock drops through the hole. The team chemistry that was so evident last season has abandoned this edition and much of it has to do with the young guys, Tatum included, who have lost their soulful, reckless abandon of last year.

However, this group is far from a lost cause. The Celtics are winning nearly 64 percent of their games and have come out on top in 12 of their last 15 games. Hardly the stuff of losers. No, this is a talented team and on paper, they may be the best in the East. But paper doesn’t win games and Gordon Hayward must deliver the goods down the stretch whether he’s coming off the bench or in a starting role. We are nearly three-quarters of the way through the season and he is still not right. But, unlike earlier in the season, Hayward has at least shown signs of brilliance lately. If the Celtics are to contend in the postseason, he will need to turn back the clock to before his gruesome injury and be the player he was as a member of the Jazz.

Tom Brady’s sixth Super Bowl ring shines a bit brighter than all the others, with perhaps the lone exception being his first when he vanquished The Greatest Show on Turf way back in 2002. This year the Pats were supposed to be a dynasty in the throes of decline, a quarterback whose status among the elite passers in the game was in jeopardy, and a team that would be merely a stepping stone for another more talented lot to trounce, on its way to Super Bowl greatness. But nobody counted on Tom Brady and his band of Patriots to have the temerity and talent to brush all of that discourse aside and just go out and win. Oh, and if you haven’t heard, the Patriots did just that as they defeated the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 and took home another Lombardi Trophy.

If you happened to have clicked on over to Sportsbook Review, read a BetOnline review , and then took a peek at what some of the best online sportsbooks were dealing on Super Bowl 53, you would have seen that the oddsmakers at those premier books, like BetOnline, had installed New England as 2 to 2 ½ point favorites and a total that was in the mid to upper 50’s. The very fact that the Pats were favorites proved that despite what the rest of the nation was saying, or perhaps hoping is the operative word, New England was not a predator turned prey but the team to beat…again. And what do you know, they made Jared and the Juggernauts look like Alvin and the Chipmunks as they suffocated the Rams offense and came away the victors of Super Bowl LIII.

However, this time around, unlike their first championship battle with the Rams 17 years ago, nobody outside the six New England states was rooting for the Patriots. Tom Brady had morphed from a sixth-round pick, whose ideal career projection was that of a journeyman quarterback who would be just good enough to hold a clipboard for another more talented, to a living legend. Brady does not simply walk among the greats, he leads them. In the pantheon of legendary NFL players, he is Zeus sitting on a throne of gold with thunder in one hand and lightning in the other. We have run out of superlatives to describe Brady’s sublime passing prowess and command of the offense.

Yet, as extraordinary as he is on the field, he is an impeccable role model off of it. Money doesn’t buy class which is something we’re reminded of almost daily with professional athletes. Tom Brady was born with it and all the fame and fortune he has derived from being the GOAT has not diminished his ability to relate to the fans who ultimately pay to watch him ply his trade. Perhaps the greatest example of his Zen-like demeanor was watching him field questions while Deflategate was at a fever pitch. The questions from the press outside New England were more like accusations, yet he kept his composure and never retreated from his stance nor engaged with inflammatory responses. He was as cool as the other side of the pillow and that’s exactly why he rallied his team against the Falcons in Super Bowl 51 or was able to muster the wherewithal to lead his team to greatness over these last two decades.

Where the Patriots go from here is anyone’s guess but it’s a virtual certainty that Tom Terrific will be back under center, attempting to do it all over again. Hopefully, Gronk will be back and the Patriots’ brass will add a few field-stretching speed merchants in the process. But whatever happens, we’ve all been truly blessed as football fans to witness the greatest to ever grace the gridiron and one whose deportment brings glory to the entire region.

The proliferation of mobile and digital technologies has left many families with no time for each other. For many parents, finding time to spend with their families on a busy day is a constant challenge. When family members have no time for each other, they miss on a number of benefits that this could create for the family bond. It is well known that spending time with family can improve self-esteem, nurture positive behavior, reduce stress and encourage a healthy lifestyle.

If you are looking for a way of spending time with your family, you may want to consider sport. Research shows that families that play sport together usually have stronger relationships and they tend to deal with stress in a better way than those that don’t. Make this even more fun by learning how to make a team website for your family and share your family sporting advice with the rest of the world on the internet.  

Here are some ways through which you can use sport to strengthen your family bond.

Include everyone

It’s easy to think that children will like what the parents also like. This is not always the case. Hence, if you are planning to use sport as a way of bringing your family together, make sure that you have taken everybody’s interests into consideration.

It’s possible that family members will like different sporting activities. This is good because you can then learn from each other. Learning a new sport can be great fun, especially when you do it as a family.

Set aside time

The one thing that every member of your family is likely to run a shortage of is time. However, if you set the time for family sports in advance and everybody knows it, you can all set your schedules around that time. This may also be a good way of teaching family members how to manage time. They also learn about the importance of making time available for others.

Allow members to participate in their own way

If your idea is to strengthen your family bond through sport, then you don’t want to make anyone feel as if they are being forced to participate. Let everybody understand why you are doing this and get their buy-in.

Where members of the family may not want to participate in the in physical sporting activities, they can do other things. For example, incorporate them as referees. They can be spectators and encourage team members as they play. They could also be coaches if they have some skills.

Encourage participation with variable rewards

Make participation worth everybody’s time by offering rewards for winning teams. There is a gambler in all of us. When people have no idea of what rewards are on offer, they may be motivated to play.

Depending on your resources, find encouraging rewards like a trip to the family’s favorite restaurant if everybody turns up on time for family sports day. Exempt winning teams from doing some chores for certain periods of time. Whatever rewards you decide on, ensure that the whole family agrees on them.

Incorporate sport into routine activities

Instead of traveling together in the family car, you can encourage everybody to cycle together to your destination. This could encourage even those members of the family who believe that they don’t like sports to participate.

Even simple activities like walking the dog can be done as a family. Whatever you do, you want to ensure that the whole family comes together and everybody gets to know each other better.