The Boston Globe - 20.08.2019

Metro

THE BOSTON GLOBE TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/METRO

B

Every year, it’s the same
thing: People, especial-
ly those not from New
England, start yapping
about how this is the
year the Patriots dynas-
ty will end, blah, blah,
blah.
And then, every
year, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady drag
the franchise toward another Super
Bowl, which drives everybody every-
where else crazy and which we in New
England just take for granted, saying,
“Pass the Doritos.”
This year is no different. Gronk has
retired,soeverybodyeverywhere elseis
saying, that’s it, the Pats can’t win with-
out Gronk. Forgetting, of course, that
they have won without Gronk.
If I had any black hair left, I’d bet it
on Gronk coming back, throwing his
cape off, ala James Brown, and return-
ing to the stage. If Gronk unretires, it
will drive everybody everywhere else
nuts, which is what we in New England
live for when the leaves and the rest of
the AFC East begin to fall.
There is, however, real suspense, real
drama, as this football season starts be-
cause Josh Gordon, the troubled but ri-
diculously talented receiver, has been
cleared to play after his latest suspen-
sion for violating the NFL’s drug policy.
Gordon showed his potential bril-
liance in spurts last year, when he and
Brady clicked. In his first few games,
Gordon showed both his talent and the
effect of missing so many games over so
many seasons, as he was gassed after
some long gains. He made some re-
markable receptions, coming back for
balls and using his Herculean strength
to wrestle them away from hapless de-
fenders.
The Patriots did what they could to
help Gordon, seeing the relatively mi-
nor financial investment in him as a
reasonable risk. But, sadly, Gordon
couldn’t stay sober. He began using yet
again, and he was suspended yet again.
Now, like Sisyphus, he is rolling that
stoneupthehill again, and likealotof
Patriots fans I will watch and pray and
cheer for this guy because he is by most
accounts a decent human being who
hurts no one but himself.
In that regard, Josh Gordon is an Ev-
eryman for millions of ordinary Ameri-
cans who struggle with addiction and
mental health. He happens to have
skills that our culture rewards with
mad amounts of money, the kind of
money that would be better used to
provide the kinds of health and drug re-
hab services that Americans without fi-
nancial resources and an NFL team
backing them struggle to find and af-
ford.
All the more reason to cheer Gordon
on this season. If he can keep sober, he
will no doubt help propel the Patriots
toward another potential trip to the Su-
per Bowl.
More importantly, if he can stay so-
ber this time around, he will provide
real inspiration to those who can relate
especially to his suffering and his strug-
gle. He will be a conspicuous poster
child for recovery, showing both the dif-
ficulty of that road, but also the prom-
ise of it, the reality of it: that relapse is
often inevitable, but that recovery is al-
ways possible and can be achieved,
even after multiple setbacks.
In welcoming Gordon back, one of
his teammates, Matthew Slater, put
things in proper perspective.
Slater, a man of deep faith who in-
tends to go into the ministry when his
career as one of the greatest special
teams players ends, emphasized that
football is secondary to Gordon’s recov-
ery.
“We want to see him first and fore-
most doing well as an individual, doing
well as a man, and we want to support
him however we can,” Slater told re-
porters. “We’re just going to take this
one day at a time.”
One day at a time, indeed.
It would be great if Josh Gordon
puts up big numbers on the football
field.
But his biggest achievement could
be, as the prayer goes, finding the se-
renity to accept the things he can’t
change, the courage to change the
things he can, and the wisdom to know
the difference.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He
can be reached at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter @GlobeCullen.

Aprayerfor

JoshGordon

Kevin Cullen

By Travis Andersen

and David Abel

GLOBE STAFF

Carlos A. Rafael, the disgraced

New Bedford fishing mogul known

as “The Codfather,” has been per-

manently banned from the com-

mercial fishing industry and fined

$3 million under the terms of a civil

settlement with federal regulators.

The agreement with the Nation-

al Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-

ministration resolves “pending civil

administrative claims” against Ra-

fael, 67, and a number of his former

captains, regulators said Monday.

Rafael, who had owned one of

the nation’s largest groundfish fish-

ing fleets before his downfall,

pleaded guilty in March 2017 to

perpetrating a massive fishing

fraud and was sentenced to 46

months in prison.

Chris Oliver, assistant adminis-

trator for NOAA Fisheries, said the

settlement achieves the agency’s

“chief objective of permanently re-

moving Mr. Rafael from participa-

tion in federal fisheries.”

“The settlement also clears the

way for Mr. Rafael’s fishing assets

that have been tied up in this litiga-

tion to be returned to productive

use,” he said in a statement. “It also

serves as a reminder that no one is

exemptfromtherules.”

Rafael must relinquish the sea-

food dealer permit issued to Carlos

Seafood by September 1 and sell

“all limited access federal fishing

permits and fishing vessels he owns

or controls by the end of 2020,” the

agency said.

John Markey, a lawyer for Rafa-

el, said both sides had to compro-

mise to reach the agreement.

“The big sacrifice for Carlos is

that he’s being asked to no longer

participate in the fishing industry,

which has been his life, where he

has made his friendships, earned

his living. This is who he is. It’s

where he went every day for work.

It’s where he’s met great success

and provided for his family,” he

RAFAEL,PageB

Fishing

mogul

agreesto

fine,ban

New Bedford’s

Rafael to pay $3m

‘Codfather’ also to

sell permits, boats

PHOTOS BY ARAM BOGHOSIAN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

IMMIGRATION PROTEST MARCH BEGINS

D

emonstrators

gathered to

protest ICE

detention policies in

Boston on Monday

before embarking on

a 76-mile walk to a

detention center in

New Hampshire.

Above, religious

leaders prayed over a

“coffin” dedicated to

deceased immigrant

children. Right, the

Rev. Andre Bennett

spoke at the JFK

Federal Building.B

By Joshua Miller

GLOBE STAFF

SPRINGFIELD — Gambling revenues

are coming in far below projections, and

employment has fallen sharply. But almost

one year after MGM Springfield first wel-

comed gamblers, its president said Mon-

day that the casino is headed in the right

direction.

“I feel good about the trajectory,”

Michael Mathis told reporters.

The state’s first full-fledged casino,

MGM Springfield brought in $253 million

in gross gaming revenue in its first 49

weeks, according to the latest state figures.

When it applied for its license, MGM pro-

jected it would pull in more than $400 mil-

lion in its first year.

“This market has some really strong

competitors that have been in the market

for twenty-plus years,” Mathis said from

MGM Springfield, which is about a 70-

mile drive from the Mohegan Sun and Fox-

woods casinos in Connecticut. “We may

have underestimated that level of loyalty,

and what it would take for those custom-

ers to give us a shot.”

MGM Springfield employs hundreds

fewer people than it did when it opened

last August, according to Mathis, who em-

phasized that the jobs pay well and pro-

MGM,PageB

Springfieldcasinofallsshort,

butitspresidentisoptimistic

By Bryan Marquard

GLOBE STAFF

As John L. Wilson cast his architect’s

eye upward at Boston’s changing skyline

in the mid-1980s, he was struck by the

glaring contrast between the grandeur

above and the poverty below.

“The architectural community was so

excited that 26 different precious stones

couldbeusedinthelobbyofanoffice

building, yet there were people sleeping

on the grates outside,” he told the Globe

in 1996. “It was as if the money pumped

into these buildings grew to represent

the hope sucked out of the poorest urban

neighborhoods.”

Mr. Wilson, who was 78 when he died

in his Newton home last Tuesday of com-

plications from dementia, was prompted

by that troubling disparity to become an

advocate for Greater Boston’s poorest

and most neglected.

Drawing eventually on the pro bono

talents of some 200 professionals in the

field, he founded the Boston Society of

Architects Task Force to End Homeless-

ness in 1986.

“He absolutely served as a conscience

for the profession,” said Elizabeth Pad-

jen, a former president of the Boston So-

ciety of Architects and a former editor of

ArchitectureBoston magazine. “Some-

times an organization or a board is lucky

enough to have a member who serves as

its social conscience, someone who will

articulate its values and articulate a

greater purpose. And John just did that.”

How to go about helping appeared

WILSON,PageB

Architect sought to design a way out of poverty

JOHN L. WILSON1941-

$6.2m

isthetablegame

revenueMGM

Springfield

collectedinMay,

beforeEncore

opened.

$4.9m

isthetablegame

revenueMGM

Springfield

collectedinJuly,

Encore’sfirstfull

month.

Mr. Wilson

By Diamond Naga Siu

GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

A truck with a police escort stopped in the Back Bay early Mon-

day morning to deliver stones to complete the memorials at the

Boston Marathon finish line for those killed in the 2013 bombings

that rocked the city and the nation.

The truck bore chunks of granite, weighing hundreds of pounds

each, taken from sentimental places in the three victims’ lives.

One stone came from Franklin Park, which was beloved by 8-

year-old Martin Richard. It was fused to a second stone from Bos-

ton University, where Lingzi Lu, 23, was earning a graduate degree

in mathematics and statistics. Workers placed their stone outside

755 Boylston St., where the two died.

Another stone came from Spectacle Island, where Krystle

Campbell, 29, managed the Summer Shack and event operations.

Workers placed her stone a block away at 671 Boylston, where she

died.

MEMORIAL,PageB

Stones finish memorials

to 2013 bomb victims

NIC ANTAYA FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Workers on Monday placed the stones commemorating the three people

killed in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings on Boylston Street.