Projo Pats Blog

Tonight's game is dedicated to former New Bedford Standard-Times beat writer Dan Pires, who died June 25 after collapsing at a track near his home. He was 52.

There will be a moment of silence here in the press box after the National Anthem, and his wife, Becky, and children, Taylor and Jillian, are here at the game.

There is a picture of Dan as you get off the elevator, with the words, "Tonight's game is dedicated in the memory of Dan Pires -- a proud father, a dear friend, and a true fan. On behalf of all your friends, we miss you."

On a personal note, even though he was old enough to be my father, Dan was one of my best friends. We spoke, exchanged text messages or emailed nearly every day. He was always encouraging me to do more on this beat, and was my biggest cheerleader outside of my immediate family. He knew everyone, and knew something about everyone -- when we were in San Diego for the Pats' playoff game with the Chargers in January 2007, Danny and myself or a couple of other reporters were walking in downtown San Diego and we encountered a couple that knew Danny. It was amazing.

The players trusted him, in large part because he didn't tell their secrets. He knew so many more things that happened in the Pats' locker room than he ever wrote about, and that's part of the reason why they continued to tell him things.

There's hardly a day that's passed in the last two months that I haven't thought of something I wanted to tell him, whether it was to hear his reaction to it or to have him give me support or be my sounding board.

Just a few days before he died, Danny sent the following text message to myself and other friends and family members: "Just takin time out to say I love U, because yesterday is gone, today is almost over and tomorrow isn't promised."

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