Fitzy is one of the loudest sports fans in New England, and he doesn’t technically exist. Nick Stevens built the character on stage in New York; YouTube took it from 300 views a video to 50,000, the Patriots hired him to host their rallies, and WEEI kept him on the air for seven years. Then, this spring, the radio job ended.

I wanted to know what it takes to build a business on a character, and what’s left when the job goes away. We get into his ESPN Dream Job run, riding a duck boat in the Super Bowl LIII parade, the on-air blowup with Ted Johnson he still won’t apologize for, and the night Tom Brady’s dad looked at him and said, “We’re not worthy.”

I asked for Nick. Fitzy showed up anyway.

Red Auerbach wouldn’t let her into the Celtics locker room. Shaquille O'Neal patted her on the head in front of a room full of reporters. A puck hit her in the shoulder the night she worked the Bruins PA mic. She’s still here, and she’s still not impressed with herself.

Jayme Parker has covered the Celtics, Red Sox, Bruins, and BC since the ’90s, from NESN’s Sports Desk to the sidelines, and became the first woman on the Bruins PA mic. Eight years ago she left NESN to create, produce, and host Outside the Fame, where athletes show her the parts of their lives nobody sees. This year she’s also teaching a grad class at Boston College.

I ask her about fighting her way into her first locker room, her friendship with Tim Wakefield, finding a sponsor for every single episode, and why she still does her research with a notebook and a pen.

Stay Wicked, Boston.

Anna Johannes won a Paralympic bronze medal for Team USA in 2012. Then she spent eight years in corporate marketing being told not to bring up her disability.

She was born without her left hand and forearm in Kyrgyzstan and adopted at two. She went on to win five golds at the 2011 Parapan American Games and a bronze at the 2012 London Paralympics. After swimming she worked in marketing at Speedo, Boston Children's Hospital, Porter Novelli and Interbrand. In 2025 she left to start On the One Hand, a disability storytelling consultancy, and she's now part of Culxtured, a media collective run by Paralympians.

The part I keep coming back to is how she sees media coverage of disabled athletes. She says it's usually about inspiration and charity, and she'd rather it be about the training and the competitiveness. In other words, cover them like athletes.

We also get into losing by hundredths of a second, why corporate inclusion work went quiet, and how a blind swimmer knows where the wall is.

Follow Anna on Instagram: @anna_f_johannes