Ratcheting up the sports talk

Donnie Wahlberg (left) helped construct a playground for the Waltham Boys & Girls Club. (Bill Brett for The Boston Globe

Hours before the game at the Garden, Celtics fan Donnie Wahlberg joined a pack of New England Patriots, including No. 12 Tom Brady and owner Robert Kraft, at the Waltham Boys & Girls Club for the building of a colorful new playground — while a throng of fans snapped picture after picture. A great time was had by all, including Wahlberg, who costars on the CBS cop drama “Blue Bloods’’ with Bridget Moynahan, who, rather famously, is Brady’s ex. “. . . Everybody thinks that’s a big deal,’’ Wahlberg said, “but it’s not. Tom’s, like, the greatest and I’m a huge fan, and Bridget is, too.’’ Of course, Donnie isn’t above talking trash — when appropriate. “[If] the Celtics stay healthy, no one is going to be talking about [the Heat] in May or June,’’ he said. “. . . It’s like gossip page stuff now. That’s what the Heat are right now. They’re like gossip fodder.’’ Donnie was also optimistic about the Pats. “I’ll tell you, since the trade, which I was nervous about, it seems like they’re playing Patriots football again. I mean, they’re winning games the way they used to win them in the [Bill] Belichick-Brady heyday.’’ As for his own construction skills, Donnie was less confident. “I don’t even know what this is,’’ he said on the playground, holding a ratchet. “It’s a ratchet, I learned. I had a character in my show named Ratchet but I never actually used a ratchet. Hammer, nails, spray paint cans — usually for bad reasons.’’ Wahlberg’s less talkative cohort Brady gave us a pretty good excuse for not coming out to the Garden to root for the men in green. “I got work to do. I got a big football game this weekend.’’ Fair enough. Joining joker Donnie and Tom for the afternoon of community service were a bunch of Pats players and wives including Matt and Susie Light, Jerod Mayo, Sammy Morris, Vince and Bianca Wilfork, as well as UnitedHealthcare Medicare and Retirement CEO Tom Paul. Nonprofit KaBOOM!, which focuses on projects that give kids a place to play, helped with construction.


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