Until Tom Brady and Bill Belichick came along, the Patriots were known for three things:
1) Using a snow plow operated by a convicted felon to win a game; 2) being destroyed by the Bears in Super Bowl XX; and 3) losing Bill Parcells because he couldn’t buy the groceries.
For fans under 35, the franchise’s ridiculous era is limited to NFL Films, but students of history realize that no dynasty lasts forever, whether it’s from the Ming, Holy Roman or Belichickean era.
Welcome to the bad old days. The Barbarians have reached the gates of Gillette Stadium. It was always going to end like this.
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Sunday’s disheartening 21-17 loss to the Raiders dropped the Patriots to 1-5, just one game ahead of the Panthers, which is the worst record in football. Things will likely get a lot worse before they get better, as the Patriots face the potential end of Belichick’s reign, a roster without a single healthy standout and the realization that quarterback Mac Jones isn’t the answer, necessitating a restart The most important position of the game.
That’s a recipe for a decade of darkness, similar to how the Dolphins have won just a single playoff game since Dan Marino retired in 1999, or it took the Bills 25 years to replace Hall of Famer Jim Kelly with All-Pro Josh Allen to replace. Exceptions include Joe Montana to Steve Young and Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers. Follow Marino with Jay Fielder, Gus Frerotte, Cleo Lemon, Chad Henne, etc. – that’s the rule. This also applies to Cam Newton and now Jones.
If the post-Brady years are a lesson in anything, it is in the destructive power of institutional arrogance. Robert Kraft expects playoff wins because that’s all he’s known for 20 years, but he’s not willing to pay for it. Belichick was determined to prove he could take on an average quarterback and show who the Brady years were really about.
Everyone gets their money.
The Patriots worshiped at the altar of their own infallibility, which led Belichick to decide it was a good idea to hire buddies Matt Patricia and Joe Judge as offensive coaches. It allowed Kraft to delude himself into identifying Jones as the cornerstone of the franchise based solely on the fact that he personally selected him, and when has his judgment ever been wrong?
The NFL has evolved into a league of game-changing receivers, dynamic quarterbacks and creative offensive masterminds. The Patriots are missing all three and believed they could move forward with a physical defense and an emphasis on special teams, because fads are for everyone else. The Patriot Way doesn’t have to move with the times if it’s timeless.
However, it is not immune to the ravages of time. Prepare to hear about Rod Rust (1-15 in 1990) and Big Ken Sims (a failure to get a No. 1 overall pick in 1982) and Chuck Fairbanks (left one of the best Patriots teams of all time the night before the 1978 playoffs). . Join us to hear more about the ousting of fan favorite Steve Grogan in favor of the reviled Tony Eason, the disastrous sponsorship of the Michael Jackson Victory Tour that nearly bankrupted the Sullivan family, and the proposed move to St. Louis amid the indifferent To find out ownership of James Orthwein.
While we’re at it, let’s not forget Mark Henderson, the convicted burglar on a work release program who drove a plow onto the field before the winning field goal against the Dolphins in 1982, giving the Bears a 46-10 victory over them won the 1985 Super Bowl while making Refrigerator Perry a celebrity, or Parcells and Kraft ended their partnership in a bitter divorce, paving the way for Belichick to take an unheralded quarterback from Michigan in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft.
We all know what happened next. Over the next two decades, the Patriots made history. Now they are history. That’s the way the world is, and it happens to everyone at some point. We believed it would never end, but their reign was always temporary.