Take a Lap, Boys

Belichick being Belichick.

 

Okay, so I've already seen one "Be afraid. Be very afraid." post by a national pigskin pundit and I expect to see some variations on "You wouldn't like them angry" as the regular season draws near.

Despite the dis, it's hard to repeat as Super Bowl champs. It hasn't been done since – oh, right, New England did it in 2003-04. Back in the day the Patriots were grand masters at playing the respect card, as in I can't get no. Early indicators are that these Patriots are rallying around their embattled leader, with special teams ace Matthew Slater calling Tom Brady the "heartbeat of this team." Behind closed doors, it's easy to imagine Belichick reminding them this isn't just about Tom, it's about every man with a flying Elvis on the side of his helmet. It is about us. It is about them.

Motivation matters. As I've noted before, in the NFL, desperation is the ultimate motivation. You want to know which team is going to win any given Sunday and ask yourself who needs it more. Will a loss knock one of the two teams out of the playoffs? Will a win secure home field advantage?

Will a win today validate the integrity and legacy of the team and it's players?

It's about honor. It's about respect.

I continue in my deeply held belief that the NFL was out to get the Patriots, whose unprecedented reign of pigskin terror in the salary cap era has put the lie to the Theory of Parity. Something had to be done to stop them and Brady's intention to play into his 40s only added urgency. If two more years of Brady and Belichick was horrifying for the other 31 owners, consider the prospect of five to seven more seasons with New England perched atop the AFC East, making a run at the Super Bowl and inevitably taking home one or two or even three more Lombardi Trophies. The notion that Brady was in decline and no longer elite was made laughable in the 4th quarter of SB49. Is it really so hard to imagine Tom still being terrific at age 42? 45? It's not like he won't be able to throw the deep ball then; he can't throw long now. His forte is the short pass, decision-making. Can he get smarter? You might think he's seen it all by now but think about that 4th quarter again. It may have been the best fifteen minutes of football ever played by a quarterback in the NFL and he did it against one of the best defenses since the '85 Bears.

And yes, he did it with properly inflated footballs. 

But I digress…

So, the NFL ginned up a cheating scandal out of thin air (see what I did there?). They took away draft picks and gave the league a four-game head start with Tom Brady's suspension.

Yet somehow, like they have done consistently with Roger Goodell (FTG) as commissioner, they got it wrong.

They gave the New England Patriots a raison d'etre.

That won't go away even if Brady's suspension is overturned in federal court. Belichick won't let his players forget. Robert Kraft won't let the team ignore the lessons he learned when he mistakenly trusted the league to get this right. It's us. It's them. Don't forget that. Not ever. And Tom Brady won't lose any opportunity to validate his career, his name, his legacy. Every week will be a referendum. Opponents always bring their best when they play the defending Super Bowl champs? They'd better.

The strength of the pack is the wolf. The strength of the wolf is the pack.

Next February, when Tom Brady raises the Lombardi Trophy over his head for the fifth time, I'll remember the third day of camp, when Bill Belichick had the offense, as a unit, take a lap.

That was the moment I knew, whatever else happened, whatever adversity the New England Patriots face this season – and there will be adversity – this is a team that has a chance to etch its name in the history books.

We're on to football. Finally.