One thing I've learned from moments like this. Bill Belichick has a plan. Bill Belichick always has a plan. Sometimes the plan doesn't work out. When that happens you recognize it. Recognize it as early as possible. Then you make a new plan.
In retrospect, the outcome with players like Kony Ealy always seems inevitable in retrospect. Did anyone think Albert Haynesworth would make it in New England? No. Nobody did. (Revisionist history? Anecdotal yet wholly unsubstantiated? Hey, it's my movie!) We hope, of course. Imagine if Haynesworth had gotten it...
Sorry, I got distracted there.
Not to say Kony Ealy is Albert Haynesworth. Okay, yes I am. Anyway, I don't think too many local pigskin pundits and bobbleheads are going to be called out for being "all in" on Kony Ealy. We hoped. Again.
But it was not to be.
What is it with guys like Ealy, Haynesworth or any other of a number of gifted athletes who flamed out in Foxborough? (I still wonder what could've been with Joey Galloway.) Is the New England program simply too demanding of the mental side of the game? New to the Patriots TE Dwayne Allen has admitted the homework has been difficult and the pop quizzes have been a disaster. I'm just saying the Patriots seem to be known for what goes on in the meeting room almost as much as what they do on the field. (And if I may also say, I'll be looking forward to seeing Allen on the field, flanking Cameron Fleming if he has to start in Solder's place. The receptions are gravy.) Or perhaps another way of putting it might be that some players simply don't fit the Patriots system. Do your job. Setting the edge may be a dirty, thankless job, giving up your body so the linebackers and safeties can make big plays, but if it's your freakin' job, set the freakin' edge. Whatever. Or maybe it's simpler than that.
They don't love the game.
This is important to Belichick. He knows the physical and mental demands he places on his players are designed to break mere mortals. He's said before that he's a hard guy to play for. He needs players that love football. Love it. Love, love, love it.
When you love the game you respect the game. You play hard on every snap because that's what the game demands; that's what the game is owed.
I get the argument about losing the trade; giving up too much to roll the dice on Ealy's upside. Hey, you aren't going to win every trade, much as we'd like. It is what it is. Or was. Whatever the case, maybe Ealy's loss won't hurt as much as you might think, despite the unsettled depth chart at Edge/DE.
It's pretty clear that undrafted free agent DE Adam Butler does love the game. He plays as if with child-like abandon (if that child was a straight-A pigskin student and the 5th grade gridiron valedictorian). Butler did his job with explosive, ferocious, relentless commitment. It's fun to root for players who look like they're actually having fun. Butler was that guy Friday night. It's a small data sample, the kid has come from nowhere overnight giving it a "nice story" bias, but man it was fun watching him play football last night.
Maybe it will be Butler starting opposite Trey Flowers. Maybe it's a rotation that features Kyle Van Noy and Dont'a Hightower. Maybe Deatrich Wise, Jr.'s noggin is just fine. Dare I say that even Geneo Grissom might be a player in this subplot?
Even Belichick might not know the answer, yet, but like I said at the top, I'm sure he has a plan.
It is worth noting that Belichick gave Ealy respected veteran's treatment in releasing him this early, giving him a much better shot at finding a job somewhere else when all is said and done.
The other thing we can be sure of, rhetorically at least, is that Belichick made this decision for the good of the team. I don't think anybody's going to disagree with him this time.
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