Just thinking about it, I'm amazed. It veers into the mythic, like some medieval song cycle about gods and men, about mountains scaled and oceans crossed, about battles fought against the dark hordes of evil.
Okay.
Not really a good vs. evil thing.
Still, the whole thing - the Patriots Dynasty - has been pretty amazing. No, I'm not saying it's over. I'm just wondering how the team that keeps topping itself can possibly top itself one more time.
Let's begin at the beginning, which is generally a very good place to start…
The Hero's Journey Begins
So many tears have been shed over the Tuck Rule that it's easy to forget Belichick and Brady won their first playoff game in OT (the first of three in Brady's career). Feel free to fact check me on this but I believe Brady was 6 for 6 in that OT period, driving the Patriots to Adam Vinatieri's game-winning kick.
An auspicious and portentous beginning.
They Still Call It Football
The Patriots then had to travel to Pittsburgh for the AFCCG and lost Brady to injury in the first quarter. Drew Bledsoe stepped in, threw a TD pass and somehow managed to avoid what would've been a back-breaking interception but the margin of victory was provided by two special teams' scores; a blocked FGA returned for a TD and a Troy Brown punt return for a TD.
If you've been taking a drink every time the phrases "complementary football," or "all three phases" or "and he can contributed on special teams" have been uttered since, you're drunk. And you've been drunk for nearly 20 years. You may have a problem.
Super Bowl 36
Let's not forget the context. 9/11. The U2 halftime show with the names of the fallen. This was an historic Super Bowl even before those plucky, lovable underdog Patriots (yes, America once loved the Patriots) won as the biggest underdogs (+14) in Super Bowl history. Tom Brady before he became TB12. Bill Belichick before he became Darth Hoodie. Robert Kraft before… well, it was a long time ago.
When the Rams, the Greatest Show on Turf, came back to tie the game, I remember thinking, well, it was fun but real life never ends like movies do. John Madden, the legendary voice of the NFL and a Super Bowl-winning head coach himself, is telling America and the world that Tom Brady needs to take a knee and New England has to hope they can catch a break in overtime. Inside their own 20. No timeouts. But Tom Brady is throwing passes. To J.R. Redmond, Troy Brown, and Jermaine Wiggins. He's spiking the ball to stop the clock and now John Madden has goosebumps.
Adam Vinatieri nails the 48-yard field goal.
The biggest upset in Super Bowl history.
How do you top that?
Back-to-Back
Though they aren't generally mentioned in those "greatest team of all time" discussions that typically focus on a single season, the 2003 and 2004 Patriots teams were a pigskin dreadnought with a dominating defense that forced the NFL to make rule changes lest Peyton Manning never have a chance to win a playoff game.
They won 21 games in a row while posting back-to-back 14-2-0 regular season records capped by wins in Super Bowl 38 and 39, winning both in thrilling fashion, 32-29 and 24-21, respectively. SB38 may be more famous for the Justin Timberlake/Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" west of the Connecticut River; here in New England it's the game where Tom Brady became Tom Brady.
32 of 48 for 354 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT, and another championship game-winning drive.
Admittedly, SB39 calls to mind Andy Reid's perplexing, lifelong battle with the concept of linear time and the irony of Donovan McNabb as a spokesman for Campbell's Chunky soup more than it calls up images of New England's pigskin excellence but…
Back-to-back Super Bowl wins, baby! It's going to be hard to top that…
18-1-0
Look, I know it ended badly but the 2007 season was still remarkable. Brady's single-season record 50 passing TDs has since been broken but will Randy Moss' single-season record of 23 TD receptions ever be broken? Okay, records are meant to be broken so, yeah, probably, someday.
The 2007 Patriots were electric. They were Hendrix at Woodstock, Queen at Live-Aid, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street band at the Hammersmith Odeon. They were Gandalf the White leading the charge of the Rohiriim at dawn at Helm's Deep. Every Sunday was an 8-ounce filet, mushroom risotto, grilled asparagus and 3 martinis.
Yeah… Moving on.
His Balls Are Perfect
Remember when we thought Super Bowl 49 was the greatest game in Super Bowl history?
Tom Brady leads the Patriots to two 4th quarter touchdowns against the Legion of Boom, overcoming a 10-point deficit for a 28-24 win. It was, at the time, the largest such comeback in Super Bowl history. But it took Bill Belichick's big brass balls and a last minute interception by Malcolm Butler - overcoming yet another improbable circus catch that appeared to momentarily snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for the Seahawks - to finally seal the deal.
By the way, finding out in "Do Your Job" that Belichick and his pigskin Merlin, Ernie Adams, had identified Seattle's pass play as a tendency and practiced against it in goal line situations... and then it actually happened, only adds sauce. The inscrutable Belichick using his Jedi Mind Tricks on Pete Carroll, refusing to take a time out every other head coach in the NFL would've called, putting the pressure on Carroll and the Seattle coaches to come up with the play that would outsmart Belichick with the game hanging in the balance feels like the Dread Pirate Roberts Battle of Wits with Vizzini in "The Princess Bride."
I know that you know that I know that you know that I know...
This was a great game, one of the Top 10 Super Bowls without question, but Brady's 4th quarter was, well, the stuff of legends. The two-week run up to SB49 was all about "deflated" footballs and prop bets on what America hates more, the New England Patriots or Science. Brady's life's work, his reputation, his legacy were all at risk. The Patriots were down two scores to the best defense in the NFL that year, maybe one of the best defenses in the history of the NFL.
That elusive 4th Super Bowl ring? Check.
There's no way Brady and the Patriots can top this; am I right?
Tom Brady: Hold my beer...
28-3
We watched 51 at a friend's Super Bowl party. It was a small group so it was noticeable when one of the guests left at halftime. I thought he might've been right when the Pats fell behind 28-3. And I remember, after the Patriots kicked a field goal to make it 28-12, our host cried out, "What are you doing? We need touchdowns." I turned to him and I held up two fingers. "It's a two-score game now." No, I didn't feel prescient. I was grimly confident, if that makes sense. "They're going to need 2 two-point conversions," my friend cried out again. "Two scores," I said again. No, I didn't think they would win. And when Julio Jones made that crazy catch on the sidelines I didn't think they could win.
Sometimes real life is just like a movie. The backstory of Brady's mother Galen's battle with cancer, the 25-point deficit, Julian Edelman on the sideline telling Brady, "Let's win this for your mom, bro." I mean, come on!
Two years after the Patriots won what was arguably the greatest Super Bowl ever, the Patriots won what is unquestionably (fight me!) the greatest Super Bowl ever.
That's it, right? It can't get any better than this, can it?
505
Also on that linked list of the greatest Super Bowls ever, sitting at #3 behind 51 and 49 is Super Bowl 52. Not even New England can win them all but even in defeat, the Patriots of Belichick and Brady never surrender. The Pats were a Hail Mary (and a 2-point conversion) from taking back to back Super Bowls to OT. Just one year from setting the Super Bowl record for most passing yards, Brady broke his own record with this line...
28 of 48, 505 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT.
There have been just three 400+ yard passing games in Super Bowl history: Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, and Tom Brady.
At this point in Super Bowl history, Tom Brady is playing against Tom Brady. That's it. That's the list.
Everyone Thinks We Suck…
The money men made the Patriots favorites at home in the 2018 divisional round but the visiting Chargers were the darlings of pigskin pundits and bobbleheads. New England had finished "just" 11-5-0 with some very un-Patriot losses during the regular season; road losses to Detroit and Tennessee, and back to back losses in December. This was it. The end of the dynasty. The end of Brady. The pigskin millennials had passed Belichick by. Take the Chargers and the points because they were going to win outright...
After New England destroyed San Diego, Brady threw down his "Everyone thinks we suck…" gauntlet. It reminds me of that moment in "The Magnificent Seven" when Britt says, "Nobody throws me my own guns and tells me to run. Nobody."
No, it wasn't a Super Bowl win but… You know, maybe I'm wrong about that whole "real life is not like a movie" thing because this game - like SB35, 49, and 51 - sure ends like a movie.
Again, context is everything. The Patriots were underdogs for the first time that anyone could remember; maybe since SB36. Brady was supposed to pass the crown to Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs were the blueprint for the pass wacky/future is now millennial NFL. The Patriots were AARP-card carrying pigskin grandpas yelling at the kids running RPOs to get off their lawn.
Brady has been compared to the greatest who have ever played the game. He's been compared to the greatest who have ever played any sport. Maybe the only comp for Brady, though, is Steven Spielberg.
We'll see… It'll be fun...
3rd and 9. 3rd and 10. 3rd and 10. Three times the Chiefs could've stopped the Patriots in OT. Three times Brady kept New England's offense on the field, driving them down the field for the game-winning TD.
Can something be improbable and inevitable at the same time?
Isn't that the best description of Tom Brady's career?
Is it possible, after everything else we've seen Brady and Belichick do, time and time again; is it possible after all that to still be amazed?
Yes. The answer is yes.
Dad Ball
Defense wins championships was something your dad believed.
That was then.
It turned out that was now, too.
This was the "time is a flat circle" Super Bowl. The Patriots dynasty had been born in a Super Bowl against the Rams of St. Louis and for the purposes of narrative symmetry and the wishful thinking of everyone in the known universe outside of the five and a half states that make up New England, the dynasty would end against the Rams of Los Angeles. Except it didn't...
Everything we have done or will do we will do over and over and over again - forever.
I know a lot of people think SB53 was boring because there were only 16 total points scored.
I think it was remarkable because there were only 16 total points scored.
The Patriots defense held the Rams offense, an offense that averaged 33 points a game during the regular season, to just 3 points.
So, the millennial NFL has passed Bill Belichick by?
Apparently not.
Somehow, in an NFL that has become all about the long ball, the Patriots crushed the nascent offensive revolution of professional football and arrested and jailed all the leaders of that revolution on its way to their 6th Lombardi Trophy.
They played complementary football, dominating on defense with the usual cast of cast-offs (Kyle Van Noy, Jason McCourty, Danny Shelton) making big plays, winning the battle of field position on special teams, pinning the Rams defense deep in their own end of the field, and making just enough plays on offense, with Julian Edelman keeping them in the game until Brady and Gronk stepped up when the game was on the line.
Did I say remarkable?
I meant amazing.
Over and over and over again.
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