Death, Taxes, and the Patriots

The Ringer has become one of my daily reads for pop culture and sports. I clicked on the What We’re Most Excited to Watch in the 2019 NFL Season link with anticipation and was not disappointed. (Well, a little.) There is certainly no shortage of compelling narratives waiting to happen for the NFL's 100th season. Patrick Mahomes encore. Kyler Murray, Kliff Kingsbury and the Air Raid Offense is intriguing, as is the possibility the Ravens might bust out the wishbone. Baker Mayfield and the return to relevance for the Cleveland Browns is full of pigskin pathos. Zeke Elliot and the Cowboys. Aaron Rodgers and Matt LaFleur. Drew Brees and the Scientific Proof that Luck is Real (and not always good). Nick Foles and the Jaguars. Jadaveon Clowney and the Seahawks. The sustainability of the Los Angeles Rams and the Millennial Offense as trend or fad. Ben Roethlisberger and the Ewing Theory Steelers. Carson Wentz and America's health care system. Antonio Brown. 

There was one storyline that was dismissed in a throwaway line at the end of the Ringer post: Death, taxes, and the Patriots. 

I'm not arguing that any of the plotlines noted above are not worthy of our attention. I just find it curious that what we have with the New England Patriots of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady is a movie nobody wants to see.

Well, nobody west of the Connecticut River.

Isn't the unprecedented compelling?

Almost two decades of uninterrupted playoff appearances, a now 42-year old quarterback who refuses to take that exit to Canton, three straight Super Bowl appearances with a chance for a fourth, an opportunity for back-to-back Lombardi Trophies. With a win they would take home an unprecedented 7th Super Bowl championship. As the NFL enters its 100th season, what can we use as reference or context for what the Patriots of Belichick and Brady have accomplished? 

If the Super Bowl era of the NFL could be reduced to a bar graph, the Patriots would be a bar that touched the upper boundary of the Y axis while most of the other teams would be a barely visible bump on the X axis. The only measuring stick for the Patriots is the Patriots.

Isn't history in the making compelling?

Returning to the movie nobody wants to see metaphor, these 21st century Patriots have been nominated for Best Picture 9 times and won 6 Oscars. Steven Spielberg has just 1 Best Picture win! (Yes, I know this Brady-Spielberg comp makes no sense.) Over the past 100 years there have been many great teams but in the last 20, it's been all Patriots. And they're (yes, I'm going there) still here. Every game adds another page to the script: It seems likely Tom Brady will author the greatest season for a 42-year old quarterback in NFL history because... there isn't any such thing (yet)! 

Have pigskin pundits and bobbleheads become so desperate to throw Brady off Kellerman's Cliff that they've become indifferent to what the man has done and more importantly, continues to do? Is it some barely concealed bitterness over having lost the argument that Peyton Manning or Joe Montana or [your favorite QB here] was better than Brady? 

Perhaps it has something to do with that line from The Dark Knight. "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." No matter how much screen time you give the Joker, we all still want to see Batman win in the end. 

In that sense, maybe I'm wrong about that post on The Ringer; maybe all those exciting storylines have the same subtext. 

Who can beat the Patriots? 

Can the Chiefs, Chargers, select one from the AFC South, Steelers, Ravens, or Browns keep Tom Brady from making his 10th Super Bowl start? Failing that, is there a team from the NFC best suited to take down the Patriots in SB54? 

That's right. 

It's still all about the Patriots.