Decades

I spent this sunny December morning surfing the Internet for Patriots porn. I relived some of the Top 100 moments with Tom Brady, and inspired by the Rich Eisen challenge to Bill Belichick asking for a signature moment from Brady's career, not to mention every local pigskin pundit and bobblehead putting together All Decade lists (players, Top 10 Games, etc.), I searched for Patriots "greatest" video content. While this activity is always deeply satisfying, I couldn't help but ask myself…

Can this two-decade run for the New England Patriots actually be appreciated? It is, after all, unprecedented. How do we deal with that which has never been and may never be ever again?

Think of it this way.

We all love Top 10 lists. They're subjective, arbitrary bar fight starters and who doesn't love a good chair-throwing, toss 'em through the window bar fight? Anyway, you're tasked with coming up with the Top 10 Games of the Belichick-Brady Patriots. Here's what you've got to deal with.

The Patriots have won 6 Super Bowls, and 9 AFC Championship Games, with 30 total playoff wins to pick from. 

Does a regular season game even make the list? The Willie McGinest Goal Line Stand game against Peyton Manning's Colts, the "On To Cincinnati" game, the OT comeback against the Peyton Manning Broncos in a nor'easter, the record-breaking game for Brady and Moss  against the Giants in the perfect regular season finale, the snowy blowout of the Titans with Brady throwing 5 TD passes in a quarter, the comeback win against Buffalo in Brady's return from the knee injury that cost him a year, the demolition of the Browns in Brady's first start after the Deflategate suspension, the epic 43-40 win over the Chiefs just a year ago? 

They're just regular season games. Yes, you have to win those games to get to the playoffs but the G-force is obviously higher in the postseason and event-horizon heavy in the Super Bowl, pressure that will crush mere mortals and which only the greatest in the game can withstand.

So, you're starting with the 6 Super Bowl wins. (Even in those games where Brady wasn't statistically great - 36, 53 - he still authored signature moments. Yes, Brady stands like a colossus astride two separate dynastic runs and is undeniably the single biggest reason for the Patriots on field success but, these are Top 10 Patriots games.) The stakes are the highest and the achieving those 6 championship wins is the obvious essence rare of this 20-year narrative. 

After those 6 Lombardi Trophies, just 4 spots left (math skills) but cutting the 9 AFC Championship Games down is, in and of itself, its own challenge.

Last year's OT win in Kansas City has to be on the list, as does the prior year's comeback win over the Jaguars with Brady playing with a gashed thumb on his throwing hand. Recency bias? Perhaps. The 2001 AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh is one of my favorites (and it's my list!) thanks to the special teams scores in that game, not to mention Drew Bledsoe coming off the bench for an injured Brady, who was taken out by a cheap shot that is no longer legal. And yes. That had to be said. 

One spot left.

For me, it comes down to the 2004 and the 2014 AFC Championship Games. In 2004 they won in Pittsburgh against rookie QB Ben Roethlisberger and the 15-1-0 Steelers team that had ended the Patriots' 21-game winning streak in their regular season matchup. 2014 is the infamous Deflategate Game, which New England won in a blowout over Indianapolis (a franchise now cursed by the pigskin gods for their complicity in the NFL's plot to make America stupider). Having four games of Tom Brady's career stolen from me still makes me angry whenever I think of it so I'll go with 2004 and the visions it conjures of Rodney Harrison's pick six as Rob Ninkovich buries Ben Roethlisberger during the return.

How many great games am I leaving off this list? How can I not have a playoff game against the Ravens on this list? Where's the Snow Bowl and Adam Vinatieri's epic field goal kicked through a white-out blizzard? Why am I even doing this?

Oh, right. Bar fight.

Top 10 Games of the Belichick-Brady Patriots

#1 Super Bowl 51 - Greatest comeback in the history of sports and the first OT in Super Bowl history.

#2 Super Bowl 49 - The previously greatest comeback in the history of the Super Bowl as Brady leads two TD drives in the 4th quarter against the Legion of Boom.

#3 Super Bowl 36 - We all remember the first time.

#4 Super Bowl 38 - Brady, Brady, Brady, Brady!

#5 Super Bowl 53 - Maybe the greatest defensive game in SB history and Brady to Gronkowski, one last time.

#6 Super Bowl 39 - The game where everyone west of the Connecticut River officially became sick and tired of the New England Patriots.

#7 AFCCG '18 - Everyone thinks we suck and can't win a game… Brady improves to 3-0 in playoff OT games.

#8 AFCCG '17 - The 3rd and 18 completion thrown by Brady with 12 stitches in the thumb of his throwing hand. Another 4th quarter comeback from 10 points down against a great defense.

#9 AFCCG '01 - The margin of victory? Two special teams scores. A blocked FGA taken to the house and a Troy Brown punt return for six. Complementary football before we knew how to spell it.

#10 AFCCG '04 - Legend has it Brady played this game with a 101 degree fever. 

Somehow, I'm not sure if it really provides an appreciation commensurate with the achievement but that's my list. 

Fight me.