Like most things in life, it doesn't really help that we all saw this coming, does it?
First, we should remember that success in the NFL is - by design - short-lived. We know various franchises as a "team of the decade" (Steelers, Cowboys, 49ers) but that's generally a stretch. They're more accurately described as "the team of this arbitrary 5-7 year time frame." The qualifications for a dynasty - which appears to be 3 championships in that same 5-7 year span - also fails to meet the definition of the word. Seriously, the Ming Dynasty was nearly 300 years! No, when it comes to sustained dominance in the NFL over an extended timeframe, there are the New England Patriots of Belichick and Brady and everyone else is, well, thanks for playing.
Belichick, thanks in large part to Brady, may have been able to postpone the pigskin inevitability faced by all NFL championship teams of the salary cap era but all good things, it turns out, do come to an end. Those 14 AFC East division wins, 9 AFC Championships and 6 Super Bowl wins are definitely in the rear view and in this case, they really aren't closer than they may appear to be.
And if you think the pigskin pundits and bobbleheads, the trolls in the comments section, or the fans of the franchises west of the Connecticut River are going to let us forget where the Patriots and their fans are right now, I don't think you've been paying attention to current events. We've been invited to a Going Away Party where everyone isn't sad that we're leaving, they're happy to show us the door.
New England, with its gold-plated free agents and its shiny new QB of the Future, was supposed to be 2-1-0 heading into this Sunday's "Return of the King" game in Foxborough. With wins over the Dolphins (oops) and the Jets (because Jets), and respectable losses to the Saints and Buccaneers, the Patriots would be positioned coming out of the quarter turn to make a run at a playoff berth. Instead, the Patriots have lost tragically to the Dolphins, and comedically to the Saints, with a win over the Jets that seems destined to look less and less impressive on a week-by- week basis.
Next up, this Sunday night in Gillete, it's Brady and the Buccaneers, a team desperate to bounce back from a tough road loss to the Rams and still looking for the perfect gift for the man who made them champions. It seems more than likely the Patriots will empty the parking lot midway through the 4th quarter on their way to a 1-3-0 record, 0-3-0 at home. The highlight of the game? Tom Brady breaking the all-time passing yardage record wearing another team's ring.
A few weeks after that, Seth Wickersham's "It's Better to be Feared" book will drop, but excerpts are already leaking and it looks like it will be a delicious 5-course feast for the haters. I guess it's true; payback's a bitch.
Looking for hope in this hopeless place feels like grasping for straws in a twister, but this is the NFL, where anything can happen and often does. So, here's what I've got, for whatever it's worth…
The New England Patriots are 1-2-0, just like the Kansas City Chiefs
Schadenfreude. If it's wrong, I don't want to be right. The Chiefs are playing in a tougher division and a first place schedule. The Patriots missing the playoffs in Year 2 of the Post-Brady Recovery hardly compares to the Chiefs missing the playoffs in Patrick Mahomes' prime. I know. It's petty. I'm putting some negative energy or bad karma out in the universe. It is what it is.
Belichick knows Brady better than anyone
Somebody actually said that. And wondered out loud if it might give Belichick and the Patriots an edge Sunday night. I think it just means multiple opportunities for Belichick to be seen on the sidelines saying, "Saw that one coming." Okay, not exactly a straw worth grasping.
There's a lot of football left to play
That could be as much a curse as a commitment to hope, as in, there's a lot more tragic-comedy left to play. Still, it wouldn't be surprising to see a Bill Belichick-coached team get better in October and November, would it? Hello! Anyone? Come on! That could happen!
On the other hand…
Would another Top 15 draft choice really be that bad?
No. The answer is no. I know this is recency bias but watching Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase can't help but make me wonder what Mac Jones could do if New England added another big, fast wide receiver or improved the offensive line or what Belichick could do with another playmaker on defense.
We'll always have Cincinnati
Bogie and Bergman had Paris. Patriots fans have Cincinnati. As in, we're on to. There were so many great on field moments during Belichick's and Brady's 20-year partnership, it's a fool's errand to even try to name them all (and we'd only get into a fight over the list), but there may be no moment more emblematic of that time than Belichick's iconic "We're on to Cincinnati" press conference. The New England Patriots might lose and even lose in embarrassing, nationally televised fashion, but they were never defeated.
Is all of this just a thinly veiled attempt at a reverse jinx?
[Rolls Eyes] We're on to 2022.
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