Remember when people used to talk about the New England Patriots winning Super Bowls? Being the gold standard of the NFL? The envy of every coach and GM’s eye?
Yeah, that was awesome.
Belichick needs something to go right amid all this chaos
These days the six-time Super Bowl champion Pats find themselves in the news cycle more for turmoil than triumph. Dysfunction over dynasty. And it’s both surprising and, honestly, exhausting. Sure, when you’re on top for as long as the Pats were, and you have Bill Belichick’s record, everyone wants to come for you. And it’s not like the Patriots aren’t used to scandal or grabbing headlines for the wrong reason. Some of their greatest seasons had a nice scandal sidecar like Spygate or Deflategate to motivate the team and feed coal into the media engine. They did damage on the field while doing damage control off of it better than anyone.
Those who opinionate for a living love the constant content stream the team provides. If anything, maybe that's what Bill Beichick was talking about in what to feel confident about after the last 25 years: plenty more drama to debate and discuss.
Those who fill the seats, pack the lots and buy the merch may not love this so much.
While nobody would complain about the unthinkable amounts of success the team has experienced since the year 2000, it would be hard to argue that making the backpage for coach and QB squabbles and wild trade rumors are what owner Robert Kraft had in mind when he sent an email to season ticket holders promising a return to excellence after the Pats were eliminated from the postseason three months ago.
What in the actual Foxboro is going on?
The latest lit match in the oily torch hut came from Pro Football Talk, a speculative report that Bill Belichick has been shopping Mac Jones this offseason. While it’s not really news to anyone that Mac and Bill didn’t see eye to eye last season, not many thought it would reach the level where Bill was ready to ship Mac elsewhere after just two seasons.
Related
Mac Jones was drafted to be the next QB of the NEP in 2021. In less than two years time, he has gone from franchise savior to Pats pariah. And while anointing him the next great one may have been hyperbolic overreaction after losing the GOAT and then watching the struggles of the COVID Cam-paign (deal with it), his fall from grace in the eyes of his pro coach is seismic at this point. We knew Bill was mad that Mac went outside the organization to get some advice and assistance handling the Matt Patricia reverse-engineered offense of 2022, but to the point where he was virtually done with Mac? Yikes!
Whether you choose to believe the Florio report is up to you, but plenty of trusted beat writers and local voices have corroborated reports of the tension between coach and QB. Perhaps in the end it will all work out and all this will light a fire under Jones, now entering his third season, to surpass even his own expectations and win over a coach whose vote of confidence in him recently was that he could “play in this league”. Gee whiz, thanks Bill! Or maybe Mac is a royal pain in the arse and Bill Belichick has every right to want to only coach players he likes (he’s told us as much before).
Is Mac HIM, as they say? Some think not. Others believe he deserves a chance with better talent and a competent coaching staff to prove himself worthy of the gig. Time and a lot of work with new OC Bill O’Brien will tell. But the headlines, rumors and allegations coming from One Patriot Place over the past year have been so…un-Patriots-like. Or in the post-Tom Brady days, in the absence of always winning, is this the new normal?
Gross.
Coaches being hired to do jobs they had never done before and, not too surprisingly, weren’t very good at. Players pushing back on coaching decisions. Coaches arguing with players. Players hurling nationally televised F bombs toward the coaches. Owners sending apology emails to fans. Not to mention punters filing grievances over suspensions. And loyal backup quarterbacks supposedly being let go because they too didn’t like the backwards offense of a season ago?
Makes the glory days of duckboats and commemorative DVDs seem like an eon ago.
And while the Foxboro Faithful have enough memories and champ merch to last five lifetimes, what they’re seeing from their beloved football team these days is almost the polar opposite of what they celebrated, lived for and cherished fo two decades…and well before (yes, there were millions of us before Brady relieved an injured Bledsoe in Sept. 2001). Sure, we’ve been spoiled, and it hasn’t been all that thin either. But does it have to feel like a reality TV show to get back to anywhere near where things were? That juice may be worth the squeeze, but you can't imagine the diehards out there are loving seeing the Pats in the headlines for disagreements and drama.
Makes you miss the fame grenade owner Robert Kraft lobbed at us last week with the Meek Mill Lamar Jackson text.
We get it - being at the top for as long as the Pats were is near impossible. So is getting back to anywhere near that again, as we’ve seen over the past few years. It’s a heavy price to pay. Now, the AFC East is getting stronger, the competition tougher, and obviously all everyone from coach to fan wants is what's in the best interest of the football team: WINNING. It cures all!
Eventually the coach and QB will see eye to eye or at least find a way to work together toward excellence, or agree to uncouple and move along. Whatever! Just do something that allows the team to focus on winning again. Hopefully more winning, less divorcing. But the way things have played out since Tom Brady left, and then when Josh McDaniels left, have felt like the opposite of what most in the area got used to for 20 glorious years.
Or maybe it’s always been like this and all that winning covered it up?
Exhausting, I know.
Like they say…never a dull moment in Foxboro.