Plan A for this week's column was to explain why Bill Belichick's legacy is at stake based on the outcome of the upcoming 2020 Patriots season.
After all, it's the first full one without Tom Brady since the 5-11 inaugural Hoodie year of 2000, and Belichick's record as Pats coach in games not started by Brady is an ordinary 19-19. It's a coaching record that on the surface speaks to a leader with much to prove absent his QB Goat.
And so I was loaded up to yet again declare a Ben Volin opinion a dumb one, after the Boston Globe writer said on Saturday radio show that "I don't think anyone is going to turn on Bill [after one season] and say, 'Well, it was all Tom Brady!'"
Poppycock. This is the year we find out, right? Brady vs. Belichick. Who made who?
Then, I spoke to my key source: a Pro Football Hall of Fame voter who a decade ago declared to me that Belichick would never be a first-ballot inductee based on his associated cheating scandals.
His response to my Plan A: "Change the column."
But what about the collective Spygate and DeflateGate damage? Two and a half million in team fines to go with two stripped first-round picks plus a 3rd and 4th under 'Belicheat's watch'?
"He's won too many Super Bowls, now, Kenny," my argument's keystone declared.
Apparently, the Belichick legacy is cemented. He's a slam-dunk first-ballot Hall-of-Famer, per a former skeptical voter in that room.
So with an apology to Volin, I'm the dope and we're on to Plan B: What Is at stake for Belichick's legacy, then?
Small sweetening or souring? Little movements of the needle?
Unfortunately for my latest kerosene-hot take, the answer appears to be 'yes' and 'yes'.
Now with Belichick, Bill the coach and Bill the GM have different paths to move that needle toward further greatness.
For Coach Bill, winning again with a completely different style of quarterback would be significant. Joe Gibbs won Super Bowls with three different starting signal-callers, and a few other coaches including Bill Parcells have done it with two different guys. But it would be meaningful for Belichick to join that company, to disprove definitively that Tom Brady was the system.
It would also distance comparisons of Belichick to Steelers coach Chuck Noll, whose four Lombardi's are the next closest to Bill's six. After Terry Bradshaw called it quits, Noll labored for nine seasons of mostly-mediocre ball. Cliff Stoudt, Mark Malone, David Woodley, and Bubby Brister couldn't cut the Heinz ketchup. Perhaps it didn't taint Noll's legacy completely, but it is certainly a footnote that Noll couldn't win without an elite QB.
More Coach Bill goals for immortality: Killing another would-be dynasty. He neutered the attempts of Pete Carroll's Seahawks, Peyton Manning's Colts, and plenty of other AFC lesser-lights; but knocking off the new 'Anointed One' Patrick Mahomes - again - would be deadly to the Mahomes over-hype and to the Chiefs' growing national bandwagon.
For GM Bill, his draft prowess certainly needs a legacy upgrade. This year's draft didn't help Bill's rep as sub-par grocery buyer after he traded out of Round 1 - passing on the top eight receiver prospects - to select safety Kyle Dugger from D-II Lenoir-Rhyne. It was at best bold and at worst arrogant. Some of these picks need to hit, unlike Duke Dawson, Cyrus Jones, Jordan Richards, etc, etc.
Personnel-man Bill is also in danger of not giving Cam Newton a chance to succeed; Bill Barnwell of ESPN recently ranked the New England skill position group (WR, TE and RBs) just 21st best in the NFL. For a season where it now appears the Patriots are all-in on trying to win, the offensive supporting cast looks laughable compared to Mahomes' weapons.
And of course, there's the little matter of the GM deciding Brady wasn't worth a two-year, Drew Brees-type contract. A successful year for Brady in Tampa Bay will make Belichick look worse than his own team scuffling, even if it's a 6-10 season in Foxboro.
Because in the end I have to concede that even a disappointing Pats campaign in a Pandemic year will be long forgotten years from now when Belichick's Gillette Stadium statue is gathered around for SnapFace pictures.
Brady vs. Belichick will make 2020 football watching captivating in New England, and I'm sure both want to see how bad the other will be without them. But the legacies are mostly complete. Maybe the Subway commercial Belichick agreed to last week should have spelled out for me sooner: Bill can relax knowing he's already all-that, and at this point he's just waiting for the bag of chips and cookie to go.
