Ugly, tough times are an eventuality in pro sports, even for great championship organizations guided by great Hall of Fame leaders.
That’s a tough lesson the Patriots are learning the hard way these days, New England falling to 2-7 on the season following Sunday’s lackluster and at-times dismal 20-17 loss to the Commanders at Gillette Stadium.
The very harsh NFL reality for these Patriots is that they struggle to measure up in terms of talent most weeks, fielding a squad each contest that makes minimal plays and way, way too many mistakes in all three phases of the game.
New England is neither good nor good enough. And there’s little reason to expect that to change over the final two months of 2023. In fact, that might actually be the worst thing that could happen to Robert Kraft’s franchise.
Sure Bill Belichick built a dynasty in New England, winning six Super Bowls as a surly sideline boss with a simple, myopic focus on doing everything in his power for the best interest of his football team. He didn’t coin the phrase, obviously, but he and his team lived it: winning wasn’t everything, it was the only thing.
Until now, potentially.
Meanwhile, over much of his dynastic run in New England Belichick had a cross-sports contemporary who lived a similar life in San Antonio, where Gregg Popovich paired up with all-time great superstar Tim Duncan to lead the Spurs to consistent success atop the NBA world. Pop had his battles with the media and butted heads with star players at times but he, like Belichick, always seemed to find the winning formula.
Similar to Belichick and Tom Brady in the NFL in New England, for much of the last two-plus decades Popovich and Duncan were the standard setters in the NBA, the measuring stick for stability and of consistent winning that included five titles. But, that changed when Duncan retired in 2019 and San Antonio spent a few years mired in middling mediocrity. Sound familiar?
Now, though, things are back to looking up these days for the Spurs. A year ago the team won just 22 games, securing the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft and right to land generational, freakish unicorn talent Victor Wembanyama. The ugly lumps of last season certainly brought painful reality to San Antonio, but it also brought future hope in the form its newfound foundational superstar.
And that’s where Belichick’s Patriots come in for the here and now.
New England currently is slated for the No. 5 pick in next April’s NFL Draft. That would be the highest pick for the Patriots since landing Drew Bledsoe No. 1 overall to turn the franchise around back in 1993 and Willie McGinest a year later at No. 4. A few more losses – combined with wins for other teams in the hunt for the top picks in the draft – certainly could be what’s in the best interests of the football team in Foxborough these days. That certainly may also be a rather distasteful proposition for Belichick and his FOBs. But sometimes short-term pain leads to long term gain. Popovich learned that in San Antonio. Belichick could and should probably ponder the same path in New England.
And if Belichick doesn’t want to look across sports to Texas, maybe he just needs to look back to his roots in New England. That last time the Patriots were 2-7 to open a season was in 2000, Belichick’s first fall back in Foxborough. He was tearing down the roster to rebuild in the post-Pete Carroll era. He was cleaning up the salary cap and changing a culture. He was taking his lumps with a team that had been 8-8 a year earlier. He was earning the No. 6 overall pick in the draft, a selection he’d use on future Hall of Fame defensive lineman and dynasty foundational piece Richard Seymour.
If a Hall of Fame coach lie Popovich can suffer through lowly losing for the long term betterment of the Spurs in San Antonio, why can’t Belichick do the same in New England?
Heck, if a Hall of Fame coach like Belichick can suffer through losing with an eye on the future back in 2000, why can’t present day Belichick do the same?
What’s in the best interest of the Patriots right now? It’s probably getting the team’s next Seymour or Wembanyama or Bledsoe. It’s certainly not winning a couple meaningless football games in November and December of what’s already a lost season.
If the 74-year-old Popovich can find his path to a franchise rebirth in San Antonio, just maybe the 71-year-old Belichick can still do the same in New England.
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