Patriots' dynasty will endure as unmatched run of greatness
We are witnessing the conclusion of a great team made from divine alchemy
The NFL was founded 100 years ago, and 80 of them had to pass for the league's longest and best dynasty to emerge.
Bill Belichick's New England Patriots.
It began in stunning, unexpected fashion in 2001. And finally, it has come to and end. The current 2020 regular season is winding down, the playoffs are right around the corner — and the Patriots, for the first time since 2008 and only the second time since 2001, won't be participating.
The Patriots won't even finish in the top two in their four-team AFC East division. The Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, two proud franchises still nursing scars from scalp to soles from all those Patriots poundings of the past two decades, are a lock to finish ahead of third-place New England. The Bills have already clinched their first division title since 1995.
Birth and death years for the dynasty's tombstone would read 2001 to 2019. Few of the NFL'S foremast dynasties have lasted as many as 10 years.
If you follow the league even casually, you're probably aware of the principal reasons for New England's stark regression since winning their sixth Super Bowl of the century in February 2019.
First and foremost, Tom Brady's gone, after supplanting Drew Bledsoe as starter early in his second NFL season in 2001 and plowing wide swaths through the league's record books for passing and winning.
Other reasons? On offence, sharp drops in talent within both the receiving corps and offensive line. On defence, an overhauled front seven. On top of all that, eight Patriots players in July opted out of playing in 2020 because of COVID-19 concerns.
Belichick probably is the greatest head coach in pro football history, but football's oldest axiom remains true: Talent wins championships.
And oh, what talent Belichick gathered on those teams.
Start with Brady, the winningest quarterback in NFL history. He completed countless clutch passes to the likes of Troy Brown, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola.
Adam Vinatieri and Stephen Gostkowski reliably drilled important field goals throughout.
And on defence a seemingly endless parade of impact performers frustrated quarterback after quarterback around the league. From cornerbacks Ty
Law and Stephon Gilmore, to safeties Rodney Harrison and Devin Mccourty, to linebackers Tedy Bruschi, Jerod Mayo and Dont'a Hightower, to linemen Willie Mcginest, Vince Wilfork, Richard Seymour and Rob Ninkovich.
Some already own Hall of Fame jackets.
Then there are the coaches, starting with Hoody Mcgrumpypants himself.
I've often said that if the difference between winning and losing in the NFL from week to week depends on 1,000 small things, Belichick probably knows 900 of them, while most of his contemporaries — dozens and dozens of whom were hired and fired from 2001-19 — might have been lucky to know 500.
Although nearly all of Belichick's assistant coaches hired as head coaches flamed out — Charlie Weis at Notre Dame and Kansas, Eric Mangini with the New York Jets and Cleveland, Romeo Crennel at Cleveland and Kansas City, Josh Mcdaniels in Denver — they always seemed to be mini-geniuses under the wing of The Boss.
For whatever reasons, which included the sage and enabling leadership of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, it all worked and spectacularly so for nearly two full decades.
Most other NFL dynasties did not shutter to a stop, as this one as much as did late last season — when Brady suddenly looked old and frightened of pass rushes, when he suddenly had no one to throw to who could get open, and when a Patriots defence that had begun the season on pace to break records for preventing touchdowns utterly fell apart in an opening-round playoff loss to the Tennessee Titans and monster back Derrick Henry.
The departure of Brady in March to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent seemed to accelerate the dynasty's dissolution, which a 6-7 start to this season cemented. Might there be enough talent returning in 2021 for Belichick and his staff to mount a season successful enough as to compel historians to drag the dynasty timeline to the right by two years? Or more?
Probably not. Cam Newton has proved woefully incapable of filling Brady's shoes as a reliable clutch-down passer, and if you don't have such a quarterback you probably aren't making the playoffs, let alone doing anything memorable once there.
So let's just soak in many of the most memorable milestones of the Patriots' glorious two-decade run, 2001-19, which probably won't be repeated in any 19-year period in anybody's lifetime:
■ Nine Super Bowl appearances
■ Six Super Bowl wins
■ A 268-90 (.749) overall record A 30-11 (.732) playoff record 17 AFC East titles in 19 years
■ Nfl-record 11 straight division titles (2009-19) A winning record all 19 years
■ Nfl-record 17 straight 10-win seasons (2003-19)
■ Thirteen 12-win seasons Nfl-record 21 straight wins (2003-04)
■ Nfl-record 10 straight playoff wins (2001-05)
■ Nfl-record single-decade record with 126 wins, 2000-09
■ Broke that record with wins, 2010-19
■ Tied NFL record, most playoff wins in a decade, 14, 2000-09
■ Broke that record with 16, 2010-19
■ NFL'S first 16-0 regular season (2007)
■ Nfl-record eight straight seasons with playoff win (2011-18)