Pats commentary
The New England Patriots’ dynasty is careening downward thanks to quarterback Tom Brady’s ego and selfishness, according to an ESPN investigation.
Thousands of years after Helen of Troy sparked unspeakable devastation, another beautiful person is threatening to destroy an empire.
The New England Patriots’ dynasty is careening toward doom thanks to pretty-boy quarterback Tom Brady’s ego and selfishness. The aging signal caller is at the center of an explosive ESPN investigation chronicling fissures inside the Evil Empire.
The vegetable-eating, water-gulping quarterback with the pliability of Plastic Man is the primary reason why Bill Belichick went against every football instinct he’s ever had. Make no mistake: Brady was the catalyst for New England’s bone-headed decision to trade future star quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo for what amounted to a bag of donuts.
Brady’s growing concern that his young and talented understudy would ultimately take his job prompted all of this.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who views Brady like a son, took the bait, sided with the two-time NFL MVP and ultimately issued a mandate for The Hoodie, according to the ESPN report: Trade Jimmy G.
Belichick, the greatest tactician of our lifetime (with some videotaping assistance once upon a time), was “furious and demoralized” by the owner’s edict before shipping off a future stud to the West Coast. The leader of the Evil Empire, frankly, deserved better after turning the Patriots into the NFL gold standard.
Whether or not you agreed with Belichick’s methods through the years, he produced for the organization in a way that nobody else had. He changed the culture with a matter-of-fact do-your-job mantra that Patriot Nation ate up. He made it cool to wear drab gray sweatshirts. He made it acceptable to mumble at public press briefings.
He won five freakin’ Lombardi Trophies.
Brady, of course, played a starring role in all those epic moments, which created a power struggle that the quarterback ultimately won. He got his way. Jimmy G is gone … and the Patriots are screwed for the next decade. Well done, Tommy. Kraft’s loyalty to his quarterback blinded him from reality: No number of avocados or hours of stretching will make the four-time Super Bowl MVP and 13-time Pro Bowler avoid the aging process. He’s still going to turn 41 years old on Aug. 3. There are only a few granules of sand left in his NFL hourglass.
He’s in the twilight of a brilliant career that will get him to Canton on roller skates, but the last time I checked those medical journals, human cloning is a far way off.
Whether or not you believe the Patriots repeatedly offered four-year extensions to Garoppolo for $17-18 million per year is irrelevant now. Belichick was smart enough to know that trading away a young quarterback who had shown promise in his limited chances was not smart business given that his starter was beginning his fifth decade on Earth.
Nobody understands the cutthroat business of football better than Belichick, who had parted ways with popular established players through the years. Maybe he wanted to trade Brady. Maybe he didn’t. Regardless, there was little logic to trading 26-year-old Jimmy Garoppolo for a second-round pick.
The smart play would have been to keep Garoppolo on the franchise tag (and yes, absorb the relatively large salary cap figure for both quarterbacks in 2018) and buy more time for the organization.
Chances are that Brady, who’s still playing at a high level despite some obvious signs of decline, won’t be an elite player by the end of the 2018 season. Either way, the organization shouldn’t have let Garoppolo, who won all five of his starts with San Francisco, walk out of the building.
Brady couldn’t care less. He saw a threat and made sure to manipulate Kraft.
The Patriots turned on their spin cycle Friday morning by predictably issuing a joint statement from Kraft, Belichick and Brady reaffirming their “productive working relationship” for the past two decades.
“We stand united,” the statement read, in part.
Brady saw the future.
And he needed to get rid of it.