Latest party invite only
It’s simply another Super Sunday for us
FOXBORO — It wasn’t the history-making beatdown many said it would be. It wasn’t particularly pretty. There were no ohmy-God plays that’ll live forever on YouTube for whenever you’re down in the dumps.
All that matters is the Patriots, by virtue of their 24-20 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in yesterday’s AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium, have a chance to turn the first football dynasty of the 21st century into a pair of gold-plated bookends.
When the Pats won three Super Bowls in four years earlier in this century, No. 3 was against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX. Now the Patriots are again looking for their third Super Bowl championship in four years, and when they take the field 13 days from now in Minneapolis they will be playing . . . the Philadelphia Eagles. Pats vs. Eagles, Part Two. We’re talking about two hardcore, old-timey East Coast sports towns, each with loud, involved, in-your-face fans. As the Eagles were wrapping up their easy victory over the Vikings last night at Lincoln Financial Field, the mob began yelling, “We want Brady! We want Brady!”
It’s going to be a fun two weeks, no?
Get ready for nonstop David vs. Goliath angles as Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all-time, is pitted against the Eagles’ Nick Foles, a classic journeyman who started out with the Eagles, drifted to the St. Louis Rams and Kansas City Chiefs, then returned to the Eagles. He was hired to be a backup, then became the starter when a torn ACL ended MVP candidate Carson Wentz’ season.
Pats. Eagles.
It’ll be two weeks’ worth of stories about running back LeGarrette Blount, who played on two Super Bowl winners with the Pats and hopes to play on one with the Eagles.
It’ll be two week’s worth of stories about Donovan McNabb, who quarterbacked the Eagles the last time these two teams met in the Super Bowl. Did he really throw up during the game? Or not? Let’s ask! Let’s keep asking! It’s the Super Bowl!
It’s a surprise the Eagles are going to the Super Bowl, given the loss of Wentz.
And for a while yesterday it looked like it would be a surprise if the Pats made it. Yesterday’s game provided yet more proof that football players of all ages should listen to their coaches when they make with the speeches about never quitting, about staying the course, about going the distance, and so on. It works.
OK, it helps if you have supremely talented players, the greatest quarterback in history and a coach who, once you get past the speeches, is not an empty suit, or empty hoodie.
The Patriots have the supremely talented players. They have the greatest quarterback in history. As for their coach, Bill Belichick, recent history proves that his players buy the talk. All of it. Every syllable.
Consider yesterday. Brady played with a stitched-up right hand. Tight end Rob Gronkowski was jarred by a helmet-tohelmet hit in the second quarter and had to exit the stage. The Pats trailed 20-10 early in the fourth quarter, and at that point in the game, Brady had not thrown a touchdown pass.
Then the defense tight- ened up. The Jaguars also tightened up, but in a different way.
Then came two Bradyto-Danny Amendola touchdown passes, one of them with 2:48 remaining.
And now the Super Bowl is turning into the New England Patriots Invitational. It’s going to be their third Super Sunday in four years. It’ll be the eighth New England Super Bowl for the Belichick/Brady tandem. With five Lombardi trophies in the bank, the Pats are seeking their sixth.
The Jags, like so many NFL teams, would dearly love to have just one victory such as the Patriots submitted yesterday.
Here in New England, it’ll have to settle for being just the third most riveting, pulsating victory the past four years — trailing the Malcolm Butler interception that clinched Super Bowl XLIX against Seattle, and the victory over Atlanta that is the only championship game in history better known for a partial score (28-3) than the final.
The New England Patriots Invitational seems like one Never-Ending Story. It’s not, and left tackle Nate Solder had a magnificent response yesterday when asked what it’s like to keep making this magic year after year after year after . . .
“I guess you just do it for different reasons every time,” Solder said. “We have our own storyline this year, and we’re right in that with a different group of people. It’s been an awesome season with ups and downs and we’re here with a chance to win another game.”
Perfect. For this has been the season in which strife at the very top — and we’re talking Belichick, Brady and owner Robert Kraft — made national headlines. A storyline was added a few days ago when blood began to gush from Brady’s right hand. Oh, and a bonus was provided yesterday when Gronk went into the concussion protocol.
“When we’re down, coach is always sayin’, ‘Keep playin’, man,’ ” said Butler, who knows this better than anybody. “He’ll say, ‘We’ll be OK, we’ll be OK.’ But I didn’t want to hear it (when I came here), I wanted to see it, see if it comes true.”
Serious question here: Did Butler buy that hooey before he joined the Patriots? Does anybody?
“I’m not sure,” he said, “but when I got here I started to believe it. Everybody’s on the same page here. No one’s selfish, everyone’s doin’ it for the team.”
It’s all just stuff for Tshirts and bumper stickers, unless it’s these Patriots, a team playing in the era of parity.
It’s the New England Patriots Invitational.
This year, the Eagles have been invited.