Belichick and Brady’s bunch still potent
While Los Angeles warms to the return of football to its fair metropolitan region after 20 or so years, the New England Patriots are trying to stave off the notion that a 20-year dynastic run is nearing an end.
Nearing an end, though, is far from “over.”
Aging (but still pliable) quarterback Tom Brady and crusty curmudgeon Bill Belichick may be looking over their shoulder at Father Time more frequently, but they are still at the helm of a team that is considered among the favorites to return to the Super Bowl. A trip there this season would be their ninth in 19 years.
That’s not supposed to happen.
Given New England’s charming-yet-too-cold-for-many winters, Patriots fans have repatriated across the country. The support for the team extends far beyond the boundaries of Foxboro (pop. 17,574 on non-game days) — even to Los Angeles.
Though it’s easy these day for Angelenos to ignore what’s happening on the right coast, given the prolific offensive display the “Killer Gs” Goff and Gurley are putting on, a word of caution to those feisty Rams: 2007 was all well and good in Patriots land with its high-flying Brady-toMoss show … until it wasn’t.
The Chargers, for a while, were a pesky gnat for the Pats. The teams were original AFL merger brothers. They’ve met 41 times, including three times in the playoffs, with the Boston/New England Patriots winning 24. Since 1973, New England is 17-3 in the series, including back-to-back playoff wins in the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
Against the Rams, the Pats are 8-5, including a current fivegame win streak. Though to be fair, since the teams moved to L.A., the Pats are only 2-0 against them.
But the next one, if we’re all lucky enough, could be real fun. Imagine the Pats having a chance to spoil someone else’s bid for a perfect season.