WHEN WILL IT END
No dynasty lasts forever; neither will the Patriots’
The Patriots’ dynasty has been among the most impressive in sports history. But eventually, even the most incredible runs end.
BILL Belichick was 49 and Tom Brady was 24 when they began this longrunning dynasty. As they stand together, 60 minutes from an historic fifth Super Bowl, Belichick is three months from his 65th birthday, and Brady is seven months from his 40th. No one knows how or when this dynasty will end. Only that it will end. One of these days, Father Time finally will start intercepting Brady, and the dynasty will wobble. It would end if Belichick decided that he didn’t have the stomach for navigating a life after Brady. So the end could be near.
Or Belichick could decide to coach until he is 72 like Marv Levy, or until he is 70 like Papa Bear Halas, and be motivated to prove that he can win without Brady.
It is RIP Patriots once and for all only when Belichick is gone.
Gregg Popovich and Tim Duncan won f ive NBA championships in 17 years together, and the Spurs remain a title contender today, even with Duncan retired.
John Wooden won 10 NCAA championships in 12 years, and the Bruins were in ruins when he retired.
The Packers won five championships in seven seasons (including Super Bowls I and II) before this bombshell on Feb. 2, 1968, from the Associated Press:
“GREEN BAY, Wis. — Iron-willed Vince Lombardi stepped down last night as coach of the world champion Green Bay Packers and named long-time assistant Phil Bengston to succeed him ...
“The coach told a gathering of Packer directors and newsmen that the responsibility of both coaching and running the team as general manager and coach had become too much for one man.”
The UConn women basketball program has enjoyed a Wooden-esque dominance
because of Geno Auriemma.
Those who argue the Patriots’ dynasty will be over when Brady leaves might point to the end of the Celtics’ dynasty.
From 1950-66, Red Auerbach coached the Celtics to nine world titles, including eight in a row from 1959-66. With Auerbach as general manager, player-coach Bill Russell won two more before he retired in 1969 with his 11th title in a 13-year career. It took coach Tom Heinsohn five years to capture the next Celtics crown.
Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan won their sixth NBA championship together in 1998 before Jackson tired of the infighting with GM Jerry Krause and left the Bulls, and Jordan retired for the second time shortly thereafter. There is no such palace intrigue in Bob Kraft’s kingdom.
Chuck Noll won the last of his four Super Bowls with Terry Bradshaw in 1980, but then his Steel Curtain closed when Mean Joe Greene and L.C. Greenwood retired in 1981, then Bradshaw was beset by elbow problems. From a March 22, 1983, United Press International report:
“SHREVEPORT, La. — Pittsburgh Steelers’ star quarterback Terry Bradshaw underwent surgery on his throwing arm under an alias, officials said Tuesday.
“Charles Boyd, Doctor’s Hospital administrator, said the four-time Super Bowl quarterback was admitted March 3 under the name Thomas Brady.” Bradshaw retired 16 months later. Bill Walsh and Joe Montana won three Super Bowls together (1981, 1984, 1988), and Montana won his fourth in 1989 with George Seifert after a stressed-out Walsh had retired. The 49ers’ dynasty ended when Leonard Marshall blasted Montana in the 1990 NFC Championship, forcing Montana to miss most of the next two seasons before his trade to Kansas City.
The Yankees won 10 World Series from 1947-62, but Mickey Mantle & Co. were aging and injured by 1965 when Johnny Keane managed them to sixth place. The Yanks didn’t win their 21st championship until 1977. When the Joe Torre Yankees stopped winning after reeling off four championships in five years (1996-2000), The Boss began meddling again and the 27th title didn’t come until 2009 under Joe Girardi.
The Magic Johnson-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Lakers won five titles — four under Pat Riley — from 1980-88 before Abdul-Jabbar retired.
The Edmonton Oilers ended the Islanders’ four-year Cup dynasty and began one of their own in 1984, ’85, ’87 and ’88, but won only one more in ’90 after financiallystrapped owner Peter Pocklington traded Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings.
Scotty Bowman won four straight Cups with the Canadiens from 1976-79, before the dynasty ended when Bowman left for Buffalo and Ken Dryden and Jacques Lemaire retired.
Dynasties can end at any time, for any reason. For now, the rest of the NFL can take solace in the reality that the end of the Patriots’ dynasty is much nearer than it was when it began. Nothing is forever ... right?