Chiefs have been nemesis for Pats in past
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Patriots are set to kick off another season in the afterglow of a Super Bowl title.
Seven months after completing the largest comeback in Super Bowl history, the Patriots will raise the franchise’s fifth championship banner before Thursday night’s season opener against the Chiefs.
It is what has come to be a familiar sight since Bill Belichick and Tom Brady captured their f irst Lombardi Trophy together following the 2001 season.
Trying to spoil this latest party will be a Kansas City team that has been chasing its own post-championship commemoration since the franchise won its lone Super Bowl in 1970.
The Chiefs were the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs last season before having their postseason run truncated by an 18-16 loss to the Steelers in the divisional round.
The Patriots are 4-0 in season openers following a Super Bowl win, but have vast respect for a Kansas City team that has been responsible for some sour Patriots memories during the Belichick-Brady era.
The previous time Brady opened a season at home against the Chiefs in 2008, it ended with him limping off the field with a seasonending knee injury . Then in 2014, Kansas City flatly embarrassed New England, 41-14, in Arrowhead Stadium.
“I respect the way they play. They’re always tough. We’ve always had g reat battles with them,” Belichick said. “I can’t think of too many teams that have handled us better than the way they handled us in 2014.”
But that win was Reid’s lone head-to-head victory against Belichick.
“He does a heck of a job with his team,” Reid said. “To be able to sustain as long as he’s sustained is really something. That’s a phenomenal thing in this profession.”
Professional respect aside, the matchup will be an early glimpse of how formidable the Patriots are after only losing a few pieces off last season’s roster. They will reveal a new-look running game after not re-signing LeGarrette Blount, last season’s rushing touchdowns leader. In addition, receiving stalwart Julian Edelman is out for the season following a preseason knee injury.
The NFL and the players’ union have found no evidence of deviation by the Patriots’ medical staff from the league’ s concussion protocol regarding Tom Brady last season.
League spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement Wednesday that Brady released his medical records for review as part of the process. McCarthy said the review also identified no evidence that Brady sustained a concussion or reported signs or symptoms consistent with one in 2016.
The NFL and the NFL Players’ Association completed an evaluation of film of every Patriots game last season, as well as reports from independent neurotrauma consultants and spotters assigned to those games.
Brady’ s wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, told “CBS This Morning” in May that Brady played through a concussion on his way to a fifth Super Bowl title.