Fans should ask what the heck is going on?
By Steve Buckley BOSTON, MA » Before we consider the plight of Patriots fans — and, yes, America, there’s a bit of a plight going on around here — it’s important to put things in perspective.
It’s not like we’re talking about Jets fans, forever relying on Joe Namath’s guarantee of a Super Bowl victory as their only rationale for doing any serious chest-pounding.
It’s not like we’re talking about Browns fans, who dream of the day when a truck from the Acme Quarterback Company breaks down on I-77 and one of its contents opens the doors and wanders into downtown Cleveland.
Pats fans have it good, because five Super Bowl championships say so. Pats fans also have it good because they cheer for the greatest quarterback of all time, the greatest coach of all time, and, well, let’s just say it, the greatest tight end of all time.
To add a nice Rockwellian spin on things, Pats fans go to bed each night comfortably wrapped in the security of knowing their team is owned by a native son who says he never got over the old Boston Braves leaving town and because of that vowed he’d never let that happen to the local NFL franchise.
Yet here we are: The quarterback (Tom Brady), the coach (Bill Belichick), the tight end (Rob Gronkowski) and the owner (Robert Kraft) don’t seem to be losing any sleep over the possibility you might be losing any sleep.
Collectively, these guys are devoting way too much time spring-loading Boston cream pies into your adoring faces. And you just take it, because, you know, “Patriot Way,” “In Bill We Trust,” “GOAT,” and a whole bunch of other postcards from the end zone.
Yesterday morning, the Twitter machine springloaded the latest Boston cream pie. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, Brady “has not committed to playing in 2018, even though people who know him believe he will be back for the coming season, league sources told ESPN.”
It is true that writers who cover the Patriots on a daily basis have been bandying this. And, anyway, Schefter brought his own get-out-ofjail-free card to his report by adding the part about how people in the Brady Circle of Trust “believe” he’s playing in 2018.
But for those who believe Brady, Belichick, Kraft and Gronkowski are adept at crafting and disseminating their various messages — and, sorry, you’re a fool if you don’t believe this — it means somebody wanted this out there.
The Patriot Way has become The Patriot Sway. Each new day brings a new rumor, a new dime dropped, a new message being placed in your mailbox. This latest one, that Brady “has not committed to playing in 2018,” is, I think, designed to make Pats fans wonder if the quarterback so enjoyed the recent family vacation to Qatar (he rode camels!!!) that perhaps other wholesome, healthy, nogginsaving, non-football activities are being planned. And soon. So add this to the evergrowing pile of mystery meat in the shop window at 1 Patriot Place.
Brady, remember, once said he planned to play until age 45. And, then, practically as the closing credits were rolling in “Tom vs. Time,” he made it seem as though there were roses he needed to go smell, and he wasn’t afraid to do it.
Next came the handwringing over whether Brady would punch in at the team’s voluntary workouts.
And now this: Is he even going to play this year?
Gronkowski, too, has inspired lots of handwringing about his presence at those offseason workouts. He’s posted so many cryptic messages, well, I’m reminded of that Geico commercial that gets shown a dozen times during every sporting event, where two investigators are at a crime scene and one says, “He’s playing with us,” and the other says, “No, he’s trying to tell us something.”
They’re talking about Rob Gronkowski.
As for Robert Kraft, is it true he picked up the phone and directed Belichick to trade Pro Bowl quarterbackin-waiting Jimmy Garoppolo? If so, could Belichick have done better than a second-round draft pick?
And since every discussion about Belichick is incomplete without pointing out that nothing Eagles quarterback Nick Foles threw in the first half of Super Bowl LII was incomplete, why, again, didn’t Malcolm Butler get off the bench?
It comes down to this: If the Patriots dynasty were to end the old-fashioned way, which means lots of players getting slow and hurt and the coach occasionally dozing off on the sideline, nobody around here would have a right to complain. That’s the natural order of things.