By Louis Addeo-Weiss
Longtime New England Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick, is a man deserving of many labels.
A six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach, a defensive mastermind, as well as the greatest head coach in NFL history.
Belichick’s reign as head honcho in New England has been personified by heroics, with a many-a late-game comeback and thrilling fourth-quarter finishes helping to further cement his and the team’s legacy as forces in the game of football.
In years past, Belichick’s skills can be compared to that of a great artist, with his greatest work, the New England Patriots dynasty. It seemed, for poetic reasons, he had the knack, akin to Magento from the famed Marvel comics’ series X-Men, to move the football at will, bending time and space ensuring the ball lands in the hands of his receivers.
However, in Saturday’s AFC Wild Card Game between the Tennessee Titans, none of this seemed to apply. Were we to compare this game to a piece of theatre, it’s Hamlet personified, or David and Goliath, with Tennessee serving as the underdog, David.
The David in this play, the aforementioned Titans, are led by Mike Vrabal, a former Patriots linebacker, who won three Super Bowls with them in the early-2000s during the dynasty’s inception years.
With any great artist, despite their immeasurable talents, there exists a certain set of weaknesses that hinder further artistic endeavors. For Belichick, it is coaching against his former students, with just a 14-14 record to show for it.
Like Clayton Kershaw in the month of October, Belichick’s scraps versus his pupils are his kryptonite.
Losing 20-13 in Gillette Stadium, a place where the team normally wins at will, Brady’s potential last pass as a Patriot, a pick-six returned by former Patriot Logan Ryan, sealed what could serve as the anti-climatic end to football’s greatest dynasty.
Gone were Tom Brady’s, another man worthy of the recently popularized “GOAT” description, late-game surges.
Before, when the notion of getting the ball to Brady seemed to carry with it more weight than in our current times, it seemed a New England victory was all but certain. In 2019, the general impression of this has been blurred, despite the team coming off back-to-back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, winning two in the process.
“Get the ball in Brady’s hands” is something all a football fan needs to hear to know what exactly what that statement entails, yet, the forces at play didn’t favor the man they know as Tom Terrific.
Father time works like an hour-glass, with each drop of sand taking with it, the best a player has to offer, and for Brady and Belichick, after the way in which the team struggled following a brisk 8-0 start, it begs the question of whether this extended run of dominance may have reached its conclusion.
Detractors to these prevailing notions of father time would point to a banged-up offensive line and lack receiving core as reasons to believe the Patriots are just a few short moves away from reasserting themselves as true-blue Super Bowl contenders. As for those on the other side of the argument, they can point to Brady’s impending free agency and the fact that the 3x MVP will turn 43 next January, a time where most former players are either bringing their children to Pop Warner practice or serving as an analyst on one of the major networks.
With many-a topic dominating headlines this football season, rumors TB12 jerseys eventually bearing a different logo were among the more circulative from mouth-to-keyboard.
For many, Brady is Belichick’s main protagonist. A humbled kid who surprised us all. He is King Arthur in the flesh. One who has conquered adversity to become a hero. For New England to lose Tom Brady, it would be akin to the Beatles losing Paul McCartney, or oatmeal losing cinnamon; one wouldn’t look the same without the other.
While Belichick, one not to exert too much of an emotional exterior, would beg to differ in some regards to the total functionality of Brady to New England, the general consensus reads that the Patriots sink rather than swim without number 12.
If the scenario so presents itself, could this really have been Belichick’s final act in the reign of New England?
