Remember the Patriot Way?
The supposed secret sauce to the Patriots’ Super Bowl success?
Some dismiss it as a preferred media fabrication. A story that dressed up the easy fact of what actually powered their six title runs: pairing the best coach and the best quarterback of all time.
Others consider it’s a championship code that also binds Bill Belichick’s program the best way concrete and metal form Gillette Stadium. A lifestyle for soccer lifers who will sacrifice virtually all the pieces on the altar of successful to have their religion rewarded extra typically than their opponents.
Inside the Patriots’ facility, virtually three years after Tom Brady’s exit, most gamers have by no means identified The Patriot Way — be it a soccer couple or code — on the peak of its powers. Only 11 personal rings. No one else has even gained a playoff recreation in New England.
To them, the Patriot Way may simply as properly be a well-known set of crew guidelines, not not like these present in different amenities throughout the NFL. But two Patriots, the one gamers with three Super Bowl rings left within the locker room, bear in mind the Way because it was first identified.
For years, they strolled previous three Lombardi trophies daily strolling into work. Soon sufficient, three grew to become six, as they managed to bridge Super Bowl eras by making use of knowledge handed down by the veterans who got here earlier than them. Thanks to gamers like them and Brady, the Patriots didn’t turn into a dynasty for a decade, just like the Steelers of the ’70s or the 49ers of the ’80s, however as an alternative the longest-reigning superpower in NFL historical past.
Now, Devin McCourty and Matthew Slater are bridges as soon as once more, dwelling out the twilight of their careers post-dynasty.
The Patriot Way is a conversational relic, besides when stirred into the drained debate of whether or not Brady or Belichick deserves extra credit score for his or her shared 20-year run. Last yr, McCourty publicly outlined the Patriot Way in response to feedback made by Danny Amendola, a member of the Brady-deserves-more-credit camp.
“When I think about the Patriot Way, I think about a team. Whether you want to call Tom the best player of the Patriot Way and the leader of it, no doubt about it. But you can’t tell me in all of those games and all of these years throughout that the defense and other guys haven’t had something to do with that,” McCourty instructed ESPN.
“We’ve had guys like Darrelle Revis, Vince Wilfork, Tedy Bruschi, Willie McGinest, Ty Law, those guys — Ty Law is a Pro Football Hall of Famer. He is the Patriot Way also.”
Twenty months later, standing outdoors his locker and on the precipice of his fifteenth season, Slater provided a close to an identical definition.
“For me, The Patriot Way is really about people. And I think the men that have come through this locker room the last couple of decades, especially early on, they established the foundation here; the way they carried themselves, their character, the way they approach the game, the way they interact with one another, that really is the Patriot Way,” Slater stated Monday.
“Mantras are great, ideals are great, but unless you have people carrying them out and living them daily, it doesn’t really mean anything.”
Around McCourty and Slater, teammates and coaches provide a less complicated rationalization. The Patriot Way? It’s them, the crew’s longest-tenured gamers and captains.
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“They stand for everything that this organization is about on and off the field. … When you think of being a New England Patriot, you think of Matthew Slater and Devin McCourty,” tight ends coach Nick Caley stated. “It starts there.”
McCourty and Slater are clearly dwelling testaments to previous greatness and future Patriot Hall of Famers (teammates used to crack on McCourty calling him “Red Coat”). But they’re additionally every day reminders of what greatness calls for: taking notes from the entrance row in conferences and mentoring younger gamers, like third-round rookie Marcus Jones, who McCourty says sits subsequent to him daily.
And they’re the very best hope for restoring outdated glory in Foxboro, the place a crew with league-average expertise faces an in-division behemoth in Buffalo and should manufacture each benefit it will probably.
Slater, for instance, is actively pulling from previous tape — generally way back to a decade — to be able to push ahead. During one coaching camp follow this summer season, the 10-time Pro Bowler stopped one interval to say a punt safety the Patriots ran at Seattle in 2012, a game-planned name they put in for a rising and harmful Seahawks crew. The safety solved an alignment downside for him because the beginning gunner.
“I learned from being around guys like Tom (Brady) the importance of logging every experience on the field. And it’s something my dad (Hall of Fame offensive tackle Jackie Slater) did,” Slater stated. “So stuff comes up all the time, and it’s great at this stage of my career to always have a frame of reference.”
Said particular groups coordinator Cam Achord: “It’s like having a third coach out there.”
Teammates are listening, too. Inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo famous across the time Brady left, McCourty and Slater, who have been already established leaders, grew to become extra demonstrative. For years now, McCourty may be seen main fiery pregame huddles with the defensive backs. He breaks the protection down after practices, too.
“Those guys, they lead by example. They always have. I would say over the last few years, though, they’ve both become very vocal,” Mayo said. “And that was because there was a lack of that voice. They’ve done a great job bridging that gap. I’m always excited to see when those guys really take charge.”
In the spring, McCourty, 35, and Slater, 36, re-signed on one-year offers. The 2022 season might be their final. The prospect of retirement is one thing they’ve confronted yearly since their final Super Bowl run in 2019. Considering the Patriots’ standing in a stacked AFC, it is doubtless neither participant will see the Promised Land once more.
But ought to the Patriots by some means climb again or come shut, even a yr or two after McCourty and Slater are gone, count on gamers to boost their names once more for a similar motive they point out Brady, Tedy Bruschi, Vince Wilfork, Rodney Harrison and Junior Seau all these years later.
It is, and they’re, the Patriot Way.
“I really feel like this place is so rich with tradition and history, it’s important for us to preserve some of that. So I’m trying to do my part to pass down those lessons,” Slater stated. “Hopefully, the guys understand I’m not just a crotchety old man.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com