Bill Belichick didn’t attend Robert Kraft’s wedding ceremony.
He isn’t skipping Wednesdays at work.
He didn’t retire and unretire this previous winter.
He isn’t going via a nasty marital breakup.
(That occurred in 2006 and it was a doozy).
The above causes and extra have been utilized by The Broken Clockers of their indictment of Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A bull rush amongst NFL State Run Media sorts to the highest of Google to have a good time Brady’s Fall this fall was inevitable.
Belichick’s Patriots, in the meantime, are as horrible proper now as they’ve been at any time throughout the previous 20 years. They have accomplished it with none of the above qualifiers.
Since Brady parted methods with the Patriots in 2020, the Brady-Belichick rivalry has grown in depth, not simply distance.
This season, the Patriots and Buccaneers are 3-4. The groups are uniformly ineffective on offense and surprisingly porous on protection. The Bucs maintain an edge in particular groups play. But Tampa Bay is in first place within the moribund NFC South. The Patriots relaxation on the backside of the AFC East.
Brady has come beneath criticism for no matter position he performed within the displacement of Bruce Arians. Belichick faces continuous questioning over the mysterious roles of Joe Judge and Matt Patricia.
We spelled it out clearly earlier than the season that this was the Most Bill Belichick Team Ever. Belichick inherited a number of superstars from his predecessors. Once they had been gone, Brady had assumed his spot among the many Patriots Holy Trinity. The post-Brady purge was lastly full this yr, particularly with Josh McDaniels off to Sin City.
The newest outcome manifested itself Monday evening in a 33-14 loss to the Bears at Gillette Stadium.
Not surprisingly, lots of the worst prices leveled towards Brady this season apply to his former coach in New England.
Belichick definitely didn’t put the wants of the group first when he determined to construct his teaching employees on the fly and cargo it with cronies attempting to determine their jobs and tasks in actual time. Nor has he put the wants of the group first by maintaining his sons on the payroll in positions that neither can deal with in a profitable method.
Belichick is 70. The second-oldest coach within the NFL. Only Seattle’s Pete Carroll is older. We’re being advised day by day that Father Time has lastly sacked Brady. Perhaps Belichick’s time, too, has expired?
Belichick has a self-induced QB controversy to throw everybody off from the pungent odor generated by the pinnacle coach and his teaching employees.
The plight of the Patriots reminds us that Belichick has but to create a sustainable profitable soccer group with out Brady as his binky.
New England has used 5 totally different quarterbacks since Brady jumped ship 31 months in the past.
Whatever momentum Mac Jones may have carried into this season was sidetracked by the teaching carousel. Belichick’s resolution to begin Jones Monday when the QB was clearly not able to play, after which yank him within the second quarter for Bailey Zappe amid the cheers of the Gillette Stadium crowd, was calamitous.
Zappe Fever couldn’t even outlast the Bears. Never thoughts COVID.
Do not idiot yourselves. The Patriots are NFL also-rans. They haven’t gained a postseason recreation in 1,361 days.
Brady has a Super Bowl ring and 5 NFC playoff wins with Tampa Bay. His one postseason loss with the Buccaneers got here to the eventual Super Bowl champion Rams after erasing a 27-3 deficit.
If the 2022-23 season ended at present, Brady can be again within the playoffs.
Belichick? No.
The Broken Clockers have been predicting the GOAT’s demise since Matt Cassel changed the injured Brady in 2008. There had been conversations on ESPN questioning whether or not the Patriots ought to stick to Brady earlier than the 2009 season.
It could have been the one time when Skip Bayless was the wise man in your TV display screen.
The Broker Clockers by no means stopped. We had been advised for practically a decade that Brady sucked as a result of he solely gained three Super Bowls.
Belichick saved The Broken Clockers wound tightly. He drafted three would-be Brady replacements in eight years. Ryan Mallett in 2011. Jimmy Garoppolo in 2014. And Jarrett Stidham in 2019.
Those quarterbacks would begin 4 video games mixed with New England.
During that very same span from April 2011-19, Brady performed in 5 Super Bowls for the Patriots and gained three.
The Broken Clockers had been ticked off extra every time.
The excellent news is that the Brady-Belichick rivalry isn’t going anyplace.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had been additionally nice patriots and lifelong rivals. They each died on July 4, 1826. It was additionally the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence being adopted.
Adams and Jefferson had been allies towards the British. Brady and Belichick metaphorically fought in a revolution to cease one other tyrannical Evil Empire.
Adams and Jefferson ran towards one another (and some others) for president twice. Adams gained in 1796. Jefferson was Adams’ vp. Jefferson then beat his boss to win the presidency in 1800. Adams despatched a be aware of congratulations after the contentious election. Jefferson by no means responded. They wouldn’t talk for 12 years. Their relationship ultimately grew to become civil. But their aggressive edge lasted even past dying.
Legend has it Jefferson’s remaining phrases had been: “Where are my slave wives?” adopted by “Adams lives.”
Adams died earlier that day. Jefferson didn’t know as a result of the web was down at Monticello. He was at nighttime when it was lights out.
Among Adams’ final phrases, historians declare, had been: “Shalt we be able wager upon sportf in Maffachufets before the 2023 NFL season? I feareth not.”
As Robert Kraft would possibly say: “Adams and Jefferson? Brady and Belichick? What’s the difference? We are all Patriots.”
Maybe so, and perhaps once more sometime, however not now.
Bill Speros (@RealOBF) may be reached at [email protected].
Source: www.bostonherald.com