Dan Hayes
Journalism 2
Mrs.Violette
11/2
Before the 2000s, the New England Patriots were the laughing stock of the NFL because they had many losing seasons and played in a dump of a stadium.
However, things started looking good when Robert Kraft bought the team in 1994 and had a young franchise quarterback in Drew Bledsoe.
After years of Bledsoe getting the team to the playoffs, the Pats needed a backup quarterback. With one of the luckiest picks of all time, the Patriots selected Tom Brady with the 199th pick of the 2000 draft.
Then, in a cold week 2 game in 2001 at Foxboro Stadium, now famous against the New York Jets, Bledsoe started scrambling to his right and took a hard hit from linebacker Mo Lewis, which caused a collapsed lung and severe bleeding from his lungs. This almost caused Bledsoe to die but treatment was done quick enough to not let this happen. In stepped in the back-up Tom Brady who not many people knew but that would soon change. After an 0-2 start Brady went on to go 11-3 and lead the Pats to the playoffs. Brady won his first Super Bowl in 2001 and went on to win five more.
To a lot of football fans, Brady is the GOAT for his accomplishments, awards, and the way he won for 20 years with so many different teams. He alone made the Patriots have a chance every game.
But what happens when your Hall of Fame quarterback and Hall of fame coach have a falling out and your owner is the middle man? For the Pats, it meant that Brady walks from the team and joins a loaded team in Tampa Bay, and a lot of other key players walked as well.
Going into this season, fans were optimistic and hopeful for a new face, but nervous to see how the team would play without the star quarterback. Free agency came and no signing. The draft came and no quarterback picked. All signs were looking like Jarret Stidham was going to be the starting quarterback, until the Pats finally made a move.
The Pats signed former MVP Cam Newton who has been battling injuries for a few years and is trying to show he can still play.
The season started with a win against Miami, and the team looked pretty average. The next week the Pats lost a close one to Seattle on the final play of the game. This game was the peak of the season so far. The offense played good running and passing wise and really played competitive against a true Super Bowl contender.
Since then, the team is 1 and 4 with the offense looking awful with terrible numbers, Cam Newton going on the injury/covid reserve list due to getting COVID, and injuries to the very few playmakers the Pats still had–like Julian Edelman–taking a toll on the offense. Compounding these problems, the defense not playing close to the level they did last year being considered one of the best defenses of all time.
As a fan, it makes you realise how lucky we were to have the Brady era, and how significant an impact he really had on the team. With Brady gone, it sinks in that there are no stars on the offensive sides of the ball and how losing some key guys to free agency on the defensive side of the ball has hurt the team.
What makes this season hurt more is how the GOAT, at the age of 43, is a candidate for MVP with all the weapons he has on the Buccaneers. A Bleacher Report article written on April 30th 2020 by Mike Tainer explains how Brady will benefit from the Bucs offense which has shown to be true.
Many fans thought Belichick made the team, not Brady. But Belichick’s decisions this year have proven to be bad, Also the poor long term planning by one of the best coaches ever really shows this year as your only plan for the predecessor in Jimmy Garoppolo was traded off in 2017 and just last year his team made the Super Bowl so this left the team with no true plan for when Brady leaves.
For fans it’s a hard pill to swallow to know this team may not be in the playoffs for a long time because of the amount of teams with young talent that will keep getting better.
The First Launch 