End of an era in New England

Brady on the Super Bowl 53 podium

It has been a magical 20 years at Foxborough, but today the magic has come to an end with the departure of New England's future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady leaving the team. This particular blog will look back on those 20 years and how the Patriots had come from the bottom of the division regulars, with occasional appearances in the playoffs to 6 time Super Bowl champions in 2 decades. The question now will be who replaces the top spot at New England. Changing from Hall of Fame quarterbacks to relative unknowns are complicated, and there have been cases of it not working out. For example, the Indianapolis Colts who let Peyton Manning go to get Andrew Luck in the 2012 NFL Draft, that worked for a couple of years then injuries and lack of results and his retirement before the start of last season didn't help. Another one is the Dallas Cowboys who never really found the quarterback to replace 3 times Super Bowl-winning quarterback Troy Aikman despite Tony Romo's tenure. However, while that succession never came to fruition for some teams, it did. One example is the San Francisco 49ers who replaced 4 times Champion Joe Montana with Steve Young, (both are in the hall of fame). The other is the Green Bay Packers who had lost their 90's saviour and 2000's icon Brett Favre for Aaron Rodgers.

Brady in his rookie year

BACKSTORY 
Before I get on to Brady, let me take you back to the year 2000. What a year that was. The start of a new Millenium, George W. Bush and Al Gore were battling it out in the polls, Manchester United had won another Premier League title, the New York Yankees were going for their 3rd straight World Series. And in the NFL, the St Louis Rams had just won Super Bowl 34. In Foxborough, the Patriots were entering their 41st season and had just announced Bill Belichick as their new head coach. The Patriots at this point of their history had not enjoyed a tremendous amount of success. Their best-ever finishes were 2 Super Bowl runner-up prizes. They were absolutely demolished in Super Bowl 20, 46-10 by the 1985 Chicago Bears and then 4 years prior they lost Super Bowl 31 35-21 to the Green Bay Packers. Also, there wasn't a massive demand for a top-level quarterback at New England because they had Drew Bledsoe, a 7-year veteran who took the Patriots to the Super bowl formerly mentioned.

Drew Bledsoe, Brady's predecessor

However, because the Patriots had a compensatory selection in the sixth round of the draft, they decided to take Brady despite having a poor scouting combine because the quarterback's coach at the time saw something in Brady that most teams didn't. He started the training camp as the 4th string quarterback. 4th in a job where only one person leads, that's not a right starting place however by the end of the 2000 season he became the backup to Bledsoe. He even threw 3 passes that whole year and was 1 completion out of 3 attempts for 6 yards in a crushing defeat by the Detroit Lions. Going into 2001 the Patriots still trusted Bledsoe enough to give him a then-record 10-year 103 million dollar deal. Now I know what you're thinking how did the Patriots for Brady. Well, 1 incident in the 2001 season changed all that.

Brady throwing in his first Super Bowl

Early Success
In week 2 the Patriots were taking on the New York Jets just weeks after 9/11 and the Jets wanted to win for the people of New York. Unfortunately for New England, it meant that Bledsoe got injured and in a horrible way. In fact, it was so bad that doctors were surprised he was still alive as he had a sheared blood vessel in his chest. After that Brady took over the team and carried the team all the way to the AFC Championship against the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, Brady got injured and was rested for the rest of the game as Bledsoe threw the Patriots back to the Super Bowl. Then in the buildup, there was controversy over who should start the game. The coaches decided to give the start to Brady to see whether he could perform and also see where their future was going.

Brady celebrates winning Super Bowl 38

Brady stood and delivered for the team as he led the team to one of the most shocking defeats beating the heavily favoured St Louis Rams 20 to 17 in a dramatic climax in which he sent the Patriots in the first of many winning drives. However, this time he left the final play to Adam Vinatieri who nailed a 48-yard kick as time expired to win the game. After that, he became the starting quarterback, and Bledsoe was traded to Buffalo. 2 years later the Patriots returned to the Super Bowl and defeated the Carolina Panthers in another nail biter that was too close to call. The following year The Patriots made it 3 wins in 4 years after defeating the Philadelphia Eagles. After that, it would be another three years before Brady and the Patriots would return.

RIVALRY
Away from the team because in the NFL it's rare to find rival quarterbacks going for the Super Bowl. Dallas and San Francisco did 3 NFC Championships back to back in the '90s with Aikman vs Young. But no one thought it would happen again. But oh yes it did because Brady had a rival that could match him strength for strength. That rival was the Indianapolis Colts, and that quarterback was Peyton Manning. Both quarterbacks come from two different areas and draft position while Brady had to prove himself to the team. Manning had a name to live up to as his father was an NFL quarterback in the 1970s with the New Orleans Saints and in 1998 he was selected number 1 overall in that year's draft. Manning and Brady would often meet because they were in the same conference, so they had a guarantee of playing each other at least once a year. The only times they didn't play was in 2002, 2008 and 2011. While in 2002 they weren't scheduled to meet in the regular season, the Colts progressed to the playoffs, but the Patriots missed out. In 2008 Brady injured his ACL in week 1 of that season and in 2011 Manning missed the whole season due to a plantar fasciitis injury.

Brady and Manning 

They would do that meeting in the regular season which would often be the warmup for a rematch in the playoffs. Their first matchup was in week 3 of the 2001 season in which Brady had his first career start and defeated the Colts 44-13. The last meeting was the AFC Championship in 2015 when Manning's Denver Broncos defeated the Patriots 20-18. They met each other 16 times with Brady winning 11 times, usually in the regular. Still, while Brady won those matches, Manning won 3 of those 5 in the playoffs specifically the conference championships games where the winner would go to the Super Bowl. They had classic matches from Brady demolishing the Colts in 2003, to Manning overturning a 21 point deficit in the 2006 AFC Championship to 4th and short in 2009 and a shootout in 2013. When they met in the 2015 AFC Championship, many people were putting comparisons to this rivalry with other sports like the Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi or Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert or in Formula 1 Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

Difficult years

After the 3rd Super Bowl, things didn't go smooth for the Patriots and Brady. In 2005 they were defeated by the Denver Broncos in the 2005 Divisional round of the playoffs after having 4 out of 5 turnovers converted into 24 points. Then in 2006, they made it back to the AFC Championship after defeating the favourites San Diego in an upset. They then had a 3 touchdown lead against the Colts but lost it after Indianapolis took their first lead of the game with 1 minute left in the game then Brady threw the game-clinching interception to Marlin Jackson. Then in 2007, Brady had his first MVP season as he led the team back to the Super Bowl to take on Peyton's little brother Eli. The Patriots were heavy favourites and had the leagues best offence with Brady having his best receiver talent since he started with Randy Moss and Wes Welker. However, the Giants held the Brady to only 7 points in 3 quarters. The Giants were just getting to Brady all game and only completed 29 passes for 266 yards and ended up watching the Giants end not just winning the Super Bowl but also finishing the Patriots perfect season.

Then in 2008, Brady missed out the season after getting injured in week 1 with an ACL injury. After that, the Patriots did get back to the playoffs in the following 7 years. However, there was a feeling that the Patriots aren't as strong as they were at the start of the decade. The closest they did get to was 2011 when New England reached back to the Super Bowl but ended up losing to the Giants again. There was even talk that, perhaps the success was down to the players already there and Belichick's coaching instead of talking about Brady's talent. Also in 2014, there was talk of maybe moving away from Brady after a terrible performance against the Kansas City Chiefs.


Return

Brady shaking hands with Richard Sherman

Then in 2014, Brady was back to showing what he did best and led the team to its first Super Bowl in 10 years after battling a tough Seattle Seahawks team who were looking to be the Patriots of the 2010s. Many pundits said that this was possibly the make or break for Brady as it would be his 6th appearance but would he win after two heartbreaking defeats. Brady had finally added the Super Bowl that he needed. He also got some help in two stars that no one was expecting to see in wide receiver Julian Edleman and even in tight end Rob Gronkowski. After missing it in 2015, the Patriots returned to the Super Bowl in 2016 to take on the Atlanta Falcons, and he had to make a comeback of his own after being 28 points to win 34-31 and stunned the world after looking like it was the Giants all over again. The following year the Patriots were back, but Brady was involved in a shootout against the Egles' backup quarterback Nick Foles and ended up falling short after he had a forced fumble, right at the end of the game and became left heartbroken again at losing another Super Bowl 41-33. His last win in the Super Bowl was the following year but looked like he was struggling and had to rely on his defence and top receiver to win the game 13-3.

Leaving

There had been questions for the last 3 years on when he was going to retire from the league especially as he was turning 40 at the start of the recent streak. However, he stayed with the team and kept on taking them to the Super Bowl, but last year it looked like it wouldn't happen. Now there was one of two things. Reason one age was catching up with him, and even though he got them to the playoffs, he wasn't invincible anymore. Reason two it could be that the team were simply not good enough. Edleman was out having suspension issues, and Gronkowski had retired after the last Super Bowl. Will whoever takes him get the Brady of old, who knows but it will definitely be weird seeing Brady, not with New England but I believe he'll be back to retire as a Patriot.

If you want to read more on Brady's Super Bowl victories, look on the links below. They are also in successive order.

https://marksworldofsports.blogspot.com/2019/02/no1-patriots-edge-past-panthers-in.html
https://marksworldofsports.blogspot.com/2019/02/number-2-eli-and-giants-stun-patriots.html
https://marksworldofsports.blogspot.com/2019/02/no4-pats-end-decade-of-disappointment.html
https://marksworldofsports.blogspot.com/2019/02/no3-biggest-comeback-in-super-bowl-ever.html
https://marksworldofsports.blogspot.com/2018/02/a-game-worthy-of-rocky-story-as-eagles.html

KRO Mark