ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Josh McDaniels initially seemed astonished by the query, raising his arms and pursing his lips for a moment. Then he immediately burst into laughter, an audible guffaw or two before attempting to address whether in fact we were witnessing the end of the Patriots dynasty, as some have suggested.
Bill Belichick has one foot out the door, in case you haven't heard -- at least, so the story goes -- and Tom Brady can't play forever, and with McDaniels about to become head coach of the Colts and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia about to do the same with the Lions, well, the sky is falling in Foxborough, Massachusetts. I mean, yeah, sure, Brady is playing in his eighth Super Bowl in his 16 years as a starting quarterback and Belichick is going for his third Lombardi in four years -- again -- with another chance to repeat as world champion. But, you know, Brady didn't win any Patriot Of The Week gold stars this season, or whatever, and, man, this group of football cyborgs -- stone-cold assassins singularly focusing on winning -- is now all up in the feelings about one another, according to the narrative going around late in the season.
So I took it upon myself to grill New England's outgoing coordinators -- neither of whom was willing to concede as much, of course -- on the status of the Patriots and their impending demise. Is Brady, the front-runner for the league MVP award at age 40, about to suddenly hit the wall? Is Belichick, possibly on the cusp of a record sixth championship, now finally sated in his quest for football superiority and slowing down, mulling retirement? Will the last legend out the door at Gillette Stadium please politely close the door behind him?
"I don't even know what you're talking about," McDaniels said, clearly chuckling, when asked if he had heard or read about the ESPN.com treatise on the fraying of the Patriots. "We have blinders on. I think this -- there have been a lot of people who have tried to do that for a while, you know, and if you listen to everything that comes in and out of the building, and all the rest of it, you can get distracted really easily.
"And we've got a culture that is about going on to the next day and trying to win the next day and be the best we can be, and that's really what our focus has been on all year, and what it stays on every year and I think that's a compliment and testament to what Bill has built here -- the players, the coaches, the staff, the personnel people, ownership. Stay focused on the goal each week, try to do our job the best we can, and if it doesn't really have anything to do with me then I don't really have anything to do with it."
OK, so with that out of the way: Any chance the Hall of Fame coach and the Hall of Fame quarterback are hitting the wall, slowing down, losing their edge?
"Ha, ha, ha," McDaniels, transitioning from disbelief to belly laughs, responded. "Uh , no. No ... no, no. Nope."
Hmm. Well, any chance that Belichick is doing anything other than coaching the New England Patriots in the AFC East of the National Football League in 2018?
"Bill?" McDaniels uttered, incredulous but in a good-natured way, if that makes any sense (he was pretty much cracking up at my probe by this point). "Ha! No! Ha. I mean, you'd have to ask him, but no ... no."
At this point I spared McDaniels -- who I expect to turn around the Colts in short order, by the way, and do extraordinary things with Andrew Luck -- and figured I would see what I could glean from Patricia. He politely skirted a question about whether the quarterback or coach was slowing down, and when I asked if he thought Belichick would coach the Pats in 2018, he, well, launched into some verbal dancing.
"I mean, again, we're very focused on Philly, and all the normal stuff," Patricia said. "You can ask Coach Belichick that question. I'm really hoping just to try to do a good job this Sunday, otherwise it's not going to be a good night."
Um, OK, so then I went about locating other unsuspecting Patriots to grill during media day or opening day or media night or opening night or whatever the Monday night Super Bowl media spectacle is called these days. But in all seriousness, this madness needs to stop.
Here is the reality, culled from numerous conversations with numerous people close to Brady and Belichick the past few weeks: Neither dude is going anywhere anytime soon. They just aren't. They aren't done trying to win Lombardi trophies together. Neither one is likely on his last contract with the Patriots. As much as their rivals would love it and some fans around the league would covet it, the Belichick/Brady/Robert Kraft era won't end with this latest Super Bowl appearance, 13 years after the last time they faced Philadelphia for the title.
"In all of my conversations with him I've never gotten the impression that Bill is even thinking about leaving or retiring," said one source very close to the coach. "I don't think that is a consideration."
Brady, who continues to tell friends he truly believes he can play until age 45, and Belichick are as driven as ever and the challenge next season will be to win with an ever-evolving roster, and now without two of Belichick's most trusted assistants ever both gone for head coaching gigs. A brief scan of the state of their division would lead many to conclude another playoff berth is in their midst barring a significant injury to Brady, and the odds would say that it's more likely than not this team is playing deep in January again a year from now.
In fact, if there is any single factor that might actually lead to the principals scurrying out of Foxborough, it's the day Robert Kraft turns the day-to-day operations of the franchise over to his son, Jonathan, who has long been groomed for the job. That, according to numerous sources with knowledge of the situation, is the day that any exodus would begin. That transition would be met with trepidation, I have long heard. Until then, nothing else really matters.
If Belichick were seriously mulling moving on or hanging it up, it's also quite likely either Patricia or McDaniels would have been tabbed as the heir apparent and stuck around to continue upholding this tradition of excellence. That both are leaving at the same time is indicative of the fact to these men that Belichick is entrenched in this role likely as long as Brady is operating at close to this level and Robert Kraft is the only person the coach answers to. Belichick, of course, would entertain no hypotheticals beyond the matter at hand this Sunday, remains in no mood to placate inquests into his future and was his typical, reticent self when asked about the R word on Tuesday.
"Right now, my focus is on Sunday against the Eagles," he murmured. "That's my window right now."
But then a few hours after the season ends Sunday night, win or lose, his mind will take to the next job at hand and the challenges of the 2018 season, and he and Brady will be plotting for immortality and the Patriots will be chasing the Lombardi again.
Bagikan Berita Ini
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