Lazy Man and Sports

It would be premature to call the Patriots the greatest team ever. It would be the same to compare them to the greatest dynasties ever. However, Jean-Jacques Taylor of the Dallas News says that the Patriots aren’t at the level of greatness. This is despite some people like Bill Parcells and John Madden saying that the are playing some of the best football ever. Let’s let that go and discuss Mr. Taylor’s points one by one…

• Get the biases out of the way – He admits that he watched every Cowboy’s game from 3rd grade to college. Fair enough, I’ve got a similar record of watch Patriots’ games. We are equally biased.
• Era of Parity – “It’s not New England’s fault that it plays in an inferior era because of expansion and free agency, but it is what it is.” I don’t think you can call an era inferior. If anything players today are bigger, stronger, faster than they were before. It’s not the New England’s fault that they play in an era of parity, it’s simply a feather in their cap that they’ve been able to stay competitive while some teams (like the Super Bowl Rams, Panthers, and Eagles) have simply become average. New England has had to find many different play combinations to maintain their dynasty while the Cowboys rode a handful of names: Aikman, Smith, Sanders, Irvin, etc.
• Player Comparison “…other than Tom Brady, Randy Moss and probably Junior Seau what other Patriots are going to the Hall of Fame?” Adam Vinatieri, Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison (only player with 20 INTs/20 sacks), Ty Law, Richard Seymour, Corey Dillon all come to mind. Yes some of these guys aren’t on the current team, but does the current really have to prove anything in terms of talent. If each player continued to play their whole career like they are playing this year, there would be a pile of Hall of Famers.
• Opponent Comparison – “The Cowboys had to go through Steve Young, Jerry Rice and one of the most potent offenses in NFL history to win their championships… San Francisco, a team with championship pedigree, made the Cowboys raise their level of performance to win.” The Patriots had to beat the Greatest Show on Turf one of the best offenses ever for their Super Bowl in 2001. Aside from that though I’ll see your Steve Young and Jerry Rice and call with a Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison. Yes, the Colts. have been one of the most potent offenses in NFL history as well. Aren’t the Colts every bit as much the opponents that San Francisco was then?
• Championship Games – “The ’90s Cowboys never won a Super Bowl by fewer than 10 points; the Steelers won two of their four titles by at least 10 points.” It’s true that the Patriots only won their titles by 3 points, but let’s be serious, a Super Bowl win is a Super Bowl win. What’s the point of nitpicking points in three games? Everyone knows that the Patriots came within a minute and an admitted bad call by the NFL from going to the Super Bowl last year in which they would have been double digit favorites. You are looking at a team that has already won three Super Bowls in the Brady era, could have easily had a fourth, and is a huge Vegas favorite for another one this year.
• Longevity of Winning
  The Cowboys string of titles spanned simply 4 years, but they had double digit wins the year before and the year after. That is a dynasty of at most 6 seasons from 1991-1996 (we won’t include 1989’s 1-15 season, 1990’s 7-9 season, or 1997’s 6-10 seasons). The Patriots did have a down year in 2002, but no one would debate that the Patriots Super Bowl Dynasty went at least from 2001-2004. One could make an argument that the 2005 season with a 10-6 record was deserving. I’m sure that last year’s 12-4 (widely regarded as the second best team in the NFL) has to be included as part of the dynasty. Certainly this year’s 11-0 start has to be included as well. As I see it, that’s 7 years and counting.

That final point is the most important one in this comparison. The Patriots’ run is not only still going, they are the best they’ve ever been. It’s at the point where many writers are saying that the NFL is no longer fun. In the past, I used to follow the Patriots’ competition each Sunday, but this year there’s been nothing to follow. The Patriots have an effective three game lead for home field advantage in the AFC.

Does anyone think it looks like the Patriots are slowing down anytime soon?