Prove Me Wrong: The Patriots of Today Are More Dominant Than Those Earlier Teams

By Rick Lavoie

I am sitting in the family waiting room at Lahey Hospital. My Dad is getting another new knee and at the same time driving up healthcare costs for all of us. I was reflecting a little bit on this week’s MIPPAcast and I realized how right I was.

This iteration of the Patriots is the most dominant version of the Patriots ever. Don’t get me wrong, the 2007 Patriots team is probably the best Pats team ever (we discussed this on air) and the teams from 2001-2004 would definitely wreck this year’s squad. All of that, however, is irrelevant to my bold statement on the headline. In 1994, the NFL’s salary cap went into effect. That collective bargaining agreement lasted until 2009. A labor crisis ensued when that cap expired, but by 2011, a new cap was in place.

The first two phases of Patriot dominance came in the first era of cap’d football. The league, at the time of Brady’s signing, was still adjusting to this deal. Scoring Brady late in the draft happens to be the real magic of the Patriot legacy (Thanks, Bill!). Bill, not only hit big with Brady, but he was able to exploit NFL rules by focusing more on his aggressive, hard hitting, defensive squads for those early years. By diverting a higher percentage of cap money to defensive players, he was able to shut down high powered offensives throughout the early years.

Seeing what was happening, in an age where parity was supposed to ever-present, the NFL rules committee took action. They made the type of defense utilized in New England obsolete. Bill, however, saw this coming, and shifted gears to a better offensive line, a stud wide-out, and bunch of guys who were mediocre in other places. The genius, at this time, was less about balancing cap space and more about balancing egos. Welker, Moss, and Brady (among others) bought into the system. Bill’s willingness to take risks on non-clubhouse guys saved money and non-cap binding incentives helped curb some of the pride high paying players demanded. The best offense ever assembled (debatable, yes, but still true) was backed up the remains of those old defensive corps.

Then, the CBA expired.

The lockout of 2011 was a major turning point in the NFL. Players stupidly gave away arbitration rights (Brady and deflategate), but the two sides ultimately agreed. The architect that ended the lock-out was Bob Kraft….off of the heels of Myra’s death. The new cap, aimed at revitalizing “parity” also allowed for a new wave of Patriot dominance. Things are more equal now, than they had been. There are more teams showcasing a competitive edge than ever before. Even the Brown’s are looking to the future. With all of that said, the Patriots have been to three straight SuperBowls (4 out of the last 5). In this new age of the NFL, Bill has worked his magic on and off the field while Tom has done his on gameday. Bob Kraft must have seen it all coming when he gave the keys to the franchise to Bill.

In ancient Rome, you may recall, there were several great triumvirates. A trio of enigmatic Romans who shaped the empire’s future. Tom Brady, Bill Belichik, and Robert Kraft are light-years ahead of their competitors. I loved hearing the audio of Bill telling Tom that he loved him and Tom replying in kind. It is the type of emotion rarely shown in New England, but it was real. I harken back to the stories of those guys hating each other just a few seasons a go. In any family relationship, there may be arguments, but something must be said about all of that being a smokescreen. So many pundits claimed it was over. That Brady was gassed, that he was jealous of a young gun taking the mantle, that Bill wanted to move on, but Robert wouldn’t let him.

This allowed other NFL execs to take a breather. They didn’t have to outsmart the Pats anymore. True parity was coming. What they didn’t realize is that the Patriots of today don’t have to be as good as those other Championship teams, they just have to be better than their current competition…teams struggling with a parity that our triumvirate probably drew up one night in 2010. Kraft ends the lock-out…shapes new policy. Brady gets accused of cheating; sanctions come, but he, Bill, and Robert get to fight against the NFL to make other GM’s relax a bit. Patriots keep quietly winning games.

Dominance isn’t only shown on the pitch…Prove me wrong.