2001: Hollywood couldn't write it any better

[rookBoston]

I have always felt the 2001 Pats are the perfect Hollywood screenplay. That team had barely a fraction of the talent that elite teams had in that era. Later versions of the Pats were stacked with talent, but the 2001 team was gutty more than it was talented.

Why hasn't someone already made this movie?

- Coming off 5th place finish in Division under new coach who flopped in Cleveland and is already under the media microscope in Boston.
- QB coach dies of a heart attack
- Widely criticized for drafting long lean DT instead of breakaway sure thing WR at the top of the draft. Media is already roasting the coach before camp has even started. Add Ron Borges quotes here.
- A few no-name free agents signed (Vrabel, Compton, Edwards)
- Starting OC can't shotgun snap (Woody).
- Young stud LB walks out of TC and quits football (Katzenmoyer).
- Patched up OL. (Kenyatta Jones, GRR, and rookie LT Light looks terrible at RT)
- Long time pro-bowl veteran LT (Armstrong) is cut in camp for attitude. Forces rookie into starting LT job.
- Aging has-been FA RB as workhorse (A. Smith) added to the team late
- Aging veteran LB that played for coach before (Cox) added late. Lays the lumber on Pathon in Colts game, and sets the tone for the rest of the team and the rest of the season
- Star WR gets canned (Glenn) for telling the media he was just faking injuries
- Without Star WR, the WR corp consists of a star STer as the #1 target (Brown) and camp trash behind him (Patten, Shockmain, Wiggins, Ruttledge... ?)
- Lose 3 of 4 to start the season. Frustration and stress in the clubhouse
- Big money veteran QB goes down against the Jets, replaced by gee-whiz undersized kid who turns out to be a natural
- Come from behind on the road in San Diego
- Veteran punter is cut (Johnson) for almost blowing the game. Some kid off the street to punt (K.Walter)
- Big money QB comes back healthy, but in a controversial move is benched to play the kid. Kid leads the team to another win.
- Will the QB tensions be too much for them? Coach under the media microscope
- Bad loss to the Rams in Week 10 at home, goal line fumble, with some great cinematic foreshadowing featuring the stars of the SB. Team is 5-5. They would not lose another game that season.
- Late season winning streak, as the team starts to believe in themselves.
- National media remains unconvinced, constantly picking against the Pats.
- Come from behind win at Jets. Team finds ridiculous ways to win.
- Win at Buffalo secured thanks to the fact that unconscious WR's head landed out of bounds prior to fumbling.
- Clinched the Division in a win over a strong Fins team who had been picked to win the Division
- Playoffs: Tuck rule game, with kicker making an incredible crazy FG in a snowstorm. Pure drama. Historic. Cinematic magic. Gutty win in a game that was almost lost more than a few times. (This was the last game ever played at the old Foxboro Stadium)
- Conf Championship: Unanimous national opinion that the cinderella Pats are completely outclassed by the Steelers. Steelers already have their championship shirts printed. The kid gets hurt, and the win led by the good karma, big money veteran QB who gets his moment as the hero-- resolves that plot line. Bledsoe never plays for Pats again, but he goes out on top
- Rematch against the Rams, a clearly a superior team on paper. The Rams offensive starters were introduced individually. In what would be a signature of the team and a practice that would become a new league standard, the Pats were introduced as a team. Defensive scoring and ST play keeps it close. With 1:30 seconds in a tie game, instead of taking a knee, coach decides to drive the length of the field for the win. Pass to Redmond, pass to Brown, pass to Wiggins. A 48 yard FG on the last play of the game
- Cue the ticker tape. Cue the tears. An impossible win. An impossible season. The ultimate cinderella story for team sports. No one believed it could be done, beating the odds week after week.

Deep down, I think the rest of the nation is still very angry about the 2001 Pats. Maybe that's why no one's made the film. Colts fans, Fins fans, Steelers fans, Raiders fans, Rams fans... they all have a reason to hate the Pats for 2001. They all feel the Pats had no basis to win all those big games... that they were playing way over their heads; and maybe they were.

But so many consecutive flukes in a row is not a fluke. It's Fate.

 

[Salva135]

I have always felt the 2001 Pats are the perfect Hollywood screenplay. That team had barely a fraction of the talent that elite teams had in that era. Later versions of the Pats were stacked with talent, but the 2001 team was gutty more than it was talented.

Why hasn't someone already made this movie?

- Coming off 5th place finish in Division under new coach who flopped in Cleveland and is already under the media microscope in Boston.
- QB coach dies of a heart attack
- Widely criticized for drafting long lean DT instead of breakaway sure thing WR at the top of the draft. Media is already roasting the coach before camp has even started. Add Ron Borges quotes here.
- A few no-name free agents signed (Vrabel, Compton, Edwards)
- Starting OC can't shotgun snap (Woody).
- Young stud LB walks out of TC and quits football (Katzenmoyer).
- Patched up OL. (Kenyatta Jones, GRR, and rookie LT Light looks terrible at RT)
- Long time pro-bowl veteran LT (Armstrong) is cut in camp for attitude. Forces rookie into starting LT job.
- Aging has-been FA RB as workhorse (A. Smith) added to the team late
- Aging veteran LB that played for coach before (Cox) added late. Lays the lumber on Pathon in Colts game, and sets the tone for the rest of the team and the rest of the season
- Star WR gets canned (Glenn) for telling the media he was just faking injuries
- Without Star WR, the WR corp consists of a star STer as the #1 target (Brown) and camp trash behind him (Patten, Shockmain, Wiggins, Ruttledge... ?)
- Lose 3 of 4 to start the season. Frustration and stress in the clubhouse
- Big money veteran QB goes down against the Jets, replaced by gee-whiz undersized kid who turns out to be a natural
- Come from behind on the road in San Diego
- Veteran punter is cut (Johnson) for almost blowing the game. Some kid off the street to punt (K.Walter)
- Big money QB comes back healthy, but in a controversial move is benched to play the kid. Kid leads the team to another win.
- Will the QB tensions be too much for them? Coach under the media microscope
- Bad loss to the Rams in Week 10 at home, goal line fumble, with some great cinematic foreshadowing featuring the stars of the SB. Team is 5-5. They would not lose another game that season.
- Late season winning streak, as the team starts to believe in themselves.
- National media remains unconvinced, constantly picking against the Pats.
- Come from behind win at Jets. Team finds ridiculous ways to win.
- Win at Buffalo secured thanks to the fact that unconscious WR's head landed out of bounds prior to fumbling.
- Clinched the Division in a win over a strong Fins team who had been picked to win the Division
- Playoffs: Tuck rule game, with kicker making an incredible crazy FG in a snowstorm. Pure drama. Historic. Cinematic magic. Gutty win in a game that was almost lost more than a few times. (This was the last game ever played at the old Foxboro Stadium)
- Conf Championship: Unanimous national opinion that the cinderella Pats are completely outclassed by the Steelers. Steelers already have their championship shirts printed. The kid gets hurt, and the win led by the good karma, big money veteran QB who gets his moment as the hero-- resolves that plot line. Bledsoe never plays for Pats again, but he goes out on top
- Rematch against the Rams, a clearly a superior team on paper. The Rams offensive starters were introduced individually. In what would be a signature of the team and a practice that would become a new league standard, the Pats were introduced as a team. Defensive scoring and ST play keeps it close. With 1:30 seconds in a tie game, instead of taking a knee, coach decides to drive the length of the field for the win. Pass to Redmond, pass to Brown, pass to Wiggins. A 48 yard FG on the last play of the game
- Cue the ticker tape. Cue the tears. An impossible win. An impossible season. The ultimate cinderella story for team sports. No one believed it could be done, beating the odds week after week.

Deep down, I think the rest of the nation is still very angry about the 2001 Pats. Maybe that's why no one's made the film. Colts fans, Fins fans, Steelers fans, Raiders fans, Rams fans... they all have a reason to hate the Pats for 2001. They all feel the Pats had no basis to win all those big games... that they were playing way over their heads; and maybe they were.

But so many consecutive flukes in a row is not a fluke. It's Fate.

Uhhh yeah. That and SpyGate make the 2001 run less than a popular "feel good" movie for the general public. You wouldn't sell a whole lot of tickets outside of New England fans, and the ones considering might be worried Marshall Faulk decides to go all "Aurora" on them, heh.

 

[scout]

I always wondered why they didn't have even a special, and not for any of the reasons you mentioned. HBO did an episode on the Yankees right after 911. The reason was the Yankees beat Oakland in a playoff series and somehow that proved..............something? Everyone knows that there are a number of sports teams whose seasons are measured by championships (Yankees, Lakers, Celtics, Patriots (as of 2004)).
In 2001, here comes this team called the "Patriots", wearing red, white, and blue, and they win a championship in a nail biter right after 911. Not sure there was even a reference other then Patriot fans. It is fine if nothing is said, but the door was opened with the tribute to the Yankees. BTW, I rooted against them, so maybe that makes me a hoodlum.

 

[A.C Vegas]

if they ever made that movie there would have to be a 9/11 mention and then to cap that off they need the Terry Bradshaw quote when picking the game
"I have a hard time pick against anyone wearing red,white and, Blue calling themselves Patriots"

 

[scout]

if they ever made that movie there would have to be a 9/11 mention and then to cap that off they need the Terry Bradshaw quote when picking the game
"I have a hard time pick against anyone wearing red,white and, Blue calling themselves Patriots"

I'm guessing that is in reference to spygate? Sooooooooooooooooooo, taking steroids is an All-American tradition?

 

[Tunescribe]

Another angle is the team having the name of Patriots and being a rallying symbol for a nation uniting and healing after unspeakable tragedy. It really is a great American story.

By the way, the Chargers game was in Foxboro, not San Diego.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Another angle is the team having the name of Patriots and being a rallying symbol for a nation uniting and healing after unspeakable tragedy. It really is a great American story.

By the way, the Chargers game was in Foxboro, not San Diego.

I was there; Doug Flutie was the Chargers QB and was having a good season. Great Pats comeback for Brady. That game was the one where many latecomers started thinking "This kid Brady is a pretty good winning QB".

Interestingly the next season 2002 Pats go out to SD and Brady has a stinker game with 2 bonehead picks. Tebucky Jones takes a bad angle and takes down Milloy and another Pats defender as Lady T, pre prima donna phase, ran wild. There were many Pats fans on the trip busting my balls for being a Brady's Lady, convinced that 2001 was a fluke and we shoulda kept Drew who was tearing it up his 1st 8 games in Buffalo. I got chased out of the SD stadium men's room after mouthing off in response to rowdy SD fans, "Hey, I'd be excited too if my team finally beat at team after losing 20 in a row to them". Fortunately I was still pretty fast back then. Good times.

 

[Patriot Missile]

I became a big believer after that first Rams game. They played so well which made it one of the few losses that I came away feeling good about.

 

[signbabybrady]

"Spirituality, faith and democracy are the corner stones of our country. We are all Patriots. And tonight, the Patriots are World Champions” - Robert Kraft, Feb 3rd, 2002

 

[LivinLovin&Breathin_Brady]

^ I love that line. It should open the movie.

But, I think the 2007 story would make for a better or more interesting movie.

You'd have the hollywood QB dating the supermodel storyline.
You'd have the spygate BS storyline.
You'd have the undefeated season
You'd have the Moss redemption story in there.
- Behind the scenes stuff.
- The Belichick/Magini feud
- Jealous teams making fun and hiding their signals.
- NFL & Patriots trying to contain spygate.
-The dramatic SB story.

Plus the pill-popping and wild partying and so much other stuff.

I mean yeah, the 2001 story would be really good, but it wouldn't be as dramatic. I mean it'd be a good Disney movie (predictable), but I'm more into the "Any Given Sunday" Oscar piece. We should definitely pitch the idea to Ben Affleck. I'm sure he'd write and direct it.

 

[scout]

^ I love that line. It should open the movie.

But, I think the 2007 story would make for a better or more interesting movie.

You'd have the hollywood QB dating the supermodel storyline.
You'd have the spygate BS storyline.
You'd have the undefeated season
You'd have the Moss redemption story in there.
- Behind the scenes stuff.
- The Belichick/Magini feud
- Jealous teams making fun and hiding their signals.
- NFL & Patriots trying to contain spygate.
-The dramatic SB story.

Plus the pill-popping and wild partying and so much other stuff.

I mean yeah, the 2001 story would be really good, but it wouldn't be as dramatic. I mean it'd be a good Disney movie (predictable), but I'm more into the "Any Given Sunday" Oscar piece. We should definitely pitch the idea to Ben Affleck. I'm sure he'd write and direct it.

You lost me after "2007".

 

[BananaRepublican]

"Spirituality, faith and democracy are the corner stones of our country. We are all Patriots. And tonight, the Patriots are World Champions” - Robert Kraft, Feb 3rd, 2002

That's the most excellent moichendizing ever. I'm getting all verklempt just thinking about it.

 

[BananaRepublican]

But so many consecutive flukes in a row is not a fluke. It's Fate.

When is it not fate to win a SB?

I think Elway's first ring would make a better national story. Can there be a better story line than, "Three time loser finally makes good" by beating the champs? Yeh, maybe the "from grocery bagger to champion" story.

I think even the Ravens story would be more interesting from a pure football POV. That was like a one armed guy beating Mohammed Ali.

 

[PATS16N0]

When is it not fate to win a SB?

I think Elway's first ring would make a better national story. Can there be a better story line than, "Three time loser finally makes good" by beating the champs? Yeh, maybe the "from grocery bagger to champion" story.

I think even the Ravens story would be more interesting from a pure football POV. That was like a one armed guy beating Mohammed Ali.

A lot of people forget this now but the Denver Bronco championships were not without their own controversy, but the media was doing what it likes to do (storytelling) for John Elway and so it isn't an NFL scandal like with "Spygate."

The Denver Broncos were paying fines to the NFL for operating well above salary cap for both their Superbowl wins. They essentially won their championship with an illegal team, not once, but twice.

Elway's rings were not earned - they were bought.