They will decline when Brady and Bill walk, but I think they're days of being just another team are over. Robert Kraft has put this team on the map and I don't foresee Jonathan Kraft running it into the ground.
I believe that you're 100% correct!!
If I were to list'm in order of Importance to the
Development of our Empire, I'd go thus:
01 ~
Bill The Mad (Genius)
02 ~
Tom Brady
03 ~
Robert Kraft
But the
Foundations of our Empire, after Decades of Suffering, were laid by
one man, on
January 21st, 1994, when James Busch Orthwein agreed to sell the New EngLand Patriots to Robert Kraft.
As far as I'm concerned, that Date is
The Dawn of Modern Patriots History.
Success starts from The Top.
The Patriots'd had some Success in each of their first 3 Decades, but the Foundation for
lasting Success had always been missing, and our Success had therefore always previously proved to be fleeting....But then we finally got a Team Owner who possessed The Essentials to Sports Franchise Success:
01 ~ The rare Understanding that Lasting Success comes from not from Star Power, Free Agency, or any other shorter term Solutions, but from building a winning
Organization from the ground up.
02 ~ The Financial Capacity, the Will, and the Power of Patience to do so.
It really is that simple, I think.
Those who've been following this Team long enough will likely remember all too well not only the Years of Frustration that preceded Kraft's buying the Team, but the sense, all too often, that there was a Lunatic driving the bus: Billy Sullivan was a passionate Fan, but he wasn't exactly loaded, nor did he really seem to understand the Importance of building the Team from the ground up...And after him it got far, far worse.
All of our previous Successes proved fleeting, indeed, and often ended with spectacular Flame Outs.
There was almost always that sense of Impending Disaster...of Doom.
Nor did the hiring of Bill Parcels usher in this new Modern Era. We certainly would've had similar Success for a few Years in the 90's, no doubt, but does anyone really think that it would've carried over, if Billy Sullivan or ~ Gods deliver us ~ Victor Kiam were still running things? The Chuck FairBanks Era was followed by Decline and Collapse, as was the Ray Berry Era, not to mention that of Mike Holovak before'm.
Those'f you who've been with the Team long enough know what I'm saying:
Something
changed when Kraft arrived.
Something
fundamental.
Kraft made Mistakes, perhaps, but if they
were Mistakes ~ reducing Parcel's Power, hiring Carroll, perhaps even reducing Carroll's Power ~ they were reasonable and
defensible Mistakes.
That, uh...
hasn't always been the case around here.Victory Tour, anyone?
You felt like the guy had a
Plan.
You felt like the guy had a
Clue.
Even while we foundered somewhat during the Pete Carroll Era, the Transition was an orderly one, and the Patriots didn't really miss a beat. The Organization was still
going forward, is what I mean to say, and it was clear that while Kraft was to some extent still figuring things out and learning on the job, we had a strong Captain charting the course ~ a steady hand on the wheel ~ for the first Time since...
Well, since the Team was
founded.
And when it became clear that Coach Carroll wasn't working out, he was
gone.
That alone made it clear that Kraft meant Business.
He didn't wait for the Team to come unraveled and collapse disastrously.
And neither did he freak out and prematurely fire Coach Carroll before giving'm a fair Shot.
He gave Coach Carroll 3 Years and gave him the Support of a deep Organization of Scouts, Coaches, and all the other Infrastructure, and when it became evident after 3 Years ~ long enough to be certain, I think we'd agree ~ that Coach Carroll wasn't building a Champion...Kraft had the Courage to Make a Change.
On December 20, 2001, 83 Years after raw human Sewage that went by the name of Harry Frazee tore apart the first Empire of BaseBall's Modern Era ~ that's the
Red Sox, for those of you scoring at Home ~
John Henry took the wheel...And thus arrived
The Dawn of Modern Red Sox History.
The Red Sox had floundered for 83 Years for precisely the same reasons that the Patriots previously had:
Bad Ownership.
It wasn't Curses.
It was simply Bad Ownership.
But it became crystal clear from Day 1 that Henry possessed precisely the Traits required for Sustained Success ~ for building a Sports Empire ~ that I listed above and that Kraft also has in Abundance:
01 ~ The rare Understanding that Lasting Success comes from not from Star Power, Free Agency, or any other shorter term Solutions, but from building a winning
Organization from the ground up.
02 ~ The Financial Capacity, the Will, and the Power of Patience to do so.
Some folks are fond of saying that they'd rather be lucky than good.
The way I see it, luck can break either way...
But whether it's good luck or bad, luck doesn't stand a Chance, in the long run, against the relentless persistence of a Man with Passion, Vision, the Power of Patience...and the financial stability to see his Plan through.
That's all the Patriots and Red Sox were missing, all those Years of Suffering.
Now we
have it, and for as long as we do, Success, I believe, will follow.
