Six For Saturday: Brady in a No-Win Situation Moving Forward

[IllegalContact]

JG throws 5 int's and wins all 5 games and the Garappolites see the wins. So do I.

TB throws 8 int's and wins 13 games, secures the #1 seed and the Garappolites see the int's. WTF?? .

lol.....such depth of understanding

 

[PatsDeb]

BS. That is all.

 

[RayClay]

So, who is the current Patriot of the week and why is it a total secret? Over 50 years watching the Pats and I've never heard of Patriot of the week. Practice player of the week yes, and they give out a parking space in camp for off season attendance. With all the BS plus the curious fans here, how has the Patriot of the week remained hidden?

Also, who are these dozens of staff members, executives and team personnel blabbing like housewives gossiping over a picket fence? I thought there were no leaks, suddenly it's a gusher.

I'm calling BS until those questions are answered.

 

[AtomicDawg]

This might be way out in left field, but I wonder if the author of the story would go on Boston sports radio and answer questions?

Actually he didn't just go on Boston radio...he was on practically every sports show nationally and locally there is.

 

[JJC]

Remember Brady's favorite book is The Four Agreements.

The Four Agreements are very simple:

- Be Impeccable With Your Words
- Don't Take Anything Personally
- Don't Make Assumptions
- Always Do Your Best

Does any of the crap being flung by media monkeys sound consistent with this?

Now, others mentioned may not live by this creed, but unless Brady has fundamentally changed who he has been for the past ten years, I think it's all media manufactured BS/FakeNews for clicks - and it's working! Same PR/BS engines at work that brought us CameraGate, IdealGasLawGate, etc.

Some people never learn. Think, if the media followed Brady's lead in living according to those four totems, we wouldn't see most of this crap flung about.

 

[SalemPats]

Brady is the GOAT, he can do whatever he wants. I support him 100%

We had Bobby Orr, Larry Bird and Ted Williams and TB12 is at the top of the list

 

[IcyPatriot]

I'm on the side of being a year to late on any Brady decision - he has earned and deserves that great respect IMO.

 

[Ring 6]

I'm on the side of being a year to late on any Brady decision - he has earned and deserves that great respect IMO.

The consequence of the mistake of judging a year too late wrong (and getting rid of brady early) is potentially not winning another SB.

 

[BTTA]

With all respect, I HATE the TB12 project and what it has become, and what it so obviously has done to Belichick and the team in general. Even even half of the ESPN report is true I fear TB12 has done some weird damage to the team. And as Ian wrote that some of the reports of players being torn between listening to Belichick or Brady/TB12 seem to be believable.

I am not talking about his diet and workout regimes, do whatever works. But the need to preach it over the team and cause division in the greatest Sports Dynasty of all time is a disgusting legacy for something as silly as following Alex Guerrero.

I agree in principle, although I think you overstate the "damage." I don't hate the project. I hate that the Patriots organization has been chosen as a practice ground and marketing channel for his business start up.

There are two principles of workplace ethics it violates:*

1. No one should bring their business side-line ventures into their primary workplace. Brady doing this is like an employee at Target bringing their Amway business in and enrolling other employees. It naturally raises concerns of conflict of interest.

2. A person in a leadership position should never create the possibility of loyalty dilemmas for other employees. Just a whisp of possibility that other players would have wondered to themselves about which treatment regimen to follow, or that the treatment regimens were at all inconsistent with each other, and that Brady is watching, is enough to put up a barrier to this.

From the outside looking in, with only the information we all have here, it appears that Brady's passion for what he believes in, combined with his well-earned position of entitlement in the organization, created this problem. His advisors should have kept this from happening. I wonder how many of his advisors have the courage to be honest and forceful with him when he feels strongly about something.

*All of this has a huge asterisk next to it because we fans, on the outside looking in, relying only on media reports, have about 10% of the story.

 

[IllegalContact]

I'm on the side of being a year to late on any Brady decision - he has earned and deserves that great respect IMO.

So screw the team ..... got it

 

[Ring 6]

So screw the team ..... got it

Getting rid of brady a year early is more likely to screw the team than getting rid of him a year late.
Get rid of him a year early you may give away a SB. Get rid of him a year late and you have a different type of poor season than if the replacement was in there.

 

[IcyPatriot]

So screw the team ..... got it

Veterans who do not wish to be part of the 1 year to late plan have the freedom to sign elsewhere.

 

[IllegalContact]

Veterans who do not wish to be part of the 1 year to late plan have the freedom to sign elsewhere.

Duh

 

[patsfanincleveland]

Article gives way more credence to Wickersham than I would have expected. I would have taken the approach if ferreting out the outright lies, misrepresentations and sensationalist stretches and see beat writers having basically debunked d retrying in the article rather than Wickersham sources may have misinterpreted.

"Media" types as a group will give more credence to other media types than fans.

We rightfully think anyone from ESPN is a lying scumbag.

It's kinda like that father of that basketball player. Media reported what he says....reports on the reporting....then talks about the reporting and the reporting on the reporting.

Exponential content. Ian should like the traffic

Does anyone seriously believe BB would use the press because he "sees an opening" with the Giants?

Based on the article.....are we now "one and done" and facing yearly 0-16's?

 

[neuronet]

This article is excellent. It is a very balanced appraisal in my opinion. The last section about the "No-Win" situation Brady is sort of in now was tough to read but sounds accurate to me.

That's the one part I thought was a bit of a head scratcher. Brady isn't backed into a corner: some of his fans might be disappointed that we traded Jimmy GQ, but so is everyone on the team. We still love Brady and want him in NE. I haven't met any Patriots fan of sound mind that thinks we should have gotten rid of Brady in order to keep Jimmy. Brady is the GOAT. He's a Patriot. There is no corner to be backed into.

 

[Ian]

That's the one part I thought was a bit of a head scratcher. Brady isn't backed into a corner: some of his fans might be disappointed that we traded Jimmy GQ, but so is everyone on the team. We still love Brady and want him in NE. I haven't met any Patriots fan of sound mind that thinks we should have gotten rid of Brady in order to keep Jimmy. Brady is the GOAT. He's a Patriot. There is no corner to be backed into.

The "no-win situation" part is just simply the fact that for those who believe they should have kept Garoppolo - or for those who believe his skills are starting to diminish - he'll be criticized for anything less than them winning a championship for the rest of his career while everyone waits for him to no longer be the player he is.

Look at the two Super Bowls where he brought them back and moved them ahead at the end of both and the defense couldn't hold the lead. He wasn't great, but he did enough to win both. Yet whenever either game is discussed - especially the '07 one, many of the critics point to the fact he didn't have a better game as to why it was even that close to begin with.

Should New England not advance in the playoffs (or win it all) at any point in his final seasons, you'll see people pick apart games where he had guys open and didn't see them, throws he didn't make, etc. While I'm not saying Brady will necessarily be personally affected, he's even admitted in the past that he does hear some of it. And he's admitted that he knows the fans have big expectations and that there are times where it's been frustrating because he obviously wants to win as well. But I think most people in here know we've reached a point where rather than realizing that we're in one of the greatest eras in the history of the team, some people assume this is normal. Winning 10+ games every season since 2003 isn't normal. Look around the league and find another team who has even come close to their total and you'll realize immediately, that isn't true.

I'm sure other people who have followed the game closely over the years with players at the end of their careers will admit, it's never been like this. But being a player of Brady's caliber obviously increases that type of scrutiny, yet I think it's safe to say that some of what we've read/seen/listened to when it comes to him has just been nuts.

 

[Ian]

Ian-

From the title I feared you had fallen into a dreaded melancholy over all the negative press this week, and had succumbed to the tide. I was preparing an emergency response of clowns and balloons to your house, or at least a visit from Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck to help you find your way back to Patriot joy.

Brady has hate nationally (especially last year when he ripped out the hearts of naysayers with that comeback performance when all were certain he had faced and met his doom on the largest stage), and every nitwit salivates for the day he actually ceases to be Brady. He has always aspired for rings, so I doubt this news changes anything.

I personally like this TB12 project, because I expect he knows that project prospers into the indefinite future if he goes further and plays better. At this point, I doubt the noise means anything to him as he has endured 2 rounds of cheating claims and constant batteries of why he should not get credit for all his accomplishments. I expect he has conditioned himself to not listen to the stupidity.

I'm not there - but stuff like this is still frustrating. I tried to be open-minded when I put this together and as I wrote, I'm sure there's some truth to some of this, while there are other parts (which I mentioned) that seem far-fetched.

The biggest thing, which I mentioned in my last post (and a lot of that final premise came based on posts I've also read here) is that no matter how good he is, people will start looking for things the moment they don't win it all, more so than in past years. So needless to say, how he's judged moving forward will obviously be much different, especially after they made the decision to move forward with him for the next 2-3 seasons while trading Garoppolo (which they had no choice but to do - I really don't believe he wasn't going to sit around another 2-3 years waiting to play here).

They've never had a back-up who Belichick believed in that much, and obviously, Jimmy G was well liked enough by the fan base to even spark this discussion. If Garoppolo continues to play well and the Patriots start coming up short in the postseason, I'm sure we're going to have to listen to people complain and the people in the media start beating the Brady drum even more...which will be annoying. Yet that's what we're probably in for.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I'm on the side of being a year to late on any Brady decision - he has earned and deserves that great respect IMO.

What does that mean?

Does it mean at the end of 2018 Bill sees Tom can no longer make all the throws that he should start him anyway in 2019 knowing he might need to start "they kid" if they start to fall out of playoff contention?

If another team offered a conditional 1st or 2nd, what would you do?

If you keep him, is that what you are comfortable with....a benched Tom Brady?

 

[Ring 6]

The "no-win situation" part is just simply the fact that for those who believe they should have kept Garoppolo - or for those who believe his skills are starting to diminish - he'll be criticized for anything less than them winning a championship for the rest of his career while everyone waits for him to no longer be the player he is.

Honestly he gets criticized every time we don’t win a SB any way. Hell people are running around saying he sucked while we win 5 of 6, 4 by 18 points + and the 5th on the road against a 13-3 team to earn the 1 seed.

Look at the two Super Bowls where he brought them back and moved them ahead at the end of both and the defense couldn't hold the lead. He wasn't great, but he did enough to win both. Yet whenever either game is discussed - especially the '07 one, many of the critics point to the fact he didn't have a better game as to why it was even that close to begin with.

Exactly. Nothing has really changed.

Should New England not advance in the playoffs (or win it all) at any point in his final seasons, you'll see people pick apart games where he had guys open and didn't see them, throws he didn't make, etc. While I'm not saying Brady will necessarily be personally affected, he's even admitted in the past that he does hear some of it. And he's admitted that he knows the fans have big expectations and that there are times where it's been frustrating because he obviously wants to win as well. But I think most people in here know we've reached a point where rather than realizing that we're in one of the greatest eras in the history of the team, some people assume this is normal. Winning 10+ games every season since 2003 isn't normal. Look around the league and find another team who has even come close to their total and you'll realize immediately, that isn't true.

I like to think it’s a vocal (uninformed) minority.

I'm sure other people who have followed the game closely over the years with players at the end of their careers will admit, it's never been like this. But being a player of Brady's caliber obviously increases that type of scrutiny, yet I think it's safe to say that some of what we've read/seen/listened to when it comes to him has just been nuts.

I think what happens is you have a group of fans who just like to complain and be paranoid. They also like to think they know the answer and if the team would do what they say it would work out fine.
So okay calling gets criticized, comments like effort wasn’t good happen and the biggest name, highest pick, or biggest contract gets ripped.
Ultimately after the player is gone and no longer can be ripped those same fans speak endlessly about how they loved him and now compares the next guy to how great the last guy (who they ripped equally) was.

 

[Ring 6]

What does that mean?

Does it mean at the end of 2018 Bill sees Tom can no longer make all the throws that he should start him anyway in 2019 knowing he might need to start "they kid" if they start to fall out of playoff contention?

If another team offered a conditional 1st or 2nd, what would you do?

If you keep him, is that what you are comfortable with....a benched Tom Brady?

There is no calendar that “the time” on it.

The one year too soon MYTH (it’s a myth because it’s not a policy or strategy and is totally misunderstood) means if you think the end may be coming cut bait on that guess rather than have the guy around when you find out. So in this example you get rid of brady when he is still one of the top QBs because you are afraid to be stuck the day he breaks down.

In reality one year too soon isn’t about when to dump a good player. It’s about things such as trading a guy with one year left on his contract when you know you won’t keep him, it’s about choosing a young improving player over a fringe player who is in the downside, it’s about paying for what a player will be during the contract not what he used to be.