Cold Takes from Boston Media: 2001

[meatface]

I'm impressed people can remember their thoughts 16 years ago. Me....I was content when Drew chucked it for 300+ yards. And if the Pats won.....a bonus. I was a product of low expectations. I do remember paying attention to the 2001 draft ....really the first time.... I researched the field ...a lot of free time (newborn kept me off the golf course). Seymour was an unknown to me but 6 games into his first season, it was clear he was the foundation piece missing and the Pats fortunes reversed as soon as he became a starter.

In the decades to come, much will be written about the BB/Brady collaboration and who deserves top billing for their combined success. Personally, I give 75% of the credit to BB. He recognized Brady's skill set and built his offenses to compliment what Brady does best. The TE/slot receiver offense that Belichick retools most every year creates high percentage opportunities while minimizing risk. Some will disagree but I firmly believe the 2001-2004 success was more about the team and less about the quality of TB12 ....and thus BB deserves top billing. In the last decade, BB has had to lean heavily on Brady in part because their epic string of successes has pushed them to the back of the draft where talent is harder to acquire. And unlike the 2001-2004 era when injuries couldn't derail the Pats juggernaut, key injuries have too often derailed NE's quest for world domination these past 10 years. Yet the Patriots train rolls every year and refuses to succumb to the league desired path to mediocrity. Some teams embrace the opportunity to fail in order to replenish but not Belichick... BB is programmed differently...'Winning is my job' ...and his QB operates under a similar philosophy...'Scoring points is my job' .....the Belichick stamp is imprinted deep in Brady's being. It's BB's universe with Brady in charge of Earth

I was 11 at the time I was very pro Drew, granted that likely comes from the fact that my first football memory was the superbowl loss to the Packers.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

i wonder what the poll would have been at the time between Brady and Bledsoe, I just feel like most fans were pro Drew.

I was on USENET at the time on the Patriots & other AFC rivals news feeds.
Most Patriots fans were pro-Drew. We called them the Bledsoe Krishnas. We were proudly known by the intended derisive name Brady's Ladies. Most of us "Ladies" were guys who had attended summer camp at Smithfield. Epic battles.

I had given up on Drew during 1999 having finally listened to my wife who had characterized Bledsoe as a tease who would never win a SB with his Statue mobility + gunslinger mentality. The 2000 season with BB's Pats going 5-11 had me worried that public pressure would make Kraft precipitously dump BB, whom I really liked. Losing game one of the 2001 (EDIT) season to an inept at the time Bungles made 2001 look like a lost cause. I was at game 2 vs the Jets where Drew was again ineffective and as typical threw a pick into the arms of a Jets LB with no Patriots nearby. We started 0-2. Season Over in my feeble mind.

Once Brady played a few games I was confident that BB would not tube his last shot at a HC career by re-instating the un-coachable Bledsoe.

 

[fair catch fryar]

The last 10-15 years of sports"writing" IS useless and has been getting worse more and more, which is why the mediots are (correctly!) slammed more and more. The vast majority of sports"writers" add literally nothing. Hell, for most of them you get dumber by reading them. It's all about hawt takez and being the first to report (often incorrect) "information" on Twitter.

The entire media industry has been circling the drain for a few years now. Unfortunately, it's taking the rest of us down with it.