KANSAS CITY \u2013 To fully appreciate the Patriots, you have to\nknow the entire history. All 58 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For all of you who only know the Patriots as a Super Bowl\nmachine, you need to crack your books. Just\nnow joining the \u201cmust read\u201d club is The\nPats<\/em>, a new book by Glenn Stout and Richard A. Johnson. These are the same guys who about 15 years\nago penned the classic Red Sox Century<\/em>,\na terrific look back at the Olde Towne Team, featuring a provocative different\nlook at Babe Ruth\u2019s departure from the Red Sox in 1920. If you recall, several updates of that book\nhad to be released, as the Red Sox broke The Curse just after the original was\nreleased, and like the movie Fever Pitch<\/em>,\nthe ending suddenly had to be re-written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In The Pats<\/em>, Stout\nand Johnson divide Patriot history into two distinct segments: Before Parcells and After Parcells. Many fans may not agree, but rather the line\nof demarcation should be Before Kraft and After Kraft. Others may have different opinions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monday, January 21st<\/sup> marks the 25th<\/sup>\nanniversary of Robert Kraft, who at the time owned Schaefer\/Sullivan\/Foxborough\nStadium, purchasing the Patriots from James Busch Orthwein. Fearful that Orthwein would move the Patriots\nto his hometown of St. Louis, Kraft used his ownership of the stadium and the\nlease he made the Patriots sign as leverage to buy the team. He paid $172 million for the team, stupid money\nat the time which sent his late wife Myra into a fit of anger. Today, according to the Boston Globe<\/em>, the Patriots are the sixth richest sports franchise in\nthe world, worth $3.8 billion according to Forbes\n<\/em>magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This might raise the question: Was Kraft\u2019s purchase of the Patriots the seminal\nmoment in team history?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather than answer that question from the typewriter of just\none person, let\u2019s instead throw several candidates for this honor at you, and\nlet you the reader decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n January 21, 1993 \u2013\nBill Parcells hired as Patriots head coach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, the Patriots were the worst they have ever been\nin their history. The only other time\nperiod that compares is 1967 to 1973, where the Patriots won a total of 28\ngames, an average of four wins a season. \nIt began with the disastrous switch of head coaches from Mike Holovak to\nthe erratic Clive Rush, and ended with the advent of the Chuck Fairbanks\nera. But the early 1990s was a Patriot\nblack hole, make no mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From 1990 to 1992, the Patriots won a grand total of 9\ngames, an average of three per season. \nAnd unlike the previous seven-year dark age era which was based on a 14-game\nseason, this dark ages era was played with 16-game schedules. The Patriot win percentage in these three\nyears was .188. One year of former defensive\ncoordinator Rod Rust, then two years of former UMass head coach Dick MacPherson. Patriot football was simply putrid. Awful. \nUgly. Make that dawg-ugly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, as if out of the blue, comes this two-time Super Bowl\nchampion head coach, back from a three-year hiatus for health reasons. Orthwein hired Parcells and gave him the keys\nto the car. All football decisions were\nhis and his alone. He wouldn\u2019t have\ncoached here if he didn\u2019t have that power. \nWe\u2019ll get back to that power in a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Parcells lasted four seasons, took his team to the playoffs\ntwice, and wound up taking them to Super Bowl XXXI. But most of all, he put the Patriots on the\nNFL map. The Patriots became a somebody\nafter three decades of being a nobody (save for perhaps the 1976 and 1985\nseasons). Even after Pete Carroll\nsucceeded him, the Patriots have been a somebody. The riches would wait just a few more\nyears. But it all started with The\nTuna. From that moment on, being a\nPatriot fan was permanently different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n January 21, 1994 \u2013\nBob Kraft purchases the Patriots from James Orthwein<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Exactly one year after Parcells was announced as the new\nPatriot head coach, Orthwein had to attend another major press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kraft, owner of the stadium, as well as CEO of Rand-Whitney,\na major paper corporation in the region, purchased the Patriots and thus\nensured that the team would remain in New England and not move to St.\nLouis. The move at the time was hailed\nby all Patriot fans, who were genuinely scared that the Patriots were heading\nto the Gateway Arch, and the new indoor football palace they were building. St. Louis would eventually get the Rams for a\nfew years. The Patriots are still in\nFoxborough, thanks to Kraft and his incredible vision of just about everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kraft had to go through a learning curve. He turned into a meddling owner, never got\nalong with Parcells, hired Bobby Grier to handle the personnel, overruled\nParcells in the 1996 draft by taking Terry Glenn over a defensive stud Parcells\nwanted, and eventually watched Parcells move to New York to take over the\nJets. The Carroll years were painful for\nKraft. He watched the Jets turn into a\nplayoff team, all the while stealing Curtis Martin from the Patriots with a\nfree agent offer that is now illegal, and he watched Grier botch draft after\ndraft with mostly horrible picks that busted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, Kraft is perhaps the most powerful and influential\nowner in the NFL. Himself worth billions\n(he is tied with five other people, one of them fashion icon Ralph Lauren, as\nthe 281st<\/sup> richest person in the world at $6.2 billion), his Patriots\ncontinue to establish the greatest single dynasty in the history of the\nNFL. 31 playoff wins, ten Super Bowls,\nfive Super Bowl wins, a palatial stadium and surroundings, all of this thanks\nto the man who torqued off his wife when he overpaid to buy this team 25 years\nago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n January 28, 2000 \u2013\nBill Belichick hired as Patriots head coach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI resign as HC of the NYJ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n No wonder Bill Belichick hates press conferences. He probably still remembers his final presser\nwith the Jets with as much fondness as he does when someone asks him if the Patriot\nquarterback position will be re-evaluated. \nBelichick scribbled that anything-but-eloquent note on a piece of paper\nand handed it to Jet president Steve Gutman. \nEventually, Parcells and Kraft brokered a deal where Belichick would\ncome to the Patriots as head coach in return for a 2000 first round pick (and\nseveral other lower picks).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In greater Boston, where this trade is concerned, it\neventually cancelled out the awful Sparky Lyle for Danny Cater trade of\n1972. Go ask older Red Sox fans to\nexplain that one to you. It\u2019s a perfect\ncomparison, trust me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Belichick is now widely held as the greatest head coach in\nNFL history. This includes such\nimmortals as George Halas, Paul Brown, Vince Lombardi, Chuck Noll, Tom Landry, Bill\nWalsh and Don Shula. Those ten Super\nBowls and five wins are all on his watch. \nThe only record Belichick still might need to go after is Lombardi\nhaving a better win percentage in the postseason. But that\u2019s about it. He has survived two football scandals to\nremain at the pinnacle of NFL head coaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This team once had Phil Bengston, John Mazur, Ron Meyer,\nRust and Rush as head coaches. Belichick\nalone cancels all of them out completely. \nIn the long continuum of history, how fortunate Patriot Nation was to\nhave been gifted with such a great head coach. \nThe Celtics had Red Auerbach, but Belichick probably tops him too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n September 23, 2001 \u2013\nMo Lewis slams into Drew Bledsoe, knocking him out of the game, and Tom Brady\nreplaces Bledsoe at quarterback<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Many people think this one gets the nod as most seminal moment. Read the rest of the article and think a\nbit. But this one deserves all the historical\nprops that it gets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The previous year, on April 16, 2000, the Patriots selected\nquarterback Tom Brady out of Michigan in the sixth round (the 199th<\/sup>\npick) of the draft. ESPN went so far as\nto make an hour-long documentary of this draft, calling it The Brady Six<\/em>, referring to the six quarterbacks taken in the 2000\ndraft before Brady. By the way, the six\nare Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger\nand Spergon Wynn. In that show, Brady\nbroke down in tears when he recalled that day, thinking he would go undrafted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When he showed up at Patriot camp, he went right to Kraft,\nintroduced himself and said, \u201cI\u2019m the best choice you will ever make!\u201d Still, Brady needed a break to get in the\nlineup and supplant the franchise quarterback at the time, Drew Bledsoe. Lewis\u2019 hit provided that break, although\nBledsoe played one more series before some prescient doctor took him out and\nordered him to the emergency room at MGH. \nBledsoe had a collapsed lung and was bleeding internally, and he was\nvery lucky to not have died that night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brady took over, lost that game to the Jets 10-3, then took off on a career where he, like Belichick, is now being called the best ever.\u00a0 Not just best ever quarterback, best ever player in NFL history.\u00a0 He owns a litany of January 19, 2002 \u2013\nReferee Walt Coleman overturns call of fumble on field during home playoff game\nversus Oakland, rules incomplete pass instead<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Rule 3, Section 22, Article 2, Note 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This previously obscure rule launched what is now known as\nthe Patriot dynasty. It is anecdotally\nreferred to as the \u201cTuck Rule\u201d. Late in\nthe fourth quarter of the 2001 Divisional playoff, played in a blizzard in what\nbecame the last game ever at Foxborough Stadium, the Patriots, trailing 13-10,\nwere driving towards a tying field goal. \nNear midfield, former Michigan chum Charles Woodson came on a safety blitz\nand knocked the ball out of Brady\u2019s hand, just as his arm was going forward but\njust before he tucked it away into his chest. \nGreg Biekert fell on the loose ball, and the Raiders had a won game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it being a turnover in the last two minutes of a half,\nColeman had to review it. Coleman saw\nthe play and uttered a cuss word. He then\nlater came out and said, \u201cAfter further review, the quarterback\u2019s arm was going\nforward\u2026\u201d and the crowd went bananas. \nThe Raiders lost their composure and never recovered. What they thought was a sure win turned into\nan overtime loss. A few plays later,\nAdam Vinatieri began his trek to Canton with an impossible line drive 45-yard\nfield goal to tie the game, then won the game in overtime with a much easier\n23-yard field goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tuck rule has since been rescinded. But one has to wonder how things would have\nturned out for the Patriots had the Raiders won the game. Instead, in wonderful payback for that bad\ncall in 1976 involving the Patriots against Oakland, the Patriots went on to\nwin Super Bowl XXXVI that year, and four more since down and through the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s our candidates for the most seminal moment in\nPatriot history. Sit back, ponder, and\ndecide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or, let\u2019s see if the Patriots can win two more games this\nwinter. Then decide again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To fully appreciate the Patriots, you have to know the entire history. All 58 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patriots-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\n