On November 22, 1963 (this writer\u2019s fifth birthday), Walter Cronkite of CBS News was the first to report the shooting in Dallas of President Kennedy, but was the last to confirm his actual death.<\/p>\n
The venerable newsman waited and waited and waited\u2026for the AP news flash to be official.\u00a0 Dan Rather said the president was dead.\u00a0 Eddie Barker of a local Dallas TV station had heard the president was dead.\u00a0 Sources said that priests had performed the Last Rites of the catholic church.\u00a0 All of this could have been conjecture.\u00a0 Nothing official.<\/p>\n
Until the presidential press secretary held a press conference at Parkland Hospital.\u00a0 President Kennedy died at 1:00 PM CST.<\/p>\n
And then Cronkite told his audience, almost losing it in the process.<\/p>\n
Over the last three days, you the Patriot fan can\u2019t quite wrap your head around the reports.\u00a0 Tom Brady is leaving the Patriots.\u00a0 Tom Brady is going to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.\u00a0 Tom Brady has to pass a physical first.\u00a0 Because of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, he has to go to New York City, to a secret neutral doctor to receive the physical.<\/p>\n
But on Thursday, it\u2019s finally official.\u00a0 Brady texted a picture of himself signing the contract.\u00a0 Two years, $50 million (originally, the figure was $60 million, that\u2019s why we wait for official word), with other incentives added to the deal.<\/p>\n
And with that, the Brady Era is over.\u00a0 Thud.\u00a0 That\u2019s the sound of that door closing, a door bigger, thicker and wider than a bank vault.<\/p>\n
Same city.\u00a0 Twenty-six years after the JFK assassination, people in the Dallas area woke up to read the Dallas Morning News<\/em>, and found this jarring headline:<\/p>\n \u201cSOLD!\u00a0 Landry Era Ends\u201d<\/p>\n That was the day when Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys from H.R. \u201cBum\u201d Bright, and summarily fired Tom Landry, the only coach in Cowboy history.\u00a0 It was, and perhaps still is, the most disrespectful and regrettable firing of a coaching icon in sports history.\u00a0 Of course, nobody could have known at the time that the Cowboys would soon embark on a four-year run of three Super Bowl wins, but at the time, Cowboy fans were outraged and Jones was despised from the start.\u00a0 Jones still owns the Cowboys, and those three wins are all Jones has to show for his long run as Cowboy owner other than his status with the league and his ownership brethren.<\/p>\n Here, Brady was a quarterback icon and not a coaching icon, but the feeling is the same.\u00a0 Either Bill Belichick didn\u2019t want Brady around anymore, Brady had had it with Belichick and wanted to move on, or a combination of the two.\u00a0 But even though you all knew that this day would come, to have Brady suddenly leave the Patriots and move on to the historically mediocre Buccaneers is not at all the way Patriot Nation had envisioned the ending of the greatest sports career in the history of New England taking place.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll exalt Brady on another day, if that\u2019s at all possible in 1000 words or less.\u00a0 For now, here\u2019s what we project for both teams.<\/p>\n Tampa Bay<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>According to reports, season ticket sales is spiking.\u00a0 That said, this is still a region where fans stay away from sports teams in droves.\u00a0 Nobody goes to see the Tampa Bay Rays, but most of the reason is that God-awful Tropicana Field, and it sure isn\u2019t because of bad baseball.\u00a0 The Buccaneers ranked near the bottom of the NFL in attendance, despite playing in Raymond James Stadium, which is a nice looking stadium with its gimmick end zone pirate ship.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is not known for rabid fans.\u00a0 It could be that their favorite team is the Lightning, and Steven Stamkos is the face of Tampa Bay sports (it certainly isn\u2019t Jameis Winston, or anyone on the Rays, if you can name any of them).<\/p>\n Brady joins a team that has some dynamic offensive weapons.\u00a0 Wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin are perhaps the best tandem in the NFL.\u00a0 Tight end O.J. Howard is decent.\u00a0 Beyond that, Brady has to hope that his offensive line can give him the protection he needs to make his throws.<\/p>\n Brady will be 43 years old in August.\u00a0 At some point, even though we really haven\u2019t seen it yet, age will have to come into play.\u00a0 Some people avoid it longer than others, but aging is as inevitable as death.<\/p>\n And then there is the integration into a new system.\u00a0 Bruce Arians, his new head coach, will either kowtow to Brady and give him everything he wants schematically, or he will make Brady blend into his system.\u00a0 This may be where Brady finds out if he made the right decision or not.\u00a0 You won\u2019t really know how this turns out until he actually lines up against another team and he finally sees what he has to work with.<\/p>\n New England<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Belichick will now finally get to show everyone that he can win without Brady.\u00a0 Since Brady became the starter, the Patriots are 14-6 in games started by quarterbacks other than Brady (Matt Cassel, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jacoby Brissett).\u00a0 But his record before September 2001 was 41-57, including his time at Cleveland.<\/p>\n Belichick had some abysmal quarterbacks in Cleveland, and one good one in Vinny Testaverde.\u00a0 He went to the playoffs with Testaverde and beat New England.\u00a0 But he was vilified in Cleveland, even though it wasn\u2019t his fault that Bernie Kosar stopped being as good as he was when he was younger, and it wasn\u2019t his fault that Art Modell decided to move the Browns to Baltimore in 1995.<\/p>\n What is more worrisome to Patriot fans is who has left the Patriots on the defensive side of the ball.\u00a0 Guys like Kyle Van Noy, Jamie Collins, Duron Harmon, Danny Shelton, and special teams standout Nate Ebner, all have left the Patriots.\u00a0 Whoever takes over for Brady won\u2019t be in the defensive backfield making tackles or covering receivers.\u00a0 It won\u2019t matter if the offense scores 35 and the defense gives up 38.<\/p>\n As for quarterback, most experts look at Jarrett Stidham as the heir apparent.\u00a0 Some others still envision a trade for Andy Dalton.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s the possibility of trading up in the draft, maybe taking a shot at Oregon\u2019s Justin Herbert.\u00a0 Whatever happens, retaining Joe Thuney with the franchise tag was a good move.\u00a0 The offensive line, if healthy (read:\u00a0 David Andrews, Isaiah Wynn) and fullback, if healthy (read:\u00a0 James Develin) should both help greatly.\u00a0 Belichick and Josh McDaniels could re-design the offense so that Stidham can manage the game without winning it.\u00a0 Belichick can go back and watch the game film of Super Bowl 50 to see how Denver won it with zero passing offense from Peyton Manning.\u00a0 This may turn out to be the breakout season for Sony Michel, as opposed to last year.<\/p>\n Whatever the case, don\u2019t be surprised if the season ends and both Brady and Belichick come away with egg on their faces, and a melancholy feeling of what might have been if Belichick had been a little more prescient and Brady a little less annoyed.<\/p>\n But it is official.\u00a0 Brady is a Buc.\u00a0 Now, let\u2019s get rid of this pandemic so that, in August and September, we can actually find out what becomes of this seismic change in the NFL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To have Brady suddenly leave the Patriots and move on to the historically mediocre Buccaneers is not at all the way Patriot Nation had envisioned the ending of the greatest sports career in the history of New England taking place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":19204,"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":[2216,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2020-patriots-offseason","category-patriots-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\n