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Friday, February 1, 2008
It’s Brady, by a bunch
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Phoenix — Some numbers lie, but not these: 42-58.
That’s opposed to 100-26.
It’s Tom Brady, stupid.
All of this talk about New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick sitting among the NFL’s transfiguration of coaches with Lombardi, Walsh, Brown and the rest has nearly everything to do with his quarterback who can perform miracles with his right arm and clever mind.
Without Brady, Belichick is just another retread in a hoodie. Without Belichick, Brady is helping somebody else look better than they really are.
“Well, that’s a tough one, because I think it’s hard to be as good as these guys have been [in New England] without either a great head coach or a great quarterback,” said the older Jim Mora on Friday between duties for the NFL Network during Super Bowl Week involving the undefeated Patriots against the New York Giants.
Mora knows something about great quarterbacks. He once coached Peyton Manning. Said Mora, “As good a coach as Belichick is, without a guy like Tom Brady, he wouldn’t be playing in his fourth Super Bowl in seven years. It’s really hard to win in the NFL without somebody special at quarterback. I mean, if he had just a guy there, he wouldn’t be doing what he’s doing now as far as winning all of these games. His record with Brady as a starting quarterback is outstanding.”
Outrageous is a better word. Without Brady, Belichick is the 42-58 bust of a head coach that he was with the Cleveland Browns and during his pre-Brady days in New England with Drew Bledsoe. With Brady, Belichick is 100-26. Which means that if Brady is prolific again on Sunday at University of Phoenix Stadium to push the Patriots to an unprecedented 19-0, Belichick is slotted with the immortals. Whether Belichick deserves it or not.
No question, Paul Brown needed Otto Graham. The same went for Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr, Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw, Tom Landry and Roger Staubach, Bill Walsh and Joe Montana, Jimmy Johnson and Troy Aikman. It’s just that never has an NFL coach needed a quarterback such as Brady to validate his worth more than Belichick.
For verification, we needn’t go further than the Patriots’ locker room.
“I say [the importance of Brady and Belichick] go hand in hand because Coach Belichick does a lot of good things with the gameplan and everything,” said Patriots offensive guard Logan Mankins, before doing the unthinkable after a pause. He deviated from the unofficial mandate from Belichick to his players to avoid taking a stance on anything with even the hint of intrigue. Be bland, Belichick always suggests, but Mankins was bold, adding, “I would have to go with Tom [as the biggest key] to our success.
“There have been a lot of good coaches that had average quarterbacks that didn’t win many games. You have to have a field general in someone like Tom Brady that can make every play and the right plays when you need them. Everyone follows Tom. He’s a good leader.”
Guess Mankins won’t be around New England much longer. Hey, the Falcons need offensive linemen.
This isn’t to say Belichick doesn’t have his strengths. He has plenty. “Every time I see him, whether it is 5:30 or 6 o’clock in the morning or 10 at night, he’s always in his office,” said Patriots safety Rodney Harrison. “I’ve never seen him sit down in the cafeteria and have a decent meal. I just see him grab some chips and poke them in his mouth and keep moving. He is a different [type of] man. To me, he is so bent on attention to detail.”
So it figures that Belichick has the final say on every personnel decision for the Patriots. He was responsible for the nice acquisitions before the season of Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Adalius Thomas. He brought in the veteran and effective likes of Rodney Harrison, Corey Dillon and Junior Seau before that.
Here’s the biggest thing: Belichick spent his first draft with the Patriots using a sixth-round pick on somebody.
You know who.
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Super Bowls that lived up to name
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Seldom … in fact, rarely ever, does the Super Bowl game live up to its stupendous name. Perhaps it’s the boredom that sets in after the usual two weeks of waiting, treading water, running in place, so to speak. Even when the pause is reduced to a week there is no perceptible letup in the gush of soothsaying, the analyses, the broadcast, telecast and newshound search for the startling angle. It merely means that it is all squshed into seven days instead of fourteen.
So for years there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the media herd about how dull it all was, and that the game itself was just a big letdown. For the longest time the third bowl game was held up to be the centerpiece of all Super Bowls. The Jets, champions of the AFL, beat the Colts, champions of the presumably impregnable NFL, and it was a startling upset. Joe Namath had predicted it, casually, and had quarterbacked it, and became the man who put the old-school NFL in its place.
First place, the Colts were without the wounded Johnny Unitas — which says straggling offense — until it was too late, and for some cause or another, made enough mistakes in one afternoon to lose a war. Flopped around like a bunch of sick whales. Over the years I have seen 40 Super Bowls, enough to reach the point I have trouble arriving at the Roman numerals that designate 42. XLII, OK? (It that’s not right, sue me.) It now falls my burden to come up with the five best of them all. Actually, I could pick the five best playoff games I’ve seen quicker than five best Super Bowls. Snow-blown playoffs in Buffalo, frozen tundra in Green Bay, steely, windy afternoons in Pittsburgh, under the blessed cover from the snow in Minneapolis — ah, yes, the afternoon the Falcons made it by the grace of a field goal that one Johnson missed and an Andersen made — and I could go on, but this is about the Super Bowl, not getting there:
• Jan. 22, 1989: 49ers 20, Bengals 16 — The first game that popped into my head. It was the finish, Joe Montana taking charge with about three minutes left and 92 yards to go. He lit up Joe Robbie Stadium as Dolphin Stadium was called then. Montana, cool and confident, should have been the MVP, but Jerry Rice had caught so many passes it was hard to pass him over. This was the time when, in the huddle, Montana glanced into the stands and said, “Isn’t that John Candy up there?” Relaxing stuff. Then threw the winning pass to John Taylor, crossing in the zone, and the 49ers won with about 30 seconds left. Thriller, like not many others.
• Jan. 21, 1979: Steelers 35, Cowboys 31 — Terry Bradshaw threw the pass that Lynn Swann caught, under heavy cover in acrobatic style, for the touchdown that broke the hearts of Cowboys. This really was a nail-biting thriller between two of the greatest teams the NFL ever saw. This was the catch that eventually got Swann into the Hall of Fame, though truth was, John Stallworth was just as great, or greater.
• Jan. 11, 1970: Chiefs 23, Vikings 7 — Say whatever you will about Namath and the Jets, a year later this was the game that really established the AFL. Played in cold weather in old Tulane Stadium, Hank Stram’s play-action offense on stage, the Chiefs didn’t just win, they mauled Joe Kapp and the Vikings. The Chiefs’ QB, Len Dawson, was playing under the cloud of some kind of gambling suspicion that was eventually dismissed, but it hung heavy over Dawson’s head that day.
• Jan. 14, 1973: Dolphins 14, Redskins 7 — It wasn’t that this was a game heavy in on-field drama. First, it brought the Dolphins’ perfect season to a climax, only one yet with the Patriots’ pending. Secondly, it was just how close it came to being an absolute disaster, charged to one of those European placekickers. Leading 14-0, the Dolphins settled for a field goal and Garo Yepremian, a balding little man, took his position. The Redskins blocked the kick into Yepremian’s face, startled, he caught the ball, then tried to throw the first forward pass of his life with his little hands, Mike Bass intercepted and ran it back for a touchdown. The Dolphins’ defensive guys were furious. They wanted the shutout.
• Jan. 30, 2000: Rams 23, Titans 16 — I guess you could say this smacks of home-cooking. The game was played in Georgia Dome, while Atlanta lay under a coat of ice — and for that unworthy reason, the Super Bowl hasn’t been back since. Kurt Warner turned in an MVP performance, but Steve McNair nearly matched him in the end. Time running out, the Titans quarterback completed a pass to Kevin Dyson, and as the receiver tried to claw his way into the end zone, Rams linebacker Mike Jones nailed him a yard shy. Thrilling, nail-biting finish.
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