Does anyone remember a decade ago when Boston teams were average at best, and the rest of the world slept easy at night? The Red Sox didn’t make the playoffs and Carl Everett led the team in home runs. The Celtics fired Rick Pitino mid-season and the team finished fifth in the Atlantic Division behind offensive stalwarts Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce. And the mighty New England Patriots were 5-11 in Bill Belichick’s first season as head coach. It was a peaceful time in the sports world, but everything was about to change. Does anyone remember a decade ago when Boston teams were average at best, and the rest of the world slept easy at night? The Red Sox didn’t make the playoffs and Carl Everett led the team in home runs. The Celtics fired Rick Pitino mid-season and the team finished fifth in the Atlantic Division behind offensive stalwarts Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce. And the mighty New England Patriots were 5-11 in Bill Belichick’s first season as head coach. It was a peaceful time in the sports world, but everything was about to change.
Early in the 2001 NFL season Drew Bledsoe suffered a little internal bleeding (pussy) and the a little known sixth round draft pick was thrust into the role of starting QB. His name was Tom Brady, and the story that followed is the fairytale that Boston fans tell their kids at night. He sparked a revival of the New England sports world. Over the next decade the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, and even the Boston College Eagles combined to make Boston the focal point of the entire sports world. But it all started with Tom Brady, the man who went from relative unknown to becoming the Stetson cologne spokesman, married to Gisele Bundchen, and, oh yeah, one of the best quarterbacks of all time.
Brady is entering the final year of his contract and talks of an extension have stalled. Questions have been asked about Brady’s commitment to football, and with all his children and baby mamas running around, it’s a fair point. In the season opener two years ago, coming off one of the best seasons in NFL history, Brady tore his ACL and MCL rendering him disabled for the season. He simply wasn’t the same last year. His timing seemed off and the Patriots were no longer an offensive juggernaut. However they still went on to win the division.
The fans of this sports-crazed town have started to question if he just needed a season to regain confidence in his knee, or if he’s the Tom Brady of 2002 when Tara Reid’s vagina ruined the Patriots title defense. If the Patriots have any sense they will resolve the contract dispute before the season starts, because you don’t want Tom Brady to test free agency.
With all of the AFC East focus on the New York Jets the Patriots are flying under the radar this off-season. A healthy Brady and receiving corps should worry the rest of the NFL, but it doesn’t seem to be. Just as this stall in contract talks doesn’t seem to bother the Patriots.
Looking around Boston the city’s sports scene seems primed to start changing rapidly yet again. Ten years ago a nation blinked and Boston was relevant again. Now the Red Sox are the third best team in their division, the Patriots might be losing their soul and leader, and the Celtics are on their last hurrah. In three years Boston could disappear from the front pages and return to 1990s mediocrity.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The city of Boston needs to remember that everything starts and ends with Tom Brady. Let him walk and watch the city crumble.
