The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: New England Patriots

  • Patriots dynasty a ticking time bomb

    Patriots dynasty a ticking time bomb

    The New England Patriots have established a dynasty unlike any other team in the National Football League over the past 20 years.

    However, all great things must come to and end.

    For the Patriots, the end means kicking down the door.

    We have all seen the numbers: five Super Bowl wins, seven Super Bowl appearances, 12 American Football Conference titles and 15 divisional titles.

    Dominance like this in professional football is unheard of. The Patriots got extremely lucky back in 2001 when Drew Bledsoe’s injury made way for an unknown quarterback from the University of Michigan to step onto the field.

    The NFL was changed forever.

    Tom Brady’s legacy as the best quarterback in football history cannot be mentioned without saying the name Bill Belichick, a strategic genius who always knows the perfect counter to an opponent’s game plan. Bellchick is the peanut butter to Brady’s jelly.

    Brady and Belichick hoarded wins, championships and individual honors together, including Most Valuable Player awards for Brady and Coach of the Year honors for Belichick. If you look closely, though, the Patriots’ recent loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII marks the beginning of the end of the dynasty for a number of reasons.

    Brady is getting old. According to an opinion written in the Boston Globe, quarterbacks usually peak in their 20’s. If this is correct, that was 20 years ago for Tom Brady. So the likelihood of injuries becoming a factor increases exponentially with each passing week.

    Brady has already suffered a major knee injury in 2008 to go along with the normal trauma suffered in the NFL. Seventeen years is a long time to get hit by giant humans trained in the art of sacking quarterbacks. Father Time is still undefeated, no matter how many life-changing TB12 shakes Brady drinks.

    Secondly, it seems that the equilibrium established inside the Patriots organization has been thrown out of whack. An infamously private team, the Patriots have only let two scandals distract them from putting the NFL in a sleeper-hold: Deflategate and Spygate.

    As reported by Seth Wickersham, Belichick and Brady have been in a silent power struggle for who will be the man taking the credit for their unprecedented triumphs.

    The cracks in the relationship show mostly when looking at the Jimmy Garoppolo trade. Brady went over Belichick’s head directly to owner Robert Kraft about trading his successor.

    This means that Belichick didn’t want to let go of Garoppolo and Brady was threatened by this. Kraft choosing to side with Brady shows that the tug of war between the two titans has ended in another victory for number 12. Coach Belichick doesn’t get to share this one.

    Belichick will run to the green pastures of retirement as soon as Brady stops leading the Patriots to big games in the post-season. Marking the end to a true dynasty, one unlikely to be repeated in our lifetime.

  • Tom Brady is the G.O.A.T.

    Tom Brady is the G.O.A.T.

    NFL fans are one week away from the Super Bowl clash between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles in what will mark the eighth time in 16 years that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will be the starter in the big game.

    It is time to end the debate: Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback in NFL history, and his case is only going to get stronger.

    In the NFL, there are players who play over a decade without ever reaching the Super Bowl, let alone players who spend their entire careers chasing that beloved trophy.

    Brady has been to eight now. At this point, his appearance in the game has become more of an expectation than a surprise.

    The University of Michigan alumnus has accomplished unimaginable things during his time in the NFL: five Super Bowls, four Super Bowl MVPs, two regular season MVPs, 13 Pro Bowl selections and three first-team All-Pro selections.

    Since taking over the starting quarterback job for the Patriots during week two of the 2001 season, Brady has never missed the playoffs (the Pats did not make the playoffs during the 2008 season when Brady suffered a torn ACL during week one).

    In addition, Brady has appeared in each of the past seven AFC championship games and has gone to the Super Bowl in four of those years.

    Up until last year, Brady seemed to be embedded under Joe Montana as the second best quarterback to ever play. But that was before his epic 25-point comeback over Matt Ryan and the Falcons, which was by far the largest comeback in Super Bowl history.

    With his all-time leading fifth Super Bowl victory on the line, Brady’s Patriots were down 28-3 with two minutes and eight seconds left in the third quarter.

    Brady, the former sixth-round pick, responded by turning in possibly his best performance ever by throwing for 466 yards (a Super Bowl record) and two touchdowns to shock the Falcons in overtime.

    Last year’s game may have cemented Brady to be above the rest, but this year’s matchup with Philadelphia is shaping up to be a phenominal encore.

    This season’s Eagles is perhaps the best team that Brady has faced in the Super Bowl so far, as they are the only team to face him with a top-five offense and defense.

    While New England is a five-point favorite, many experts are predicting an Eagles upset due to their high-scoring offensive attack, led by quarterback Nick Foles, and the Eagles’ stout defense.

    If the past is any indication, Brady will overcome this upcoming obstacle and win his sixth Super Bowl ring, which will end all discussions about who the greatest of all time is.

    At this point, it’s not even a race, Brady is just running on his own.