If you’re reading this, I’m sure you’ve already either seen numerous quotes from the latest hit piece against the Patriots from ESPN’s Seth Wickersham or have read the article entirely. If you haven’t managed to do either of those things, consider yourself lucky. Nonetheless, the only summary this ~4,600-word article needs is: it’s essentially total bullshit. Shocking, I know.
ESPN cannot be trusted, especially when it comes to the Patriots, as we all know by now.
They had a major hand in the Deflategate fiasco that, thankfully, almost feels like it’s behind us. Just in time for Patriots fans to feel like they’re safe from Deflategate, ESPN throws together yet another piece together to bash the trio of Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.
To summarize it, Wickersham talks about how there’s a ‘rift’ between the three about who deserves the credit for the continuing dynasty, how Kraft ‘mandated’ Belichick trade Jimmy Garoppolo mid-season, details about the Alex Guerrero story and disagreement between Brady and Belichick and how this is the final season of ‘the trio’, saying basically, Belichick will leave after this season in disgust.
Remember: this information is coming from Seth Wickersham, who notably wrote the other hit pieces about the infamous Warm Gatorade, and another about how New England had spies on the hills of the Seattle Seahawks’ practice the week of Super Bowl XLIX. So, take from his article what you will.
Not only is the author unreliable, I’m really not sure his sources are all that reliable, either. He uses lines like “sources with inside knowledge of the situation”, “staffers” and sources who may have ‘felt something’. I apologize in advance for having a hard time taking any of his “sources” and their information seriously. It’s also pretty fishy how he has literally no direct quotes from any of these so-called “sources”. I personally find it hard to take “inside information” seriously when there isn’t even one direct quote.
With that being said, say a Patriots staffer did have some juicy information about a rift between the three men. Who do you think they’d go to and spill everything they know: Seth Wickersham or Adam Schefter (not to mention, Schefter went on Kirk and Callahan Friday morning and essentially said Belichick is coaching this team next season)?
Let’s get into the story itself. First things first, sure, I’m going to come off as a Patriots homer. I’m okay with that. With that being said, some of the things said in the article are factual. In my opinion, every single word in that piece is exaggerated as dramatically as possible. Most of it was things we already knew to a certain extent.
Anyways, does this Wickersham guy really expect us to believe that Brady, Kraft and Belichick are fighting over who deserves credit for the dynasty? You’ve got to be kidding me. What makes that trio of men so special is how unselfish they are about winning. They do what’s best for the football team, as Bill would say. The literal last thing anyone at 1 Patriot Place is arguing about is who deserves the most credit for winning five Super Bowl titles.
Sure, there are frequent disagreements between those three. That’s absolutely correct. If I’ve taken anything from watching and reading about the Patriots for as long as I have, it’s that there’s no way in hell those three are setting aside time for meetings about who should get credit for winning. Give me something better than that, ESPN.
The article suggests that this is the final season in which all three will be with the Patriots and that as I said earlier, Belichick will be the one to leave. In fact, Wickersham states that there is a ‘lingering sadness’ around the team and people are beginning to pick up their coats. Yeah, there’s totally a sadness around one of the most successful organizations in the history of professional sports with the greatest coach of all time in any spot at the helm with arguably the greatest NFL player ever leading the charge of the team that’s 13-3 and Super Bowl favorites. That is simply not correct. Belichick has complete control over the New England Patriots. He’s the GM, the head coach and the defense is by his design and has been for some time now. New England is the place to be; there’s no better situation in the league for a person like him who obviously wants to make all of the football decisions. Nobody is leaving, and that’s simply common sense speaking.
Speaking of who makes the football decisions in New England, the Garoppolo trade. The article says that Robert Kraft mandated Belichick trade Garoppolo because he wasn’t part of the team’s future. Holy bullshit, Batman! Again: Belichick makes the football decisions. Both Kraft and Belichick have stated this multiple times. The article also says that the two of them had a heated meeting over this around the time of the draft and it took ‘half a day’. Yeah, no.
The Garoppolo trade will always be interesting, for lack of a better word, to me and should be to any Patriots fan. The timing was so odd; late-October for little to nothing. In my opinion, they should have either traded him last offseason when the demand was high or they should have kept him all in all. At the end of the day, Garoppolo, understandably, wanted to be a starter. New England made offers, I’m sure’ they wanted to keep him. The only offer they could have given Jimmy to get him to stay would have been a starting job. I’m positive that Belichick was conflicted about trading him for a long time. These things happen all the time in all sports – New England wouldn’t have been able to keep both Brady and Garoppolo.
Wickersham claims that Brady ‘pushed’ for Garoppolo to be traded and made sure to say that Brady was never fond of his backup, and to both points, I again call bullshit. I believe there were some things that were said and/or done in the past that Brady would liked to have done differently in regards to Garoppolo, but everything was soon worked out and Brady likes Jimmy now, whether fans/media want to believe it or not. Brady would never push for the trade of any teammate.
This then leads Wickersham to say that Belichick and Brady aren’t that close, either. No shit, sherlock. Their relationship is like any other player-coach relationship. There have always been and will always be disagreements between such two of the most successful individuals in the history of professional sports.
In regards to the Alex Guerrero story, I’m positive there’s a whole lot behind that story that nobody knows about. From what we know (and have known for a while now), is that Brady and Belichick never saw eye-to-eye when it came to the trainer. Lots of players were choosing Guerrero’s plan over Belichick’s/the training staff’s and rightfully so, Belichick wasn’t too pleased. So, be gone, Guerrero. Bill still allowed and allow players to see him on their own time. I mean, the TB12 facility is right in Patriot Place, so it isn’t exactly a big deal. This doesn’t warrant a hatred between the two or a divorce. It’s all old news to me.
This then leads Wickersham’s “sources” to say that Brady is forcing teammates to refer to him as ‘sir’? That one is truly laughable. I don’t need to be a personal part of Tom’s life to know that never in a million years would he make anybody call him ‘sir’.
The article suggests that people in the locker room view TB12 as a ‘cult’. Again, extremely exaggerated. We all know how obsessed Brady is with his health and perfection in general. I mean, a ton of players in that locker room have jumped on board and also see Guerrero and have fit his plan into their lives.
My absolute favorite part about the entire article is the single-paragraph, random tidbit near the end of the piece stating that Belichick and Roger Goodell are pals and that they recently met up a few weeks ago. That noise you just heard was my laughter violently erupting. Yes, Bill Belichick is all of a sudden best friends with the man who attempted to tarnish his legacy, career and all of his incredible feats just a couple of years ago.
Last but not least, my second-favorite part of the entire article, in which I feel compelled to use the all-time quote for:
“…as his age has increased, Brady has become an advocate of positive thinking. Belichick’s negativity and cynicism have gotten old, Brady has told other Patriots players and staff. He feels he has accomplished enough that he shouldn’t have to endure so much grief. Patriots staffers have noticed that, this year more than ever, he seems to volley between unwavering confidence and driving insecurity. Brady has noted to staff a few times this year that, no matter how many game-changing throws he makes, Belichick hasn’t awarded him Patriot of the Week all year.”
One, I’m not sure this “Patriot of the Week” thing even exists. Like, at all. Two, even if it were a thing, I highly doubt that the man who’s won five Super Bowls and is on the verge of winning his sixth and four Super Bowl MVPs would be crying about not winning a weekly team ‘award’, if you even want to call it that.
To summarize: Brady never pushed for Garoppolo to be traded, and Kraft did not force Belichick to trade Garoppolo. This so-called ‘rift’ between Brady, Kraft and Belichick is not even close to warranting a divorce. It is not ‘the beginning of the end’, as it states in the piece’s title. While some pieces in the article are true to an extent, every single word is dramaticized, AKA typical ESPN. None of the rest of the playoff teams are exactly good, so I’m sure ESPN was clambering to get this ‘hit piece’ out in attempt to distract the Patriots before the really start preparing for the postseason as they enter as Super Bowl favorites. I’m not sure if ESPN realizes this, but if the Patriots weren’t distracted by the commissioner and his cronies attempting to take down the organization and its foundation of great players and personnel every day for multiple years, they’re certainly not going to be distracted by some pathetic hit piece like the one published on Friday. Yawn.
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