JUST IMAGINE IF BELICHICK AND BRADY COLLIDE IN A SUPER BOWL
An all-time grudge clash, which would determine who's the greatest of the two G.O.A.T.s, is gradually veering toward fruition as Belichick proves that the Patriot Way is bigger than TB12
Would it not be brain-bendingly perfect — or barf-inducingly repulsive — if the legacies of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick collided on a February night in Hollywood? I say, perfect. They're the preeminent football titans of the 21st century, partners in titles and crime in the most prosperous and popular sports league there ever was, hijacking the American conversation for a third decade.
And now, driven apart last year by ego and stubbornness, Kong wants a piece of Godzilla, after it seemed our favorite sports argument — who was more responsible for the New England dynasty? — finally had tilted Brady's way. So why would anyone with a raw sense of history and feral oneupmanship not want this dispute decided definitively, mano a mano, as Brady leads the NFL's most productive offense and contends for yet another MVP trophy eight months from (pause for incredulity gasp) his 45th birthday? This while Belichick shames the competition with some of his deadliest strategic work, some of it involving a kid named Mac who's starting to channel a young Brady.
Why would you not drop to your knees and pray for this head-on crash in Super Bowl LVI, this moment in time in a $6 billion palace outside Los Angeles? You're sick of Brady and Belichick, you say? Almost a quarter-century of saturation, you say, spanning five U.S. presidents and maybe a sixth if they keep at it. No, pal, you're just sick of yourself.
Or maybe you just don't want to acknowledge the emerging truth: We are witnessing the ultra-advanced career primes, and incredibly so, of the greatest quarterback ever and the greatest football coach ever. And they simply needed to get away from each other, far away, to elongate their unprecedented trajectories. Turns out it wasn't about who meant more to the other's success. Brady fled to Tampa, changed the culture of the Buccaneers and won his seventh championship ring. A season later, Belichick has recovered from that body blow and nailed every critical decision, including the snaking of Kyle Shanahan and other purported masterminds to steal Mac Jones with the 15th pick of the first round, and a free-agent bonanza that forged the monster defense responsible for a 225-73 point differential during a seven-game winning streak.
Swear to Bill Burr — after one of the damndest games we've seen, amid 50 mph gusts creating a wind chill in the 20s — Belichick actually allowed a smile to crack through his grumpy visage when asked about his genius plot: avoiding killer turnovers and allowing Jones to throw only three passes as the Patriots gashed the Bills, in suburban Buffalo snow squalls, for 222 yards on 46 carries. On the "ManningCast,'' Peyton Manning said, "This is the most classic Bill Belichick game I've ever seen.'' Had Mr. Crusty ever been in a game in his 69 years on Earth, even in high school, with so few passing attempts, the lowest number by an NFL team since 1974?
"Yeah, I don't know. We didn't throw the ball much in high school,'' he said with a rare upward lip curl, which usually requires a blowtorch to unfreeze his facial muscles, not long after jumping on the sideline — Bill Belichick has a vertical leap! — and hugging son and defensive assistant Steve in the game's final seconds.
The endorphin rush left his body quickly. With his team atop the AFC seedings at 9-4, is he starting to sense a glorious run ahead? "We got a big one against Indianapolis and they’re obviously a good football team so we’ll turn our sights to them,” said Belichick, back in monosyllabic form. “I don’t really worry about what happened in the past.''
In Hoodie-speak, yes, he's feeling good about the postseason.
The post-divorce narrative has crystalized what we weren't sure of when Brady and Belichick were together. They are both G.O.A.T.s. Still, who's the bigger G.O.A.T.? This would be an epic happening unlike any other in sports, featuring the quarterback who has flouted the laws of time and health against the coach who unearthed and nurtured him but ultimately drove him crazy with his joylessness. Now that Belichick has discovered joy, it should be noted that Brady stepped on his buzz through the years, too. It's a textbook breakup where two people find happiness and accomplishment that couldn't exist if they'd stayed in the marriage.
Pro football has gifted us with the Ice Bowl, David Tyree's helmet, the Immaculate Reception, The Drive, classic finishes, frenetic endings. But Brady vs. Belichick, with a grudge in the air, is monumental. And beyond Aaron Rodgers, a national pariah these days, or the wet dream of the Arizona Cardinals, who exactly is in Brady's way in the NFC? And if the Patriots finish with the top AFC seed, which gives them the conference's only bye week in the new format and two playoff games in presumably frigid Foxborough, it's possible Belichick will reach the Super Bowl and Brady will not. But according to ESPN's Football Power Index, for what it's worth, Patriots vs. Buccaneers is the most likely matchup.
Team vs. Tom.
That's how it will be billed, of course. Brady left to win elsewhere and almost drop the Lombardi Trophy in a Florida river on a tequila bender. But the Patriot Way carries on without him, as New England's longest-tenured player, captain Devin McCourty, hinted in celebrating the developing chemistry of a hodgepodge roster.
"That's why I love playing here. This team isn't about one person. It isn't about egos. It isn't about, 'this is what (I) do, so we're going to do it.' It's about winning,'' McCourty said after the Buffalo win. "We're going to adjust and find a way to win. I think everyone will look to this game and say, 'They played to their defense.' But we ran the ball. To me, that's a team performance."
Imagine Brady being allowed to pass only three times in a game, once in the first half. He'd have thrown a Tommy fit. "We played kind of the way we felt like we needed to play to win. In the end, we scored enough points,'' Belichick said. 'It was a lot of situational football. Just have to give the players a lot of credit for being tough, being disciplined, being resilient and dealing with a really good football team and conditions that were somewhat challenging."
Jones embraced the scheme, as Brady would have in 2001, before he was Tom Brady, global dignitary. "Just a crazy game to be a part of. It was just a weird day, but at the end of the day, you just get more points than the other team and it's a great day," the rookie said. "I haven't seen that much wind, probably ever. Hats off to the offensive line for doing what they did; knowing we were going to run the ball and just putting their nose in there every play and making it happen was incredible. I've never been a part of something like that. I don't think there will be a game like that in a long time.''
The cautious buildout of Jones cannot be understated. While he has played only 13 pro games, his steady maturation might prove to be the ultimate tribute to Belichick — and a reminder that he developed Brady from the depths of being drafted 199th. While Shanahan thought he was outsmarting his brethren last April, trading three first-round draft picks to Miami to move from 12th to third, Belichick waited patiently at No. 15. Jones was still there, the last of the five quarterbacks taken in the first round, after Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance (by Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers) and Justin Fields. Given Lance's slow growth so far, it might be the screwup that leads to Shanahan's demise. It also might be the turn of fate that leads to a Gatorade bath for Belichick on Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium.
The coaching staff, including offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, is being so careful with Jones that he wasn't permitted to speak on the phone with Manning last week. But don't be fooled: Being in mothballs hasn't stopped Jones from filing documents for two trademarks: "MJ10'' and "Mac10,'' following the TB12 template. "Mac The Knife'' also works, but he'll have to throw more than three passes for full effect.
Certainly, Brady is noticing Belichick's revival, but don't forget that they've already met as opponents, on Oct. 3, in a Tampa Bay victory that dropped the Patriots to 1-3. The video tributes, the roars of the fans, the hugs from owner Bob Kraft, even a long post-game chat between Brady and Belichick in the visitors' locker room at Gillette Stadium — all of that is out of the way. But it might not have represented closure, after all.
The remaining schedules could accommodate a rematch. Consider how Brady and the 9-3 Bucs, if they survive reeling Buffalo at home Sunday, might run the table: a home game against New Orleans and a road game against the New York Jets sandwiched between a home-and-home against Carolina. That might be enough to slide past Arizona and Green Bay for the top NFC seed. And the Patriots? After a bye week and a challenge, as Belichick referenced, at Indianapolis, they finish with home games against Buffalo and Jacksonville and a game at Miami.
Meanwhile, Brady carries on in his ethereal cocoon, having thrown 34 touchdown passes — might he approach 50? — and leading the league with 314 passing yards per game. He was named Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated, in a period when Shohei Ohtani revolutionized baseball. But in an interview with the site's Jon Wertheim, Brady also acknowledged he is walking a fraught balance beam between staying in the sport too long and continuing to chase championships.
"I imagine not playing,” Brady said. "And I imagine watching football on Sundays going, 'These guys suck. I could do way better than that.' And then still knowing in my heart that I actually could still do it; if I stopped, I think I’d have to find something else that I’m pretty good at. And I don’t think that, you know, I’m going to be able to jump into something that has the same amount of excitement.''
But …
"Regressing would be a very difficult thing for me to see,” he went on. “As soon as I see myself regress, I’ll be like, 'I’m out.' I don’t really want to see myself get bad. So it’s a constant pursuit of trying not to be bad.''
Imagine if Bill Belichick is the one who sends him on his way.
Jay Mariotti, called “the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.