The territorial squabbling among the Blessed Trinity of the New England Patriots has been coming at us in dribs and drabs since the middle of the season.
First, it was the trade that sent Jimmy Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers — a transaction that made no sense at all, given the fact that Tom Brady is 40 and Jimmy G stood poised and ready for the transition when it finally happened.
There were reports bubbling below the surface that coach Bill Belichick was forced to do this by owner Robert Kraft because Brady — clearly under the spell of the evil svengali Alex Guerrero, his personal trainer — thinks he’s going to play until he’s 65 and doesn’t want a qualified signal caller nipping at his heels in case someone (Belichick) casts doubt on on his plan for longevity.
Then, of course, Belichick next banned Guerrero from being on the sidelines during games, and forbade anyone not named Tom Brady to go to him.
All Seth Wickersham did with his ESPN expose Friday was tie up all these theories into something cogent. There’s a good chance quite a bit of it is true, and there’s also a good chance there are some egos that are going to have to massaged come the off-season. And it belies Brady’s wisecrack “this is why everyone’s always happy around here” statement he made with regards to the New England weather.
But here’s my question: why is everyone so stunned? Hasn’t anyone ever had an intra-office rival? Hasn’t there ever been someone that you’ve sized up and seen as a threat to your overall well-being? That’s obviously how Brady felt about Garoppolo.
That’s Brady. He apparently doesn’t want to just set records for the number Super Bowls played in and won. He also apparently wants set the standard for how deep into his 40s he can go and still be effective.
You and I, and everyone else with an ounce of common sense, know that age dictates its own terms. You can eat ghastly combinations of food all day long, but if you’re 40, you’re 40. Skills decline rapidly once you hit the big 4-0, especially at the level we’re talking about here.
I find it interesting, as an aside, that people were aghast that David Ortiz retired after a year in which he was still one of the most feared sluggers in baseball. But Ortiz knew that at his age, those skills could erode tomorrow. And he wasn’t interested in seeing that happen to him.
Perhaps Brady should have paid more attention. It might be imperceptible now, but the signs are there. That Achilles tendon injury he’s been nursing is one of those nagging things that age can bring on (sadly, I know all about this). It’s the same thing that got Ortiz and, most likely, ended up causing him to retire.
I see Belichick’s role in all this as being the realist. Actually, he’s bloodless in the way he makes decisions. Ask Bernie Kosar in Cleveland. And ask Drew Bledsoe.
And Belichick clearly isn’t one of Alex Guerrero’s disciples, and that means he sees a 40-year-old quarterback in front of him and is wondering when he’s going to decide go out on top — the way John Elway and Peyton Manning did. You’d think with those two guys as shining examples, making this decision wouldn’t be much of a problem.
But apparently it is. And it’s possible Belichick is getting tired of waiting for Brady to make it. He had Jimmy G ready to go. But Brady insists on staying.
To those who feel Brady has every right to stay, I’d say yes, he does. There’s no law that says he has to retire. But there’s also no magic wand that guarantees that if you drink carrot juice you’re going to live forever either. At some point, sensible people weigh the two extremes and cut the cord.
The only part of this whole thing that is unattractive and, frankly, doesn’t make Brady look very good, is the report that he lobbied on his own behalf to Kraft and, as a result, someone the coach considered an integral part of the team’s future was dealt away.
Kraft knows why his franchise is one of the most valuable in all of sports. It’s because of Tom Brady. Whatever else you want to say about him, Brady has been the singularly most astounding player the NFL has seen in the last 50 years. And Kraft, being a fan as well as the owner, understands that you treat Brady differently than you do everyone else.
But it does seem here as if the two of them conspired to throw a monkey wrench into Belichick’s carefully-laid plans.
Before anyone panics too much, there’s little chance either Brady or Belichick are going anywhere in the off-season. They all need each other too much. At this point, the sensible thing to do now is to squeeze every last drop out of Brady before it all ends and the Patriots have to rebuild.
Once that happens, an entire generation of Boston fans stands a good chance of experiencing what people my age experienced for more than 40 years: a hapless, truly awful, team that, even when it succeeded, managed to trip all over itself.
Get ready. It’s coming.