Five Rings by Jerry Thornton

Author:Jerry Thornton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of New England

24

Losers and Sore Losers

As was becoming custom, the public reaction to that loss to the Jets was swift and brutal.

After that playoff game, the Boston columnists and talk show know-it-alls fired all their bullets and then threw the empty guns. This wasn’t an example of the Patriots not taking care of the football and making bad decisions that cost themselves a win. This was, as it always was, the fault of their own (wait for it) . . . arrogance.

Rex Ryan was the new hotness. Loud, talkative, friendly with the press, and the polar opposite of Bill Belichick. The Jets reflected their coach, who let them do and say pretty much anything they wanted to and seemed to be having fun. By contrast, Belichick’s team seemed too controlled. Too worried about what would happen should they step out of line, as Wes Welker had with his foot jokes, to actually enjoy playing football.

They were coming off back-to-back seasons where they were one-and-done in the playoffs, and three straight seasons without a playoff win. 2011 became the time the critics started tracking how long it had been since they’d won a championship. Like one of those safety signs that count the days since the last workplace accident, it was, “Well, they haven’t won anything in six years.” Or worse, “They haven’t won since Spygate,” which was supposed to be proof that they couldn’t win unless they were cheating.

One development that helped the region, if doing nothing for the Patriots themselves, was the Bruins winning the Stanley Cup. It was an incredible occurrence. The last time they’d won it was 1972, the great Big Bad Bruins teams of Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, and my boyhood idol, goalie Gerry Cheevers.

Then finally, with the other three teams in town winning championships and the Bruins on the verge of complete irrelevancy, they hired former Bruins Hall of Famer Cam Neely to run their operations. He built a team that was both talented and tough thanks to enforcer Shawn Thornton and goalie Tim Thomas, who won three playoff game 7s, two by shutout, including the Cup winner at Vancouver. Boston had its seventh championship in the span of 10 years.

At the Red Sox home opener, the Bruins were honored along with the Patriots and Celtics. On the field they laid out a table with one championship trophy from each of the four major pro sports. To borrow a line from Ned Beatty in Rudy, it was the most beautiful sight these eyes had ever seen. And unthinkable as recently as 2000.

Patriots fans needed it, too. Nothing else was certain during that 2011 NFL off-season—not even whether there would be a 2011 NFL regular season. With the league’s collective bargaining agreement up for renewal, the owners had locked out the players and no progress was being made on a new deal.

Hoping to end the lockout and get back to work, the NFL Players Association filed a lawsuit in federal court. Some of the highest profile players allowed their names to be put at the top of it, including Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and Tom Brady.

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