Patriot Reign by Michael Holley

Author:Michael Holley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-11-04T15:23:00.604000+00:00

When the Patriots returned to Foxboro on Wednesday, December 18—Tuesday had been their day off—they were greeted by a large drawing near the bulletin board. It was a scale, with the logos of all the teams they had played in the past on one side and the green-and-white logo of the rival New York Jets on the other. The message was simple: the Jets were all that mattered.

The Patriots were 8–6. They could take a very direct route to the play-offs by winning their last two games, against the Jets and Dolphins. They would still be able to win by splitting the games, but that would put them in a maze of tiebreakers and mathematical possibility. It was easier to just win twice in two weeks.

It was the week before Christmas, but it was hard to know that in football operations. Downstairs the players and coaches were trying to figure out a way to beat the Jets, and upstairs the scouts were holding their early draft meetings. There wasn’t a lot of joy after the Monday night loss to the Titans. Belichick wasn’t in the mood for a lot of talking. He knew the Jets were not the same team the Patriots had beat in September, 44–7. Like Tennessee, New York had opened the season with a win and then lost four consecutive games. The Jets had a 2–5 record on October 28, but they were 7–7 as they prepared for their Sunday night game with the Patriots. Belichick clearly made those points at a noon meeting.

The next day he read some of the comments that Steve Martin had made to the New York media. Martin was a former Jet, so he was asked if he was surprised that his exteammate, All-Pro center Kevin Mawae, had been involved in a fight at practice.

“Yeah, I heard about that,” Martin told the reporters. “That’s what he does. He plays dirty. He used to do that when I was there. Someone probably got mad because he did something dirty. He did that the whole time I was there.” Martin also reported that he was brought to New England to help out against the run and be effective on third down. But it appeared, he said, that his role had been reduced to standing around, since he had lost his starting job after the Patriots lost to Green Bay at home.

That week, Martin had lost his starting job. Now, before the Jets game, he lost his employment altogether. He was fired three days before playing his old team.

Belichick was tired of him, for sure. He was also tired of being pushed around on defense. He was tired of the helpless feeling that mediocre teams have. It’s the feeling that success is out of their hands, that some other team will have to come in for things to be right.

That feeling would become tangible fact on Sunday night. Later, in the off-season, Belichick would use the second New York game as a piece of evidence during an animated speech in a coaches’ meeting.

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