Belichick/Brady a winning combo
FOXBOROUGH, Mass.
Trash talk has taken center stage in the buildup to today's AFC divisional playoff game between the Jets and Patriots, but there's more to the game than bragging rights and a chance to get one step closer to the Super Bowl.
History is on the line, too. And if big-talking Rex Ryan's Jets pull off the upset at Gillette Stadium, yet another New York team will have ruined another chance for the Patriots to celebrate.
With the Patriots embarking on what could be another Super Bowl run after a 14-2 season, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are continuing their pursuit of a fourth championship, which would put them in the elite company of the greatest coach/quarterback tandems ever.
Not that Belichick and Brady already haven't earned the right to be spoken about in the same breath as Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr, who won five championships with the Packers, including two Super Bowls; Chuck Noll and Terry Bradshaw, who won four Super Bowls with the Steelers, and Bill Walsh and Joe Montana, who won three Super Bowls with the 49ers (Montana won another the year after Walsh stepped down).
The Belichick/Brady tandem is the best thing going in the NFL right now, but it could have been even greater had the Giants not pulled off one of the great Super Bowl upsets after the 2007 season. After the Patriots recorded the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history, the Giants beat them in Super Bowl XLII to foil the Belichick/Brady combo for the first time.
And if Ryan pulls off the upset today, then both New York teams, heavy underdogs entering their games against the Patriots, will have stood in the way of history for this future Hall of Fame coach and his future Hall of Fame quarterback.
"If we win this one, we'll be right back to where we always are," Ryan said. "Same old Jets, right in the AFC Championship Game."
But Belichick and Brady plan to make it "same old Patriots'' - as in the team that won three Super Bowls in a four-year span early last decade. The coach and quarterback already are in the rarefied air of NFL history, but their relentless pursuit of championships is still going strong. They have combined for four 14-2 regular seasons - the most in NFL history by one coach/quarterback tandem - and their three Super Bowl championships trail only the Noll/Bradshaw combo.
But as Belichick and Brady chase history, they don't often think about it. At least not publicly. This is all about shooting for the next one, not looking back on the previous ones.
"There's time to reflect on things, but right now, I'm just trying to focus on the Jets and get ready for this Sunday's game," Belichick said in his typically understated style. "We can talk about all that other stuff later."
Such as when he takes his rightful place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, where he will be inextricably linked with his quarterback, who also will be Canton-bound once his playing days are over.
But just as his coach doesn't look beyond the next game, Brady doesn't concentrate on anything other than the immediate task at hand. The legacy stuff is for another day. "It's about the Jets," Brady said. "That's all I'm thinking about."
It has been another transcendent season for Belichick and Brady. The Patriots produced their eighth consecutive 10-win season, the third-longest streak in league history behind the 49ers (16 straight) and the Colts (nine). And beating the Jets would tie Belichick with Noll for the fourth-most playoff wins (16).
Brady, meanwhile, has won an NFL-record 27 straight regular-season home games and hasn't thrown an interception in his last 11 games. He did lose his last home playoff game, in last season's first-round matchup against the Ravens. He doesn't plan on another early exit.
