This place on normal NFL Sundays is known as Foxborough, Massachusetts.
This is not a normal NFL Sunday.
This is The Return: Tom Brady returning to Gillette Stadium to stick it to Bill Belichick, and Belichick daring him to try.
Welcome to GOATborough, Massachusetts.
There may be other NFL dynasties, but what Brady and Belichick accomplished together will never be duplicated.
And if they had the kind of relationship toward the end of their record 249-win reign of terror that Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin did, and Bill Russell and Red Auerbach did, and Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich did, and Derek Jeter and Joe Torre did, all eyes would not be fixed on this mesmerizing, captivating prime-time drama.
Their personal Game of Thrones.
Think about it: Brady was 24 the night he replaced Drew Bledsoe, and Belichick was 49. Brady had thrown three passes in the NFL, completed one, for 6 yards. Belichick had a 41-56 head-coaching record.
Here they are two decades later, two driven Hall of Fame champions, hellbent on driving this one magnified piece of the other’s legacy into the ground, if only for these three hours, at any cost.
The debate will continue to rage long after Brady retires — and the way Brady is going, wouldn’t it be something if Belichick retires first? — who meant more to their six Super Bowl championships together with the Patriots?
The pro-Brady crowd got a leg up when he captured the Lombardi Trophy with Bruce Arians in Tampa in his first season away from Belichick … while Belichick lost his 11-year stranglehold on the AFC East and missed the playoffs with Cam Newton.
But ask yourself this:
With what other coach might Brady have won six Super Bowls? Coughlin? He won his two with Eli Manning. Sean Payton? He won his one with Drew Brees.
With what other quarterback might Belichick have won six Super Bowls? Peyton Manning is the only logical answer. Because remember this: Manning always had to get past Belichick to get to the Super Bowl. Brady did not.
Can we agree that Robert Kraft would not have his six rings without the two Killer B’s tormenting the league together?
NBC’s Rodney Harrison, a former Patriots safety, considers Tom versus Bill a slight to their champion teammates.
“It’s not about Bill. It’s not about Tom,” Harrison said. “Tom wouldn’t be the player that he is if he didn’t have Bill, and vice versa. Do you think Bill would be the coach that he is if he didn’t have Tom challenging him, questioning him, pushing him? They’re made for each other, and that’s the beauty of it.”
They were made for each other, until they weren’t.
So much palace intrigue swirled around them as the dynasty began to fray. It is clear now that their continued success together helped mask whatever friction led to their earthquake divorce.
There was Brady confidante and TB12 trainer Alex Guerrero, whose presence and growing influence became an irritant for Belichick.
There was Kraft, siding with a 40-year-old Brady, all but forcing Belichick to trade Jimmy Garoppolo to the 49ers for a second-round pick.
There was Brady no longer appreciating the hard coaching at forty-something that he did at twenty-something that is forever the essence of the Belichick Way.
Vince Lombardi once relented after quarterback Bart Starr asked him not to scream at him at practice. The Belichick-Brady dynamic was different, and apparently it never changed.
“I told him very respectfully that he can chew me out anytime, but it’s going to be very hard for me to lead these guys if you keep tearing me up in front of everybody and apologizing in private,’’ Starr said.
Russell and Auerbach won 11 NBA titles together.
“He never made any pretensions about treating players the same,” Russell told NBA.com in 2006. “In fact, he treated everybody very differently. Basically, Red treats people as they perceive themselves. What he did best was to create a forum, but one where individuals wouldn’t be confined by the system. And he understood the chemistry of a team.”
Different ways to skin a cat, and Brady grew to want someone other than Belichick to skin it.
Anyone who knows Brady knows that him needing just 68 passing yards to break Drew Brees’ NFL’s career record (80,358) will be a mere appetizer for him, a feat he would relish trying to accomplish right from the jump with a 68-yard touchdown to Antonio Brown.
“It’s just like Michael Jordan. These guys have to fabricate things in their head to go out and motivate them. They have to take things personal. … And I think that is the case here,” Former Pats receiver Julian Edelman said.
Brady deserves a hero’s welcome even though he will undoubtedly be greeted by a small contingent of ingrates who won’t forgive him for flying the coop, even after 20 seasons.
Brady will recognize Belichick — who can’t in that hoodie? — but he won’t recognize all the new Patriots Belichick showered money on in free agency in what conspiracy theorists and even others speculate deliciously as his desperate obsession to even the score.
Once the pregame hype and the hyperventilating stop, this promises to be Spassky-Fischer on steroids, a grandmaster chess match for the ages. Belichick knowing everything there is to know about an opposing quarterback and Brady knowing the inner workings of that diabolical defensive mind is compelling theater of the highest order.
“If I’m in that Tampa Bay offensive meeting — and I don’t know if Tom’s going to suggest it — I would go hurry up and make them make their defensive calls on the field,” NBC’s Tony Dungy said. “I know he’s heard every call. He understands what they’re doing. He’s played against that defense for years and years. Then what does New England have to do to try to counteract that?”
Belichick would love nothing better than to have his rookie quarterback, Mac Jones — who has been anointed by romantics and dreamers as his Next Tom Brady — resemble the Next Tom Brady, maybe even outduel This Tom Brady. Brady’s Bucs defense would love nothing better because of its respect for him and render that storyline moot by suffocating the kid … which is, of course, a baby GOAT.
Brady and Belichick, at the risk of sounding petty, each took the high road this week. No goodbye from Belichick in person, only via phone? “It was handled perfectly,” Brady said. Nobody deflates like Tom Brady.
TOMpa Brady often wears his emotions on his sleeve. Belichick hides his under his hoodie. Brady and Kraft will embrace.
SportsBetting.ag released the following props:
What will happen on field after the game?
Brady/Belichick no touching: -120
Brady/Belichick shake hands only: +250
Brady/Belichick shake hands/embrace: +250
Brady/Belichick hug: +600
Brady/Belichick high five: +1000.
If Brady hangs 50 on Belichick, put me down for no touching.