Patriots remain irresistible to watch even as NFL continues to test our patience
COMMENTARY
It’s about football. Not footballs. Finally.
The official, on-field prologue to the 2015 NFL season begins in New England with the Patriots’ preseason opener Thursday night against the Packers.
The moment could not arrive soon enough. It’s always special to watch a team begin a title defense, and for the first time since 2005 the Patriots begin a season as the owner of the proverbial championship belt.
Before we accelerate into this season, allow me one more glance into the rear-view mirror. I believed this to be true in the immediate, buzzy aftermath of Malcolm Butler’s interception, which helped deliver a legacies-bronzing fourth championship to Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
My belief has only been emboldened during this ridiculous offseason: The Patriots did not get enough credit for how they won Super Bowl XLIX. Part of that is because of the national narrative that the Seahawks, who probably would have won if not for a dubious play call by Pete Carroll, handed the game to the Patriots.
There’s some truth there, obviously – when you have a running back nicknamed Beast Mode, the general rule of thumb is to give him the damn football when a Super Bowl is there for the taking. But it also ignores that the Patriots did so much to win the game, whether it was Butler and Brandon Browner’s intelligence and execution on the greatest interception in NFL history, or Brady’s criminally unheralded, for-the-ages fourth-quarter excellence against one of the most ferocious defenses of recent generations.
When I rewatch the Super Bowl – and there was plenty of solace to be found in doing so as a way to endure the spring and summer of Deflategate absurdities – I don’t marvel at how Seattle blew it. I marvel at how the Patriots jumped the proverbial route and took it from them. Their collective performance and poise is admired more with each viewing.
But the arrival of a new season is about more than just the chance to see them again, to get reacquainted with Brady and Rob Gronkowski and Devin McCourty and Dont’a Hightower, or to get a first look at Vince Wilfork successor Malcom Brown or talented, versatile free-agent import Jabaal Sheard. It’s always fun to try to figure out who will be this year’s Butler or Brian Tyms, an escapee from obscurity who proves to be more than just presumed training camp fodder.
We look forward to this every year, but never more so than this year. Oh, of course I’m not so naïve as to believe that footballs that lost some air for uncertain reasons seven months ago will be totally forgotten once the opening kickoff (presumably of a fully inflated pigskin) soars into the air tonight. It will be reassuring to talk about games and players and plays again rather than about the condition of a dozen footballs from a contest played in January.
I recognize that anticipation is part of the problem, that our addiction to the game is a primary reason why the NFL escapes every egregious and self-inflicted shameful situation it finds itself in. If you want to tell me that the NFL’s leadership is not leadership at all, but a pack of empty suits headed by Roger (I’m Not A Lawyer) Goodell who are engaged in a permanently shifting and chronically hackneyed attempt at convincing us integrity can be found at an address where none exists whatsoever, well, I’m going to nod my head vigorously in agreement.
I’ve heard from Patriots fans who say they are swearing off the NFL, resigning as fans in essence, because of the way the league turned what was a finable misdemeanor at worst into a federal court case in which it is still stubbornly demanding that Brady accept blame for something no one has proven he actually did. I respect that. I’m just skeptical that you’ll be able to sustain the boycott once the games begin.
The NFL remains an irresistible entertaintment, despite the terrifying dangers of the game and the shameful people running the NFL. Sunday’s Hall of Fame game between the Steelers and Vikings was the most-watched preseason game in five years. Last year’s Patriots preseason opener earned a 13.8 rating and a 24 share. Those are excellent numbers, and I’ll bet you this year’s game tops it, no matter how frustrated the collective fan-base is with the dramas of the offseason.
I hope you still can find a way to enjoy the NFL despite the efforts of those running it to make you loathe it. It’s been a long and aggravating offseason to be sure. But as a new season begins, remember how the last one ended. As a fan, you wait your whole life to watch a quarterback lead a Super Bowl-winning, fourth-quarter drive, to see a little-known cornerback who first introduced himself in training camp to make one of the great clutch plays of all time.
Geez, Patriots fans have been so blessed that a final-seconds field goal is merely the third-most-interesting ending to a championship victory in the past 15 years.
Yes, it’s an imperfect sport, to say the least, and imperfect would be a generous way of describing the men who run it.
But we don’t have to look too far behind us to spot a perfect ending. It’s why we can never resist a new beginning, even now, even after all of that.
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