As Tom Brady enters free agency, Patriots fans should remember: ‘In Bill We Trust’

COMMENTARY

Say it, Patriots fans. Say it like you’ve been saying it for the past 20 years:

(Except for when Malcolm Butler spent the Super Bowl on the sideline.)

(And maybe after that infamous fourth-and-two.)

“In Bill We Trust.”

Say it, and remember how well it has served you over two decades of unparalleled NFL success, throughout which the Patriots have achieved what the league’s legislation has attempted to make impossible in the NFL, and dominated in defiance of a structure designed for parity.

Then say it again this week if Tom Brady ultimately decides to take his talents to another team.

By now, much of New England seems to have come to grips with that possibility, and the chance that the quarterback will sign elsewhere. Sentiments have evolved over the course of the Brady Watch, some still clinging to the hope that Brady can be the Pats’ bridge to the future, some having talked themselves into the excitement that could spring from something fresh and new, and some having grown so tired of the drama they’re just ready to move on.

That evolution has been fueled by a cycle of rumors, leaks, and speculation that has repeatedly assigned meaning to everything from vacation schedules and real estate transactions to Facetime calls and suggestive social media posts. Even the more credible of reports have turned into a tussle where various sides are obviously trying to tilt the narrative from behind a thinly veiled cloak of anonymity in order to advance their agendas. And with more than two months to mull and muddle, we still don’t know how it’ll all play out when the moment of truth arrives.

But we do know that Bill Belichick knows how to build a football team. How to lead a team through transition. And how to identify when it’s time to move on.

So trust him to do all that.

It’s been reported that part of what Brady may be seeking in free agency is a stronger voice in personnel decisions, and perhaps a greater say in the operations of the offense. That’s exciting for a team that’s loaded with salary-cap cash to spend, and could use a promise to sign particular and hand-picked weapons (like, say, Antonio Brown) to lure the greatest quarterback of all time. If Brady were interested in the challenge of building an attack from the ground up, that could be an appeal for a team in the midst of resetting its approach.

Maybe Brady could demand greater responsibility in gameplanning if he comes back to Foxborough, but with Josh McDaniels returning the Patriots offense still has its existing architect leading a tried-and-true offensive system that has successfully enjoyed a run that’s endured longer than the QB’s career. But with Belichick at the helm, there’s no need for Brady to take a role in choosing his teammates. 

Let him lobby? Sure. Ask his general opinion? OK. But if it is indeed a condition of bringing back Brady that Belichick concedes any power over how the roster is constructed, that should be the biggest deal-breaker for New England. If the Patriots were to ultimately decide to match whatever money is thrown at Brady by another franchise, they can survive such a choice even if Brady were to suddenly devolve at age 43 and it were to blow up on them. It’s just money, whether it’s $23 million or $30 million. And the term is unlikely to be more than a couple of years. A bit of creativity, and it’s manageable.

The risk in taking power away from Belichick would be that shift leading to transactions that set back the squad for years beyond — or, worse, turn this into a failed transition that effectively finishes the dynasty. 

Up to now, the brilliance of Belichick the personnel man has been rooted in his foresight and his discipline. This thing could’ve died a few times along the way, like in 2002-03, or 2006-07, or 2009-10, or 2012-13, or in the tumult of 2017-18. We think of this as a sustained and consistent run, because it is. Twenty years, six titles, nine AFC championships, 17 straight seasons of at least 10 wins and all that. 

But it hasn’t been easy. And it hasn’t been steady. Guys have come, and — more notably — guys have gone, usually begrudgingly, and because Belichick was the one who had the savvy and cocksuredness to make the hard decision. The speculation of the past two months and decisions of the week to come have been characterized as an unprecedented crossroads for the Pats, but really it’s not. In terms of football, at least, they’ve been here before.

The constants have been Belichick and Brady, of course, so it’s clearly different when the keep-or-release question revolves around one of them. On top of that, it’s made more complicated by what appears to be the near-universal agreement that the best quarterback for the 2020 Patriots is named Thomas Edward Patrick Brady. And that the same could be well for the 2021 Pats, as well. 

If the Pats are looking for a bridge to the next guy, they really can’t do better than the last guy. But if the last guy will only stay if the team makes concessions that unsettle the core of what the operation has been built upon, that bridge may not lead them to where they want to go. Heck, it could be the bridge to nowhere, if pledging too much to a narrow-sighted “final run” with Brady shreds the fabric of the organization to the extent it’s entirely frayed by the time he announces his retirement in a couple years.

Robert Kraft needs to recognize this, too — and resist whatever urge he may be feeling to interject in the frenzy once free agency opens. It’s his family’s money, so he would be within his right to spend it as he wishes. If he were to sweeten the pot, so be it, but his role as a dealmaker needn’t go much beyond that. Brokering peace between two sides in a power struggle may be necessary in the process of negotiating, but ownership should not interfere. And if it gets to the point of picking sides, he should remember that it’s the coach with the longer shelf life. 

How this is all remembered historically is important for Kraft, and could ultimately play a factor in the legacies left by any of the Patriots’ hall-of-fame troika. But if anyone in that equation should be acting first and foremost with a long-term focus, it’s the owner. His role is to create the conditions for sustained success. Belichick’s is to run the football operation. Brady’s should just be to play quarterback.

Straying from that power structure or overextending in any way would be a mistake. Even for the greatest football player, greatest New England pro athlete, and maybe the greatest winner in the history of American pro sports. Seeing a star of that caliber in another uniform would hurt for Patriots fans. It would.

But, remember, Kraft bought this team in part because he considered himself the ultimate Pats fan. So he should remember to say it this week, as well:

“In Bill We Trust.”