In 2000, the New England Patriots were largely irrelevant outside of the Northeast and the fourth most important professional team in Greater Boston. Then, in short order, they hired a new head coach, hit the quarterback jackpot, and won a Super Bowl. It was only the beginning.
For most of the 21st century, the Patriots achieved and maintained an NFL “dynasty,” in which, as of 2022, they’ve won almost 300 games; appeared in nine Super Bowls; won six Super Bowls; won 31 playoff games; and won their division, the AFC East, 18 times. Many have pegged February 6, 2005, the night New England defeated Philadelphia 24–21 in Super Bowl XXXIX, as the date the Patriots were recognized by the sports world as a dynasty. It was the Patriots’ second straight Super Bowl championship and their third in four years.
From 2000 to 2005, there were many important moments that were integral to winning those first three championships. Many of them were unexpected and involved the franchise being critically panned by commentators, experts, journalists, and the like. This chapter describes some of those moments, and reviews some of that commentary.
It all began with a coach nobody liked and a quarterback nobody knew.
“BELICHICK… YOU STILL STINK” (2000)
By the end of the 2000 season, the Patriots looked like a lost cause. Four years removed from a Super Bowl appearance, the franchise had sunk back into the mediocrity that had plagued them for most of their previous years. A year earlier, owner Robert Kraft fired head coach Pete Carroll after New England finished the 1999 season with a disappointing 8–8 record and failed to make the playoffs. Kraft replaced him with longtime Bill Parcells assistant Bill Belichick. Belichick had a stellar reputation as a defensive mastermind, but his ability and temperament to lead a franchise were in dispute.
From 1991 to 1995, Belichick had a 37–45 record as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns and was fired in early 1996 just before the franchise moved to Baltimore. After leaving Cleveland, he became the defensive coordinator for Bill Parcells, first with the Patriots for one season, and then with the Jets for three seasons. When Parcells retired in early January 2000, Belichick contractually took over as the Jets’ head coach before abruptly quitting the next day. After much legal wrangling, and despite Kraft receiving a substantial amount of criticism, Belichick was introduced as the Patriots’ new head coach near the end of the month. Along with becoming head coach, Belichick was given a substantial amount of administrative control, including being in charge of all personnel.
The early results on Kraft’s investment were not promising. By mid-November 2000, the Patriots had won only 2 of their first 10 games. The 10th was a road game in Cleveland against the Browns, where Belichick had coached five years earlier. A large sign in the corner of Browns Stadium read BELICHICK 2–7. YOU STILL STINK.
The sign wasn’t really wrong. Belichick’s team did stink. That day, they lost 19–11 to an awful Browns team that had previously lost seven straight games and hadn’t scored a touchdown in almost a month. The next day, veteran Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote that “It’s been 10 painful weekends and there is nothing left to say other than a once un-thinkable refrain: ‘Bring back Pete Carroll.’” He added, “Bill Belichick is in charge of bringing respectability back to New England football, but right now, fans would settle for a little dignity, which was in short supply on Bloody Sunday in Ohio.”
Shaughnessy never actually thought there was a possibility they would bring back Carroll. “I was just having fun there,” he said in 2020. To him, it was more a dig directed at Robert Kraft than one directed at Belichick. Shaughnessy had been hard on Kraft since Bill Parcells left the Patriots after the 1996 season. Parcells had brought the franchise from the bottom, when he took over in 1993, to the playoffs in 1994 and then to the Super Bowl in 1996. But when Kraft bought the team in 1994, he and Parcells instantly became embroiled in a power struggle and consistently butted heads until Parcells eventually left.
During the final few years of Pete Carroll’s run as Patriots head coach, Shaughnessy had been critical of Kraft for chasing off Parcells and hiring Carroll, under whose leadership the Patriots just got worse and worse each season. After the Patriots started off poorly under Belichick, Shaughnessy began to revive his digs about letting Parcells walk away. “It was a little bit of a nudge at the Krafts,” he said. “Like, alright smarty pants… nice job getting Parcells out of here.”
The Patriots finished the 2000 season, Belichick’s first with the club, with a 5–11 record. From the Boston Herald’s Year in Review:
The price for Belichick was an exchange of draft picks with the Jets that included the Pats’ 2000 first-round selection. Now, nearly a year later Kraft has to be wondering if it was worth the price. The perceived catalyst of Kraft’s “momentum change,” has not only failed to arrest the Pats’ downward spiral, he has accelerated it… The future is not exactly bright… There are also questions as to whether Belichick, who fired former personnel director Bobby Grier in May, is the right man to be shopping for the groceries.
That off-season, New England signed its veteran quarterback Drew Bledsoe to a 10-year, $103 million contract extension, even though he still had two years remaining on his existing deal. At the time, it was hailed as the richest contract in NFL history. Bledsoe was the face of the franchise, owned almost all of its passing records, was actively involved in the community, and had a great relationship with Kraft, who felt that the 29-year-old quarterback was going to be the Patriots’ leader for years to come. “I saw this as an opportunity to sign one of the great Patriots for the rest of his career,” Kraft said at the press conference announcing the Bledsoe deal.
THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: “LEAST LIKELY” TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS WITHIN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS (2001)
In March 2001, a month before the NFL Draft, the magazine Pro Football Weekly polled “NFL Insiders” and asked which team had the least chance of making the playoffs or going to the Super Bowl in the next five years, and “The Patriots were the unanimous choice.” The publication also added:
When [the Boston media] have a bad team to cover, they will blame everyone, especially the coaches and management team. In the past, Bill Belichick had a hard time coping with a very negative press that treated him unfairly, and it remains to be seen if he has reached the point where he can overcome the negative assault he will be hit with. It also remains to be seen how much time owner Robert Kraft will give the coach once the vultures start swooping around.”
“THEY REACHED ON EVERY PICK” (2001)
During the 2001 NFL Draft, instead of using picks on skill position players to get “weapons” for Bledsoe, Belichick spent his top picks on University of Georgia defensive tackle Richard Seymour (6th overall) and offensive tackle Matt Light (second round, 48th overall). Local columnist Ron Borges did not agree with the strategy. On MSNBC.com, he torched Belichick for passing on top receiver prospects David Terrell and Koren Robinson. He wrote that Seymour “had one sack last season in the pass happy [Southeastern Conference] and is too tall to play tackle at 6-foot-6 and too slow to play defensive end.” Additionally, Borges thought the Patriots “settled [in the second round] for Light, who will not help any time soon.” But Belichick wasn’t concerned. “[Receiver] was a low priority,” he said. “We just didn’t feel comfortable reaching.”
During the beginning of the Belichick era in New England, Borges, who then primarily wrote for the Globe, was probably the least liked Patriots writer on the beat. To fans, he was the poster-child of Belichick-era contrarianism. He constantly took jabs at the coach, to a point where it almost seemed personal.
With regard to the 2001 Draft, some of the media’s NFL Draft “report cards” agreed with Borges’s view. The (Fort Lauderdale) Sun Sentinel’s Chris Perkins called the Seymour pick a “bit of a reach” and gave the Patriots’ draft a “C.” Alan Greenberg of the Hartford Courant handed them a “C-plus.” Jason Cole, in the Miami Herald, slapped them with a “D” and wrote that “They reached on every pick.” Boston Herald writer Kevin Mannix was critical as well. By taking Seymour, he concluded, New England passed on “legitimate playmaker” David Terrell.
Seymour and Light turned out to be home-run draft selections. Seymour played 8 seasons with the Patriots and was one of the best defensive linemen in the league when he was active. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022. Light played 11 seasons, all with New England, and made three Pro Bowls. David Terrell was drafted by the Bears with the eighth pick in the first round. He didn’t live up to his billing. He was released after his fourth season with the Bears, and never played another regular-season game.
On Twitter, Borges is frequently reminded about his comments about Seymour and Terrell. According to him, he’s now good friends with Seymour and they “laugh a lot” about how people love to continue to bring up the same 2001 Draft comments year in, year out.
“IT’S GOING TO BE ANOTHER BLEAK NEW ENGLAND AUTUMN” (2001)
Before the 2001 season, New England was almost universally predicted to finish under .500. Sports Illustrated projected the Patriots would finish dead last in the AFC East. Other notable forecasts:
I would be very surprised if they don’t find themselves in the same place as they were in 2000—last in the division.
—Mel Kiper Jr.
It’s going to be another bleak New England autumn… And wasn’t Belichick supposed to be a better coach than Pete Carroll?
—Ron Reid, Philadelphia Inquirer
The Patriots have been in reverse the last five seasons, with no relief in sight.
—Bob Matthews, (Rochester, New York) Democrat and Chronicle
What neither the Democrat and Chronicle, nor almost anyone else, knew, was that relief would come much sooner than expected. In the form of Tom Brady.
No one knew what Tom Brady would become when he graduated from the University of Michigan in 2000. But the Patriots brass saw at least something they liked, and drafted Brady in the sixth round (199th overall). It was a decision that puzzled some who felt New England didn’t really need a quarterback. “So, what’s with that? Why another quarterback?” asked Kevin Mannix in the Boston Herald the next day. “The Patriots have their franchise starter in Drew Bledsoe, a proven veteran backup in John Friesz, and a young developmental player in Michael Bishop.” Alan Greenberg, in the Hartford Courant, wrote about Brady: “Obviously [he] has a great future in New England—as a practice squad quarterback.”
Brady possessed some of the qualities NFL teams looked for in a quarterback. He was tall, smart, a natural leader, accurate, and good at reading defenses. The problem was, his negative attributes stood out like a sore thumb. He was skinny and didn’t have a quarterback build. He was slow on foot and immobile. His scouting report didn’t scream “greatest of all time” potential, but he impressed enough in training camp to win a roster spot for the 2000 season. Friesz was released, and Brady spent his rookie year as the Patriots’ third quarterback behind Bishop. In 2001, Brady had a fantastic off-season and training camp. The coaches noticed his work ethic, his sharpness, and how good he was at executing reads. By the start of the regular season, Brady had surpassed both Bishop, who was cut in August, and Damon Huard to take the number two spot on the depth chart. Huard, an experienced veteran, was signed by New England before the 2001 season to be the Patriots’ primary backup, but he couldn’t thwart Brady’s rapid ascent and was relegated to third string.
“WITHOUT DREW BLEDSOE… THE PATRIOTS ARE HOPELESS” (2001)
As the backup situation sorted itself out during training camp in 2001, Bledsoe was firmly entrenched as the Patriots’ starting quarterback. That would change within weeks. The second season of the Belichick era continued where it left off. New England lost to a low-tier Cincinnati team to open the season. The team was on its way to a second loss in their second game as they were down 10–3 in the fourth quarter to the Jets. That is when Jets linebacker Mo Lewis hit Bledsoe so hard that Bledsoe sheared a blood vessel and was rushed to the hospital. Brady took over but couldn’t salvage the game. The Patriots dropped to 0–2.
The injury ruled out Bledsoe indefinitely. While it seemed like a disaster, it couldn’t get much worse. The offense was already struggling at the time Bledsoe was hurt. In his previous 26 starts, the Patriots had a 7–19 record and Bledsoe threw 32 interceptions. But according to Borges, who has long been considered to be an ally and friend of Bledsoe, the Patriots fans who had been critical of the franchise quarterback were about to see that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. “The New England Alliance of Drew Bledsoe Bashers now will get its wish,” Borges wrote in the Boston Globe a few days after the Jets loss. “It will get to see firsthand what life without Bledsoe will be like… [It will be] a problem for this team… and will show a lot of people what he means to the Patriots. It’s a big price to pay to make people finally understand his value.” Other outlooks for the remainder of the Patriots’ season:
Without Drew Bledsoe… the Patriots are hopeless.
—Terry Bannon, Chicago Tribune
[The Patriots are] even more dismal without Bledsoe.
—Jason Schaumberg, (Woodstock, Illinois) Northwest Herald
New England’s fortunes after a humbling 0–2 start would be bleak even with a healthy Drew Bledsoe.
—Phillip B. Wilson, Indianapolis Star
Honestly, I don’t know what weapons they have with which to win a game.
—Paul Zimmerman (aka “Dr. Z”), CNNSI.com
In Week 3, Brady led the 12-point underdog Patriots to a win over Indianapolis 44–13. Afterwards, rumblings started to be heard about a possible quarterback controversy upon Bledsoe’s eventual return. That talk was tabled the next week after Brady and New England were throttled 30–10 by the Miami Dolphins in the sweltering South Florida heat. Brady was 12-of-24 for only 86 yards passing. In his next-day Globe column, Borges wrote: “The New England Patriots’ ‘quarterback controversy’ ended at 3:18 p.m. yesterday.” He continued:
The fact of the matter is, Brady is a young player who does not have the arm or a reputation earned of performances against tight defenses like Miami’s over the years. He did a good job against the Colts and as good as he could against the Dolphins. What he did not do—and won’t do any time soon—is replace Drew Bledsoe.
In the Boston Herald, George Kimball rubbed it in the face of the “idiots” who “were out in full force” a week earlier after the Pats beat the Colts, “suggesting that the Patsies might be a better team [with Brady].”
The next Sunday, Brady led the Patriots to a 29–26 overtime win over the Chargers in Foxboro. He was 33-of-54 for 365 yards and two touchdowns. On the CBS game broadcast, with over five minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Patriots down 26–16 with the ball, the camera cut to Bledsoe on the sidelines donning a headset and jacket before play-by-play man Ian Eagle reminded viewers that “There is no Drew Bledsoe to come in and save the day.”
They didn’t need Drew. New England scored 10 unanswered points to tie it in regulation. The comeback was highlighted by a 60-yard touchdown drive led by Brady in the final 2:10 to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Brady led the Patriots to wins in eight of their last nine games, including a six-game winning streak to close out the season to win the AFC East and earn a first-round playoff bye. By mid-November, Bledsoe was healthy and cleared to play, but he didn’t get minutes the rest of the regular season. Belichick did not seem to even entertain the idea of giving the starting job back to Bledsoe. Bledsoe saw it differently. He has always maintained that Belichick promised him an opportunity to compete to win his job back when he became healthy, but Belichick changed his mind when that time came.
In the Patriots’ first game of the 2001 Playoffs, an AFC Divisional Round matchup against the Raiders during a Foxborough snowstorm, the Patriots again scored 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime, where they would win 16–13. The game will be remembered for the controversial play where a Raiders game-sealing fumble recovery from a Charles Woodson strip sack of Brady was, to the Patriots’ great fortune, overruled by an NFL regulation called the “tuck rule.” The rule provided that Brady did not actually fumble but threw an incomplete pass because he was trying to tuck the ball away when it was lost.
During the AFC Championship game in Pittsburgh, with the Patriots leading 7–3 with under two minutes left in the second quarter, New England was forced to call on a familiar face when Brady was knocked out of the game with an injury to his ankle.
The last time Drew Bledsoe had taken a snap from center was Week 2. But there didn’t appear to be any rust. Bledsoe immediately led the Patriots offense down the field for a touchdown on his first drive. Brady never returned to that game, but Bledsoe kept the ship together and the Patriots went on to win 24–17, clinching a spot in Super Bowl XXXVI against the Rams.
Brady’s injury wasn’t serious, and he would be cleared to play in the Super Bowl. While some gave the impression that the team was considering having Bledsoe start the big game against the Rams, Belichick clarified that Brady was his guy. “The only reason it was up in the air was because [of] Brady’s ankle,” former Patriots center Damien Woody (1999–2003) said years later. “This was Brady’s team… If Brady was healthy, he was gonna play. Period.” It was the right call, as the team completed its Cinderella season and won the Super Bowl by defeating the heavily favored Rams 20–17 on an Adam Vinatieri field goal in the final seconds.
After the Super Bowl, the Patriots fully committed to Tom Brady at quarterback and traded Bledsoe to division rival Buffalo. In August 2002, the Patriots rewarded Brady with a four-year, $28 million contract extension.
“THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS GOT VERY BENEVOLENT OR VERY COCKY OR VERY STUPID” (2002)
With the Super Bowl champion label planted squarely on their backs, the 2002 Patriots season started with a bang. New England shot out to a 3–0 record and Brady continued where he left off, looking every bit the championship quarterback. That changed quickly. Beginning Week 4, the Patriots took a nosedive, and they lost four straight games. During that stretch, the offense struggled mightily, averaging only 13 points per game. Brady threw seven interceptions.
Some critics thought New England was relying on Brady to throw the ball significantly more than the previous year. In 2001, the Patriots’ offense maintained a close to even balance of running and passing plays, and were able to control the pace of the game. In 2002, the team saw less balance and became more predictable. Brady’s pass attempt numbers skyrocketed, though most of throws were short passes and screens. Defenses wised up and used different zone coverages, which forced Brady into more downfield throws with smaller windows.
During the losing streak, fans didn’t hold back their discontent. After Brady threw three interceptions during a Week 6 loss to Green Bay in Foxboro, he was booed off the field by the home crowd. The critics started to dig in. “Tom Brady looks nothing like the man who took [the Patriots] to the Super Bowl,” wrote Charles Bricker in the (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel.
His coach wasn’t coming off so great, either. The Patriots’ defense, which was Belichick’s specialty, couldn’t stop anybody. Particularly the run defense. It was porous. By early October, New England’s defense was allowing 5.6 yards per play. In Weeks 3 and 4, against Kansas City and San Diego, respectively, the Pats gave up a combined 459 yards on the ground. As the team struggled to maintain their winning ways from the Super Bowl, some of the local media spent much of the season wondering if Belichick was as smart as he was given credit for in February when he hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans. “How could Belichick, the widely proclaimed defensive genius, have a team that can’t do the most basic thing in football stop the run?” asked Jim Donaldson in the Providence Journal. In the Boston Herald, Kevin Mannix wondered if “there is a statute of limitations regarding genius.”
Of all the Patriots’ fodder in 2002, the most popular topic was whether the Patriots made the right decision trading Bledsoe and committing to Brady. The subject was particularly interesting during the first half of the season, because Brady was struggling and Bledsoe was prospering. During the same period where the Patriots suffered four losses in a row, Bledsoe’s Buffalo Bills team had a 3–1 record. By the end of Week 8, Buffalo had more wins (five) than they did in all of 2001 (three). Halfway through the season, Bledsoe had thrown 16 touchdowns, had only five interceptions, and was leading the NFL in passing yards. The national media began to take notice. On NFL.com, former NFL coach and administrator Pat Kirwan gave out “Midseason Awards,” and tabbed Bledsoe as Offensive MVP. He also awarded the Best Offseason Trade to the Bills for its trade for Bledsoe.
Bledsoe’s play was all the rage. In late September, on Boston-area channel WBZ-TV’s Sunday evening show Sports Final, local radio personality Scott Zolak, a former Patriots quarterback and Bledsoe teammate, said that he was twice as impressed about how Bledsoe had been playing with Buffalo as he was at how Brady was playing with New England. A week later, veteran Globe columnist Nick Cafardo said on local TV that Bledsoe (1) was clearly a superior quarterback to Brady, (2) was much more clutch than Brady, and (3) would have already replaced Brady as the starter if he were still on the Patriots. Even players on rival teams chimed in. Miami Dolphins all-pro defensive end Jason Taylor was annoyed that the Patriots helped another AFC East team improve. “I don’t understand why New England traded [Bledsoe] to Buffalo,” Taylor said. “It was kind of a stupid move on their part. Now we’re stuck playing against him again. He’s playing unbelievably.”
Buffalo-area writers weren’t shy, either. (Rochester, New York) Democrat and Chronicle Bills writer Sal Maiorana wrote that the Patriots made the wrong choice. “I just think that he is a better quarterback than Brady,” he wrote. “Bledsoe is only 30, he’s going to be around for quite a while, and I know the Bills are happy the way things turned out.” At the end of October, (Syracuse, New York) Post-Standard columnist Bud Poliquin gleefully wrote about the Bills rebirth. If not for the Patriots shipping Bledsoe off to Buffalo, the 2002 season, Poliquin believed, would have seen the Bills continue descending to the bottom of the NFL barrel. “The New England Patriots got very benevolent or very cocky or very stupid,” he wrote. Buffalo News columnist Bucky Gleason was also very thankful to the Patriots. “We knew Bledsoe was a wonderful quarterback, but we had no idea he was this great,” Gleason wrote. “Lucky for us… Belichick was arrogant enough to trade him inside the AFC East and rationalize playing against him twice a year.”
“JUST LIKE THAT… [THE PATRIOTS] WERE JUST ANOTHER TEAM AGAIN” (2002)
The Bledsoe/Brady debate fizzled a bit during the second half of the 2002 season, mostly because Bledsoe played poorly. His passing statistics decreased dramatically. Beginning Week 9, the Bills only won two games during a six-game stretch where Bledsoe threw seven touchdowns and eight interceptions. Teams had seen enough film on the Bills’ offense and started to figure out ways to slow it down. Bledsoe had a hard time making reads, started making poorer decisions, and forced more throws.
Brady played better in the second half of the 2002 season and, at one point, New England won 5 out of 6 games. However, near season’s end, the third-year QB reverted back to the poor form he showed during New England’s winless October. His low point was when he threw for less than 150 yards and only one touchdown in back-to-back December games, both crucial losses, which practically destroyed the Patriots’ playoff chances.
By season’s end, despite a few rough December performances, Brady was starting to show that the Patriots’ decision to keep him around in 2002 was the right one. Brady’s biggest selling point was that the Patriots dominated Buffalo twice during the season. Collectively, during the two games, the Patriots outscored the Bills 65–24. Bledsoe played poorly in both. In the games, the Bills’ offense only scored a combined four times in 20 possessions and turned the ball over six times. Four were Bledsoe interceptions during the second game. Meanwhile, Brady threw for a combined five touchdowns and zero interceptions in the two contests.
New England finished the 2002 season with a 9–7 record, while the Bills closed at 8–8. Both teams missed the playoffs. Despite the poor second half, Buffalo saw a five-win improvement from 2001. Bledsoe set team single-season records in passing (4,359) and completions (375). Most around the league believed that the franchise was on a positive path. As for the Patriots, going from a Super Bowl victory to missing the playoffs altogether triggered some more negative commentary. Jackie MacMullan was blunt. “Just like that… [the Patriots] were just another team again,” she wrote in the Globe a few days after the season ended. Miami Herald writer Tim Casey was on the same page. “Turns out, the Patriots’ unlikely [2001 season] journey seems more and more like an aberration,” he wrote.
Despite the disappointing final result, Brady still had a solid season statistically, throwing for 28 touchdowns and only 14 interceptions.
“BILL BELICHICK IS POND SCUM AGAIN. ARROGANT, MEGALOMANIACAL, DUPLICITOUS POND SCUM.” (2003)
The 2003 season began inauspiciously for the Pats. In the opener, New England was throttled by Bledsoe and the Bills 31–0 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo. Brady threw four interceptions and finished with a paltry 20.4 quarterback rating. It was the worst opening day loss in franchise history.
The humiliation at the hands of a Bledsoe-led Bills team was far from the most troubling part of the day. The Patriots were dealing with a bigger distraction that was amplified during and after the game. When Tom Brady stared across the field that Sunday, he saw safety Lawyer Milloy in a Bills uniform. Before 2003, Milloy had played seven seasons with the Patriots, had started 106 consecutive games, and was a key player during their Super Bowl run in the 2001 season.
Six days before that infamous 2003 opener in Buffalo, Milloy was still a member of the Patriots. He was at training camp and played for the Pats in their preseason games. However, he and Belichick were at odds. The Patriots wanted to restructure his contract in a way that would have resulted in a pay cut. Milloy wouldn’t budge. According to reports, the Patriots wanted Milloy to take a pay cut from $4.4 million per year to $3 million. Milloy wanted $3.6 million. A mere $600,000 stood between the two parties.
Milloy soon found out that he didn’t have as much leverage as he would have liked. New England was already on the books for a $5.25 million salary cap hit with Milloy, and he was coming off the least productive season of his career. The Patriots had also recently signed veteran safety Rodney Harrison from San Diego, and he had been impressive during training camp. He hit hard and brought an edginess that Belichick liked.
As the 2003 regular season approached, Belichick and Milloy were at a standstill. It wouldn’t last much longer. On the Tuesday before the Patriots’ opener, Belichick pulled the plug and released Milloy. The decision shocked and angered just about everyone, including the Patriots’ locker room, the fans, and the media. The Boston Herald’s Kevin Mannix made no bones about how he thought Belichick handled the situation. “Bill Belichick is pond scum again,” he wrote. “Arrogant, megalomaniacal, duplicitous pond scum.”
The Milloy fallout was a distraction during the rest of the week. The veteran safety was a team leader and one of New England’s most esteemed players. Right after the team caught wind of the release, Brady confronted Kraft, who had no idea of Belichick’s plans, and asked the owner how he could let Belichick do it.
Milloy signed with the Bills a few days later, and, not long thereafter, he was on the field for the season opener in Buffalo, alongside Drew Bledsoe, on the opposite sideline as the Patriots. During pregame introductions, the Bills announced Milloy last to a raucous Ralph Wilson Stadium ovation. It was a sign of things to come. “[During the warmups and introductions], I’m just saying to myself ‘oh my god, we are in trouble,’” Damien Woody remembered. “We had no chance that day.”
“BILL BELICHICK BASHERS, TODAY IS YOUR DAY. PREPARE TO FEAST” (2003)
With the Patriots vulnerable, and in a distracted, awkward situation, the Bills destroyed them 31–0. Milloy played well. In the second quarter, he tipped one of Brady’s passes in the end zone, which was then intercepted by Nate Clements. It was one of four interceptions Brady threw. Milloy also sacked Brady on a safety blitz near the end of the first half. “It was weird. Very weird,” Milloy said after the game. “My mother always told me that God doesn’t act ugly. I came out on top.”
It was an amazing result for a franchise like Buffalo that had been down on their luck for the previous few years. “The script couldn’t have been better if the Bills PR department had typed it up and faxed it over to the NFL office,” wrote Eric McHugh in the (Quincy, Massachusetts) Patriot Ledger. Toward the end of the game, Bledsoe and Milloy were in a great mood and seen hugging, chatting, and looking up at the scoreboard. “We were talking about what you probably think we were talking about,” Bledsoe told reporters. “We were both pretty happy with the win.”
The loss was also the perfect storm for the media. “Second-guessers unite,” wrote Michael Felger in the Boston Herald. “Bill Belichick bashers, today is your day. Prepare to feast. The Patriots’ humiliating 31–0 loss to the Buffalo Bills is your piece of raw meat.” And feast they did. “After the way [Milloy] played for the Buffalo Bills Sunday,” wrote Borges in the Boston Globe, “maybe the Patriots couldn’t afford not to find a way to afford him. It’s too late for that now.” On HBO’s Inside the NFL, analyst Cris Collinsworth compared the New England head coach to “a great doctor with a bad bedside manner.” Collinsworth also expressed his bewilderment about the situation: “For [Belichick] to completely misread the pulse of that team and not understand what [Milloy] meant to the locker room, I can’t believe he was that far removed from it.”
Bill Simmons, an unabashed Boston sports fan, who, at the time, was a popular columnist and media personality with ESPN, wrote that Belichick pushing out Milloy was a disaster, and “indefensible.” “They didn’t save that much in cap space,” he added. “It didn’t make sense… Sometimes your team makes a move, you hear the news, and it makes you say ‘Whaaaaaaaaaat?????’ That was the Milloy release.” He continued: “Belichick… screwed up. Big time. Maybe it doesn’t change the fact that he won a Super Bowl, but it makes you wonder about him. Just a little.”
During the week after the Buffalo debacle, a sense of uneasiness seemed to permeate the Patriots’ locker room. Linebacker Tedy Bruschi, one of the Patriots’ longest tenured veterans, could not hold in his continuing disappointment about Milloy’s release. “How do [I put my heart on the line] in a place where guys who’ve established what this team is about just come and go?” he asked Sports Illustrated’s Peter King. Bruschi was not the only one still troubled about the issue. An unnamed player posed these questions to a Boston Herald writer: “What kind of message do you think that sent everyone in here? What does that tell us about what [Belichick] values in a player? What do you think that tells us about what they want in the future?” The team’s future, according to Providence Journal writer Tom Curran, was heading toward dangerous waters. “For the New England Patriots,” he warned, “the next four months might… be as pleasant as an embolism.”
Curran also considered the possibility that the relationship between Belichick and his players “may be irreparable.” “You ask yourself,” Curran wrote, “‘Is this when it starts to go bad?’” Longtime ESPN commentator Tom Jackson had a similar line of thinking. The following Sunday after the Bills’ blowout, the Hall of Fame offensive tackle said on ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown pregame show that the “emotional devastation” the Patriots players suffered from the Milloy release could cost them their season. Jackson continued, “I want to say this very clearly… They hate their coach.”
If Jackson was right, it didn’t affect the New England players on that day. The Patriots destroyed the Eagles 31–10.
The Patriots players tried to brush off Jackson’s comments. “It’s just one outside opinion,” said Richard Seymour. Rodney Harrison was a tad less circumspect. “I respect Tom Jackson, but that is one of the stupidest things I ever heard,” he said. “He has no idea what we think about Belichick.” Wide receiver David Patten was incredulous. “Who is Tom Jackson?” Patten asked a few days later. “Does he sit in at our meetings? Is he in our locker room?”
That loss in Buffalo was the last sign of any Patriots decline for a very long time. New England proceeded to win 14 out of their last 15 regular-season games in 2003, including 12 in a row to close out the regular season. A little over a month later, they captured their second championship title by beating the Carolina Panthers 32–29 in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
New England followed up its 2003 title with another one, the franchise’s third, in 2004 as they beat the Eagles 24–21 in Super Bowl XXXIX. The next day, the headline on the front page of the Boston Globe simply read “DYNASTY.”
Harrison, who took over at strong safety after Lawyer Milloy’s release, turned out to be one of the most important players on the 2003 and 2004 championship teams. In both seasons, he led the team in tackles in the regular season and the playoffs. The locker room respected him so much that four months into the 2003 season he was chosen by his teammates as one of the team’s captains. In the 2003 Playoffs, he forced three turnovers, including two big ones in the AFC Championship game against the Colts. In the 2004 Playoffs he forced two more, including an interception he returned for 87 yards for a touchdown during the AFC Championship game at Pittsburgh. Harrison went on to play four more seasons with New England, retiring in 2008. He is now considered to be one of the Patriots’ most crucial free-agent signings of the Belichick era.
Meanwhile, Drew Bledsoe and the Bills never had any causes to celebrate, as his time with the franchise ended in a thud. Buffalo wasn’t able to continue their momentum after the triumph over the Patriots in the 2003 opener, and finished the season 6–10. In 2004, the Bills went 9–7, but missed the postseason after losing a must-win contest in Pittsburgh on the final week of the regular season. Bledsoe played poorly in the game, which was mostly against the Steelers backups as they had already clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. After the 2004 season, Bledsoe was released by the Bills after he refused head coach Mike Mularkey’s request that Bledsoe relinquish his starting quarterback role in 2005 to become the backup for up-and-comer J. P. Losman.
“Mularkey and his assistants,” wrote Leo Roth in the (Rochester, New York) Democrat and Chronicle, “came to the same conclusion most fans and media did with the naked eye: Bledsoe’s time has passed.”
In his three seasons in Buffalo, Bledsoe started all 48 games, finishing with a 23–25 record, and no playoff appearances. His passer rating declined in each of his second and third seasons. Bledsoe finished his career in Dallas, playing for his first head coach, Bill Parcells. In 2005, he signed a three-year, $23 million deal to be the Cowboys’ primary starter. He started all 16 games for Dallas in the 2005 season, leading them to a 9–7 record but came just short of the playoffs. In 2006, he was so erratic and inconsistent that he was benched for young quarterback with tremendous potential: Tony Romo. Romo shined, and took ownership of the job for 10 years. Bledsoe hung up his cleats and retired in April 2007.
“F*CK YOU”
After the triumph over Philadelphia in Super Bowl XXXIX, Belichick was firmly entrenched in the all-time coaching elite. Meanwhile, Tom Jackson’s 2003 comment has become infamous. “There is a temptation, especially from guys who played, to try to pretend like they are in [a team’s locker room],” Matt Chatham, a linebacker for the Patriots from 2000 to 2005, said in 2020. “But to try to make some sweeping comment about [a group of] 53 men that you’re not a part of, is so f*cking stupid to do.”
Belichick ended up with the final word. In the 2020 book The Dynasty, author Jeff Benedict wrote that right after the Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVIII, their second win in franchise history, beating the Carolina Panthers 32–39 at Houston’s Reliant Field, Belichick walked over to the ESPN on-field set for a postgame interview. When he arrived, Tom Jackson extended his hand to him. Belichick looked at Jackson and simply said, “F*ck you.”
This project was years in the making. Within six months of creating Freezing Cold Takes, I knew I wanted to write something in a longer form. There are interesting stories behind many of the unprophetic statements I have found throughout the years, and I wanted to share them. With Twitter limiting me to 240 characters per tweet, I couldn’t provide much context for any of the posts on the Freezing Cold Takes page.
This book contains hours and hours of research, some of which dates back years from when I started searching for old, inaccurate commentary. Within weeks of starting this project, I knew that I had underestimated the amount of work and energy necessary to write a research-based book. Fortunately, I had tremendous support throughout the process. There is a group of people whose contributions deserve to be recognized.
To start, a hearty thank-you to Justin Spizman, lawyer and writer extraordinaire, who got the ball rolling, assisted me with my proposal, and connected me with John Willig, my agent, to whom I also owe a tremendous debt of gratitude. It didn’t take long for John to find the perfect publishing match for me. Also, John advised me during each step of this process, kept me grounded, and made sure I kept my eyes on the prize.
My deep appreciation goes to the folks at Running Press Books, who have been wonderful in guiding me through this journey. In particular, I am tremendously grateful to my spectacular editor at Running Press, Jess Riordan, who turned my proposal into a reality and has had an unwavering belief in my idea, my vision, and me throughout this entire process.
To every journalist, former player, or anybody else who spoke with me for an interview or simply provided advice to a novice writer, thank you for giving me your valuable time.
The support I received during this endeavor extended beyond those directly involved with the publication. I must acknowledge and thank: my friends on the Alerts and Monsoon WhatsApp chat groups for all of your inspiration and for continuing to champion Freezing Cold Takes from the day it launched; my children Brady and Violet, who have provided me with endless amounts of motivation, as they continuously asked me when I would be done (they also proudly told everyone they saw that I was writing a book, which is cool); my brother Stephen and mother-in-law Joni, who have backed me from day one; my mother Ronna, who has been exceptionally supportive and positive about this whole project every time I speak with her, and who will probably buy 50 books before this is all said and done; and my dad Mike, who has been one of my volunteer editors for 30 years and has been my constant advisor from the proposal to the final copy.
My final debt of gratitude goes to my wife Nichole, another superb editor, who has watched me grind away at this for the past two years with unflinching patience and all the love in the world. This book would not exist without you by my side.