Thinking about Gronk jumping out of retirement to join TB in TB, combined with the various reports that the main motivation for Brady's departure being the desire to leave BB, it makes me wonder if Bill is ruching the end of his Patriot life.
It has been said many times in various sports, that all coaches have a shelf-life. And I think the general thought is that task-master coaching types tend to the shorter side. 20 years in one place is pretty close to unheard of in this day of salary caps and enormous salaries.
So in the last couple years we've had the two best players (relative to their positions) in BB's regime make it fairly clear that they prefer to play elsewhere to escape BB; plus the famous quote from the Eagle (whose name I forget) that winning is nice and all, but players would rather have fun.
Although I was more than willing to ignore the Eagle's comments at the time, I imagine they may become harder to ignore, and more pointedly, they become more typical, when BB no longer has the GOAT saying all the right things at every interview about the importance of hard work, etc. I am a huge believer in the role of key figures among the workforce to disseminate and propagate management's culture. So it's natural that I would believe in the converse, where seeing those key figures leaving the team while spreading an implied message of "I want to play for someone other than BB" will perhaps make the rank and file Patriots less desirous of putting up with the BB Way (which is really the gist of the so-called "Patriot Way"(TM)).
And so if the players are not toeing the company line, will BB decide it's time to move on, whether that is to a new franchise or to a life on VIII Rings?
It has been said many times in various sports, that all coaches have a shelf-life. And I think the general thought is that task-master coaching types tend to the shorter side. 20 years in one place is pretty close to unheard of in this day of salary caps and enormous salaries.
So in the last couple years we've had the two best players (relative to their positions) in BB's regime make it fairly clear that they prefer to play elsewhere to escape BB; plus the famous quote from the Eagle (whose name I forget) that winning is nice and all, but players would rather have fun.
Although I was more than willing to ignore the Eagle's comments at the time, I imagine they may become harder to ignore, and more pointedly, they become more typical, when BB no longer has the GOAT saying all the right things at every interview about the importance of hard work, etc. I am a huge believer in the role of key figures among the workforce to disseminate and propagate management's culture. So it's natural that I would believe in the converse, where seeing those key figures leaving the team while spreading an implied message of "I want to play for someone other than BB" will perhaps make the rank and file Patriots less desirous of putting up with the BB Way (which is really the gist of the so-called "Patriot Way"(TM)).
And so if the players are not toeing the company line, will BB decide it's time to move on, whether that is to a new franchise or to a life on VIII Rings?