New England Patriots: Growing up with the NFL’s premier dynasty

Putting it all in perspective

I consider myself to have a unique perspective of this dynasty and just the remarkable achievement that it has been. I’m just old enough to remember when this team was not good and struggled to even sniff the playoffs, but just young enough to barely remember what that was like.

Two-thirds of my life this team has been a dynasty that always wins the AFC East and might as well just fast forward to the AFC Championship every season because they are always there anyways. My January 22 birthday is always celebrated around an AFC Championship game. It’s been 9 years in a row now and makes for an awesome birthday present when they win.

Anyone younger than me has never known anything else but winning. Anyone a little older than me will be quick to remind you of the torturous decades where this team was considered the laughing stock of the NFL.

It’s tough to put into words just how incredible it has been. We have watched Tom Brady transform from a 6th round draft pick that had the body of an adolescent boy, into the GOAT QB, GQ model, with a supermodel wife on his arm. Oh yeah, and 5x Super Bowl Champion, 3x NFL MVP, 9X AFC Champ, winningest player of all time… yada yada yada you get it.

We have watched Bill Belichick become the GOAT in his own respected profession. It’s tough to remember now, but after a 5-11 season in 2000 and a 0-2 start to that famous 2001 season, Belichick was considered to be on the hot seat and on pace to get fired for the second time in his career. Now he can almost literally throw a Super Bowl by benching one of his best defensive players, and his job was never even in question.