How the New England Patriots' Holy Trinity inspired the franchise to success

'It’s a great story of triumph, and it’s also a story that’s never been told'

Fri, 08 Jan, 2021 - 18:36

Michael Moynihan

The New England Patriots, synonymous with Super Bowl glory for almost 20 years, are having their worst season in decades.

The departure of star quarterback Tom Brady would have shaken any team, but fans in Boston and further afield will remain hopeful as long has coach Bill Belichick is still on the sideline. And while Robert Kraft remains in the owner’s office.

Jeff Benedict wrote the definitive account of the Patriots’ glory years, The Dynasty, a book which shows the brilliance of the team on and off the field.

“When I was thinking of how to structure the book, I was looking at Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and Robert Kraft,” says Benedict.

“There’s been so much written about Belichick and Brady that I thought positioning the book about the owner might be more interesting.

“He was raised in a blue-collar family and was a huge sports fan, but his father had no interest in sports, and the idea that a kid from the wrong side of the tracks in Boston could fall in love with this team, and then eventually buy the team - it’s a great story of triumph, and it’s also a story that’s never been told.

“I thought it was also a preview of what Belichick and Brady achieved with the team, but there’s also the fact that neither of them would have come to the New England Patriots if it wasn’t for Robert Kraft, so I made a point of approaching him first.”

Benedict approached Kraft by letter, saying he wanted to structure the book around him; Kraft responded by letter personally, to Benedict’s delight, and said he was willing to participate.

The result is a dazzling account of a team’s dominance, all the more admirable given the Patriots’ reputation as a secretive organisation. From Kraft’s canny manoeuvring to acquire the team - buying the car parks near the stadium was a key move - to the emotional text messages between Brady and Kraft when the former was leaving the team, it’s all here.

The end of the Brady-Belichick axis was inevitable, and Kraft’s tenure as team owner is bound to end as well. What will happen to the NFL’s most successful team when that time comes?

Belichick speaks via teleconference after making his selection in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft in April. Picture: Getty Images

“Most of the teams in the NFL are owned by families,” says Benedict.

“There are some exceptions, where teams are owned by investment groups, but most of the teams owned by families have already gone through a succession period.

“The Patriots haven’t, as it happens, because the family which owned them for decades was the Sullivans: the intention had always been for the father, Billy, to transfer the team to his son when he retired or passed on.

“Before that happened, though, the team was in danger of going bankrupt, which was a big reason Robert Kraft came to buy it.

“Now he’s been the owner for 25 years, and obviously there’ll be a succession at some stage, but the Krafts and the Patriots have done an exceptional job on the business side, and I don’t know if another franchise or team is better positioned for transition than them.

“No-one knows when it’s going to happen but I think they’ll be in good shape when it does.”

Interestingly, Boston’s baseball, basketball and ice hockey teams all won titles after the Patriots won their first Super Bowl in 2002. Did the Patriots drive those teams on?

“When the Patriots started winning it’s important to bear in mind that it was a franchise which had never won a championship.

“By contrast, the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins had been successful in the past.

However, when the Patriots started winning in the early 2000s those other three teams were all in a drought and hadn’t won anything in quite a while.

“When the Patriots started winning those Super Bowls it certainly sparked the competitive juices in those other teams and their owners. They wanted to keep pace and, I think they didn’t want to see the Patriots become the dominant team in the city.

“I don’t think that the other teams won because the Patriots won, they still had to put their own teams on the field, but the Patriots created a culture in Boston where all those teams became winners in their own right.

“And it also established Boston as the sports capital of the US.”

(Something Boston natives aren’t shy about proclaiming, of course.)

Brady is gone and Kraft will step down at some point. What about the third pillar in the Patriots’ success?

“Bill Belichick doesn’t say a lot about his plans, but famously he spoke about 10 years ago about retirement, and how he didn’t want to coach into his 70s or late 60s.

“Well, he’s there now, or beyond where he said he wanted to be back there. What’s interesting is that - in common with Tom Brady as a quarterback - Bill has demonstrated an unusual longevity as a coach, both physically and mentally.

Being a head coach in the NFL is a physically tiring career. It wears people out, literally. I think he’s shown a resilience that’s very rare in the sport, and not only has he been resilient, he’s been a consistent winner as well.

“My feeling is he’ll coach as long as he wants to coach. Their record this season was uncharacteristically poor this year, particularly in comparison with the standards they’ve set, but after 20 years they’re going through a major transition with the departure of their most important player.

“Whether Tom (Brady) went to another team, which he did, or simply retired, which he could have done - either way his decision would have put the franchise through a profound transition period.

“He had been there for 20 years and had been one of the three pillars of the organisation. Now he’s gone, and it’s going to take a lot to get back to the kind of success they’ve had over the past twenty years.

“But structurally the organisation hasn’t changed. The culture of the team hasn’t changed. So we’ll see.”