The NFL Dynasty Falls? New England Patriots Reign Over as Tom Brady's Charmed Life is Halted

I like to think of myself as a realist. It's with some conviction, then, that I can say with pretty much certainty that the '08/'09 season for the New England Patriots is dead in the water. In the middle of the first quarter of the Pats' home game opener, on September 7, 2008, Tom Brady lay screaming on the ground in pain, victim of a torn ACL. Bad luck? Bad karma? Both? In either event, a really, really bad start to the season for both Brady and the Patriots.

Within the past decade, the Patriots have notched three somewhat impressive Super Bowl wins. Tom Brady, the team's photogenic quarterback, has been acclaimed the NFL's Most Valuable Player. The team weathered the Spygate storm that briefly blew around it, coming away pretty much unscathed in spite of some questionable ethical maneuvering. The only small hiccup along the road to Perfection was the Pats' loss in the '08 Super Bowl following an amazing 19-0 season run. (Even more amazing was their losing the big game to that lovable youngest Manning boy, Eli, who seemed just as surprised as the rest of us at the game's outcome.)

The Patriots were set to head back on yet another journey to the Super Bowl yet again this year, with only the most minor of concerns. Brady hadn't taken a snap during the pre-season due to a nagging foot injury. There were veiled allusions that it was the 'same' foot injury that had plagued Brady during the Super Bowl, although the loss of the game seemed more due to heavenly intervention that a Brady bone spur. For the first time in 57 games, New England's head coach did not list Brady as 'questionable' on the roster for Opening Day '08. In hindsight, that begs the question: did that action jinx Tom Brady? And if it did, does anyone other than the Patriots and their fans really care?

In the 1999 NFL draft, five quarterbacks were first-round selections. Of the five, only one - Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles - is still an active member of the NFL. (Daunte Culpeper was also a member of the class of '99; unfortunately, having been plagued with injuries himself, having bounced around from team to team the past few years, Culpeper retired in early September, 2008 because he couldn't find a starting position within the league.) It is a bit of a small miracle that McNabb is not only still playing, but still standing. Since the 2004 season, McNabb has missed games and seasons due to a sports hernia and a torn ACL himself. There's much hope in Philadelphia that, for once, for the first time in years, McNabb will not only start the season healthy, but remain that way, too. Before the sports hernia, before the torn ACL, McNabb was also a Super Bowl contender and a Pro Bowl selection - much like Brady, who now shares more in common with McNabb than he'd ever wished.

Compare McNabb to Brady and to Payton Manning for a moment. Compare the skill set that McNabb had and hopefully still has despite his years of injury. Manning, like Brady, missed this year's pre-season due to knee surgery. On the Colts' opening day, the team lost their home opener, Manning was a painfully thin 15 pounds lighter, and seemed stiff-legged at best. It took McNabb a full year, and then some, before he physically was able to return from his ACL surgery. You have to wonder how McNabb's career would have gone if he, like Brady and Manning, had been injury-free.

Why now, Patriots fans may wonder, and why Tom? Perhaps there is a little bad karma going on up North. In late 2006, Brady seemingly abandoned his pregnant longtime girlfriend, Bridget Moynahan, to start up a relationship with fading Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen. (Moynahan, ever the resourceful Catholic school girl, gave birth to a bouncing baby boy who retains her last name.) When Moynahan gave birth on the West Coast, Brady barely made it to the hospital before the birth of his first child. Raising her child on her own in California, with help from her parents, Moynahan has struggled of late to get her acting career kicked back into gear. (She was perhaps best known for her role as the second wife of the Mr. Big character in the "Sex and the City" HBO series.) In late August, Brady and Bundchen purchased a lavish Brentwood estate together - perhaps because he's from California, perhaps to be closer to his young son.

In the ensuing time period, Brady has made himself quite the visible man about town. Following his stupendous loss in the Super Bowl to the Giants, he was seen traisping around Manhattan en route to Bundchen's apartment, a bouquet of flowers in hand, a boot on that (allegedly injured) foot.

One of the most endearing visual memories I have of that Super Bowl was when the New York Giants were introduced onto the field, following that of the Patriots. As the Giants were lumbering around and lining up, the youthful Eli Manning ran by Brady, who stopped and attempted to stare Manning down. Eli was blissfully unaware of Brady's actions at the time, and it's doubtful that it would have mattered much to him in any event, with his 'Golly, Gee Whiz, I'm In the Superbowl, Ma!" attitude.

Perhaps there are a great deal of women of all ages who find Tom Brady a romantic, even heroic, sports icon. I'm not one of them.

A torn ACL will take at least a year to properly heal. The prognosis following surgery is pretty much an unknown. Some players have had no difficulty returning to the game following this type of injury; for others, the ACL tear was a career-ender. The only certainty is that Tom Brady will never, ever be exactly the same player as he was before September 7, 2008.

While the Patriots have surrounded Brady with a very complimentary and diverse group of players surrounding him, the heart and soul of the team, rightly or not, has been its quarterback. With Brady gone for at least this season, it appears that the Pats will rely on Brady's back up, Matt Cassel - who hasn't started a game since his high school playing days. Literally. The media characterized Cassel's play during the pre-season as "awful". Brady's cleats are going to be pretty tough for an "awful" backup to fill. Then again, Brady himself was a back up before Drew Brees went down; perhaps Cassel will prove me wrong, and the Patriots' season, instead of being pretty much over, will instead just be enticingly interesting...

The charmed life that Tom Brady has led for a number of years has come to a close. The Patriots' dominance in the post-season may have ended as well, for at least this year if not the foreseeable future, should Brady's recovery become an issue on the field.