What Does Tom Brady Mean to the Patriots?

How much does Tom Brady mean to the New England Patriots? The former 6^th round draft pick - 199^th overall in the 2000 NFL draft - came into a 2001 week 2 match up against the Jets when Drew Bledsoe was injured and the face of the Patriots was never the same.

As noted by the Cold, Hard Football Facts, in the 14 seasons between 1987-2000 the Pats won 98 games of 232 - they were 95-128 in regular season play, and 3-6 in post season including the run up to Super Bowl XXXI. That's a .422 winning percentage. In the 7 seasons since Tom Brady became a starter, he has won 100 games out of a possible 128; including 14 of 16 in the post-season. That is a .781 winning percentage.

Even more amazing, the franchise had made the playoffs 6 times between 1960-1992; Drew Bledsoe, the first pick of the 1993 NFL Draft, led the team to 4 playoffs appearances (including a Super Bowl) in his 8 seasons as a starter in New England. 10 appearances in 41 years. Brady has led the Pats to 6 playoff appearances in 7 years - 5 AFC Championship games, 4 Super Bowls, 3 Super Bowl Championships (with the possibility of a fourth).

He has started 128 straight games. That's third in the league behind sure Hall of Famers Bret Favre and Peyton Manning. Assuming only regular season starts, he's made 110; that's fourth all time behind Favre (253), Manning (160), Ron Jaworski (116).

Having followed the Patriots for some time, I saw more than a few of those 98 wins between 1987 and 2000. I saw a few of those wins before 1987. More than that, though, I saw an awful lot of losses. From 1960 through the 2000 season, the franchise record stood at 280-323. 18 losing seasons, including a run of 7 consecutive years between 1967-1973; a period in which there was 9 of 11 losing seasons from 1965 through 1975. From 1989 through 1995, the team saw 6 losing seasons of the 7 - interrupted only by the 10-6 1994 team.

The current string of consecutive winning seasons - 7 - is matched by the run between 1982 through 1988 - but the string of wins is not: 1982-1988 the team was 61-43; in the run from 2001-present the team is 86-26, and that includes 2 losses on Bledsoe's watch.

This has been a truly amazing time to be a Patriots fan. When Bledsoe went down in that game with the Jets, I remember saying "there goes the season." That didn't come to pass. Not only was I wrong, a few short months later I was celebrating a victory in one of the Top 5 Super Bowls of all time.

Bledsoe, one of the toughest quarterbacks I've seen play the game and one of the big reasons the franchise is still located in Foxborough, had nothing on this skinny kid a year removed from Michigan State. He has completely reshaped the organization - from a pathetic also-ran, to a premiere franchise; from perennial doormat to Super Bowl Champion. He has completely reshaped the fan base - Patriots fans see ourselves much differently now than we did even 8 years ago.

Bledsoe changed the fortunes of the organization, but Brady took it even farther. Drew Bledsoe helped bring the Patriots to respectability, but only once in his tenure as a starting quarterback in New England did the Pats win 11 games. In Brady's tenure, the teams has failed to win at least 11 games twice - 2005 going 10-6 and 2002 with a 9-7 record.

There are some in New England who lived through the nomadic ride from Fenway Park, to BU Stadium to Harvard Stadium, to the renaming of the Boston Patriots to the ill fated moniker "Bay State Patriots" upon their move to Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium.

Myself, I remember as far back as the 1985 run to the Super Bowl against the Bears. The region reveled in the teams' first appearance in the big game like nothing I had ever seen. They had hit an apex and were on a wild ride down from there. By the time I was well into my college career, they bottomed out with one of the all time worst seasons in NFL history.

Consider this: if the Patriots win Super Bowl XLII, in one season they will have matched the number of wins in the five-season run between 1989 and 1993 (19-61 record).

We all know what NE Patriots means - this is why the team dropped "Bay State" from it's moniker. At the time it would have been completely appropriate; no longer.

REFERENCE MATERIAL:

• http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nwe/
• http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Articles/11_
  2103_The_definitive_list%3A_Top_10_NFL_
  quarterbacks.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_consecutive_
  starts_by_a_quarterback_(NFL)
• http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/
  245070/new_england_patriots_.html
• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_
  the_original_name_of_the_New_England_Patriots