Should the Patriots be considered a dynasty? With all of the accomplishments of the New England Patriots, can we categorize them with the other great dynasties of the NFL?
Let me preface this by stating that when I began writing this story, I felt as if the Patriots did not deserve to be placed with the other great dynasties of the NFL unless they clinched one more Super Bowl title before 2010. I originally felt that way because of three reasons: 1) they needed to prove their consistency, 2) they needed to not only have stellar seasons, but stellar off-seasons as well, and 3) if they won one more then the people who feel that they should have an asterisk by their names would be quieted.
After a great deal of research, I changed my mind. And people, that is a rare occurrence.
After their Super Bowl victory against the Philadelphia Eagles, most people were eager to jump on the bandwagon to state that the Patriots were the dynasty of the decade. Each decade we have had a dynasty in the N.F.L. The 1960s belonged to the Green Bay Packers. The 1970s met the Steel Curtain of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The 1980s saw Bill Walsh’s undeniable coaching talent of the San Francisco 49ers. I’m sure that none of us can forget the dominance of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s. All of these teams were great. We watch the film of their glory days in awe, but take the film of the Packers playing the Raiders in 1968 during Super Bowl II and compare it to the film of the Patriots versus the Eagles at Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. The players are larger, the game is faster, the rules are much more strict, and the season is longer. Couple those factors with free agency, salary caps, and an almost 8 billion dollar a year industry that everyone involved wants a slice of and what you get is a much different version of the NFL from the one that existed when the AFL and NFL first merged.
I am not taking anything away from the men who built the sport and made it what it is today, but just as animals in the wild, the players and coaches of the NFL have been forced to adapt as the sport has grown. They must become faster and more powerful in order to compete with the few guys who, each decade, raise the bar for all others.
