The Draw Play

While I sat there watching the Patriots remove the Giants from this plane of existence on the past Monday Night Football, a thought kept occurring to me with every hit. “That seemed unnecessarily hard”.

It wasn’t just me. My entire Bluesky timeline was taking notice. My Discord was seeing it. Everyone could see the Patriots were playing every down like they were roid raged. Basic tackles turned into the kind of hits that would turn you or me into pink mist. Jaxson Dart would get sent flying out of bounds on a legal hit that really only required a mild shove to work. Gunner Olszewski would fumble from a concussion after Christian Eliss hit him on the helmet so hard the paint flew off. The Patriots were playing some of the most violent football I’ve seen in years. And it came seemingly from nowhere. They aren’t doing this in every game. The Patriots are a tough team, sure, and the former linebacker turned coach Mike Vrabel surely has instilled a brutality to them. But this was…more.

It made me wonder if Vrabel was excising some demons.

Super Bowl 42 is the greatest sports moment of my life. Even at the time I understood it was special and that I would be unlikely to ever witness a more meaningful win as a fan. But every coin has two sides. While I will take that game to my grave and remember it long after the faces of my loved ones have faded, everyone on the other side will carry that burden. Especially the players involved.

Patriots fans were treated to 3 more Super Bowls down the road so their pain was eased if not erased. But Vrabel? That was his last Super Bowl appearance. He was traded to the Chiefs in 2009 and retired a couple seasons later. The 2007 Super Bowl would have been his career’s crowning moment. 2007 was his best season as a pro, his only pro bowl and all-pro honors.

Several members of that team have gone on record about how much it hurts (hahahahaha). Brady has said he’d trade other Super Bowls for that one. Teddy Bruschi went on Julian Edelman’s podcast once to talk about the game from his angle. That game hurts guys in ways other games don’t. It wasn’t just a Super Bowl. It was a Super Bowl with something historic on the line. They came inches from true history. Instead, it is now a different kind of history.

I don’t know if Vrabel has ever gone on record about that game. Vrabel probably rewatched that tape over and over all week and forced the team to endure the pain just to amp them up. Those Patriots on Monday night were men possessed. If I was a betting man, I would bet lingering pain from 2007 fueled that performance. Gotta get revenge somehow.

As an aside, I often hear from Pats fans and players use that “I’d trade 2 Super Bowls for that one” line. I think that’s some privileged cowardice. It’s easy to be like “I’d trade 2 of my team’s 6 Super Bowls for the special one”. You still got 4 other Super Bowls. Privileged bastards with no perspective. That’s not a trade. What are you even losing? The Rams/Pats part 2? That game sucked! Pats/Panthers? The most memorable part of that game was Janet Jackson’s nipple. These are cowardly answers.

Gimme a real answer. I’m not a Pats fan, but if I was, I think every SB is on the market for that one. The only Pats Super Bowls that I think I’d struggle to give up are the first one, and 28-3. The rest of them, traded for 2007. That’s an actual trade. So tell me you spoiled conglomerate: what are you really willing to give up for something untouchable?