This week’s theme is simple: what are you thankful for? It could be something about the NFL or the New England Patriots or about life in general. Since we’re Pats Pulpit, we’re going to stick with the Patriots for this article, but if you have a great life event you wish to share in the comments, feel free to do so.
The New England Patriots are in the middle of the most impressive stretch of dominance in NFL history. They have the greatest head coach in modern football with Bill Belichick and the greatest player of all time in Tom Brady. They’ve had the same coordinators for the past six years and Nick Caserio has led the front office for the past decade. There’s a consistency that other franchises only dream about.
And then there are the other players on the team. Devin McCourty, Matthew Slater, Nate Solder, and Rob Gronkowski are some of the most involved community leaders the Patriots have seen, and you can’t forget Joe Cardona’s contributions. It’s pretty easy to root for these players on and off the field.
All of these are good reasons to be thankful as a Patriots fan. They’re also easy reasons, so I’ll let everyone else do that.
I’m thankful that every opposing coach of the Patriots overthinks every single coaching decision to their own detriment and that allows New England to have some of the luckiest outcomes in NFL history.
How about the Seattle Seahawks throwing it on the goal line in Super Bowl XLIX? How about the Atlanta Falcons not running the ball while in field goal range in Super Bowl LI? How about leaving Rob Gronkowski wide open in seemingly every single game against the Pittsburgh Steelers? What about the Denver Broncos firing the best defensive coordinator in the NFL (Wade Phillips), ushering in the end of the Denver defense?
There are a lot of examples of pretty much every coach in the NFL, other than Tom Coughlin, screwing up a seemingly obvious decision against the Patriots because they want to out-think Bill Belichick. I’m thankful for that every single year.
What are you thankful for?
PS: I’m actually most thankful for my wife. We married in July. #Winning.