[Originally published: Feb. 11, 2015 in The Ionian]

With a fourth Super Bowl title, the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady established themselves as the best dynasty in the history of the NFL.

In addition to winning the Big Game for a fourth time, Belichick and Brady have taken the Patriots to the Super Bowl two other times and made it to the final four on three other occasions.

Though some will argue that these losses in the late rounds of the playoffs hurt a legacy when compared to others who are undefeated, their arguments are unfounded. The objective of playing the game is to get as close to winning a championship as possible.

Brady is now being compared to Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw. Each of them has won four Super Bowls. However, Brady is the only one to play in six Super Bowls; Montana and Bradshaw each made only four appearances in the Big Game.

Furthermore, Brady won his four over a 13 year period; Montana did it in nine years, and Bradshaw accomplished the feat in six years. The longevity of Brady’s excellence speaks for itself; he is now the quarterback with the longest gap between his first title and his last. He ranks second among all players in this area. (Lou Groza, a placekicker for the Cleveland Browns, was a member of championship-winning teams in 1950 and 1964.)

In addition to setting the mark for the most starts at quarterback in the Super Bowl, Brady also set several records: most career touchdown passes in the Super Bowl (13), passing yards (1,605), and completions (164). In Super Bowl XLIX, he set the record for the most completions (37), first downs (21) and largest second-half deficit overcome (10) in one Super Bowl.

However, these records and Brady’s fourth Lombardi Trophy did not come easily as the Patriots narrowly edged the Seattle Seahawks 28-24.

Late in the first quarter, New England’s second drive of the game, which lasted nearly eight minutes, ended with an interception to keep the game scoreless. Then, the Seahawks tied the game at 14 two seconds before halftime.

Seattle rode this momentum into the third quarter, scoring all 10 of the period’s points. Finally, after Brady and New England tallied two fourth-quarter scores to take the lead, Jermaine Kearse made an unbelievable catch at the five-yard line to give the Seahawks a first and goal with just over a minute to go in the game.

This play evoked memories of previous New England defeats: the Patriots’ two Super Bowl losses to the New York Giants over the last eight years. In Super Bowl XLII, Eli Manning evaded several defenders to toss up a pass that David Tyree caught on his helmet to move the Giants to the New England 24-yard line. In the rematch, four years later, Manning threw a perfectly placed pass to Mario Manningham near the sideline to get the Giants to midfield. Both of these completions, like the Kearse catch, were once-in-a-lifetime plays.

However, the end result in Super Bowl XLIX was different, as rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson’s pass at the goal line to secure the win.

Butler’s spectacular play is in large part due to the preparation Belichick provides his players with.

“[Belichick has] the innate ability to take players, put them in a system, make the system work, be successful and be consistent at winning,” Willie McGinest said on the NFL Network. McGinest played for Belichick for six seasons, winning three Super Bowls together.

As Butler will be remembered as the hero of the game, it is Belichick’s precise attention to detail that has guided the team to four Super Bowl titles in 15 years. The team looks to become the first franchise to win multiple championships in consecutive decades.

For Belichick, Brady and the rest of the Patriots, they’re on to Super Bowl 50.

http://www.ioniannews.com/opinion/columnists/article_4d22aeac-b247-11e4-9141-97d351b24472.html