With their third Super Bowl victory in four years, the New England Patriots are now being hailed as the quintessential franchise for all of professional football, if not all of professional sports.
Local high school football coaches, Patriot and non-Patriot fans alike, marvel at the team’s consistency, versatility and unselfishness and don’t mind holding up the three-time Super Bowl champions as a model for their own teams.
“It’s a very impressive franchise,” said Fryeburg Academy coach Jim “Fuzzy” Thurston, a Miami Dolphins fan. “There are no stars. It’s just a bunch of good football players that don’t shine above anyone else but together they shine above everyone else. It’s a good example for kids.”
“They show what teamwork is all about,” Oxford Hills coach and Patriot fan Paul Bickford said. “There aren’t guys spouting off in the locker room. Everybody is about team first. Things like that translate over to (the high school) level.”
“It’s a motivation piece,” he added. “A lot of these kids almost don’t remember when the Patriots weren’t good.”
Patriot fan and Lisbon coach Dick Mynahan remembers when they weren’t very good. Now, head coach Bill Belichick is providing the blueprint for coaches of all sports at all levels.
“I think everybody today is looking at them in a different way,” he said. “They’re never about money, They’re always about team. They’re always respectful of their opponents.”
Watching Sunday, the coaches focused in on different aspects or players in the game. Mynahan said he was most impressed with New England quarterback Tom Brady.
“I just can’t get over the composure I see time after time, and the way he answers the bell every time they need him to,” he said.
“I was just watching what they do defensively and how they disguise their fronts,” Bickford said. “They were moving guys all over the place and trying to put the Eagles in a state of confusion.”
Coaches may watch the game differently than most football fans, but they are just as apt to second-guess.
Thurston credited the Philadelphia Eagles for making the game closer than he though it would be, but added he was surprised that they didn’t go to a no-huddle offense on their penultimate possession when they were down 10 points with about six minutes to play.
“I was baffled by what was going on there for a while,” Thurston said. “There didn’t seem to be any sense of urgency. I don’t know if it was the coach. McNabb just didn’t seem ready. I just thought they were too complacent.”
If Patriots fans are getting complacent, they might want to remember that two of head coach Bill Belichick’s most trusted lieutenants, offensive coordinator Charlie Weis and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, are moving on to their own head coaching jobs.
Could losing two long-time assistants be the start of the their downfall?
“It depends,” Bickford said. “They’ll probably hire somebody that’s already within the system, so they probably won’t have as major a transition. But it’s still going to be at least a little bit of a change.”
Comments are no longer available on this story