Rinse, repeat?

Philosophical Belichick knows title defense will be tough

SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The other day, I walked into Patriots coach Bill Belichick's office at training camp. Lo and behold, he held up a book. My first book. The Season After, which is about why dynasties in sports are dead today, and why they will never be revived again.

"Re-read some of your stuff last night," he said. "Interesting."

(Belichick collects football books. He has quite a library. He asked me to sign it, which was a trip. I wrote: "I can't believe you are actually reading this swill. By the way, you can coach. Best wishes, Peter King.")

I wrote the book from 1987-88, after the Giants won the Super Bowl. I covered the Giants for Newsday then, and the book chronicled the team's failed attempt to repeat as Super Bowl champions. I had chapters about the reigning champs in other sports, too. I went to spring training and followed the dysfunctional Mets for a while, took a road trip with the Gretzky-Messier Edmonton Oilers, and traveled to L.A. to see the Magic and Kareem show, which was really the Pat Riley show if you ask me. I found Riley to be the most interesting motivator of great teams, by the way. He broke the season into 10-game chunks, and after each chunk, he challenged each player to get better at one or two very specific parts of his game. For instance, he might say to Kurt Rambis: You averaged 2.3 offensive rebounds per game in the last 10; get it to 3.3, and I'll reward you with more playing time, and that means you'll eventually make more money. Neat guy, Riley. Always thinking.

"I've talked to Pat a couple of times this offseason," Belichick said. "Actually ran into him at an Elton John concert. A number of people actually have dropped their wisdom on me. Bill Russell. Jim Brown, Pat. [Patriots assistants] Pepper Johnson and Romeo Crennel, from those Giant teams."

Belichick didn't have to ask any of them what the key is to winning after winning one title. Because there is no one answer. Everything in football today -- all sports, really, with the exception of baseball, where the Yankees can spend four times as much money as a team in its division (Tampa Bay) and argue defiantly about how just and fair it is -- works against you winning year after year. The draft pushes you to the bottom. The offseason is shorter than everyone else's. Other teams try to steal your players and coaches and scouts. Your own players get justifiably inflated views of themselves. The best thing Belichick did this offseason was bring in Russell for a surprise visit. The 11-time Celtics champ had many messages. Pride in yourself and your game was the personal favorite for a couple of players.

Belichick remembers the undoing of the Giants after their first Super Bowl win pretty well. "I saw it happen in '87," he said. "Seven guys wrote books. Everyone thought we could just slap the team back together and win, and it was a disaster." The '87 season opened in Chicago, and the Giants got embarrassed by the Bears 34-19, in part because one cornerback, Elvis "Toast" Patterson, came out of the game with cramps, and it was determined those cramps came from a Sunday night of heavy drinking in Chicago. Bill Parcells fired him the morning after the game. Things only got worse from there.

Since their Super Bowl win, no Patriots players have become authors. The only guy who seems to have gorged himself on the success is the darned kicker. Adam Vinatieri spent the spring and summer as New England's virtual houseguest, but who could blame him? The kick on the blizzardy night to beat Oakland, the kick to win the Super Bowl ... the guy is the anti-Buckner . Really, the Patriots have handled the early stage of success pretty well. Six days after the Pro Bowl, on a February Saturday at 3:30 in the afternoon, Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady was at Foxboro Stadium. Lifting weights.

The one thing that worries me, just a little, about this team? Antowain Smith. When Belichick pre-tested the team in his famous annual conditioning run in June, before the players left for some final R and R before camp, every player passed the test. When they returned to take the running test for real in July, Smith flunked. This is a very important player in the Patriots' success. Maybe the flunking is an aberration. I don't think so. Neither does Belichick. "I will only say this: Bernie Kosar took that conditioning test five years, and he passed it every time," Belichick said. If Smith is any less fit or ready this year, New England's not nearly as good as it was last year.

Belichick is philosophical about it all. He knows nothing the Patriots did last year matters now. Nothing. He knows they'll have a bull's-eye on their jerseys all year, starting with the Monday nighter Sept. 9 against the Steelers, who privately swear up and down there's no way they should have lost the AFC Championship game last January to New England. Belichick knows his team didn't dominate. He knows it could all have been different. Easily.

"You get on a roll," he said. "You win the championship. You look back at a game here, a play there, that could have happened differently, even slightly, and you wouldn't have won. Not to say we were lucky, but it was close. So close. So many games, so many plays. So you just don't know what this year will bring. You have to be ready for everything."

And the dreaded "R" word.

"I don't think of repeating," Belichick said. "It's such a long road. I think of trying to get this team to play well in Week 1."

Then Belichick went out to practice on a torrid afternoon, where he yelled at his players a lot. The Super Bowl seemed very far away. Which is the way it should be.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Check out his Monday Morning Quarterback column every -- and you should see this coming -- Monday morning.

 

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