Look who’s back!
Seven years after winning a sixth Lombardi Trophy, the New England Patriots are back where they belong in Super Bowl 60, and the rest of the NFL is nervous.
For two decades, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick mercilessly terrorized the league year after year, winning those six Super Bowl titles in nine appearances in an era of unparalleled dominance.
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Eventually relief came, as Brady left, Belichick followed and the dynasty faded into obscurity with four wins also with no looking back.
But then a meteoric return to the top this season, propelled by head coach Mike Vrabel and quarterback Drake Maye, led many NFL fans to root for the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara on Sunday, out of sheer fear of the resurgence of the league’s “evil empire.”
The fall and rise of the Patriot empire
In a league built to promote parity, the Patriots have continually found ways to win — missing the playoffs only twice in Brady and Belichick’s 19 seasons together, and one of those the legendary quarterback missed due to injury.
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There have been 18 division titles, 13 conference championship appearances leading to nine Super Bowls and Lombardis – a definition of dominance that has NFL fans still suffering from PTSD (Patriots Traumatic Stress Disorder).
Belichick has orchestrated a top-10 defense 16 times and Brady has led a top-eight offense for 14 straight years, including one of the best in history in 2007, which led to a Super Bowl before a perfect 19-0 season.
A surly, hooded Belichick was all business all the time and slipped easily into the villain role, so some NFL fans rejoiced when Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs came to the rescue, playing the role of Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance to help defeat the evil Patriot Empire.
And that seemed to be the case as Belichick struggled without Brady. A rare first-round pick spent on Mac Jones in 2021 proved a false dawn as the Pats made the play-offs but were beaten by Josh Allen’s Buffalo.
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A 4-13 season saw the end of Belichick’s tenure, and former Pats linebacker Jerod Mayo was only able to produce the same 4-13 finish that ended his tenure after just one season.
Three consecutive years without a play-off was the team’s longest run since the early 1990s, and in the last two years they weren’t even close – ranking near the bottom of the league in almost every metric.
Owner Robert Kraft turned to another former Patriots linebacker but one with vital head coaching experience, Mike Vrabel, and he led a record 10-win turnaround that had the Patriots back on their perch.
And the rest of the NFL feared the empire was about to strike back.
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How were the Patriots able to turn things around so quickly?
Kraft deserves credit for acting quickly and changing head coaches because Vrabel seemed like the perfect fit.
Imbued with the “Patriot way” of doing things, the three-time Super Bowl winner knows how to get the job done but, unlike Mayo, he had the crucial experience of leading the Tennessee Titans to the AFC Championship Game during his time in Nashville.
Vrabel was the most sought-after head coach in the cycle last year and Maye showed in his first year that he had franchise quarterback potential. The two turned out to be a match made in heaven.
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A head coach who relied on a ferocious defense and a second-year quarterback with a knack for producing the right plays at the right time — that’s just one of the similarities to the 2001 Patriots, the first Super Bowl victory of the Brady-Belichick era.
The combination was promising enough for Kraft to sanction the league’s biggest spend in free agency, with $364 million spent on new talent — and best of all, most of it was a hit.
Coupled with very good drafting, the new head coach and improving second-year quarterback landed in a perfect storm in a total Patriots reboot – with only 16 players remaining from the team from a few years ago.
They had the second-most snaps played by rookies this season and a total of 416 regular-season games played by players in their first year in Foxborough – a record for a team reaching a Super Bowl.
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Perhaps the fact that Vrabel was also new helped so many new faces come together, but however it worked out, it was certainly a recipe for success as they all succeeded.
The team’s leading receiver Stefon Diggs, leading tackler and defensive signal caller Robert Spillane, leading sacks leader Harold Landry and defensive giant Milton Williams all arrived in free agency last summer.
Their regular season leader, TreVeyon Henderson, came out of the 2025 NFL Draft and the Patriots will be the first team to start two rookies on the offensive line, Will Campbell and Marcus Bryant.
It’s been as clinical in the Patriots’ front office as it has been on the field, and New England is one game away from a record seventh Super Bowl title.
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Comparisons to the Brady and Belichick era
For those whose Super Bowl dreams have been dashed by the Patriots in the past, there are unsettling similarities to the way Vrabel and Maye emulated the Brady and Belichick axis.
At just 23 years old, Maye could become the youngest quarterback to win the Super Bowl, so he’s younger than Brady, but both made the big game in their sophomore seasons.
Maye is only the third quarterback to appear in the Super Bowl after generating fewer than 17 points on offense in multiple playoff games – Brady’s 2001 Pats offense failed to put up 17 in three games.
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The weather played a role in all three playoff games, but Vrabel’s defense was still excellent and it’s exactly because of such close games like this in the playoffs that Brady and Belichick made names for themselves.
In fact, New England’s win over Denver was only the fourth time since 2001 that a quarterback generated 14 or fewer points on offense and still won a championship or Super Bowl game – Brady was among the other three.
Maye spreads the ball like Brady did, with nine players this season having at least 200 receiving yards, and often appears with the crucial play at the crucial moment, although more with his legs than his arm.
Of Maye’s 16 points in the playoffs, 12 resulted in a touchdown or first down – Brady had the same kind of magic in his arm to lead his team to glory.
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So a tough, defensive coach, a talented and focused quarterback happy to win by any means possible, key draft picks and expert free agents helped create a team capable of blowing away teams or pulling off tough play-off wins at home and away.
It certainly sounds familiar, and it will be a familiar sight in Santa Clara since the Patriots will have appeared in 20% of all Super Bowls on Sunday – and the worry for the rest of the NFL is that this could just be the beginning.
