[crowd cheers]
[announcer] And with ten seconds left...
...at stake is the perfect season.
[announcer] The Giants have won the Super Bowl.
[crowd cheers]
[Tom Brady] Losing the 2007 Super Bowl was devastating.
I was like, "What the fuck?"
That year, we dominated. We destroyed teams.
How did we lose?
If there's one game in history I'd change, it's that game.
But we can't change it.
I think what you realize about football and about life
is you never have it quite mastered.
It was a tough lesson for me to learn.
[Bill Belichick] You know, I think back to last season...
I know that you've heard me say, "Last year doesn't mean anything.
We don't care about last year."
But I hope that you will never forget those 16 wins.
You know, I've been through five and 11. I've been through seven and nine.
Those... Those are the seasons you want to forget, believe me,
not the 16 and 0 ones.
[players murmur agreement and clap]
[Brady] Coach, can I say something?
[Belichick] Sure can.
As I reflect back on last season,
we didn't finish the way we wanted,
but we know what we shared, and, uh, you know, I hope we learned from it.
And I hope we take it forward. And, uh, I always get emotional,
so, uh, just thinking about things I really care about.
So, uh... Thank you.
[applause]
Anybody else has anything they'd like to say about the season,
now is a great time to say it.
Because we're moving on.
[players laugh]
["Public Service Announcement (Interlude)" by Jay-Z plays]
[Al Michaels] Good afternoon, on a beautiful September day in New England.
A perfect day for football,
and a perfect day to open the 2008 Patriots season.
- [Brady] Let's go! - [player] Yeah, baby.
[Brady] We know what we need to do. Win on three.
- One, two, three! - [all] Win!
[cheering]
["Public Service Announcement (Interlude)" by Jay-Z continues]
Hike!
[Cris Collinsworth] Quick pass by Brady.
And that's a first down.
[Brady] I was really prepared to go back and have a great season.
We had a lot of the same team, so we thought,
all right, there's a redemption here for us.
[Collinsworth] Brady, throwing.
And a bullet from Tom Terrific.
[Michaels] Hopes are high that this will be the season
that they're going to go all the way.
[Brady grunts]
[whistle blows]
[Collinsworth] Tom Brady got hit right on the knee!
Tom Brady took a tremendous hit right on his left leg.
And Patriot Nation, right now, is holding its collective breath.
[Brady] I got hit just as my foot was planting.
You know, my knee got completely crushed.
I've always said that whenever I got hit, I was the first one up.
That was my only way to really display toughness,
was when I did get hit, I made sure they didn't know that it hurt.
But it just... The pain just kept going. It was super intense.
The doctor ran out and checked my knee and, uh,
I could just tell by the look on his eyes, like, I knew what it meant.
[Michaels] Tom Brady being helped off the field.
[Collinsworth] Well, right now, everyone here
is wondering how badly Tom Brady is hurt.
[Nancy Brady] I think the biggest worry you ever have,
going to watch your loved one play football, is injury.
Tommy's had so many injuries.
And he played through 'em.
But we just knew... this was different.
- [quiet chatter] - [camera shutters clicking]
Of course, we feel badly for Tom, uh,
about the injury and, uh, you hate to see anyone go down. Uh...
Nobody's worked harder and done more for this team than Tom has,
so it's a tough setback for him. You know, he played one position.
He played it very well and there'll be somebody else playing that position now
and everybody else has to continue to do their job, just like they always have.
Like they always need to.
[reporter] How did Tom take the news?
Probably like you'd expect.
[radio tuning]
[male reporter] Fans of the New England Patriots
got the news they were dreading today.
Quarterback Tom Brady's injury will keep him sidelined for the entire season.
[female reporter] The New England Patriots' record-breaking quarterback
has a torn ACL, a vital ligament in his left knee.
[male reporter 2] Is this a speed-bump or a major, major blip here?
[male reporter 3] It's a major blip.
You have no idea how he comes back from an injury of this magnitude.
[Robert Kraft] Post-game, I went to visit Tommy.
And his leg was propped up on pillows and he was like a...
...young man sobbing.
It was, uh... It was tough. It was a really tough moment.
It was a big injury. My ACL tore.
You know, you'd watch a lot of other quarterbacks' ACLs over the years.
It's a season-ending injury,
but I went into Coach Belichick's office and I said,
"I want to play. I'll fix my ACL at the end of the year.
I could just put a brace on it. I'll tape it and play the whole season."
[Randy Moss] I remember after he hurt his knee.
Tom Brady's throwing the football.
I was like, "Dude, you just tore your knee and you're out here."
So I said, "Damn, dawg! Is it going... going to be okay?"
Next thing you know, he goes in the training room
to get the thumbs up or the thumbs down.
He comes back, slams his playbook, and then he starts cussing.
He's like, "I'm sorry. I'm not gonna be out there with you today."
You know, something like that. It was hard for him to accept.
I ain't seen him no more after that. That was it.
[Kraft] I don't think Tommy had missed a game
in all the seasons since he started playing,
and now he's done for the season.
I think his own vulnerability really kicked in big-time...
...because he had observed, over the years,
the modus operandi of our head coach.
All players were expendable.
[Tom Brady Sr] Bill was all business.
He's cold. He's calculating.
If you're no good to go on the field, if you're not capable,
you're no good to the team. You're just out of sight, out of mind.
[announcer] Bledsoe rolls to the right.
He got whacked.
Tom Brady, the second-year quarterback in the game.
[Drew Bledsoe] I think that there's probably an element for Tom
of how he got his job that has driven him.
It was like, "Wow, you know, I was there with Drew, and Drew was the guy.
He came off the field for a second. Next thing, he didn't have his job anymore.
I can never come off the field, because if I do,
man, that next guy might be waiting in the wings."
[Belichick] 1999, Trent Green got hurt.
Warner took 'em to the Super Bowl.
2001, Bledsoe got hurt.
Brady took us to the Super Bowl.
That's the way it's gonna be, Cassel. Then we're riding your shoulders.
- [players clap and cheer] - [player] Let's go!
[Matt Cassel] That week after the Chiefs game was insane,
because we just lost Tom Brady.
And now I have the task of going out and composing myself
and needing to lead this team.
And I was like, "Oh, my gosh!"
[whistle blows]
It's a daunting task,
and I knew that we were just at the tip of the iceberg.
And then all the noise starts. All the noise starts.
Is Cassel Brady?
Let's not trip. I mean, let's not, come on now.
This offense was built for Tom Brady, tailor-made,
and now they have that personnel with a guy who hasn't played since high school.
Stop me if I tell a lie.
[Cassel] Every major media outlet wanted to make sure
that everybody in the world knew
that I hadn't started a game since I was in high school.
[reporter] The last time Matt Cassel started a game in the national spotlight
was 14 years ago, as a first baseman at the Little League World Series.
Why didn't the Patriots get a veteran back-up? The answer is,
Belichick honestly believes
this kid gives him a better chance to win a game.
[car engine revs]
[reporter] This is really the grand experiment.
How much of it is Tom Brady?
How much of it is Belichick and what he's built there?
[beeping]
[treadmill whirs]
[Belichick] As a coach, replacing Tom Brady is... You know, that's a tough one.
Tom's the greatest player of all time,
but you always try to find a way to win. It's different from year to year.
It's different with different players on the field.
But every week I've always felt like there's a formula in there, somehow,
that gives you the best opportunity as a team to win.
[Jets fans] J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!
[announcer] It's the Patriots and The Jets.
It's hot and humid at Giants stadium.
What will life be like for the Patriots after Tom Brady?
[crowd cheers]
[Cassel] I remember the pressure I felt before I took the field.
Coach Belichick walks up to me and he goes,
"Matt, we're not bringing anybody else in.
So don't worry about all the naysayers, all these people that are gonna question
what we're doing at the quarterback position.
You're gonna be fine. Just stay the course."
[announcer] Here's Matt Cassel under center,
starting a game for the first time in his NFL career.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer] He passed his first pass, and it's a good one.
It's over to Faulk.
Koppen snaps it back. And taking off with it, Cassel...
[announcer 2] That is a good job.
He's gonna pull it down and run.
If you're a defender or a pass rusher, look out.
[announcer] Third and goal. It's Morris, up and in.
Matt Cassel has got a win in his first start.
[players cheer]
[player] That's what I'm talking about!
[all chattering]
Cassel, I know you haven't started a game since the fucking 7th grade.
[laughter]
You started one today.
[players cheer]
[Belichick] As a coach, you always want to play in to the strength of your players,
not have a system and force the players to play the system.
In Matt Cassel's case, he had a lot of talent, he was smart,
and was very athletic, so we tried to tailor offense
to Matt's strengths and his confidence.
[announcer] Third down and three, Patriots at their own 41.
Snapped to Cassel. Steps up.
He's gonna run for the first down to the 50-yard line.
Stays on his feet to the Ram 48.
[Cassel] Running the ball was a big part of my game.
That's one element of the offense
that I can honestly say, Brady could never run the ball.
But I was a little bit quicker and Belichick recognized it.
Then he changed our offensive scheme perfectly.
[announcer] Here's Cassel. He's gonna run it again.
He's had success. And look at that!
Skips away from a tackle and a first down.
[player] Compared to Tommy, that's a gazelle back there running.
They're used to molasses coming out of the container.
They got a gazelle back there now. They got to prepare for that.
[announcer] Cassel out of the shotgun. Steps up. He's gonna run it.
To the ten, to the five, he's gonna run it in!
Touchdown! Matt Cassel!
[announcer 2] Everyone thought Tom Brady goes down, they were done.
Absolutely not true. Matt Cassel has shocked everyone.
[announcer] This is the mastery of Belichick.
He takes what he has and he adapts.
[Brady Sr] Tommy was just very vulnerable at that time.
On the one hand, you like to see the Patriots do really well.
On the other hand, you're sitting on the sidelines
and the team's playing, and nobody wants to...
...feel like they're dispensable.
[player] How do we feel about Matt Cassel as starting quarterback?
[all] Oh, yeah!
[Brady] From the outside looking in, you realize the show still goes on.
[indistinct chatter]
[Brady] I was determined to get back to playing.
And three days after the surgery, I was trying to pretend like I was,
you know, superhuman.
He caused an infection in his leg.
A very severe infection that the doctor was very, very concerned about.
But they had to go back in and do another surgery.
[Brady] I lost a lot of weight.
I was very gray.
I couldn't sleep. I couldn't sit... I just...
I couldn't move my knee. It was so swollen, and...
It was really... It was really tough. But I had great people there for me.
I remember flying out to help him through his ACL recovery.
You know, those are some tougher days.
Those are a lot of days that, you know, an athlete,
an elite athlete, who's done it at a high level,
sit and think... You know, they've got nothing but time now.
You think about the mortality of your sports career.
[announcer] The Patriots win in overtime.
[Alex Guerrero] "Alex, what if this is it? What if my knee is never the same?"
[announcer] Two Super Bowl championships...
[Guerrero] He was in his most low state, thinking he'll never play again.
[Brady Sr] Tommy spent his whole life wanting to be a football player.
And we as parents were not oblivious to football mortality.
As he goes through this stuff, we go through this stuff with him,
we go through the... the angst that,
"You're not out there doing the job that you love to do."
[announcer] When Brady went down in the opening game,
Cassel was able to step right in.
Cassel pulls it down, runs straight ahead to the end zone for the touchdown.
Yeah!
[announcer] I think this kid's got a little innate toughness.
[Cassel] Way to answer 'em. Hey, all day! Don't let up on that gas pedal.
[announcer] Cassel throwing for the corner of the end zone.
Caught! A perfect throw!
That's a statement made here today by the New England Patriots.
New England leads it by ten as we start the fourth.
Hey!
Sit down! Come on. Hey, fellas, we got a long way to go now.
[Donté Stallworth] One of the big things that I've come to understand is that
no matter what the score was, we received humble pie from Belichick.
I'm happy we won,
and I'm happy you guys made the plays that you needed to make to win,
but we gotta understand, we gotta be better than this...
[Stallworth] He cared more about what we didn't do right, because...
everything is geared towards winning.
Okay, and it's all of us. But we gotta do a better job.
Most of the coaches in the NFL are coaching football
and he's coaching warfare.
[Stallworth] He grew up in the Naval Academy.
His father, he was the coach there, and he learned a lot from him.
[Belichick] It felt good to... just as a kid, hang around my dad
and go over the film at night of the next team that Navy was going to play.
It was really interesting for me to sit there and learn from him
on approaching the game.
Um, he just... he loved everything that his dad did.
Anything that Steve did, he wanted to do.
He wasn't a pest. He was there to learn.
He didn't do anything that disrupted anything.
[chuckles] His father would have whopped him. No!
[announcer] A win today would put Navy in a position to dominate the East,
and that's something to cheer about.
[Belichick] It was totally kind of a military type of environment
on a football team.
[announcer] Touchdown! There'll be a hot time in Annapolis tonight.
[Belichick] I thought that was the way it was supposed to be.
I never really saw much different than that.
I think it had a big influence on my upbringing, on my life,
but also on my coaching career.
We have one sign around here, right down here on the hall,
on the way to this meeting room, from a guy named Sun Tzu.
It's his quote. "Every battle is won before it's fought." Okay?
Now look, I'm not saying we're in a war here,
but I'm just telling you, understand how one stupid play,
one stupid penalty, one mistake,
ends it for all of us.
[Cassel] If you're not mentally tough,
you can't play in that program. It'll destroy you.
Just before you go to bed tonight, you can watch this too.
This is pretty nauseating.
[Cassel] When Belichick would come and do video for the quarterback room,
it was all the bad quarterback plays.
[Belichick] Not even close to being able to complete this pass.
You can see everybody kind of squirming in their seat.
Like, "Oh, God, I hope he doesn't show that play."
One time, I don't see a corner blitz,
and I get absolutely annihilated in my back, "Boom!"
Belichick comes in, and he says,
"Uh, Cassel, you know, can we figure out the corner blitz?
Because I don't want to have to write your mother a letter that says,
'Dear Mrs. Cassel, we're sorry to inform you that your son is dead
because he's a dumbass and didn't see the corner blitz.'"
I'm gonna put more pressure on you individually,
I'm gonna put more pressure on you collectively,
because when we get into those situations, we gotta be able to handle them.
It's a hard life to live.
[laughs heartily] It's hard, man!
- How fucking stupid can you get? - [blows whistle]
[Bruschi] And sometimes...
- ...the young guys... - [whistle blast]
...just don't get it.
I always tell players you got to be able to look outside the box
and realize why he's doing it.
Have you ever had a wet towel? A wet towel?
And to wring it out, to get all the water out of it until it's dry?
I'm the wet towel, okay. And Bill is the hands.
I want you to wring the talent out of me any way you possibly can. Do it!
[Belichick] Set it, set it, set it!
Move your hands and ride 'em out. Ride the fucker out!
[Bruschi] I'm gonna get upset, I'm gonna get pissed off,
but I still know it's the best for me.
And that's how we're going to win, and consistently win.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer] Now Cassel takes the shotgun snap. Steps, looks, fires.
Randy Moss has got it!
[announcer 2] The New England Patriots, a big, big win for Bill Belichick.
As tough as that environment is on all of us,
and everybody will say the same thing,
we were winning a lot when I was there.
And we won without Tom Brady.
[announcer] Cassel fires left. Caught.
Thirty-five, 40, 45, 50, he's to midfield.
He's gonna go all the way. And the Patriots are racking up!
[Cassel] We were on a roll, man.
We went on a four-game win streak at the end of the season
to go to 11 and five.
We still didn't make the playoffs,
but we finished the season way beyond expectations.
[Belichick] I sure wish that we were playing another week,
but, you know, I couldn't be prouder of the team.
They've worked hard, uh, they've put up with me all year,
they've fought through a lot of adversity.
[analyst] This year is a testament to just how good a coach Bill Belichick is.
[analyst 2] Bill Belichick, to me, is so great
that he has me wondering about the greatness of Tom Brady.
You're 11 and 5 with Matt Cassel in his first-year quarterback in this team.
I've got to the point where I've asked myself,
"Who's not gonna look like that playing under Bill Belichick?"
[Guerrero] All of these things that we, you know, had heard people saying.
For people like, Tom and I,
those aren't words of criticism to me.
I don't take offense to those. To me, they're actually motivational,
like, all right, no problem, like,
we'll just go show you.
[Brady] Football isn't a game of entitlement.
It's a game of earning it.
With my rehab, I'd go to bed at night trying to wake up the next day
to be a little bit better.
[Guerrero] It's line upon line and precept upon precept.
A little bit here and a little bit there, and pretty soon,
we're out in the field throwing the football,
and I remember just the look on his face. We're like two kids in a candy store.
Like, he's like, "Alex, man, I could do this till I'm 50, right?"
I can fire that m...
[Brady] Going into that year, I realized I need to be preventative
and proactive about how I was taking care of myself.
How do I not break?
How do I not have the issues that would lead me to the operating room?
You know, I was going to do everything possible to play
however long I wanted to play.
When you see someone who's, like, doing what they love, you know,
despite the risk of bodily harm, you're torn.
But I know he was well taken care of.
He had the work with Alex and the way he was taking care of his body.
He had the love and support of Gisele...
...my parents and my sisters.
He had everything that he needed to get back.
[crowd cheers and whistles]
[reporter] Tom Brady in Patriots camp today, with the rest of the team.
His first official practice since shredding his knee
in last year's season opener.
Okay!
[reporter] The Patriots trade quarterback Matt Cassel with the Chiefs.
The deal signals New England must be comfortable with Tom Brady's rehab.
[reporter 2] The fact that they don't have Matt Cassel there
sends a sign that they feel Tom Brady's gonna be ready for the start of the year.
So, here's the question I have now. What if Brady's not ready?
[journalist] How confident are you that you can be
the same player you were before the injury?
We'll see. I mean, I...
Like I said, talk is cheap and I could sit here and tell you guys,
I'm gonna, you know, play till I'm 80, but that doesn't matter.
I'm gonna go do the best I can do.
I can't wait to get out and start playing games.
[crowd cheers]
[analyst] One year ago, we were reminded that this game we all love
can be fickle and can be cruel.
The first quarter of the first game, one hit, Tom Brady, season over.
With the reigning MVP recovering from knee surgery,
what do we expect from New England this season?
[analyst 2] It's all about number 12. Two years ago, '07 season,
the most prolific player offensively
in the history of the National Football League.
We are all watching to see if it's the same guy.
[Brady] Hey, this is the start of a long journey. Win on three.
- One, two, three. - [players] Win!
[announcer] A huge return.
After 53 weeks, New England welcomes Brady back.
Come on, get ready!
[announcer] Five out.
Brady's got time.
But it goes over the hands, and incomplete.
[announcer 2] Tom got a bit skittish. I'm gonna watch that injured leg.
Anybody coming back from a serious injury like that,
I don't care who you are, many times there'll be a sharp decline.
[commentator] Brady goes the other way. Incomplete.
It's the third time we've seen one of those little timing passes,
that the Patriots live on, not click.
Brady!
Tom, look... Settle down now, buddy.
Step into the throw, okay?
I'm getting them right in the hands.
Throw to Kevin out here?
I got drilled when I threw it.
- Did you get hit on that? - Yeah! He was blitzing.
I tried to lob it over him because the guy was standing right in his face!
All right, the one to Maroney?
- It was right in his hands! - It was over his head.
- Oh, that one? - Yeah. Just...
- You know, just step in to it, okay? - Yeah.
[announcer] Six for six on the drive, a lot of short stuff.
Now loading up the middle for Moss.
[announcer 2] Look at the balance. Eyes downfield.
That left leg planted on the ground. That snap of the ball coming through.
- That's Tom Brady. - [announcer] That's pretty.
[announcer 3] Tom Brady's starting to heat up.
You can almost sense his confidence coming out of the huddle.
[announcer] Down the middle shot, touchdown! Benjamin Watson.
Touchdown!
[cheering]
[announcer 3] What a debut for the 2009 season for Tom Brady.
[Guerrero] When I watched him in 2009, his first game,
he had gotten it dialed in.
And he was just throwing the ball so well, so, so well that day.
And just the elation and the joy that comes from actually making it
through four quarters of football.
You know, I was so excited for him, 'cause I know how hard he worked to get there.
How do you feel about a Monday night victory?
[players] Oh... yeah!
[Michael Holley] In that game, Brady looked really good.
That was a sign he was back.
So, if you're a Patriots fan, you're saying,
"It's Brady and Belichick together again.
This team will get back to the Super Bowl."
[announcer] Second and goal, the ball game hanging in the balance.
And... fumble. The ball came loose.
Goddammit!
[announcer] Oh, my goodness! A fumble in the end zone.
The Patriots blow a golden opportunity.
[Holley] But as we saw the rest of the team play,
that excitement went away.
[announcer] Drive... Mishandled snap, but gets it away.
Bess gets free. Five, end zone. Touchdown, Miami.
And the road woes for Bill Belichick and New England continue.
[Colin Cowherd] I watched the Patriots yesterday
and I just think they've gotten rid of a lot of really smart veteran guys.
Mike Vrabel, Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi.
You can't lose half a dozen guys that are that good and that smart.
[Holley] These veterans eventually retired or they were traded.
You know, these guys, they'd been really important players,
because they got younger players to buy into Bill's style.
[Belichick] We go out to practice, run the plays, sit in meetings,
sometimes half asleep, not really paying attention.
There's only one game next week for one of these two teams.
So it's a death match.
[Holley] Without those veterans,
some new guys didn't like the way Belichick was coaching.
Why should I listen to him when he cusses me out in team meetings,
when he calls me out? Where's my payoff?
[announcer] Fires down the middle of the field...
Wide open at the 50. He's gonna go all the way for a touchdown.
[Belichick] We just have no mental toughness.
I just can't get this team to play the way we need to play.
I just... Can't do it.
So frustrating.
We had guys like Tom Brady, who got it.
But Brady, you know, he can't do it all.
[announcer] First and ten, from their own 17.
The hand-off comes to the tailback breaking across the 25, the 30,
35, 40, 45, 50.
He might take it all the way!
Ray Rice goes 83 yards
on the opening play of the game.
We never fucking do the right fucking thing!
[Adams] We got beat from the first snap
and we didn't do anything well in any phase of the game.
[announcer] Has time to throw.
Now fires it long, deep right side, Sam Aiken.
It is intercepted off the hands of Aiken.
Damn it!
[announcer] That's the ball game, and that's the season.
A disaster for the Patriots, and a 33 to 14 Baltimore rout.
[analyst] The Patriots didn't come to play.
Are the Patriots as we've known them the last ten years done?
[Adams] The scribes, it was like announcing a funeral.
"The dynasty's dead, buried, and in the past."
It was horrendous.
[reporter] Do you feel like this team kind of got away
from the way the Patriots used to be?
This feels like it never would have happened.
Well, there's some things that we didn't do well
over the course of the year.
And I think that things we didn't do well today, um...
Part of it is mental toughness and moving forward, saying,
"This year didn't turn out the way we wanted it to.
Next year we'll make it a hell of a lot better."
[Adams] I mean, everybody understood we had to make some big changes.
You know, we gotta have a good draft, 'cause we gotta get this thing going.
- [Jimmy] We're on the clock with 639. - What do you got?
[Adams] We were looking for toughness and intensity in a football player.
[Jimmy] Four minutes remaining. Four minutes.
[Adams] In the fourth round, we found this guy that we liked.
You know, there were some off-the-field issues.
- [man] How much more time, Jimmy? - [Jimmy] Three minutes.
We thought, "There's a degree of risk here,
but it makes sense to take it."
But looking in hindsight, of course, we did not understand
the full dimensions of what the problem was.
- [Jimmy] Okay. - You ready?
[Jimmy] Yeah, ready.
[reporter] The Patriots chose Aaron Hernandez.
[reporter 2] NFL Pro Bowl tight end Aaron Hernandez
was charged with murder today.
[analyst] The Patriots will certainly be asked
what the team knew then, and did they look the other way?