Last weekend, the New England Patriots selected safety Brandon Meriweather in the first round of the draft and then traded a pick for wide receiver Randy Moss. Moss’ entire career has been checkered with confrontations, complaints, alleged laziness and sound bites, while Meriweather has two well-noted incidents—one involving the use of a legally-registered handgun in defense of his roommate and himself and one involving the gratuitous stomping of an opposing player during an on-field brawl. The gun issue is debatable, but at least defensible, while the stomping incident is more notorious and more difficult to excuse.
The reaction to the addition of these two players has been mixed as far as their results on the field and whether or not it was a good idea to bring such players into the fold. But on one point, there seems to be a consensus: the Patriots are no longer doing things, “The Patriot Way.” The Sporting News’ Paul Attner penned an article titled, “Even the Patriots will Sacrifice Integrity to Win.” Sports Illustrated’s Micheal Silver claims that the Patriots have lost their “moral high ground.” The Boston Herald’s local take found Michael Felger claiming that by embracing the “thug culture,” the price of winning in New England has gone up. This could go on for hours, but the point is that regardless of whether the move is liked or hated, it is thought to be a major divergence from “Patriot football.”
This brings up a very legitimate question: what is the Patriot Way? The general idea is that the team is a bunch of good, smart, versatile players with low profiles, good coaching and hard work that have come together to win games. There is some merit to that. But “moral high ground?” The team has never been “classier” than the rest of the league, nor has it been composed of, overall, "better people." The Patriot way of football always involved letting go of the selfish players when they asked for too much money—as Patriot players should prefer winning to dollars and cents. However, if the team has a reputation of letting go of selfish, me-first players, then those types of players must have been on the team at some point to begin with.
As far as the types of players on the team, it appears that they had all types. Some guys that immediately come to mind are Bryan Cox , Ty Law, Rodney Harrison and Corey Dillon. Ty Law had great success with the team. He didn’t buy into the Patriot Way, however, and so he bowed out. Meanwhile, Rodney Harrison was a notoriously “dirty” player who frequently was fined by the league for illegal hits--at one point he ranked among the league leaders in career fines. And while he never stomped on anyone, he routinely put people in danger on the field to amass such fines. But Harrison (not unlike Meriweather) has very good “football character.” That means he works hard, he gives his all for the game, and he is an emotional and vocal leader that elevates the play of those around him. Bryan Cox was in a similar mold. Harrison came to New England because he bought into the Patriot Way: money wasn’t as important as winning football games. Bryan Cox was a valuable leader in 2001 when winning first became synonymous with the Patriots. Finally, there’s Corey Dillon. Dillon was never in trouble with the law, but he routinely spoke out against his teammates and coaches and became a locker room distraction. He was a great player stuck on a losing team, and eventually, he decided that money was less important than winning football games, and the Patriots welcomed that decision.
This isn’t to say that the Patriots are full of “bad people;” not at all. They have a very strong core of hard-working, intelligent, versatile players. They also rarely have players get arrested—yet the same could be said for several NFL teams. The Patriot Way of football really comes down to a couple things: leadership on the field, and (more importantly) valuing wins moreso than your wallet. That’s really all there is to it. The Patriots collect players of varying personality make-ups and ability levels who would rather win football games than make a few extra million dollars and who trust Bill Belichick to make that happen. That’s the Patriot Way.
Brandon Meriweather isn’t altogether different from a Rodney Harrison, Bryan Cox or maybe some other players that have been a part of the Patriot family. He, too, has never been arrested. But he is a hard worker and a team leader with great football intelligence. He should fit right in.
As for Randy Moss? Moss is simply the biggest example in history that the Patriot Way of doing things is still alive and well. Moss is known for his selfish, immature personality as much as he is for his dynamic play on the football field. He was, at one time very recently, the highest-paid wide receiver in the national football league. When a player of that make-up and reputation gives in and decides to slash his salary by $6 million in order to play for a winner, that’s when you see the true merits of The Patriot Way.
