Tom Brady’s ceremony further proves the Patriots are living in the past

Tom Brady’s ceremony further proves the Patriots are living in the past originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

What happens when the franchise famous for just looking forward suddenly has nothing to look forward to? You’ll have Tom Brady Night in June, opposite the NBA Finals.

We’re not done roasting this guy? He no just ring the lighthouse bell?

We did and he did, but get ready to fully embrace the past because this trumps what’s to come for the six-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.

The franchise that could quietly mock the various rings of honor and reunion nights common to other smaller organizations during its 20-year reign is suddenly selling nostalgia, too. Like the deposed dictator who, overnight, must find a home for her 6,000 shoes, the Patriots are experiencing how normal people live.

It’s not pretty. You sell the past because the future may never come.

The Pats are already 0-1 in Brady’s succession plans, with Alabama Mac Jones melting away like a forgotten baked Alaska prepared by delinquent chefs. Now they’re in the second round, and we’ll no doubt hear great things about No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye during training camp, even if the odds suggest he’s more likely to become Blake Bortles than Josh Allen. If Maye explodes, it will be another three or four wasted years.

So once again, Brady must save the day and give everyone a chance to show off their Super Bowl rings, which are getting a little less shiny every day. The Patriots chose the 6/12 date because TB12 won six rings here, conveniently omitting the fact that if the organization hadn’t let the greatest of all time escape former coach Bill Belichick’s intractable pettiness, we could be doing this in July or August. As it stands, I think we’re pretending that Tampa Bay’s seventh buzzer-beater never happened.

Be prepared for more of this, because we’re a long way from “On to Cincinnati” and “No Days Off.” The Patriots mastered the art of recognizing the future only during the Belichick Era, at least when it suited them. It allowed them to survive the various gates of those years, and it was also a relaxation: “We control the narrative, not you.”

Then Brady fled, Jones bombed, Belichick was ejected, and now they’re starting over as just another franchise hoping to one day be worthy of primetime status.

They’ll push the past because it’s more attractive than the present, but it’s also officially the stuff of John Facenda voiceovers and sepia tones, and it doesn’t buy much goodwill anymore. Owners must prove they can win without Brady and Belichick, rookie coach Jerod Mayo will soon be under the microscope and the immediate fate of the franchise rests on the shoulders of the third quarterback selected in this year’s draft. Welcome to the life of an idiot, as Henry Hill would say.

Just to make the descent into have-not status even more steep, the Patriots failed to predict that the Celtics would be competing for a championship, so their ceremony will be opposed Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night in Dallas.

Some might say this is bad luck, but it’s actually quite the opposite.

The Celtics were considered title favorites when the Patriots announced Brady’s early induction into the Hall of Fame in September, so this overlap was always in play. As Jayson Tatum and company try to win in the here and now, the Patriots will celebrate an era that ended five years ago.

I suppose it’s clever marketing. Sell ​​what is salable. For the Patriots, that meant the promise of the next Super Bowl. Now it is glorifying the ancients. My? I’ll be watching basketball.