By Kyle McDaniel
Raise your hand if you’re tired of seeing the New England Patriots, Alabama College Football and now to some extent the Golden State Warriors, win year after year after year. It gets old fast especially if you’re a fan of a rival team, or just look for the league to be competitive.
For example, I am a Miami Dolphin fan. I have to see Brady, Belicheat (as I call him) and the Patriots twice a year, every year. Then add the Patriots winning their division, the AFC East 14 out of the last 15 years and you get quite discouraged, yet hopeful as a Dolphin fan.
Hopeful because you know both Belichick and Brady had to retire at some point, which will then make your division and even the whole AFC more competitive.
The Patriots have been to 8 out of the last 15 Super Bowls, winning 5 of them. Add to that 4 more losses in the Conference Championship game, now in 12 of the last 15 the Patriots were either in the Super Bowl or 1 game away. That is absolutely absurd, especially when you see the players they get rid of, yet somehow find a younger and cheaper replacement. Besides Randy Moss and Rob Gronkowski, Tom Brady has basically had a group of cast offs to pass to, yet they somehow get it done.
What makes it even worse, is only a handful of players or coaches have left New England and thrived. According to article on ESPN written this past February, coaches who worked under Belichick in New England that became NFL head coaches have a record of 156-227. That to say the least horrible and astonishing, I don’t know what they do up there, but I hope it ends soon.
Let’s look at Alabama next and the powerhouse it has become in the collegiate football ranks. Before Nick Saban took the Crimson Tide head coaching job, he was the coach of the Miami Dolphins. Add to that he had a chance to sign Drew Brees when he was a free agent.
The medical staff for the Dolphins wasn’t comfortable with how Brees’s shoulder looked and recommended to the coaching staff and management, they not sign him. Well we all know what Drew Brees has become after signing with New Orleans, a future Hall of Famer and the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards.
Let’s just Nick Saban didn’t even make it two full seasons in Miami before he was shipped out, it’s sad to think of what could have been. Brees vs Brady twice a year every year, what games those could have been.
Getting back to Saban at Alabama, he was hired in 2007 and after 12 seasons posts a record of 141-20, yes you read that correctly. They have five National Titles (you can probably add a 6th this year) and have had 46 All-Americans.
According to 247sports.com Saban has had 12 recruiting classes, and 7 were ranked as the number one class. This also means every one of his recruiting classes has won the national title at some point. Another interesting fact that kind of mirrors Belichick is that Saban is 12-0 against former Assistants.
Finally the Golden State Warriors from the NBA, if you follow the NBA I don’t really need to say anything else. They set the record for wins in a season then add the second best player on the planet that just isn’t fair. They were able to do this because they have drafted extremely well, and their stars were on lower contracts than most stars, giving the cap room to bring in Kevin Durant.
The team knew what they had and wanted to keep it going, so the main players took less.
We don’t have to like this move, but we have to respect it. Kevin Durant was a free agent, and could sign wherever he wanted, and he chose the Warriors because the only thing he was missing was a Championship ring and that was the easiest path.
The Warriors have been to four straight finals winning three, with a record of 15-7 in those four finals. This year was thought to be the year they wouldn’t make it to the finals, because all the teams in the West were getting better, especially Houston. However, the Warriors sign DeMarcus Cousins, arguably one of the best big men in basketball when healthy. Then follow that up by starting the season 10-2 and four of their next five are against teams in the bottom half of the league.
It simply is what it is, they started a new style of play and have ran with it. They decided to get players that could shoot really well, especially three’s. Then take those players and shoot more three’s than the old school layup/dunk method and simply just bury teams and so far it is working flawlessly.
Teams are slowly starting to catch up, but I can easily see them making it to two or three more finals in a row, before they are truly eclipsed. Did I mention they share a division with the Suns …?
In all honesty dynasties are great for the fans of those teams, but the problem is there are other teams out there. It just ruins what sports are about when you can almost guarantee who will win. When the Dolphins were 3-0 and in 1st place, heading into their week 4 match against the Patriots who were 1-2, I didn’t even bother to watch. Why, because the Dolphins lost 38-7, and are now 5-4, while the Patriots are 7-2.
You just wish there was more variety in who will win, instead of the same teams over and over again. Especially in college football when there are over 120 teams, but when you win like Alabama you get more money, better facilities and better players. Simply because you are winning and keep winning.
Now let’s end this with an applause, because it takes a lot to win once, but when you can sustain winning for over a decade, you’re doing something right.