New England Patriots: Peak Performance Case Study

"You've got to win one game and we'll be talking about this for the rest of our lives,"

"We have the chance to do something that has never been done and that's an incredible opportunity. This game will have an incredible impact on all of us."

--Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, talking on Boston radio station WEEI a week before the big game.

If the New England Patriots beat the New York Giants in this year's Super Bowl, it means a perfect 19-0 season, but also could be the defining moment of their careers.

The Patriots can join the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only teams to go through an entire season with a perfect record and win the NFL championship in the Super Bowl. Miami went 17-0 in their perfect season.

It has been a great season for Brady, thus far. He was named the 2007 NFL Most Valuable Player aftern completing 68.9% of his passes during the regular season for 4,806 yards and a record 50 touchdown passes. But, it is the Super Bowl that will define his season and his career.

"They just look so overwhelmingly dominant. Undefeated or not undefeated, this is the greatest assembly of talent on both sides of the ball, with a lot of players at the apex of their careers. It's the perfect storm."

--Jim Mandich, former Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers tight end in the 1970's, who was a member of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins. Mandich predicted that the Patriots would go undefeated in 2007 after they started the season, 10-0.

In defeating the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-21, in Super Bowl XXXIX, making it three NFL championships in four years, the New England Patriots lay a claim to a football dynasty. Only the Dallas Cowboys in 1996 have ever won three titles in four years.

Led by 2000 sixth round draft choice, quarterback Tom Brady, the Patriots broke a 14-14 tie in the second half. Brady completed 23 of 33 passes for 236 yards and 2 touchdowns. He was supported by wide receiver Deion Branch who caught 11 passes for 133 yards and was named the Super Bowl MVP.

At SuperBowl XXXVI, the Patriots were introduced as a team, not individually. The Patriots are seen as unique in that they are accomplishing something that has been considered impossible due to the salary cap restrictions and free agency. Nevertheless the Patriots are able to develop and keep talent.

"I don't worry about contracts during the season. Hey, I'm not hurting. It's all about winning for me. Bill (Belicheck) always says the best thing we can do for our careers is to win games."

--Troy Brown, New England Patriots wide-receiver.

"I think in this day and age it's refreshing to have a culture of unselfishness."

--Ted Johnson, New England Patriots linebacker.

"We always tried to whittle it down to the smallest possible things. We kept narrowing the focus on what we were going to give them. Players were focused not just from a mental and emotional standpoint, but from a specific task standpoint."

--Al Groh, University of Virginia head football coach, who was the linebacker coach for two years when Bill Belichick was the New York Giants' defensive coordinator. The Giants won Super Bowls in 1985 and 1991 with Belichick as defensive coordinator.

After the New York Giants won a second Super Bowl in January of 1991, the Cleveland Browns' general manager Ernie Accorsi hired Belicheck as head coach.

"The interview was so captivating. He was so prepared and had such strong convictions, everything from strategy to the way he saw the game, to player personnel. He had all kinds of theories and innovation. And he doesn't just pick up players because they have talent; he has a job for them."

--Ernie Accorsi, former general manager of the Cleveland Browns.

Excerpts from the New York Times 1/28/08.

"This team is not a one-man band. I can't play all the instruments. I don't think it's important who's right. I think it's important what's right."

--Head Coach Bill Belicheck, upon arriving in Foxboro in 2000 to coach the New England Patriots.

"I think the other players hold you accountable. A small part of the mystique of the current Patriots is that the reserve players, actually every player on the active roster, is fully expected to contribute when called upon. It's an expectation they're held to as teammates. The coaches expect that and the players expect that," said Belicheck, prior to the New England Patriots third Super Bowl victory in four years on February 6, 2005.

"We don't agree 100 percent on everything. And the things we don't agree on we discuss and then come up with the best way to do it."

--Romeo Crennel, former defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots and current head coach of the Cleveland Browns.

"He's been unbelievable. He's thorough, so when he buys into you, he knows your character. If you look at this team he has now -- they're calling it the greatest team of all time and all that. If you're going to build an all-star team, how many of the Patriots would be on your first team? I guarantee you it wouldn't be more than two or three. The bottom line is that he knows how to use personnel. He buys into the person."

--Jim Brown, NFL Pro Football Hall of Famer, former Cleveland Browns running back, and consultant to Bill Belichick.

"He's a perfect example of what we've let slip away in the image of a coach -- the job is a teaching job. Bill certainly has a great deal of self-confidence, but he's got the humility to know that he can always learn from somebody that's successful. To me, the smarter you are, the more you want to learn."

--Ernie Accorsi, New York Giants General Manager, who was the GM of the Cleveland Browns when Belichick became the head coach there in 1991, discussing Bill Belichick's approach to coaching.

"Bill is a very good listener. He wanted your opinions. He didn't want 'yes' guys. There's a big difference between listening from what you want to hear and listening to learn. When he listens, he has a reason for the questions. "

--Pat Hill, head football coach at Fresno State and a former member of Belichick's staff when they were in Cleveland.

In 2003, Belichick spent two days looking at film of the running game at the Naval Academy, talking to Navy Head Coach Paul Johnson. Belicheck considered the Navy option one of the best running games in college football.

"Your ego can't be so big that you're not going to borrow from other people. The best coaches are a move or two ahead of the other guys. I think that's the kind of guy he is."

--Paul Johnson, Navy head football coach.

In 2005, Belichick and his quarterbacks coach Josh McDaniels, met with Florida Head Coach Urban Meyer to learn about his spread-option offense. Amongst many high school coaches and college coaches hosted by Meyer, the only NFL coachers to visit were the Patriots' Belichick and McDaniels.

"I don't think you can orchestrate chemistry. I don't think anybody can tell you what friends to have, who you should like, who you should hang out with. Those things just happen. You try to bring people together that have same interests and the same values and the same point of view. Not the same, but similar. That has a way of coming together."

--Bill Belichick.

"I'm way past it."

--Bill Belichick, discussing last year's loss to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Conference Championship Game.

"Obviously, they've had a lot of success in the past. What you've done in the past doen't mean a whole lot now. We have to push forward and not look back. It's something I've kind of picked up."

--Wesley Welker, New England Patriot, newly acquired wide-receiver who played at Miami last year.

"He had really good accuracy. And tremendous charisma. He had this great interaction with the players, and players perform better because of that interaction."

--Gil Brandt, the former personnel chief of the Dallas Cowboys, discussing the scouting report on Tom Brady as he was entering the NFL in 2000.

At the NFL scouting combine, Brady ran a slow 40 yard sprint in 5.23 seconds and recorded a very ordinary vertical jump of 24 1/2 inches.

Brady was the seventh quarterback drafted in the 2000 NFL draft. Taken in the sixth round, he was passed over for Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Mark Bulger, and Spergon Wynn.

"Tom's a great player, he's in the right system and when he got his opportunity he made the most of it.

"Tom's one of the best I've seen under pressure. He has that confidence in himself where he's not afraid of making a mistake. He really excels on game day.

"He wants to win at everything he does."

--Chris Redman, now the third string quarterback with the Atlanta Falcons.

"We work hard. Tom Brady does not let us lollygag in practice. He wants the best out of us every day. If we can make it happen in practice against the defense that we have, then we can get out there and make things happen against anyone. I'm not saying we are unstoppable, but we work hard at what we do. So expect good things."

--Randy Moss, newly acquired Patriot wide receiver.

"He takes control. He does a great job of keeping everybody together. We just kept on playing, no matter what the score."

--Wes Welker, Patrioit's wide receiver.

"Playing these guys a few times in the playoffs, you look over and say 'Hey, we can go over and beat that team. What do they do that we don't do? We can win this game.' But then when you get here, you see his passion, you see the way he studies, you see how demanding he is of his players, the leadership. Right in front of you, it just jumps right out. You see why he's a proven winner."

--Fred Taylor, who signed with the New England Patriots in 2009 after being released by the Jacksonville Jaguars, talking about how he is impressed with Tom Brady, the Patriots' veteran quarterback.

"I think I could pick about 20 plays of our weaknesses coming out of this game. The thing is, we are 9-0 and it doesn't really matter. It just doesn't matter. None of this matters until January. I think it was a great step in our preparation. We've got seven games to get better.

"Our goal is to win the AFC East. Being 9-0, hey, I'm as happy as anybody. But it doesn't mean anything. Our goal isn't to be 9-0, I promise you."

--Tom Brady, reacting after coming from behind and beating the previously undefeated and defending 2006 Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts, 24-20. In a regular season matchup of two undefeated teams, the latest in NFL history, the Patriots were realistic and philophical about their victory.

The team reflects the personality of its coach. Bill Belichick is a perfectionist.

That type of coaching and that type of player accountability might help the Patriots win another Super Bowl and match the 1972 Dolphins perfect undefeated season. At 9-0, the Patriots are "perfect" and still not feeling good about themselves. They're still not satisfied.

"The Patriots are a better organization than they are a team. The Belicheck style produces sustained success because he brings in the right people. When they lose, it's 'We messed up' or 'We coached badly.' He does all the right things in such a way that players are motivated year after year.

"What people who say there are no dynasties left are missing is that the Patriots only bring in players who love playing football, who love being with their teammates, who take pride in what they're doing. That kind of excitement can last year after year. The Super Bowl doesn't motivate them day to day as much as the fun of becoming better does.

"Not every individual is willing to be as selfless as Patriots players are. Some people aren't willing to work as hard as the Patriots work."

If you yank a small number of people out of this organization it would rebuild itself."

--James Lavin, author of "Management Secrets of the New England Patriots"