BILL, BRADY AND PATS NOT GOING AWAY ANYTIME SOON

By STEVE KING

This is the first of a two-part series that is focused around this statement: I hope, for a variety of reasons, that the Browns and their fans watched the NFL conference championship games on Sunday.

First, let’s deal with the AFC contest, in which the New England Patriots, for what seems like about the 100th time, punched their ticket o the Super Bowl with a 37-31 win in overtime over the host Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.

Head coach Bill Belichick (you remember him, right?), quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots are the gold standard in the NFL, and have been for a long, long time. In fact, this might well be the greatest run of any team in league history. Belichick may be the best coach of all-time, and Brady may be the best quarterback, if not all the best player. It’s certainly not a stretch to offer those opinions.

Those two have been at this – the winning part of it, at least – since 2001, and we’re finishing up the 2018 season. In an era when the NFL has done everything it can to level the playing field and make sure that there are no dynasties or anything even close to it, what the Patriots have done with their sustained excellence over nearly a two-decade period is absolutely, positively unbelievable. It’s uncanny. It doesn’t seem possible.

But you knew all that already.

Now, however, with the Browns getting much better and hoping to really begin asserting themselves in the AFC playoff picture, they and all the other teams in the AFC have to realize that they’re not going to be able to do much of anything until Belichick AND Brady both retire. And there’s no sign that will happen anytime soon.

So while the Browns want to go to the Super Bowl, it’s not going to be easy. Patience will truly be a virtue.

After all, this Patriots domination can’t go on forever – can it?