FOXBOROUGH - For Adalius Thomas, Randy Moss, Gary Guyton, and Derrick Burgess, being banned from work yesterday at Gillette Stadium meant a ride home through a nasty winter storm.
For everyone on the roster, it served as an ultimatum.
Either get on board, or get out of here.
And it’s a riskier approach than you might think.
The Patriots will be 1,770 days removed from their last Super Bowl championship when they take the field Sunday against the Panthers.
At Super Bowl XXXIX’s kickoff, injured rookie Brandon Tate was a senior at Cummings High in North Carolina, and starting cornerback Darius Butler was being redshirted at UConn. Take the average NFL career, multiply it by two, and it’s been almost that long since the Patriots last won at the highest level.
The point is, there’s a shelf life to how long those rings buy you respect in a player’s eyes. Just ask Charlie Weis.
On the eve of the first NFL Sunday of this season, with controversy swirling about his treatment of players, Browns coach Eric Mangini told me his philosophy was simple: Show the players you can help them win and get better, and they’ll follow you.
Mangini may not have won a lot of games this year, but he’s right.
Win games, they’ll follow. Start losing, and it’s harder.
And so stands Bill Belichick. He’s still winning, and he didn’t forget how to coach and teach, which means he’s making players better. But it becomes harder the smaller those Lombardi Trophies get in the rearview mirror, and with 53 players to worry about, getting them all on board is a tough task to begin with.
So Thomas, Moss, Guyton, and Burgess get the ol’ heave-ho, the message is sent, and there’s no guarantee that it’ll come back with positive results. It’s a risk. Plain and simple.
“I think [the law] would’ve been laid down at any time of the year, regardless of whether we lost,’’ linebacker Tully Banta-Cain said. “That’s not acceptable here. That’s Bill’s deal, and I think in general, everyone’s sense of urgency is a little higher now. We’re in that part of the season where it’s a four-game season.
“The antennas are way up. I think if anything it just brings the sense of urgency up even higher.’’
Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t.
One thing that’s certain is the problem didn’t start yesterday.
Thomas had pointed remarks after he was benched for the Tennessee game, imploring the media to “ask Bill’’ about the circumstances because “he has all the answers.’’ Moss has been criticized, right or wrong, for mentally checking out in Miami. Burgess has all of two sacks since New England traded for him in August.
