How Patriots Dynasty Continued Differently Than You Think

The New England Patriots dominated the NFL for two decades with six total Super Bowl championships.

It’s hard to totally fall out of the spotlight for the players that brought the dynasty to power. The profession in which these players stuck around for, on the other hand, may just be surprising.

Bill Belichick’s teams were known for everything but being media-friendly. That’s not to say those players didn’t have voices or personalities. They were just rarely on display in a Patriots uniform. That’s what made the start of the Jerod Mayo tenure and his approach to the team’s relationship with the media so surprising and almost unusual.

Long story short, several former Patriots are now, ironically, leading the conversation on television. Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman work as studio analysts for FOX Sports while Tedy Bruschi and Randy Moss do the same for ESPN and Devin McCourty works in that role for NBC.

Even the pillars of the dynasty joined in for the 2024 season. Bill Belichick had about six different media jobs during his coaching gap year and Tom Brady started his megadeal as FOX’s lead game analyst and will call Super Bowl LIX on Sunday for the network alongside play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt.

The sheer number of former Patriots and the irony of their new roles in their post-playing careers is surprising. The idea of bringing them to the media is not.

“I don’t think it’s surprising because historically the teams that win after they’re done on the field, that includes broadcasting,” The Athletic’s sports media reporter Andrew Marchand told NESN.com. “I don’t think Belichick made these players act a certain way. The idea that Gronk didn’t have personality. The idea that Julian Edelman didn’t have personality or the McCourty’s or Brady. On and on and on. Tedy Bruschi. They happened to be Patriots and they had great success. You can also have the name brand that the networks generally like. Most of them are pretty good. I think they get the opportunity because they won. They become bigger names and they have Super Bowl moments that 100 million people see. That helps them and makes it easier for networks to sell the idea of any of these guys. The fact that they didn’t say much in the media I don’t think was a function of their personality. It was a function of their coach.”

Some former Patriots have adjusted to life on-camera better than others. Marchand particularly praised the work of Belichick, which comes to a stop upon his new coaching job at North Carolina, along with McCourty and his twin brother Jason, who calls games for CBS and appears on ESPN.

“Gronk, I don’t know. He looks like he’s already a regular on FOX,” Marchand assessed. “I don’t know if I necessarily would have thought he’d be on a set. I thought he’d be more of a hosting party guy. He’s OK, I don’t think he’s amazing. One trick pony a little bit of doing the Gronk thing. Edelman has things to say. Bruschi and Damien Woody now have had long broadcasting careers. It goes on and on.”

Marchand continued: “I think that one thing sometimes executives don’t understand is ex-players really want a plan. They spend their whole lives having a game plan Monday through Friday and executing in college on Saturdays and in the NFL on Sundays. If they get a game plan, they can be successful. I think the Patriots, besides (beyond) Brady and Belichick, something that stood out is they were very intelligent teams. You put those things together, smart players now ex-players, figure out how (they’re) successful in the media games.” 

Those names make up the weekly faces you’ll see across the controlling networks of football media. That’s before you consider how many more ex-players make their voice heard on podcasts.

How many more are out there on that platform? Brian Hoyer, David Andrews (active), Cam Newton, Chris Hogan, James White, Rob Ninkovich are just a few.

Time leads to change. The organization that remained tight-lipped to ensure winning ways and not tip hands suddenly features some of the more followed alumni that set the scene for the current league in their media roles. That growth is encouraging for Patriots fans who will have reminders at every corner of the media realm of the historic run New England enjoyed, especially as the current team aspires to build back to winning ways.

“You’re not at One Patriot Place answering questions anymore,” Marchand said. “You’re trying to reach an audience. I think a lot of them seem to have some pent-up energy of not being able to express themselves and now they get to. I think when you take a step back and look at the Patriot Way in their post-playing careers, it makes sense that they would be able to execute a plan in different roles like when they were players.”

So as the Super Bowl commences Sunday, the Patriots players who made their biggest plays in such a game will still surround the event as two teams fight for football’s greatest prize.