Jason McCourty Confirms This Season it's the Patriots Against the World

I remember a simpler time when "The Patriots are going to face a lot of challenges" meant replacing Kyle Van Noy and transitioning from a Bradycentric offense to one built around Jarrett Stidham Cam Newton. With the uncertainty of starting a season with 32 teams in 30 different cities operating under drastically different sets of health guidelines, you figured there'd be complications. What we didn't count on was that by early October we'd be looking at flannel-covered, leaf-peepin', Pumpkin spice chaos. 

Four positive Covid tests on a team that has been investigated by the NFL to see if they'd violated the protocols. A game switched from Sunday to Monday at the last minute. A game day round trip flight to and from Kansas City, without the services of their most important offensive player. A request from the Patriots to get more locker room space at Arrowhead, only to be told by the league go piss up a rope. The next game moved from Sunday to Monday Late Afternoon Football, only to then be re-rescheduled to the team's bye week. Meaning all that prep they did for nothing was their bye week. The equivalent of being asked to work from home, only to find out after the fact that HR considered that week your vacation time, see you Monday and you'll be working for the next 51 weeks straight. 

What's become clear over the last 48 hours or so is the way this is playing inside the organization: They are ripped. And united. And possibly even in a full on revolt at the NFL. To the point it's being speculated that the Patriots themselves pressured the league to postpone the Denver game that was scheduled to mess up your dinner tonight. 

Jason McCourty spoke for everyone on the team when he said, "I think outside of here, the people that don't have to walk in our building -- whether it is the league office, whether it is the NFLPA -- they don't care. For them, it is not about our best interest, or our health and safety, it is about, 'What can we make protocol-wise that sounds good, looks good, and how can we go out there and play games?' I think what I kind of learned personally throughout this situation is it is going to be up to us as individuals in this building to just really take care of one another.

"That's why we're just trying to do everything we can" he continued. "We're distanced. Even today while we were in, we're totally distanced, we all have masks on, we all have the Oakley shields on, and we have a mask on underneath our helmet. We weren't in the building, really, at all today. So we're doing the necessary things to stay as safe as possible.

"But without a doubt, that's a thought -- the same way you guys are sitting there thinking about it like, 'Hey, they're getting on a plane on Monday [to go to Kansas City], well, those days don't really add up with the incubation period.' That was the same question we were asking our union before we head out there."

This is while McCourty and some of his teammates are living in hotels in order to stay away from their families. But clearly they resent the way the league and their union have agreed to seen them like so many disposable Imperial Stormtroopers into battle without having any concept of the risks involved, just so America could get to see them face Patrick Mahomes now, as opposed to later on.

And Tom E. Curran reported last week that McCourty's sentiments are shared by the organization as a whole.

With three Patriots now having tested positive for COVID-19, a team source said Tuesday it’s time for players and coaches to “worry about our health and safety first and not leave it up to the league.”

And Curran also suggested the postponement of the Denver game might have been the result of the team winning a game of Chicken against the league:

Did the Patriots tell the NFL they weren’t playing in the wake of another positive COVID test emerging Sunday morning? Or did the league read the tea leaves and understand that, if they tried to push forward with the game, the hosts might have the lights off?

We’re still trying to determine that. But either way, the Patriots – through words and deeds this week – showed they’re the ones in charge of what happens at 1 Patriot Place.  

We have a rogue state in Foxboro? Maybe. If we do, it’s for all the right reasons. 

The league wisely avoided a staredown with the Patriots who have, admirably, stood up all week for the best interests of themselves and their families.  

It’s obvious which way the league was headed Sunday morning. They were going to ramrod this game through. 

Which, if turns out to be true, might be the wildest development to happen in a quarter of a season unlike any other in history. One team revolting against the league and almost refusing to play a scheduled game and the NFL backing down. Because like the Scott Glenn character says in "Hunt for Red October," the hardest thing about playing Chicken is knowing when to flinch. The only time I'm ever aware of that an NFL suggested they would refuse to play was Pats players in the early 70s declaring a Wildcat strike before a preseason game because the CBA hadn't been approved. If they organization itself had simply refused to open up Gillette as the league's game day operations people - and the Broncos - showed up? Civilization would've crumbled. 

But what it demonstrates is where this team stands. Meaning ownership, management and players. And that is, together. This franchise might not have invented the concept of "Us against the world," but they have perfected it. And this continues to play out, might be their greatest example. 

With an alleged game to allegedly prepare for, Belichick nevertheless took the unilateral step of closing the facility and keeping everyone working remotely. With ownership's full support.

“What’s best for our football team is the health and safety of our team,” he said. “That’s our No. 1 priority. So, without that, we don’t have a team. We have to maintain the integrity of not only our football team, but also the extended team – our families and the loved ones for every member of our team. That’s got to come first. …

"We can’t compromise the health, safety and well-being of our football team … and I think that’s going to be much more detrimental than a short-term adjustment that we have to make in order to maximize everyone’s health and safety, " he continued. "That’s our approach, that’s the way I look at it, and I know that’s the way Mr. [Robert] Kraft looks at it, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do. We’ll put the team first and that’s our philosophy."

And his players have responded in kind.

So whether or not they strongarmed the NFL into pushing back the Denver game - and I think they did, using the leverage of knowing what PR blow it would be to a league that's trying to demonstrate how they put safety first while they won't make a simple concession like finding some extra locker room space like they would for any visiting soccer team - the one thing that is clear from this is that New England has put on a united front. Not for cheap motivation or Bulletin Board fodder, but because from the bottom of the roster to the team captains to the staff to the head coach to the owner, they've concluded no one gives a dusty fuck whether players get sick. 

And they're sticking together on this. While other organizations that have had none of this are descending into anarchy and firing coaches and GMs. If this unity holds, they can play out the season and keep winning, this might be this franchise's finest hour. It'll prove some people can use chaos to their advantage.