Congratulations to the Patriots. The AFC East is done. Again. Forget the Masters, Jim Nantz: this is the tradition unlike any other. The New England Patriots sew up the AFC East before week 17. Below are the weeks the Patriots clinched the AFC since 2009:
Week 15: December 18, 2016 (also 1st round bye)
Week 14: December 14, 2015 (Week 15: 1st round bye)
Week 15: December 18, 2014 (Week 16: 1st round bye)
Week 16: December 22, 2013 (week 17: 1st round bye)
Week 13: December 12, 2012 (week 17 1st round bye)
Week 15: December 18, 2011 (Week 16 1st round bye)
Week 16: December 26, 2010 (Week 16 1st round bye)
Week 16: December 28, 2009 (No 1st round bye)
That’s 8 straight years of division dominance, 7 years of conference dominance and Super Bowl contention. It’s amazing, hard to fathom, and even harder to write about evidently. I’ve seen nary an article citing the Coach of the Year as Bill Belichick. National columnists have run out of angles to demonize this team’s historical greatness, so now they churn out “Baltimore – Pittsburgh week”, like this hailed historical rivalry wasn’t for the 3 seed or focus on circling the wagons for owners of teams who defend domestic abusers or hypocritically accuse teams of malfeasance. Or focus on Jeff Fisher’s pathetic resume. Or his successor (someone got page views pitching Pete Carroll to leave Russel Wilson and the Seahawks, WTF?!). All because the best of NFL writers struggle to write about historical greatness.
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