New England Patriots' Only Worry Is Winning Super Bowl

The New England Patriots are playing the tough-as-nails Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Tom Brady and company will likely be black and blue after playing Kam Chancellor and company, but they’ll be used to it. They've already been beat up by a gauntlet of writers and opinion-makers—I can't bear to call them reporters—offering drive-by takes on a situation they know little to nothing about.

In a week usually dominated by the Senior Bowl, the football world has instead been infatuated with the amount of air in a football. Other than answering questions from an inordinate amount of national and local reporters, the Patriots seem to be acting as though it were business as usual.

“I think a big part of playing here is ignoring the outside voices,” Tom Brady stated during his press conference today.

Brady, Bill Belichick and a handful of teammates have been through this before. Of all teams in the NFL, the Patriots—with Belichick and Brady at the helm—are easily the one that can handle this adversity.

They survived the controversy surrounding the taping of sideline signals in 2007. While they ended up falling short in the Super Bowl, the Patriots bound together and won a record 18 games in a row to start the season. The first week after sanctions were handed down the Patriots dispatched a first-place San Diego Chargers team by 24 points.

They pushed through—and continue to push—a harrowing set of events involving Aaron Hernandez, who stands accused of multiple murders and various other charges. Allegations of doctored footballs pale in comparison to that sort of harsh reality. New England was able to win four straight to start the year and finished 12-4. They eventually lost in the AFC Championship Game to the Denver Broncos.

Elise Amendola/Associated Press

Despite their past success in the face of adversity, a victorious end to the season is anything but a fait accompli. With a media swarm and relentless social media chatter, getting caught up in the scandal of the day is far too easy. The Super Bowl already foists a veritable tsunami of distractions upon its players. Add another layer of interest from people not normally associated with sports and you have the recipe for a team to get out of sorts.

Belichick, as a tactician away from the football field, will be tested in the following week-and-a-half. Sun Tzu stated in The Art of War not to move your troops when the ground is muddy, but the turf that the Patriots are walking on isn't going to dry up anytime soon. Belichick will have to navigate through some swampy terrain to get his full roster to kickoff with their heads put together.

To borrow from one of Belichick's famous pre-game Super Bowl speeches, the orders for each Patriots player should be the same as always.

Identify the situation. Hear the call. Do your job.