The New England Patriots have defied nearly everything about the NFL, especially its insistence that championship-level teams get dragged back to the pack sooner rather than later. For 16 years they have outperformed and outsmarted a system built around parity and equal opportunity, inspiring fans to search for a modern equivalent in a different sport.
The San Antonio Spurs might qualify as kindred spirits, but other than measuring coach Gregg Popovich's feelings on Donald Trump against Bill Belichick's and Tom Brady's, what fun would it be matching the Spurs up with the Patriots? When it comes to all things New England, New York is the first and last place to look for a rival. And in this case, the 1996-2011 New York Yankees belong in the conversation with the 2001-2016 Patriots.
The opponent really should be the 1996-2012 Yankees, given that 2012 was the last time the Yanks won their division and Derek Jeter put up Jeter-like numbers. But for the sake of sorta comparing apples to apples, and because the Patriots are more likely to appear on "Hard Knocks" than they are to lose the AFC East next season -- Year 17 of the Brady-Belichick era -- we might as well keep this a Sweet 16 vs. Sweet 16 proposition.
So who owns the more impressive dynastic run over that period, the present Patriots or the past Yankees? To get a true handle on which franchise deserves the nod over the other, a head-to-head matchup of significant figures and events is required. So here goes:
Brady vs. Jeter
Here's a pair of say-nothing icons and heartthrobs with Michigan ties (both accepted scholarships there) known for playing big in big moments. The New York fan would point to Jeter's 5-4 lead in championship rings -- at least until next week potentially, when Brady gets his hands on the Falcons -- and to the fact the Captain delivered a first-ballot Hall of Fame career while seemingly playing drug-free in baseball's steroid age. The New England fan would point to the fact a quarterback is more vital in Brady's sport than a shortstop is in Jeter's and that Brady's case for being the greatest ever at his position is more compelling than Jeter's. The New England fan would be right. Oh, yeah, and Brady was drafted as a high school catcher by the Montreal Expos; Jeter didn't even go near his high school football field. Edge: Patriots
Vinatieri/Gostkowski vs. Mariano Rivera
Adam Vinatieri gave birth to the Brady/Belichick era with his impossible kick at the end of the Tuck Rule game in the snow and then with his winner against the Rams to secure a historic upset in Super Bowl XXXVI. He did it again in the final seconds against the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII. Stephen Gostkowski has better career field goal and extra point percentages than his predecessor, but he doesn't have Vinatieri's signature kicks. In fact, Gostkowski's missed extra point in last year's AFC Championship Game helped send the Patriots home. Rivera? You could argue that he cost the Yankees titles in 2001 and 2004, but then again, how many of those five rings do the Yanks win without him? The closer was something the Patriots kickers were not: the most feared weapon on the team. Edge: Yankees
Belichick vs. Joe Torre/Joe Girardi
Each year Torre had to manage his roster for 146 more regular-season games than Belichick did, while working for a boss (George Steinbrenner), who was far less reasonable than Belichick's (Robert Kraft). Torre did a remarkable human relations job in the world's noisiest market, but ultimately he was forced out in the fall of 2007 and replaced by a man (Girardi) who seized his one-and-done title only after the Yanks went on a wild free-agent spending spree. Belichick isn't allowed such spending sprees in his sport, and yet he has a lifetime appointment in New England if he wants it. The Patriots coach has an ideal employer in Kraft, and that makes his job a bit easier. But Belichick's complete command of offense, defense and special teams, his ability to make good players look great (hello, Chris Hogan), and his talent for persuading even the most self-centered players to embrace his team-first, team-second culture separate him from the envious crowd. Edge: Patriots
Scott Pioli/Nick Caserio vs. Brian Cashman
This is a tough one to call, given Belichick's final say in personnel. Both sides have had their hits and misses, though high-schoolers' eligibility makes pre-draft evaluations in baseball tougher. Pioli didn't succeed while running his own program in Kansas City but has bounced back to help another former Patriots staffer, Thomas Dimitroff, put the Falcons in the Super Bowl. (Caserio has yet to go out on his own.) Cashman gets credit for four of the Yanks' five titles (he was Bob Watson's assistant for this first one), for weathering Boss Steinbrenner's storms, for flying solo in New York for such a long time and for transitioning to a promising Yankees youth movement without suffering a losing season along the way. He has had significant financial advantages over his football counterparts and, for the most part, he has taken advantage of them. Edge: Yankees
Kraft vs. George/Hal
Kraft made it to seven of his eight Super Bowls in the designated 16-year period, and the Steinbrenners made it to seven of their 11 World Series in theirs. George Steinbrenner is best-known as a founding father of free agency, even as an impetuous owner who twice got himself banned from baseball, once for life (though he was later reinstated). Whereas Torre had to manage Steinbrenner's personality in the post-suspension phase of George's reign, Kraft has been the one to soften Belichick's rough edges, accept his quirks and give him the requisite space to lead as he sees fit. Kraft saved the Patriots from moving to St. Louis in the 1990s and then found his sweet spot as an owner after feuding unnecessarily with former coach Bill Parcells. Steinbrenner could be an obstacle between the Yanks and winning. But for the Patriots, two years ago, when Kraft marched into New England's first Super Bowl news conference and set a defiant and helpful Deflategate tone for the week, Kraft removed an obstacle between the Patriots and ring No. 4. Edge: Patriots
Wells report vs. Mitchell report
Just as the Wells report should have been called the Brady report, the Mitchell report should have been called the (Roger) Clemens report. The Rocket led a conga line of Yankees across the pages of baseball's damning dossier on steroid use, and certainly pumping performance-enhancing drugs into one's body is more serious than bleeding some air out of one's football. But even if you don't believe Brady and the ball boys deserved the league's CSI on PSI or don't believe deflation gave the Patriots any measurable advantage, Spygate did indeed go down in the first half of the era. On their end, the Yankees could argue that every other big league clubhouse had a PED problem. Hey, no dynasty is perfect. Edge: Even
Malcolm Butler's interception vs. Jeter's flip play
These iconic Patriots and Yankees moments of the dynasty years are still as hard to believe now as they were the nights they were made. Jeter's on-the-run, backhanded flip to the plate in the 2001 American League Division Series with Oakland was as good an instinctive play as you'll ever see an infielder make. Butler's interception at the goal line in New England's Super Bowl victory over Seattle two years ago was as good an instinctive play as you'll ever see a cornerback make. But Jeter delivered his flip in the middle of a five-game, first-round series and in a postseason that wouldn't end in another ticker-tape parade for the Yankees. Butler delivered his pick in the final seconds of a championship game that appeared hopelessly lost. Edge: Patriots
David Tyree catch vs. 2004 ALCS collapse
Could anything be more haunting than a 10th-string receiver catching a ball against his helmet to deny you a 19-0 record and the undisputed standing as the greatest team of all time? Actually, yes. Up 3-0 in the ALCS against Boston, the Yankees didn't just fall apart in a historic way. They ultimately allowed the Curse of the Bambino to die, in part, in the House That Ruth Built, and that hurt more than Tyree's historic reception. Edge: Patriots
Tuck Rule play vs. Jeffrey Maier play
Brady was 24 years old when he dropped the ball while trying to throw it against Oakland in January 2002 and caught a major break, as the drop was ruled an incomplete pass. Jeffrey Maier was 12 years old when he dropped the ball while trying to catch it against the Baltimore Orioles in October 1996 and became the most famous Little Leaguer in America. This battle of famous flukes that benefited the Yanks and Pats in the early hours of their dynasties isn't even close. Edge: Yankees
And the winner is ...
Cashman agreed the other day to give his vote on each of the above matchups. On Brady vs. Jeter, he quickly said, "Jeter," before stopping himself. "Wait a minute," he said. "I don't want to play this game. Every answer is going to favor the Yankees."
Cashman is a New York Giants fan and a former roommate of former coach Tom Coughlin's son Tim, so he enjoyed New England's losses in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI. But the Yankees GM has far too much appreciation for the Patriots to despise anything about them. As he watched Brady complete that fourth-and-10 long ball to Rob Gronkowski during last year's failed rally in the AFC Championship Game in Denver, Cashman shouted in excitement at his TV.
"I just respect the hell out of their system and philosophy," Cashman said. "I know greatness when I see it, and Brady and Belichick represent greatness. The Patriots are a machine."
They're a machine in a league that uses the salary cap among its many weapons to destroy machines. The Yankees have had to deal with baseball's luxury tax, or competitive balance tax, which they've often treated as if it were a haggard-looking hitchhiker near the state penitentiary (just zoom on by).
In other words, it's at least a bit harder to dominate in football than it is in baseball. So no matter what happens in Houston on Feb. 5, here's the score: In a series between the 1996-2011 Yankees and the 2001-2016 Patriots, we have Tom Brady connecting with Mariano Rivera's cutter for a walk-off homer in the 10th inning of Game 7.