Socci's Notebook: Patriots Trying to Make History, As Students of History
PHOENIX (CBS) -- Eighty-two seasons after the NFL staged its first playoff, the 49th championship game of the Super Bowl era pits the New England Patriots opposite the Seattle Seahawks.
For Robert Kraft, it marks the seventh time his team takes the game's grandest stage, more than any other owner in NFL history. The man he hired 15 years ago, Bill Belichick, seeks a record-tying fourth Super Bowl title in his record-tying sixth Super Bowl appearance as a head coach.
And the quarterback they selected 199th overall in the 2000 Draft, Tom Brady, bids for a fourth Super Bowl triumph to match all-time leaders Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana, while making an unprecedented sixth start in America's most-watched sporting event.
At the same time, Brady isn't solely a maker of history; he is a student of it. Just like his 52 teammates, thanks to their coach and football curator.
"When you're around Bill long enough, you're going to learn a lot of lessons not only about the history of the game, but things that came up in the game," New England's offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels says of his boss Belichick. "There's always a point to it, an element of teaching."
Sometimes the purpose is to adopt pages from the past, from simple concepts to specific formations, and paste them into New England's present-day playbook. After all, as McDaniels reminds us, the sport is "cyclical."
On other occasions, class is convened at Gillette Stadium simply to educate the Pats about their early predecessors. For example, in late November, while preparing to visit legendary Lambeau Field, Belichick showed them film of some of the game's original greats.
"When we went to Green Bay, I thought it was a great opportunity for us to go and play in an incredibly historic place," McDaniels said. "(Bill) just wanted everyone to know -- the players, the coaches -- what we're going into. This is not a new-wave stadium, this is a place that has a past that you should respect.
"We all play in the National Football League and coach in it. To not have an understanding and appreciation of the game (and) a place like Green Bay would not be right. We went up there with a great understanding and knowledge of those things and a deep appreciation for the Green Bay Packers."
Their vintage viewing, McDaniels recalls, included footage of Bronko Nagurski, the Hall-of-Fame Chicago Bear who regularly collided with the Packers' Clarke Hinkle. Their confrontations were emblematic -- in black and blue -- of the bitter rivalry between the Bears and Packers.
Nagurski was also one of the stars of the NFL's inaugural playoff between Chicago and the Portsmouth Spartans, forerunners to the Detroit Lions, on Dec. 18, 1932. His jump pass to another of the game's all-time notables, Red Grange, resulted in the only touchdown of Chicago's 9-0 win.
The contest was originally scheduled for Wrigley Field, but heavy snow and frigid temperatures forced the Bears and Spartans indoors to meet on a modified field at Chicago Stadium. Little more than 11,000 fans turned out inside The Madhouse on Madison.
On Sunday night an American audience in excess of 180 million viewers is expected to watch the Patriots and Seahawks, as they play beneath a retractable roof and atop a retractable field at University of Phoenix Stadium.
The spectacle will include a pop concert during a half-hour halftime and will conclude with a shower of confetti raining on the winners.
Should the Patriots get to celebrate in that moment, they'll do so with an appreciation for so many of the men and so much of the history that made it possible.
"I think our coaches and our players have been privileged to have an opportunity to learn from him," McDaniels says of Belichick's dissertations on their sport's roots. "He understands that the history of the game is not lost on anybody."
Bob Socci is the radio play-by-play voice of the New England Patriots. You can follow him on Twitter @BobSocci.
