Jordan Brand has built an entire marketing campaign on a clunky phrase surrounding newly crowned NBA champion Jayson Tatum. “Don’t Stop Disbelieving” instruct the billboards plastering Boston and the commercials that debuted seconds after Tatum helped if not led the Celtics to Banner 18.
Whatever our previous thoughts on Tatum and his Celtics fit with now-NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown, the duo proved themselves champions.
Tatum’s now solidified as not only an All-NBA star but an all-time great for the greatest franchise in basketball history.
But we’ll take our cues from Jordan and we won’t stop disbelieving. We’ll simply transition our disbelief to a more worthy collection of candidates on a different Boston sports squad that’s just about to kick off its buildup to a new fall season.
The month of July isn’t just time for vacation across the NFL, it’s apparently also time for hopeful hype to take hold in the vacuum of actual news and information across football. Case in point locally are the recent proclamations, predications and prognostications regarding the Patriots’ defense.
Based on what we’ve been seeing and hearing of late in New England and beyond in some areas of optimistic national analysis, it’s time to start thinking up nicknames for the unit that will be led by first-time defensive coordinator and NFL playcaller DeMarcus Covington.
Print the t-shirts for a group whose No. 1 cornerback and would-be star-in-the-making has exactly 209 defensive snaps to his NFL resume over three-plus games of pro experience.
Buy up the billboard space for a collective whose best veteran player is a soon-to-be 32-year-old coming off a season in which he missed all but four games to injury. Oh, and by the way, that guy is tip-toing through his desire for a lucrative new contract for the second-straight summer.
Print posters for a collaborative of talent that will face some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and potentially most potent offenses in the league on seemingly a weekly basis throughout most of the 2024 season.
But hey, sure, let’s anoint the Patriots defense one of the top five units in football almost before the fireworks of the 4th of July even burn out.
Let’s assume and presume the group will be up to the weekly challenges and game plans despite moving on from the arguably the greatest defensive mind in football history.
Let’s ignore the top heavy house of cards that is the cornerback position.
Let’s disregard the fact that two of the most proven veteran guys on the front – arguably the keys to the run and pass defense, respectively – are unhappy with their paychecks long before the first challenging play unfolds on the fall.
Now is not the time, apparently, for reason.
The most optimistic of Green Teamers were right about Tatum, he indeed had what it took for his team to reach its championship potential.
Now, it’s time to find out if the members of Patriot Nation waving their pompoms these days regarding the New England defense are prescient or delusional thanks to a summertime heatwave.
It’s July! Rejoice, the Patriots are among the kings of the hypothetical defensive world of NFL football!
And despite what we’ve all seen for the better part of the last couple decades on football fields of all levels across the great country, defense wins championships!
Or at least games, right?
Don’t stop disbelieving, indeed.