"These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."
Thomas Paine knew a thing or two about motivation, about how adversity not only brought men together to achieve a common goal, but also how adversity reveals the character of a man - that passage from his revolutionary war pamphlet entitled "An American Crisis" was read to a cold and hungry group of Patriots just days before the Battle of Trenton...
...a decisive American victory, as just a week earlier, the Army appeared to be on the verge of splintering after several demoralizing defeats, so Paine authored this pamphlet and published it under the pen name, Common Sense, and read to the troops as they prepared to cross the Delaware River in an effort to outflank a garrison of British-hired German mercenaries in New Jersey.
Inspired, the Americans crossed the Delaware and, led by George Washington, surprised the Germans and won an easy victory, turning the tide of the American Revolution and signaling the beginning of the end for British dominion over the colonies.
And nobody called them frauds, not like the scribes of today are calling New England's 2013 version a Patriots.
This group of Patriots have encountered some difficulties in the past few months, though there are not lives at stake, nor freedom, nor demoralizing defeats nor icy rivers to cross, the premise remains the same when Americans encounter any adversity - even in the shady little town of Foxborough, Massachusetts...
...because just as in war, the game of football is a challenge of violent ground acquisition, of battles in the trenches and of improvisation, adaptation and of overcoming the contingencies that stand in the way of achieving the team objective - and for the New England Patriots, the battle to remain relevant and competitive has been a hard fought one since the 2012 season ended in disappointment.
The New England Patriots pass catching corps has seen one crisis after another in 2013, what with Rob Gronkowski's multiple surgeries, Wes Welker's misguided faith in his agent and Aaron Hernandez' anger issues and an affinity for cotton candy-flavored Bubblicious and firearms...
...then the anti-Welker tears a groin muscle and passing back Shane Vereen breaks his wrist on the very first play of the season - leaving Mighty Mite Julian Edelman and three rookie receivers to shoulder the load in the passing game.
Clearly the pass catchers are a hurting unit, but at the same time, the Patriots are probably the only team in the National Football League that could take a series of fiendish hits like that and come out relatively unscathed, not to mention undefeated through three games - and once everyone is healthy, the offense should resemble a juggernaut that steamrolls defenses.
Until then, it's pretty much a work in progress, the rookies pressed into action by the unfortunate string of injury and dark malfeasance - which had many clamoring for the team to sign a veteran receiver off of either the scrapheap or out of an AARP convention, claiming them as mentors but who in actuality would be a wrong-minded shield to protect the rookies from themselves.
Last Sunday, the rookies quelled that talk for at least a week with adequate performances, getting open, holding onto the ball and moving the chains - a far cry from 10 days earlier, a comedy of error in an ugly win over the New York Jets that caused quarterback Tom Brady to lose focus and to rage against what had become of his offense...
...and it is his offense, make no mistake. But this is what he unwittingly signed up for when he agreed to a new contact extention in the spring that freed up around seven million dollars in cap space. Of course, at the time he had no clue that Wes Welker was under the influence of an agent that badly misjudged his market price, nor that Hernandez would be exposed as a multiple felon, nor that Gronkowski was going to have to have back surgery that would delay the start of his season.
The sure fire first ballot Hall of Fame quarterback knew only that there would be a new face or two, but otherwise business as usual - coach Bill Belichick drafting him a couple of receivers that would have plenty of time to learn the offense as Brady and his old friends stomped the opposing defenses like roaches.
And then, it all got blown sideways.
When the smoke cleared, Edelman was the only active receiver that had actually caught a pass from Brady last season, the rest of the pass catchers still with their training wheels on - Aaron Dobson earning the unfortunate nickname "Dropson" for his butterfingered ways in the debacle against the Jets and Kenbrell Thompkins, a former juvenile delinquent turned undrafted rookie free agent - the trio charged with carrying the torch while the wounded heal.
But despite deplorable rumors started by people who should know better, Belichick didn't pull the trigger on any washed up free agent and didn't send a draft pick to Cleveland for a talented yet troubled rookie - and not because he didn't think they would add value to his receiving corps, because they most likely would have - but because to do so would put a halt to something special that is happening to his team.
Rookies are rookies because they have little to no game experience, and the pain that comes with the learning curve is usually felt during their initial snaps to start the season, and gradually anesthetized to the point where one suddenly realizes that the rookies aren't playing like rookies any longer...
But these rookies weren't afforded that protracted time frame - they had to be good now and first year jitters be damned, thrust into a situation where the learning curve is so accelerated that they are getting what amounts to a baptism by fire...
...and neither Thomas Paine nor any writer in Hollywood could have scripted a better plot for our hometown heroes to overcome.
Because the best thing that could have happened to these rookies - and the team in general - was for them to have to go through these tribulations together - not necessarily the evil and tragic Hernandez thing, nor the Welker defection - and this is not to say that any injury is a good thing, but they happen.
The Patriots entered the season with a gimpy Amendola leading the charge, and escaped the season opener in Buffalo with a win, but lost two important weapons as the price to pay - back on the turf just four days later, their inexperience combined with zero practice time to prepare a recipe for disaster, yet even through the harrowing ordeal that was the Thursday night home opener, the Patriots managed to emerge victorious again...
...but in spite of a third consecutive win to open the season and a much better performance out of the young pups, the New England Patriots are being dismissed as the "worst 3-0 team in the league" and denounced as frauds, yet a funny thing happens when a group of men work together in the face of adversity that threatens to derail their season - they bond, they gel, whatever you want to call it...
...and to bond under those circumstances not only promotes the motivation that comes with an us-against-the-world mentality, but also suggests a natural chemistry that comes only with the same kind of one-sided magnetism that Thomas Paine provided for a group of rag-tag rebel Patriots before crossing the Delaware River in an early morning raid the day after Christmas in 1776 - crossing with only half of the men needed for the battle plan.
It worked for them and it's working for this football team - and just as reinforcements arrived after the initial battle for Trenton had achieved an important victory for the Colonial Army, these sons of liberty have help on the way as well.
Gronkowski will be back soon, perhaps as soon as this Sunday, with Amendola and his completely torn adductor muscle not long after that and Shane Vereen after that - and by Thanksgiving, when Bill Belichick always tells us that the Patriots will be playing their best ball, the rookies will no longer be rookies - with 10 games under their belts, they will meld with the returning veterans to form a juggernaut...
...an overpowering force that wouldn't have been possible without the lamentable trials that this team has gone through to start the 2013 season - so call them the worst undefeated team in the NFL, they are only going to get better.
Write them off and call them frauds, because this team built on chemistry and character now thrives off of adversity and pain - and if history has taught us anything, it's that there's nothing more dangerous than a group of men motivated by these things.
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