Darren Sharper: Patriots window of opportunity "slammed shut"

Eight years, one month and 19 days later, the Patriots have yet to win another Super Bowl.... but who's counting, right? The last Super Bowl that the Pats did win was Super Bowl XXXIX... this upcoming Super Bowl will be XLVIII. They've certainly come close to winning others; they have made the Super Bowl another two times and reached the AFC Championship game 4 additional times. Unfortunately for all of Patriots Nation, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Most people believe that as long as the Patriots have Bill Belichick and Tom Brady at the helm, a Super Bowl victory will always be a possibility. NFL Network analyst Darren Sharper apparently decided he was going to be devil's advocate, saying that the Patriots window of opportunity has been "slammed shut":

"We know they have Tom Brady which always gives them a chance to win, but they lack that veteran presence. You think about the Willie McGinest's, Rodney Harrison's, Tedy Bruschi's, (and) Ty Law. . . These were the guys that drove them to those Super Bowl championships. . . Now they have a lot of young guys that don't know how to get it done." - Darren Shaper

Basically he just pointed out the obvious. We all know that the Patriots have yet to win a Super Bowl since the 2004 season, and the main reason is essentially the lack of championship experience on the defensive side. Sharper went overboard though when he said that the window was "slammed shut". Because they have little championship experience on the defense? Yeah that is a factor, but that does not make it impossible to win. Championship experience comes after you win a championship. Just because most of the defense hasn't won a Super Bowl doesn't mean that they are incapable of doing so.

As for a veteran presence on defense, the Pats have that with Vince Wilfork and Jerod Mayo leading the charge. Yes, the defense could be better and for the team to win it all, they basically have to be better. They will be though, and hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later because we don't know how much longer Brady will be playing. The window is undoubtedly closing as TB12 nears the latter portion of his career, but by no means has the window closed.

When it comes down to it, the Patriots just so happened to fall short the past eight seasons. Most of the time it isn't the best team in football that wins the championship, it's the team that gets hot at the right time. Also, I loved seeing former Patriot Heath Evans totally disagree with Darren Sharper during the same segment.

Anthony Aidonidis
@aidonidis18
#TeamTB12