Eagles win, but once again, we must marvel at Belichick's teams

Today, in all of American pro sports, the New England Patriots are the closest you find to a dynasty. They represent the gold standard, the pinnacle that was once defined by the New York fucking Yankees. But it's been 15 years since we regularly dominated our division, much less the league or the sport.

Last night, in an extraordinary Super Bowl, there they were once again, playing heroic and nearly flawless football. And if Tom Brady had been given another 30 seconds, who doesn't believe he would have guided his team to that tying score? They went down fighting.

The Pats are what we want the Yankees to be. Anything less, and we are just another franchise that wins for a while because it tanked and traded off its stars. 

This is the season that must launch a stretch of Yankee division, league and world championships - (at least two of the latter) - because anything less than a ring carries no weight in history. Other teams - like Houston last season and the Cubs in 2016 - can go all out for one lamp-post-greasing, precedent-breaking championship. The Yankees must think in terms of dynasty.

So how can the Yankees learn from Bill Belichick? Well, there are some ways.

1. We need one or two homegrown superstars, like a Brady and a Gronk. We need the entirety of their careers; we can't sign them as free agents. We might already have one in Aaron Judge, Greg Bird, Gary Sanchez and/or Luis Severino... or in rookies still to come. This is good.

2. We need a constant upward flow of young talent. Belichick always has extra draft picks by dealing excess players. (This year, he traded Jimmy Garappolo for a second-round pick.) In recent winters, the Yankees have dealt MLB-ready players - Ben Gamel, James Pazos, et al - for lower level prospects and/or extra cap money to spend on international players. As long as the Yankees keep developing prospects, we can use them not only to acquire stretch veterans, but we can prime the pump by trading for more prospects. We need to always be among the top farm systems in baseball.

3. We need to cheat. Whether it's spying on opponents or deflating the football, Belichick is always looking for the advantage - in or outside of the rules. He's not alone. In recent years, the Redsocks and Braves were caught cooking the books with Latino signings, the Cardinals were hacking into Houston's database, and Boston used electronics to steal our signs. I don't know how we do this, and frankly, I don't care. But I don't see Hal Steinbrenner as a particularly effective master of evil schemes. He has gone along with the other owners by not using his nearly infinite financial resources to sign stars. He doesn't seem the type of owner who stops at nothing to win. 

Maybe this is our advantage. Maybe we can parlay Hal's boy scout reputation into a nice underground human slave trade that steals eugenically altered babies from North Korea and creates steroidal mutant giants, something minor. Let's hope! 

4. We need the best scouts and system of player development. Today, the Yankees are receiving homage for this, but you never know how much of the praise is mere hype and boot-licking. (Three years ago, the Mets had the super system; look where that got them.) Time will tell. 

The fact is, many of us life-long Yankee fans cannot bring ourselves to trust the judgement of the front office. I still suffer PTSD from the disastrous trades of previous generations. Two years ago, when he tanked the team, Cashman seems to have made some great deals. But the fact remains, we are where we are right now because of the 2016 tear-down... and any team can build itself by tanking. 

Make no mistake: In 2018, the Yankees must win the division and go deep into the playoffs, if not the world series. This is the year to launch a new Yankee dynasty. Otherwise, New England will remain the gold standard that should be us.