HOUSTON -- The
Patriots stormed from
behind to win Super Bowl LI 34-28 over the Atlanta Falcons in improbable fashion,
engineering the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history as
Tom Brady shattered records
en route to his fourth Super Bowl MVP award.
There is plenty to celebrate, but if you're Bill Belichick, there's no time to waste sitting around trying to be excited about winning a fifth Super Bowl with the Patriots (and seventh Super Bowl overall).
In fact, Belichick is already starting to turn away from the 2016 season and towards 2017 because the Patriots, due to their deep playoff run, are "five weeks behind" everyone else for next year.
"
As great as today is, in all honesty, we're five weeks behind 30 teams in the league in preparing for the 2017 season," Belichick said Monday morning at the Super Bowl MVP press conference.
He's not wrong. Teams have turned their attention to the NFL combine (starts in a few weeks), NFL free agency (March) and NFL Draft (late April, not as far away as you'd think). The NFL cycle is a quick one, and if you aren't working in the offseason, you're not going to win in the regular season.
"If you don't do a good job with your football team in February, March and April, you're probably going to see that in January," Belichick said.