Brady, Seymour, Vinatieri Spread Belichick's Message

If Bill Belichick is the High Priest of everything New England Patriots (preaching in the Kraft Temple) then his top three apostles are a quarterback, defensive lineman and place kicker. And no priest in history has had the kind of luck with his apostles as Belichick has had with Tom Brady, Richard Seymour and Adam Vinatieri. While watching Sunday Mass at the Baseball Tavern, Brady, Seymour and Vinatieri passed along the word of their exalted coach for the 59th time in 74 games since Brady took over for Drew Bledsoe behind center during the 2001 season. Those three have been the rock on which Belichick has built his following. Brady is an extension of his coach on the field. The signal caller who came from nowhere to change an entire region's beliefs about football has lead his franchise to three of the last four Super Bowl championships with a calm and steady field presence that attracts more and more followers every week. Yesterday was just another example of his leadership. In the fourth quarter Brady was 12-of-12 for 168 yards (31-of-41 for 372 on the day) and after the Steelers scored a touchdown with 1:21 to play to tie the game at 20, he methodically marched the Pats down field and put them into field goal range. Vinatieri then took over and booted the game winning field goal with :01 o the clock. Then there is Seymour, the best defensive lineman in the NFL. Taken sixth overall in the 2001 draft out of Georgia, much to the dismay of the Globe's Ron Borges, Big-Sey is the leader of the defense in 2005 that no longer has Tedy Bruschi, Ty Law, Ted Johnson and Roman Phifer. When Rodney Harrison, the heart and soul of the D, went down in the first quarter with a vicious knee injury, Seymour and the rest of the D-Line stepped up and overpowered the vaunted Steeler offensive line -- stopping the running game and pressuring Ben Roethlisberger into bad decision after bad decision. Seymour finished the day with four tackles and two sacks but credit him with at least a dozen other tackles that can be attributed to the constant double teams he faced that freed up another defender (Monty Beisel, Willie McGinest) to make the hit. And then, of course, there is the the kicker who always saves the game, Adam Vinatieri. Some have compared the Pats kicker to the great closer of the New York Yankees, Mariano Rivera but I think that diminishes what Vinatieri does for his team. Rivera usually has a lead when he does his thing, his job is to preserve the game which is no easy task (ask Keith Foulke) but at least his team is winning. Vinatieri, on the other hand, makes his most important kicks when his team is either tied or trailing in the game. Heinz Field, the site of Sunday's game, is no haven for kickers but No. 4 came through regardless of the conditions -- as he always does. The usual formula for an important Patriot victory -- a great Belichick gameplan carried out by Brady, Seymour, Vinatieri and the rest of the Pats -- was on display yesterday in Pittsburgh. The New England Patriots bible (known as a record book in these parts) is full of similar stories with same message: follow the word of Belichick and a win is near certain.