It's doubtful that any team, in any sport, ever entered a year with the bar set so high as the 2017 Patriots.
Debating if they'll win the division is, to virtually everyone, like debating if the sun will rise in the East. Conference champions? A given. Another Super Bowl crown? Expected. An undefeated season? There, THAT'S the challenge in many minds.
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And to Tom Brady, that's absurd. Beyond absurd.
Speaking on WEEI's Kirk and Callahan this morning -- his preseason appearance tied into the station's annual Jimmy Fund telethon -- Brady shot down the notion that this team compares to any of the five Pats Super Bowl champions, or the 2007 team that went 16-0 in the regular season.
“It's so far from those types of things," Brady said. “I mean, you're talking about some incredible teams that I've had an opportunity to be on, very lucky to be on. This team is so far from where we need to be. We have so far to go.
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"It's really unfair to set expectations. It's really a setup -- for this team, we need to be focused on so many other things than what people may think about us or say about us. There's so much improvement we need to make."
Spoken like a true Bill Belichick Patriot. As was his closing thought:
"We'll be able to write our own chapter. Hopefully it's a good one."