Former Patriots running back Kevin Faulk was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame on Monday evening outside of Gillette Stadium prior tot he Patriots annual in stadium practice. He is the 25th member of the Hall.
“I’d like to thank Mr. Kraft, for just being who he is as an owner, for this team, for this organization. There are different owners around the NFL that actually try to run their football team. Mr. Kraft is totally different than that. He lets Bill do his thing. And he does his part as far as running the organization,” said Faulk.
Robert Kraft was just one of about two dozen former players and coaches that Faulk thanked during his speech.
The biggest surprise of the night was a surprise appearance by Patriots quarterback Tom Brady made a surprise appearance wearing a Kevin Faulk jersey. In his first time speaking publicly since last season, Brady talked for nearly 4 minutes about Kevin Faulk.
"What a wonderful night, this is obviously a special night for all the players to come back and honor one of the great ones that i've ever played with, and I've played with a lot of great ones and most of them are here tonight," Brady continued, " What a pleasure it was to spend as many years in the backfield as I did with him."
Remember, Faulk wore a Tom Brady jersey while announcing the Patriots pick int he 2016 NFL Draft and wore a Tom Brady jersey again on Monday prior to putting on the red jacket.
“Without Brady, those 400 and whatever receptions would not be possible, without his trust in me, understanding that I understood what he understood. That was my biggest gift to this football team: knowing what Tom Brady knew. That’s why when the most pressure situations came, I was successful. Because I knew what Tom Brady knew,” said Faulk
Faulk Goes After the Critics
In another part of his speech, Kevin Faulk when after those who are critical of the Patriots and their recent history with scandals.
"All those people, all those people that say we're cheaters, just tell them to come in our meeting room and our practice for one day and see what we do and understand why we are who we are and why we New England Patriots. Thank you and I love you," Faulk concluded as the crowd rose to their feet.
Kevin Faulk with the Patriots.
Faulk came to the Patriots as a second round pick out of Louisiana State in the 1999 draft and is the franchise's all-time leader in all purpose yards (12,349) and kickoff return yards (4,098).
Faulk ranks 5th in Patriots history in rushing yards (3,607), 5th in receptions (431), 12th in receiving yards (3,701) and 8th in punt return yards (943).
In his career, he played in 161 regular season games and ran for 3,607 yards on 864 attempts with 16 touchdowns.
The Patriots tallied 11 winning seasons, three Super Bowl titles and five AFC Championships with Faulk on the team.
Faulk is one of three players in the Hall of Fame with 3 Super Bowl rings.
Related Slideshow: The New England Patriots - Greatest Team Ever
The New England Patriots have won their fourth Super Bowl in the Brady/Belichick Era by defeating the Seattle Seahawks 28 - 24 in Super Bowl XLIX in Arizona. With that win, the Patriots have now put themselves in the conversation as being the greatest team ever in NFL history.
Here are ten reasons why they are in fact the greatest team.
Since the beginning of the free agency and salary cap era in 1993, no coach and team has been more well-known for shrewd moves to stay under the salary cap and bringing in free agents to supplement the talent on his team, and win at the same time, as the New England Patriots.
In 2001, coach Belichick brought in free agents David Patten, Larry Izzo, Mike Vrabel, Antowain Smith, Bryan Cox and Roman Phifer. The Patriots won their first Super Bowl.
Belichick continued to bring in major free agents for the Patriots’ other Super Bowl runs. Whether it was Roosevelt Colvin and Rodney Harrison in 2003 or trading for Corey Dillon in 2004.
Belichick has also not been afraid to let star players walk. This includes allowing Ty Law to leave in 2005, Willie McGinest and Adam Vinatieri to leave and trading Deion Branch in 2006 or letting Asante Samuel leave in 2008.
Belichick has also not been afraid to pull the trigger on major trades just prior to the season starting. Trading players like Lawyer Milloy, Richard Seymour and Logan Mankins less than a month before the start of those respective seasons.
Despite all of these moves, the Patriots have continued to win year in and year out.
The New England Patriots have had at least 10 wins in a season for 12 straight seasons. The last time the Patriots didn't have at least 10 wins in a season was in 2002 when they went 9-7 the year after winning a Super Bowl.
In this stretch, New England has won 16 games once, 12 games four times, 14 games three times, 13 and 11 games once, and ten games two times.
When the Patriots started this incredible run in 2001, the game was much different then it is today.
The running game was still emphasized and defense's were allowed to be much more physical then they are in the game today.
Today's game features rules that are structured to help the offense score more points and teams, including the Patriots, have had to change the way they play defense and the way they hit, due to the emphasis on concussion prevention.
Through all the rule changes that the league has undergone, the Patriots have still won, year in and year out.
In Bill Belichick's first season in New England, 2000, the Patriots went 5-11 and missed the playoffs for the second straight season. Since then, the Patriots have not had a losing season, not even a .500 season, they've had 14 straight winning seasons.
One of the most impressive seasons still remains the 2008 season. Tom Brady got hurt in the first game and was out for the season and Matt Cassell stepped in to replace him.
The Patriots went 11-5 that year but missed the playoffs due to a tie breaker that they lost.
That particular season has to be one of Bill Belichicks greatest jobs in his time here. Nobody saw the Patriots going 11-5 that season after Brady went down.
The New England Patriots have now won 12 AFC East titles in 14 years and are currently in the middle of a stretch in which they have won six straight.
With the rest of the AFC East still a disaster, one has to believe that the Pats will be adding a few more titles before the Belichick-Brady era is over.
In the Brady/Belichick era, the Patriots have been to nine AFC Championship games and have won six of them.
New England is currently in a stretch in which they have gone to four straight championship games, three of which were held at Gillette Stadium.
To put this in perspective, Peyton Manning has lost in the first round nine times in his career and the New York Jets have only ever been to four Conference Championship games in franchise history since the AFL - NFL merger.
To be a final four team in nine of 14 seasons is pretty impressive for the New England Patriots, or for that matter, any other team.
Tom Brady now has four Super Bowl rings in his career tieing his boyhood idle Joe Montana and is 4-2 in the Super Bowl and has three Super Bowl MVP's.
Brady is the all-time leader in playoff passing yards with over 7,000 yards through the air and is the all -time leader in playoff wins with 21. Brady is 21-8 in the playoffs all-time.
Brady also has the most touchdown passes in Super Bowl history with 13 and has the most touchdown passes in playoff history with 53.
Brady is in the top five in career passing yards with over 53,000 and has a good chance to be in the top three by the time his career is over.
Tom Brady has 45 career game winning drives, which is tied for fourth all-time, and Brady is also fourth with 35 come from behind wins, 9 of which came in the playoffs.
The New England Patriots are the greatest team of all-time because they have the greatest quarterback of all time, Tom Brady.
The number one reason why the New England Patriots (2001-14) are the greatest team of all time is because they have the greatest coach of all time, Bill Belichick.
Belichick now has four Super Bowl Rings which ties him for the most all-time with Chuck Noll, who did it with the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1969-91. However, Belichick gets the edge because he has done it in the salary cap/free agency era, where his teams have undergone significant changes on a year to year basis.
Despite the various roster changes from year to year, Belichick has still won and is by far the most dominant coach of this era.
Bill Belichick has 22 playoff wins which is already more than any other coach in the history of the league and is 103 games over the .500 mark (212-109) in his coaching career.
Bill Belichick, the greatest coach of the greatest team of all time.
