We have begun the final countdown here at BSJ for the top 25 Patriots players over the last 25 years. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. It is truly remarkable how many great players have come into our lives during this stretch. I didn’t have much problem slotting this next guy. I think he fits perfectly right where he is.
5. Ty Law: Were this list about the entirety of one’s career, Ty Law might very well be #2 behind you-know-who. But this countdown begins in 2001, when the former first-rounder out of Michigan was already entering his 7th season and had only 4 more years remaining in New England. But man, were those damn good, even if the last got cut short by a foot injury.
Law’s physicality in coverage (a Patriots staple during that first dynastic run) actually got the league to reemphasize a rule about how defensive backs played (thanks, Bill Polian). It’s even unofficially called the “Ty Law Rule.” Think about that. How many players can say they were partly responsible for what I still consider a drastic change, one that ushered in a new passing era? Now, even average quarterbacks throw for 4,000 yards.
That rewriting - or better yet, reinforcing of illegal contact in the rule book came during the offseason after the Pats won the 2003-04 Super Bowl. Law intercepted Peyton Manning three times in the AFC title game, mauling Colts’ receivers at the top of their routes, thereby disrupting the timing. Marvin Harrison, who on one play was unceremoniously escorted out of bounds by Law, and the rest of Indy’s skill players were no match for NE’s defense.
“This was probably the most simple game plan we had,” Law said after the victory. “Just beat them up.”
A year later, the Colts and Pats met again in the postseason. Manning had thrown for 49 TD passes in the regular season, and added 4 more (and 458 yards passing) the week prior in a playoff win over Denver. But in the Divisional Round, the Pats dominated 20-3. To call that a sweet victory would be doing it a disservice.
“It was very satisfying,” said Law. “There’s nothing you could do, and there was no rule you could implement that was going to keep us from our goal of winning a championship.
“We know how to adapt,” he added. “You think about the New England Patriots and how we’ve played; we always make adjustments. We always adapt. So when you make an adjustment to a rule to change it for the whole league, well guess what? We’re gonna adapt to that too. That was nothing but another halftime adjustment for us.”
"When they start… I don't want to say changing the rules, but changing the rules because of the way he plays, there's probably something to be said for that,” Bill Belichick recalled in 2017. "I know they didn't 'change them' change them, but we all know what happened."
Law “only” has two first-team All-Pros to his credit (1998 and, more important for this list, 2003). He was also a three-time Pro Bowler between ‘01 and ‘03. In that first Super Bowl-winning season, Law had three interceptions and took a league-high two back for touchdowns. He then added maybe his most memorable one in the Super Bowl, recording that pick-6 that announced the Pats' presence with authority in their dramatic win over Kurt Warner and the Rams.
“You just want to make sure you don't drop it, because you almost can't believe it's coming,” Law said of that moment. “We had been playing physical and waiting for a big play to result from it."
"I'll always have an image of him running down that left sideline,” smiled Robert Kraft, “and putting his hand up in the air."
In ‘03, Law had another big-time season, with 6 INTs (1 TD) and 23 PBUs (led league). The Pats won another title. But contract negotiations following the season got messy. Very messy. He called the team’s offer of $26 million over four years an “insult“ and “a slap in the face.” Law later claimed the team lied to him, and he no longer wanted to play for the Patriots. He eventually did, before suffering a season-ending foot injury.
"I'll go out there and play my game. I'm not saying I'm going to be the best guy to be around or your favorite guy to talk to,” Law said of showing up in 2004. “But I'm not going to hurt my teammates, and I'm not going to hurt myself. I'm going to go out there and play football, because if you want to pay $7 million to a guy that really doesn't want to be here, OK, this is business. Fine. You don't have to like your boss to work and do your job well."
The Pats released Law in February of 2005. He signed with the Jets and had 10 interceptions the next year. That’s just the kind of player he was. I don’t want to be so bold as to say he was one-of-a-kind, but it's close.
“He never got tired,” Mike Vrabel said in 2019. “That’s the one thing that I always remembered about Ty. He could be running a conditioning test and talking junk and trash to everybody around him. He was a big corner that wasn’t just a cover-2 corner. He was … a man-matchup corner, could play man coverage, could play zone coverage, could jam, reroute, could tackle.”
When he was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in '19, Law called out all of his former teammates in the stands.
“Stand up,” he told them. “The old school, new school, stand up. It’s about time. I’m not standing here alone. I’m on this stage not because of statistical reasons; I’m here because I was a part of something special. We created a culture, a brotherhood of unselfishness that we displayed as we won three Super Bowl titles. Let’s keep it real. We started this [expletive].”
They sure did, and Law was a key figure in making it all go.