The title refers to one of the final four remaining teams in the playoffs of the NFL and similar to most sport franchise there are teams that seem to make it into the playoffs with a legitimate chance to win the cup every year. The team the author likes made it to the playoffs but was defeated. In the case of New England, what is remarkable is they were in the final four even though some of their top performers have been or are injured and not playing. When the coach eventually retires he will go into the Hall of Fame with an outstanding win/loss ratio. It could be easily argued that Bill Belichick is a great coach because his teams that made it to the final four, and into the championship game, player personal changed considerably from year to year. One would think a need for a quality core number of people who worked together to form a great team and new people to the team would see from the example the veterans bring to the team and the new people would fit in. In football there are 53 people that suit up for a game, in New England’s case this year 25 of those players that were not on the team last year including 15 first year players. In theory, all the other teams had a opportunity to look at the those players, but when they arrived in New England, they performed better than expected. Perhaps it is the flexibility of the system New England uses, whatever Coach Belichick does, the system he uses elevates all the players as soon as they play for the team. (New England lost to Denver but you can be assured they will be back again next year).

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in the face of the increasing competition where more and more people and companies have access to similar information to be a consistent winner is something to celebrate. Although each team is different, in terms of culture and expectations, the consistency of having a winning season such as New England is a joy to watch and learn from. When you find a stock which is consistently paying dividends or making profits for its shareholders that is something to celebrate. Both for the management and the employees who every year start fresh and produce consistently good returns.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions