Patriots as 1990s Chicago Bulls? Check out Julian Edelman’s t-shirt

The New England Patriots are on a historic run of success the past 15 years that — controversy notwithstanding — rivals some of the great dynasties across the major team sports.

And Julian Edelman, also a professional t-shirt maker on the side it appears, is drawing a direct line from the Patriots to one of the best NBA juggernauts in history.

[Yahoo Daily Fantasy Football: Enter our $1 Million Week 3 contest]

Check out these amazing t-shirts that Edelman made, overlaying the faces of his current teammates (and a certain hooded coach) on the bodies of some of the 1990s Chicago Bulls.

His choices for who plays whom is also quite interesting.

Bill Belichick, naturally, is Phil Jackson. Moustache, hoodie and all. Curious look.

Edelman makes himself Scottie Pippen, which is a fascinating choice and makes some sense. And with it comes a terrific new nickname, “Slottie Pippen,” that we now will use every time he does something great on the field.

Here’s where it gets really interesting: Tom Brady is Dennis Rodman (?!) and Rob Gronkowski, not Brady, is Michael Jordan.

Wow!

Hidden statement from Edelman? Is Gronk the real superhero of this team? Perhaps we shouldn’t read too much into all this and just sit back and enjoy the humor from this rather notably humorless team.

Coaching-wise, you’d have to say that the Belichick-Jackson discussion is a fascinating one. Apples to oranges and all that, you could make an argument that they are two of the five or six best major-sport coaches in the past half-century relative to their respective sports. Style-wise, they’re clearly different … I mean, can you even imagine the reaction from Belichick suggesting Gronk read Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha as Jackson did to Shaquille O’Neal?

But of course, the idea of Brady as Rodman — tats and everything — is our lasting image from this. It’s a beautiful dig, veiled in respect, from Edelman to his quarterback. One he previously had some fun with when Edelman minted t-shirts from his famous TD pass to Danny Amendola in the playoff victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

– – – – – – –

Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm