Baseball doesn't have a hard salary cap. Basketball doesn't have 60-something player teams, plus it has the Larry Bird rule I think it's called, where teams can pay one player more than the salary cap. It's the way the Chicago Bulls kept their team together the last 3 years.
The only way that teams can maintain players that want more money than the team can afford is via the Franchise tag. That tag is only truly valuable for a single year, and then increases in price every year afterwards. And it only works on one player per year. It's the reason that the Bears will have to get rid of Lance Briggs over the summer.
The Patriots have managed to build a system where people want to be there, even at discounts to their actual value (the entire LB core, Brady himself, the Oline, etc). They also built a system where no single player is bigger than the team, something that simply doesn't happen on almost every other team in the NFL. You ask Tom Brady what makes him great, and his answer will always and instantly be "my teammates and my coaching". There are a LOT of superstars in the League that won't acknowledge their teammates, even my favorite player Brian Urlacher.
For building a team the right way, and for the players playing the game the right way, I have great respect for the Patriots. You can not fault the players for the mistakes that the coaches might have made in their planning and execution.
