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Belichick has track record of classlessness
Patriots coach has always been on over-competitive manipulator
OPINION
By Bob Cook
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 12:16 a.m. ET Sept 11, 2007
Bob Cook
When you hear the New England Patriots are accused of sending a spy to videotape an opponent’s signals, do you think, “There is no WAY that would EVER be tolerated on a team coached by Bill Belichick?”
Thought not.
As his team gets further removed from its Super Bowl run, Belichick’s career as a Hall of Fame coach is quickly being overtaken by his career as a Hall of Fame jackass. Even though Belichick is far from being found culpable in the case of the Patriots employee wielding a video camera where none should be, the coach’s long history of poor sportsmanship means it hardly stretches the imagination to see him being Dick Cheney in the NFL‘s version of warrantless wiretapping.
If this is all just a big misunderstanding, all apologies to Belichick.
If not, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell needs to go all Pacman Jones on Belichick, who is a repeat offender when it comes to the crime of sore winning and sore losing. Forget losing a draft pick or two if the Patriots are found to have violated the league rule against videotaping another team’s signals. Belichick, if he is at any way responsible, should be suspended for a bad attitude that has played out in ways that makes Terrell Owens queasy.
Not only is it no surprise that the coach who Machiavelli thinks is a little too committed to winning at all costs would (allegedly) send a spy to steal signals during Sunday’s 38-14 victory over the New York Jets, but it’s also no surprise that, as a league source told ESPN.com, this is not the first time such an accusation has been made. According to that account, the Green Bay Packers last year kicked out the same Patriots representative being investigated by the league for the Jets incident.
Sign-stealing has long been a sports pastime, and often it’s seen as crafty gamesmanship to slyly figure out the opponents’ signals. But only the sore-winning, sore-losing Belichick would be as ham-handed as to send a guy with a video recorder to stand on the other team’s sideline.
It shows the same brand of subtlety he displayed, say, brushing past someone trying to shake his hand after a loss.
Belichick has been on a particular roll since the last game of the regular season: shoving a photographer during a season-ending win over the Jets; having LaDainian Tomlinson question whether the Patriots who danced at midfield after a playoff win at San Diego took their cues on classlessness from their coach; and blowing off Peyton Manning after the Colts beat the Patriots in the AFC Championship game, followed by Belichick giving CBS’ Solomon Wilcots a short, prickly interview that inspired network analyst Boomer Esiason to call the coach “unprofessional.”
Then on a Sept. 2 radio show, Vikings coach Brad Childress revealed he had a tense conversation with Belichick when Childress wanted to claim a player Belichick had put on waivers in hopes of bringing him back to the practice squad. Childress said Belichick told him he wouldn’t claim a Vikings player if Childress backed off. When he didn’t, Childress said, Belichick claimed a Vikings player. “He was trying to leverage, but you always find out who is honest and straightforward,” Childress told WCCO-AM.
Of course, Belichick has a long history of manipulation. Look at how he works the weekly injury list so no one knows exactly who is hurt and how much, paranoia that runs so deep, Belichick ordered Steelers trainer John Norwig off the field in 2005 when he came to assist injured Patriots offensive lineman Matt Light. Actually, what Belichick was reported to have said was, “Get away from my [R-rated adjective] player!”
If it weren’t for the reports that the Patriots had tried this before, it would seem natural Belichick would reserve his most dastardly schemes for the Jets, given the bad blood that started in early 2000 when he quit as the team’s head coach the day he was promoted to fill Bill Parcells’ absence, continued as he and the Jets filed grievances over his attempt to go to the Patriots, and continued further as defensive coordinator Eric Mangini took the head coaching job last year, reportedly over Belichick’s objections (so much so Belichick, like an angry father of a teenage daughter dating a newly released prisoner, was purported to have changed the locks during Mangini’s courting).
Who can forget such heart-warming images of tough but fair competition as Belichick brushes off Mangini’s handshake in their first game against each other, and Mangini grabbing Belichick’s right arm like Henry VIII locked onto a turkey leg to guarantee a handshake after their second meeting?
Only Belichick’s lack of throwing furniture and his omnipresent monotone keeps his reputation from completely spilling over into Bob Knight territory. He’s a jerk, but not one you hear screaming a lot. Belichick might not completely disdain the comparison to Knight, a good friend of Belichick’s former boss, Parcells. Knight was never one to rush to apologize for his actions, and Belichick doesn’t openly, Nixon-style, declare “I am not a jerk,” instead issuing vague responses that sound like they were written by Alan Greenspan.
But one other thing about Knight. For all of his flaws, he was all about fair play. Belichick is about gaming the system as much as you can.
Particularly if this videotape accusation holds up, the question becomes, with Belichick’s skill, and his players’ talent, why stoop to this?
The answer: because Belichick’s attitude crosses the line from wanting to do everything possible to win to demanding to do anything possible to win. Belichick’s boorish behavior means the videotape accusation, if it sticks, isn’t a sign of some crafty mind engaging in a little gamesmanship. It’s a sign of an obsessed mind crossing the line from being a poor sport to being poor for his sport.
Bob Cook is a contributor to msnbc.com and a freelance writer in the Chicago area.
Belichick has track record of classlessness
Patriots coach has always been on over-competitive manipulator
OPINION
By Bob Cook
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 12:16 a.m. ET Sept 11, 2007
Bob Cook
When you hear the New England Patriots are accused of sending a spy to videotape an opponent’s signals, do you think, “There is no WAY that would EVER be tolerated on a team coached by Bill Belichick?”
Thought not.
As his team gets further removed from its Super Bowl run, Belichick’s career as a Hall of Fame coach is quickly being overtaken by his career as a Hall of Fame jackass. Even though Belichick is far from being found culpable in the case of the Patriots employee wielding a video camera where none should be, the coach’s long history of poor sportsmanship means it hardly stretches the imagination to see him being Dick Cheney in the NFL‘s version of warrantless wiretapping.
If this is all just a big misunderstanding, all apologies to Belichick.
If not, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell needs to go all Pacman Jones on Belichick, who is a repeat offender when it comes to the crime of sore winning and sore losing. Forget losing a draft pick or two if the Patriots are found to have violated the league rule against videotaping another team’s signals. Belichick, if he is at any way responsible, should be suspended for a bad attitude that has played out in ways that makes Terrell Owens queasy.
Not only is it no surprise that the coach who Machiavelli thinks is a little too committed to winning at all costs would (allegedly) send a spy to steal signals during Sunday’s 38-14 victory over the New York Jets, but it’s also no surprise that, as a league source told ESPN.com, this is not the first time such an accusation has been made. According to that account, the Green Bay Packers last year kicked out the same Patriots representative being investigated by the league for the Jets incident.
Sign-stealing has long been a sports pastime, and often it’s seen as crafty gamesmanship to slyly figure out the opponents’ signals. But only the sore-winning, sore-losing Belichick would be as ham-handed as to send a guy with a video recorder to stand on the other team’s sideline.
It shows the same brand of subtlety he displayed, say, brushing past someone trying to shake his hand after a loss.
Belichick has been on a particular roll since the last game of the regular season: shoving a photographer during a season-ending win over the Jets; having LaDainian Tomlinson question whether the Patriots who danced at midfield after a playoff win at San Diego took their cues on classlessness from their coach; and blowing off Peyton Manning after the Colts beat the Patriots in the AFC Championship game, followed by Belichick giving CBS’ Solomon Wilcots a short, prickly interview that inspired network analyst Boomer Esiason to call the coach “unprofessional.”
Then on a Sept. 2 radio show, Vikings coach Brad Childress revealed he had a tense conversation with Belichick when Childress wanted to claim a player Belichick had put on waivers in hopes of bringing him back to the practice squad. Childress said Belichick told him he wouldn’t claim a Vikings player if Childress backed off. When he didn’t, Childress said, Belichick claimed a Vikings player. “He was trying to leverage, but you always find out who is honest and straightforward,” Childress told WCCO-AM.
Of course, Belichick has a long history of manipulation. Look at how he works the weekly injury list so no one knows exactly who is hurt and how much, paranoia that runs so deep, Belichick ordered Steelers trainer John Norwig off the field in 2005 when he came to assist injured Patriots offensive lineman Matt Light. Actually, what Belichick was reported to have said was, “Get away from my [R-rated adjective] player!”
If it weren’t for the reports that the Patriots had tried this before, it would seem natural Belichick would reserve his most dastardly schemes for the Jets, given the bad blood that started in early 2000 when he quit as the team’s head coach the day he was promoted to fill Bill Parcells’ absence, continued as he and the Jets filed grievances over his attempt to go to the Patriots, and continued further as defensive coordinator Eric Mangini took the head coaching job last year, reportedly over Belichick’s objections (so much so Belichick, like an angry father of a teenage daughter dating a newly released prisoner, was purported to have changed the locks during Mangini’s courting).
Who can forget such heart-warming images of tough but fair competition as Belichick brushes off Mangini’s handshake in their first game against each other, and Mangini grabbing Belichick’s right arm like Henry VIII locked onto a turkey leg to guarantee a handshake after their second meeting?
Only Belichick’s lack of throwing furniture and his omnipresent monotone keeps his reputation from completely spilling over into Bob Knight territory. He’s a jerk, but not one you hear screaming a lot. Belichick might not completely disdain the comparison to Knight, a good friend of Belichick’s former boss, Parcells. Knight was never one to rush to apologize for his actions, and Belichick doesn’t openly, Nixon-style, declare “I am not a jerk,” instead issuing vague responses that sound like they were written by Alan Greenspan.
But one other thing about Knight. For all of his flaws, he was all about fair play. Belichick is about gaming the system as much as you can.
Particularly if this videotape accusation holds up, the question becomes, with Belichick’s skill, and his players’ talent, why stoop to this?
The answer: because Belichick’s attitude crosses the line from wanting to do everything possible to win to demanding to do anything possible to win. Belichick’s boorish behavior means the videotape accusation, if it sticks, isn’t a sign of some crafty mind engaging in a little gamesmanship. It’s a sign of an obsessed mind crossing the line from being a poor sport to being poor for his sport.
Bob Cook is a contributor to msnbc.com and a freelance writer in the Chicago area.
