The NFL is often called a quarterbacks' league. The QB is key. No doubt. But listening to Brad Childress, the coach of the Pats' opponent this week, it became clear that the NFL is really a coaches' league. Bad coaches can ruin good teams. Think Childress or Wade Phillips. Good coaches can get the most out of average teams. Think Bill Parcells or Mike Shanahan. Average quarterbacks have won championships. Average coaches have not.
Patriots fans are lucky. For the past ten years we have had the best coach in the league. In fact, Bill Belichick is the greatest coach the NFL has ever seen.
No. I haven't been guzzling the Kool-Aid. I'm still not too happy that Randy Moss was traded. The team has lost a few too many games during the past two seasons that it could/should have won. He screwed up large by illegally taping opponent's signals. He could be a little less of a jerk at press conferences. Mike Vrabel should still be playing for this team.
None of that -- or any other criticism that spouting heads like Borges or Felger might throw his way -- changes the fact that the man currently coaching the Patriots is the game's best. Ever. Others may go with Landry, Shula, Noll, or Lombardi. All good choices. But watching Bill Belichick from the stands some ten times a year for more than a decade has convinced me. Is he the most entertaining? Uh, no. The most glib? Nope. The warmest. Hell no. What does that have to do with the issue? Does he have fun with the media? Would you?
Patriots fans are lucky. For the past ten years we have had the best coach in the league. In fact, Bill Belichick is the greatest coach the NFL has ever seen.
No. I haven't been guzzling the Kool-Aid. I'm still not too happy that Randy Moss was traded. The team has lost a few too many games during the past two seasons that it could/should have won. He screwed up large by illegally taping opponent's signals. He could be a little less of a jerk at press conferences. Mike Vrabel should still be playing for this team.
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BELICHICK: Coaches coach. |
Belichick's detractors describe most Pats fans as Kool-Aid drinking worshipers who think the coach/GM/defensive coordinator/ trainer/ doctor/bus driver can do no wrong. Three Super Bowl titles and an 18-1 season sure do buy you a lot of loyalty and benefit of the doubt. But Pats fans question Belichick all the time.
Add these to my list: I disagreed with letting Willie McGinest go. Strongly. I think if he's in that AFC title game in Indy we don't blow an 18-point lead. Willie wouldn't have stood for it. Same with that Super Bowl. You think Willie lets little Manning escape that sack? He not only sacks him, he probably draws blood. That was what made Willie the true leader of that team. Same with Vinatieri. I would have paid him. Without those kicks in the winter of '02 I don't think any of this happens. Belichick should have signed him for three more years just to say thanks. But that would have been money not well spent. Gostkowski -- if you factor in his kickoffs -- has actually been better than the best clutch kicker ever. Belichick was right on that one. He's right more often than not. And he's not afraid to make the tough decisions. That's why he's making the calls. All of them. Even that fourth down call I didn't like last year -- and last week.
Borges, no longer of the Globe, recently wrote that without the players Belichick would just be another high school football coach. Mark and I still have our decoder rings out trying to decipher that one. Borges is certainly not drinking the Kool-Aid. But sometimes I think he's drinking something. The players deserve a huge amount of the credit for all the wins. Belichick is the first one to give them that credit. Week in and week out. "The players made the plays." The coach says it all the time. Those players have come and those players have gone, and still the Patriots are one of the top teams in the league. Ten years after their first Super Bowl title. It's been an incredible run. And with seven picks in the first four rounds of next year's draft it doesn't look like it's about to end.
Since 2001, Belichick's Pats have not had a losing season. They have only missed the playoffs twice during that time and in those two years (2002, 2008) they missed due to a tie-breaker. 2008's Brady-less team is only the second team to win 11 games and not make the playoffs. As the Patriots walked off the field in San Diego Sunday with a 5-1 record, the chances of them putting up another 10-plus win season looked good. Anything can happen in these last 10 games and there are lots of things they need to improve on, but the team that many predicted would finish third in the division is once again battling for the top in the AFC.
Belichick's true value doesn't lie in his personnel decisions, draft-day maneuvers, interview skills, video library, or even his game planning. His value is in his coaching. On Sundays. Watching him on the sideline year after year I've seen a head coach doing what he should be doing -- coaching. He's always focused. Always thinking about the next play. Always communicating with his team. And from what I see from my seat in Section 109 his team listens to him -- and respects him. There aren't too many coaches who can last this many years with a team without the players tuning him out. Belichick still has his team's attention. That in itself is an accomplishment.
Belichick's philosophy of coaching can be described in three words. Do your job. A simple philosophy. But effective. It's a philosophy that -- when put in the hands of the right players like Troy Brown, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Vince Wilfork and now guys like Jerod Mayo and Pat Chung -- can lead to championships. It's a philosophy that Belichick himself follows on Sundays. No matter what the score, what the situation, he is always doing his job.
Watch the NFL Films video on coaches of the 2000s. (The part of just Belichick is below) Who do you want as the coach of your NFL team? The ones -- and there are some very good coaches among them -- who are yelling (I can never get enough of Dennis Green) and screaming and talking nonsense? Or the one who always keeps his composure, keeps his focus on the next play, doesn't like listening to himself talk, and always does what he thinks puts his team in the best position to win no matter how it makes him look.
Add these to my list: I disagreed with letting Willie McGinest go. Strongly. I think if he's in that AFC title game in Indy we don't blow an 18-point lead. Willie wouldn't have stood for it. Same with that Super Bowl. You think Willie lets little Manning escape that sack? He not only sacks him, he probably draws blood. That was what made Willie the true leader of that team. Same with Vinatieri. I would have paid him. Without those kicks in the winter of '02 I don't think any of this happens. Belichick should have signed him for three more years just to say thanks. But that would have been money not well spent. Gostkowski -- if you factor in his kickoffs -- has actually been better than the best clutch kicker ever. Belichick was right on that one. He's right more often than not. And he's not afraid to make the tough decisions. That's why he's making the calls. All of them. Even that fourth down call I didn't like last year -- and last week.
Borges, no longer of the Globe, recently wrote that without the players Belichick would just be another high school football coach. Mark and I still have our decoder rings out trying to decipher that one. Borges is certainly not drinking the Kool-Aid. But sometimes I think he's drinking something. The players deserve a huge amount of the credit for all the wins. Belichick is the first one to give them that credit. Week in and week out. "The players made the plays." The coach says it all the time. Those players have come and those players have gone, and still the Patriots are one of the top teams in the league. Ten years after their first Super Bowl title. It's been an incredible run. And with seven picks in the first four rounds of next year's draft it doesn't look like it's about to end.
Since 2001, Belichick's Pats have not had a losing season. They have only missed the playoffs twice during that time and in those two years (2002, 2008) they missed due to a tie-breaker. 2008's Brady-less team is only the second team to win 11 games and not make the playoffs. As the Patriots walked off the field in San Diego Sunday with a 5-1 record, the chances of them putting up another 10-plus win season looked good. Anything can happen in these last 10 games and there are lots of things they need to improve on, but the team that many predicted would finish third in the division is once again battling for the top in the AFC.
Belichick's true value doesn't lie in his personnel decisions, draft-day maneuvers, interview skills, video library, or even his game planning. His value is in his coaching. On Sundays. Watching him on the sideline year after year I've seen a head coach doing what he should be doing -- coaching. He's always focused. Always thinking about the next play. Always communicating with his team. And from what I see from my seat in Section 109 his team listens to him -- and respects him. There aren't too many coaches who can last this many years with a team without the players tuning him out. Belichick still has his team's attention. That in itself is an accomplishment.
Belichick's philosophy of coaching can be described in three words. Do your job. A simple philosophy. But effective. It's a philosophy that -- when put in the hands of the right players like Troy Brown, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Vince Wilfork and now guys like Jerod Mayo and Pat Chung -- can lead to championships. It's a philosophy that Belichick himself follows on Sundays. No matter what the score, what the situation, he is always doing his job.
Watch the NFL Films video on coaches of the 2000s. (The part of just Belichick is below) Who do you want as the coach of your NFL team? The ones -- and there are some very good coaches among them -- who are yelling (I can never get enough of Dennis Green) and screaming and talking nonsense? Or the one who always keeps his composure, keeps his focus on the next play, doesn't like listening to himself talk, and always does what he thinks puts his team in the best position to win no matter how it makes him look.
I'll take the one in the hood. Hopefully for another 10-plus years.
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