Bill Belichick: Excellence unparalleled
On Sunday night, the AFC Championship will be decided. If the Pittsburgh Steelers win, it’s an opportunity for Ben Roethlisberger and Mike Tomlin to add to their legacies in the Steel City. If the New England Patriots win, it gives us another chance to discuss Bill Belichick’s greatness.
With a victory, Belichick will be coaching in his ninth Super Bowl, seventh as a head coach. He has put together one of the greatest dynasties in professional sports history, transcending both game and continent. New England has already reach six Super Bowls under Belichick, spanning from 2001 to the present day. A seventh would only pad a record that no coach has ever approached, and likely never will.
One can talk about Belichick in angered or disillusioned tunes. They can reference SpyGate and DeflateGate, firing out narratives that the Patriots — and therefore their coach — are cheaters. If someone wants to take that tact, it’s an opening Belichick and his organization provided. They will all have to live with that the rest of their lives.
If one can look past that imperfection, than Belichick must be examined with a brighter light. No, he is not the innovator that Paul Brown was. He’s not the offensive mind that Bill Walsh or Sid Gillman were. He’s definitely not the motivator that Vince Lombardi was. Yet he’s the greatest winner of all time, surpassed by no one.
With due respect to men like Don Shula and George Halas, they didn’t win as consistently or with as many constraints as Belichick. The man adorned with a hoodie on the sidelines lives with player holdouts, salary cap ramifications, free agency and a league that trumpets parity above all else.
The NFL is designed to turn good teams into average teams. It succeeds every time, except when dealing with Belichick.
Since the start of the 2001 season, the Patriots are 196-60. They have reached a half-dozen Super Bowls and played in 11 conference championship games over the past 16 campaigns, including each of the last six. Belichick has authored the only perfect 16-game regular season, and has won 14 of the last 16 AFC East titles. The 64-year-old has a .706 postseason winning percentage (24-10) throughout his career in Cleveland and New England.
Many hate New England. It is a dynasty without end, something professional sports rarely sees anymore. The Patriots march on despite defections and radical changes to personnel, mostly due to Tom Brady and Belichick. Without argument, they are the most success duo in NFL history.
Perhaps the biggest misnomer about Belichick is that he’s a product of Brady. Throughout New England’s first three championships from 2001-04, the team was largely centered around Belichick’s specialty; defense.
The Patriots ranked sixth, first and second in points allowed, respectively. In those same title years, Brady’s average season was 3,385 passing yards with 23 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. New England’s best weapon was Deion Branch.
Belichick has long been a defensive mastermind, something that made him dangerous enough before being paired with Brady. In 1990, the New York Giants defeated the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV, holding the high-octane, no-huddle Bills to 19 points. Belichick, the Giants’ defensive coordinator, designed a defense so brilliant, his gameplan resides in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
When he finally does hang up the tattered sweatshirt for the last time, he will be remembered in a litany of ways. His detractors will cite the aforementioned scandals and talk of Brady, erroneously stating that without him, Belichick would have been up the proverbial creek. Others will discuss his vast accomplishments, making a case for why he should always be talked about in a more favorable light.
Regardless of stance, it can’t be argued that Belichick is the giant in a game full of them. In an age where teams are stripped down and rebuilt every other offseason, Belichick has gone without a losing season for 16 consecutive years. He went 11-5 with Matt Cassel at the helm, and survived a scandal which justifiably robbed him of a first-round draft pick. He’s lost coordinators on both sides of the ball to head coaching positions and seen countless players leave for more money.
None of it has matters. The juggernaut of Foxborough rolls on like a snow storm in January, relentless and ever-charging. With Brady at 39 years old and Belichick approaching 20 years at the helm, the end of this reign seems more certain by the day. It will end, it has to.
Until that day comes, Belichick will be standing on the sideline, hoodie over headset.