Don Shula throws shade at Patriots, Bill Belichick

Former Miami Dolphins coach and Hall-of-Famer Don Shula throws serious shade at the Patriots and Bill Belichick.

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Former Dolphins coach Don Shula has never made a secret of the fact that he doesn’t like current Patriots coach Bill Belichick. In fact, he refers to him by the highly original nickname “Belicheat.” Now, a lot of people refer to Belichick by that name, especially on the Internet, but it’s not too often that a HOF coach would call a current NFL coach a derisive nickname. Now Belichick, or his team anyway, is embroiled in another cheating scandal and Shula couldn’t resist throwing a little shade.

Shula spoke to the Miami Herald during a celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Dolphins franchise and he had a few things to say about those past Dolphins teams and the way they won games.

“Our record in those 50 years was always done with a lot of class, a lot of dignity, a lot of doing it the right way. We didn’t deflate any balls,” Shula said, via ESPN.

Shula, is, of course, the winningest coach in NFL history, so he knows a thing or two about winning. He also wants you to know that he did it without deflating footballs. The connection tentatively shared by the Dolphins and Patriots is the fact that Miami has the only perfect season in NFL history, but the 2007, Belichick-coached Patriots came close when they went undefeated until the Super Bowl. More than likely, Shula doesn’t like the idea of “Belicheat” getting anywhere near the 1972 Dolphins in the history books.

Before there were deflated balls, there were taped coaching signals, so Shula obviously thinks that Belichick’s teams have only been successful through dubious means. However, he declined to elaborate on his comments when asked. Instead saying that in his 33 years of coaching he had never talked about or heard anyone talk about the air in a football and he isn’t going to start now. He also would not comment on whether this latest cheating scandal has any effect on the Patriots legacy under Bill Belichick. It’s probably easy to guess what he thinks about it though.

It’s not the first time Shula has made remarks about the Patriots and Belichick and it probably won’t be the last. That is, more probable than not, it won’t be the last.

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