Belichick Is a Ballsy Little Weasel

By Jericho Symes

Bill Belichick is a weasel, but after years of weasel-dom I find myself rooting for the guy.

Let me explain.

Belichick used to be the sad sap head coach of football’s Cleveland Browns. His tenure wallowed in mediocrity and the Browns fired him after five years and a 36-44 record. In 2000, Belichick got a second chance at a head coaching position with the equally sad sap New England Patriots. In 30 years of existence, the Patriots had never won a Super Bowl championship.

In 2001, Belichick’s second season with the Pats, things changed. In a miracle season, he coached the Patriots to their first Super Bowl win despite losing star quarterback Drew Bledsoe to injury (internal bleeding) in the third game of the season. He won despite having to replace his star with an inexperienced nobody (Tom Brady). He won even though every one in America, except the NFL rule book, saw his quarterback fumble away the ball in a tight playoff game (see starting from 3:20). He won even though his team of no names was a heavy underdog to the star studded, high flying offensive juggernaut St. Louis Rams.

He went from Brown’s castoff to coach of the gritty, underdog, do more with less, New England Patriots.

You’ll notice that there’s nary a trace of weasel. Yet.

"Please won't you please buy my 'I'm sorry I got caught' face." (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

That Super Bowl success was only the beginning, though. Over the following years, the lovable team and its coach went Evil Empire Yankees on the National Football League. The Patriots slowly built themselves into a football powerhouse. They went from can’t win to can’t lose, winning back-to-back championships in 2003 and 2004. They went undefeated in the 2007 regular season breaking scoring and touchdown records in the process, losing only the Super Bowl on a fluke play.

Their no name players became stars. Their nobody QB turned cover boy A-rod before A-rod, posing for Esquire with a goat, then married a supermodel.

Their sad sap coach morphed into a genius, then a diabolical genius. He ruthlessly cut players when he believed they were no longer useful to winning. Key assistants left for higher positions at different teams; yet, while most of those coaches failed at their new posts, Belichick remained successful.

Then, “Spygate” happened. Belichick “misread” a rule about videotaping and accidentally cheated.  The season of the scandal, his team went 16-0 in the regular season, running up the score on class acts like Joe Gibbs (Pats won 52-7 but still had their first team offense on the field in the 4th quarter).

Suddenly the team looked to big for its britches. It’s coach was no longer an awkward, professorial genius who bumbled through press conferences. He was an arrogant, sleazy cheater who hid behind nonsensical Clinton-esque rule “interpretations” and refused to answer meaningfully to questions from the press.

Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots were suddenly everyone’s favorite team to hate. They were the Yankees.  The Lakers.  The team that the Bad News Bears played in their last game.

Hell, I hated them. There’s an old Russian story that goes like this: “My neighbor has a cow, I do not. If a genie gives me one wish, it will not be for me to have two cows, but for him to have none.” Well, the New England Patriots had the world’s prettiest cow that won cow championships, was tended to by supermodels, and sneered gleefully at you every time you walked past it in the pasture. Oh how football fans reveled in wishing that cow away.

Then last weekend, things changed for me.

You see, last weekend Belichick decided to buck football convention and instead of punting on 4th down and 2 yards to go, he put his offense on the field and tried get those 2 yards and the 1st down. Even though he was up by 6 points. And he was on his own 28 yard line with 1:29 left in the game. That’s the basketball equivalent of fouling a two point shooter when your teams up by three with 2 seconds to go. The baseball equivalent of intentionally walking the other team’s best hitter with two outs, the bases loaded, and up by two runs. But, unlike the latter two, no one in NFL history had gone for it in a similar situation:  4th and 2 with 1:29 to play backed up to their own 28 yard line and UP BY 6 POINTS, i.e. only a touchdown can beat you (Addition:  TMQ reader Jeff Swearingen notes that the Cowboys did in 1995 against the Eagles late in the 4th quarter of a tie game, so there’s at least one sorta similar situation).

Here's a picture of at least one weasel Jericho might love. (uncredited)

Suddenly, a horde of media hounds savaged Belichick and his decision.  Michael Wilbon of PTI and the Washington Post ripped Belichick’s arrogance.  Patriots superfan Bill Simmons called it “reckless;” a “wtf” decision (to be fair, Bill ends article on a softer note, if saying you’ve lost trust in your coach can be called softer).  Trent Dilfer, Super Bowl QB turned analyst, says the decision was ludicrous. And that last clip is the “toned down” version I found on espn.com. I saw the clip of Dilfer talking right after the game and he was practically frothing at the mouth. He definitely was not as composed or as deferential to the “greatness” of Belichick’s abilities.

A lively sports debate ensued, but even Belichick apologists tended to play up the “crazy.”  Mediaite points out that Joe Posnanski of si.com defends the decision as the right call because of Belichick’s “sociopathic tendencies.”

So much abuse has been heaped on this decision that actually feel sorry for the guy. Think about that for a second. I feel bad for the man I hated most in the NFL.

Here’s the bottom line. I’m no stat head, but they say that the decision is too close to call.  There’s no clean way to know, by the numbers, what was the right call.  If the situation is fuzzy, it’s on the coach to judge the situation and make the call.

Here’s where it gets tough for me as a Belichick hater.  I think Belichick deserves a little benefit of the doubt. <swallowing pride>  Unless you really think he’s lost his football mind, you have to believe that the man is tapped into his team’s capabilities at that moment, is able to gauge the other team’s ability to score, and knows whether he has his team’s trust to understand why he’d make such a bold move.

Think about it. If his team really trusts him, the team will believe that it was the right decision regardless of the outcome. They’ll know that they have the best chance of winning with him as coach rather than with anyone else. And, if his team was on board with this aggressive play, then he’s definitely got the team in “F-you” mode now that the world’s questioning their leader’s call (watch out New York Jets).

The man made a bold move and lived with his decision. Unlike most coaches, he chose a route that put the responsibility of winning and losing on his coaching decision, not his team’s execution. If he had punted and the Colts had scored, the media would have put the win on QB Peyton Manning and on the failure of the New England defensive players to make a stop. Belichick played it unconventional and by doing so, put his credibility on the line. Didn’t play out, but I can tell you this, I know he did it because the believed it was the best chance of winning. Not a hunch (I’m talking to you Bill Simmons; see above re: “too close to call’), but on his evaluation of the situation at the time. If there’s one thing Belichick seems to put above all else, it’s him winning by any means necessary (see: Spygate). And if Belichick’s guilty of arrogance, it’s the arrogance to, in a 50/50 situation, try to do what no other coach had ever before done win with his offense instead of his D. Call me starry-eyed but I bet the first coach who heavily relied on the forward pass in football got called out for bucking tradition.

So congratulations Coach Belichick. You and the traditionalists rabid reaction has turned this football fan around.  I applaud your bold move. For me, you’ve gone from “god-I-hope-your-arrogant-ass-loses-you-sonofabitch” to “I-hope-he-has-the-balls-to-keep-going-for-it-on-4th-down-and-single-handedly-proves-that-it-ain’t-that-crazy.”” I still may not love the man, but I do now respect him. That’s more than I can say for most weasels.

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Jericho Symes always meets his deadlines when he sometimes sets them.  He can be reached at jericho.symes at trexarms dot com.