BELICHICK LOST HIS WAR WITH BRADY — IF HE ALSO LOSES HIS JOB, BLAME HIM
Sad to say, the grumpy one refused to admit he needed Brady more than vice versa, and long after the breakup of G.O.A.T.s, Hoodie faces heat from Patriots boss Bob Kraft to win big with an unproven QB
The day is coming. Bill Belichick, in trademark monosyllabic grump-speak, will mutter his quirkily comedic dismissive phase, “We’re on to (fill in the next opponent)” … and have nowhere to go for the first time in five decades. This will be a sad day because, as in any divorce, there is a loser for every winner.
He is the loser. Tom Brady is the winner.
Which is beyond unfathomable, in that Belichick is the greatest of NFL coaches and Brady is the greatest of NFL quarterbacks. They were victims of their grand, methodical success together, unable to enjoy the fruits of a collaboration unprecedented in football lore. The more Super Bowls they won, the further they grew apart, tension simmering from 20 years of familiarity breeding contempt. The split never should have happened — the same could be said of Lennon and McCartney, Jordan and the Bulls, Barbie and Ken — and was preventable had Belichick suppressed his stubborn will and accepted Brady’s wish to play into his mid-40s, absurd as it seemed then. Instead, there was no commitment to their relationship beyond the 2019 season. One G.O.A.T. dared to be remembered for kicking the other G.O.A.T. to the curb.
You know the rest. Brady fled New England, signed with Tampa Bay, won a Super Bowl for the seventh time, hurled the Vince Lombardi Trophy across the Hillsborough River and kept playing through last season. Belichick has been wayward without him, stuck on six rings, going 25-26, missing the postseason twice and swallowing a 47-17 pill in his lone playoff game. The saloon closed. A longstanding barstool debate was muted. If one giant had to be bigger than the other in the end, for posterity, Brady proved it by ditching Belichick and instantly forging a championship culture — amid a pandemic, no less — with a nondescript franchise in hillbilly Florida.
And now, as Brady hops from party to party in his post-marital dating swirl (Barbie is available), Belichick suffers the indignity of somehow having to win big this season to avoid being curb-kicked himself by an understandably miffed and impatient owner. Bob Kraft never wanted to separate from his beloved “Tommy” but ceded to Belichick. Having missed only one postseason between 2003 and 2019, Kraft doesn’t like spending his January weekends beyond stadium suites. So when reminded that Belichick is 19 wins from breaking Don Shula’s all-time record of 347 — and when asked if he’d be coaching the Patriots long enough to reach the milestone — Kraft produced a startling answer. Figuratively, he pulled out a book of matches, lit one and placed it beneath his coach’s ass.
Hot seat, meet Hoodie.
Somewhere, Brady is trying to stifle a laugh. He could do a sit-down interview about it next year, when he begins his Fox Sports gig, but Belichick might not be around for the questions.
“I’d like him to break Don Shula’s record, but I’m not looking for any of our players to get great stats,” Kraft said. “We’re about winning and doing whatever we can to win. That’s what our focus is now. It’s very important to me that we make the playoffs. That’s what I hope happens.”
The follow-up question: Is Kraft, at 81, still confident that Belichick, at 71, can win a playoff game, let alone a Super Bowl. Again, we’re not finding a “yes” in his response. “Look, I think Bill is exceptional at what he does and I’ve given him the freedom to make the choices and do the things that need to be done,” he told reporters at the league owners meetings. “His football intellect and knowledge is unparalleled from what I’ve seen. Just when you talk to him, the small things analytically that he looks at. But in the end, this is a business. You either execute and win or you don’t. That’s where we’re at. I think we’re in a transition phase. I think we’ve made some moves this year that I personally am comfortable with and I still believe in Bill.”
Translated, this could be Belichick’s final season before he moves to an advisory position upstairs, assuming he wants it and doesn’t follow Brady into television. Kraft already has made clear that an heir apparent is in place: Jerod Mayo, who is running the defense with Belichick’s son, Steve, and was showered with ownership praise after signing a contract extension. “Jerod is an individual I think there’s no ceiling for his ability to grow and how competent he is,” Kraft said. “We had the privilege of having him as a player and I saw how intense he was and the leadership skills he had on the field. I saw him leave us and go into private industry and learn the X’s and O’s of business and then come back and be a coach and do that with us. Good coaches get hired away, so I was happy we were able to sit with him and try to keep him here long term. I’m going to do everything I can to try to make that happen.”
If only Belichick had emerged from his cave years ago and realized he needed Brady more than vice versa. That isn’t to say Brady still would have won his first six rings elsewhere — the coach did create a long-term internal structure conducive to Brady’s success, and he did unearth and develop the 199th pick in the 2000 draft — but the numbers don’t lie. Before Brady, Belichick failed in Cleveland. Combine his 36-44 record there with his last three New England seasons, and he is 61-70 — all without Brady. That isn’t to discount his enormous success in between. But these are the facts: Brady has won a Super Bowl without Belichick, and Belichick hasn’t won a playoff game without Brady.
And in the NFL — Not For Long, you know — coaches aren’t handed career achievement contracts. Too much is at stake, especially for a proud overlord such as Kraft. In the NBA, a small-market team in San Antonio can slip into a rebuild and let Gregg Popovich graze for years, long after the fifth title of the Spurs dynasty, until the lottery brings a Victor Wembanyama miracle. Not so at Gillette Stadium, where the razors are out and the blades are sharp. Kraft has no interest in more quarterbacking drama, but here we are again: He has taken a liking to Brady’s successor, Mac Jones, but Belichick isn’t sold on him. Well, he’s the one who drafted Jones, so at some point, Belichick must be held accountable for his decisions at the most important position in sports.
Such uncertainty is the last thing the Patriots need in a division where the Buffalo Bills are quarterbacked by Josh Allen, the New York Jets by Aaron Rodgers and the Miami Dolphins by Tua Tagovailoa. The much-traveled Bill O’Brien is the new offensive coordinator, but after last season’s disaster — the job was filled by Belichick disciples Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, both washouts as NFL head coaches — Jones is regressing and might be beyond developmental hope. Remember the uncharacteristic late-game blunders in fatal losses? Do not be shocked if the Patriots finish 7-10, or worse.
Even Belichick’s sturdy defiance is taking a hit. Asked if he has a message for Patriots fans, he shot back, “I don’t know? The last 25 years?” What happened to the unshakeable leader who only looks ahead and never looks back? One of his former star players, Tedi Bruschi, spoke up on ESPN: “I don’t know how many times I’ve been in meetings with Coach Belichick and the very first meeting is, ‘I don’t care about anything in the past. We win Super Bowls, last year doesn’t matter. Pro Bowls don’t matter, All-Pros don’t matter. Everything you’ve done last year doesn’t matter, fellas. It’s about who we are going forward.’ ’’
Next came a pile-on from another former Patriot, Asante Samuel, who was offended when asked if Belichick is the greatest coach ever. “Absolutely not,” he told CBS. “Are you crazy? Look at his record without Tom. You got to win without Tom. One thing I learned about being great, you have to be great in different situations. It was all Tom. I was there, I saw it, it was Tom. Everybody know it, Tom know it. But he ain’t gonna admit because he wanna be politically correct. That’s why I’m here. Imma tell the truth. … I’ve been there, I’ve seen him, I’ve confronted him, that’s how I do.”
The insults will continue as the losses mount this season. Status as the only coach to win six NFL titles is enough to keep Bill Belichick atop the G.O.A.T. monument, which doesn’t actually look like a goat. But he allowed his dynasty with Tom Brady to die nasty, a phrase I coined in Chicago during that breakup. Once, they were partners in sterling silver — and crime, for that matter, recalling Spygate and Deflategate. One maintained his glory.
For the other, it’s getting gory.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.