Poll: What kind of Belichick fan are you?

1. Hardcore Homer - In Bill We Trust, always and forever.

Belichick is an unappreciated genius that never makes mistakes. If you think He made a mistake, you're an idiot.

2. Homer - In Bill I trust.

Belichick has so much more inside information than anyone else here his decisions should be above reproach. You and I are not capable of judging him without the same level of inside knowledge.


3. Objective Homer - In Bill I trust.. usually.

I trust Belichick in the things I dont undertand but if the evidence is there, I'll criticize him for it.

4. Just an Average Fan - In the Patriots and winning games I trust.

I just love football. I don't have too strong of an opinion about Belichick either way. I'm here mostly to learn and to talk football. I probably shouldn't be called a "casual" fan because well, I'm here participating in a football forum -during the off-season.

5. Objective Critic - In my knowledge of football I trust.

I criticize Belichick when I feel he deserves it but will probably give him the benefit of the doubt by waiting and seeing how things turns out if I don't understand any one particular move of his.

6. Subjective Critic - In my knowledge of football I trust -above all else.

I compare everything Bill does to what I personally would have done in his place and criticize him when it differs.

7. Super Critic - In Bill the GM I never Trust.

Anything Bill the GM does, the average NFL GM/coach probably could have done better (or maybe even me). I may or may not think Bill is an average/good/great coach, but the one thing I am certain of, he is a poor/average GM.


Just for fun. No right or wrong answer. I'm guessing the majority of posters fall between 3 and 5.

Hardcore, yea he makes mistakes(hindsight), but I know he has his plan. Do I have better football judgement then him? nooooooo. I wanted TE's, he didn't get any early, he must know something I don't. In Bill I trust

I want to say I' somewhere between Homer and Objecive Homer, and then I found myself defending BB against my own thoughts.

Unabashed hard core homer, after being a very long time fan, through the very gad times.. BB has exceeded any expectation that I could ever have had for this franchise...

I am a very lucky fan to have such a quality team to root for.. I have friends and family who root for different teams and for the most part envy the Pats, sometimes they do it from the "closet".

Does he make mistakes? Of course. Could he do somethings better? Of course, but overall our success pivots on his decisions, his philosophy, his leadership and his coaching.

Excellent poll topic. It's tough to criticize Belichick when his results are arguably the best of all time. But, there are choices that he makes that are head scratchers at times that deserve scrutiny. In-game decisions tend to be excellent to genius, even the risky ones like 4th-and-2.

The GM stuff is a different matter. Choices about moving on from players due to age and contracts, look excellent, usually (Moss, Samuel, Merriweather, Branch, Seymour, Talib, Bledsoe, Milloy, Law, etc.). The free agent risks (Haynesworth, Ochocinco, Adalius Thomas, Shawn Springs, etc.) balanced themselves out (Moss, Dillon, Bryan Cox, Talib, Rodney Harrison, Colvin, etc.). But then there are the Wes Welker situations that seem like mix of ego and cap choices that deserve criticism and raise the question of the value of a strong GM to balance things out.

I am not critical of the draft. That's a win some, lose some proposition with every team. Because they almost always pick late, the sure-thing players are gone. I also don't know of any team that bats better than .400 over an extended period.

When a coach can get inside opposing players heads, that is a beautiful thing.

I've always heard, reliably, that the Colts never trusted that they were totally alone in the Colts' locker room in Foxboro, and that when Manning had something of strategic significance to say to offensive coordinator Tom Moore, they both stepped outside into the concourse outside the locker room. So if you're outside the locker room Sunday, don't be surprised to see Manning and his first-year coordinator, Christensen, huddling for a few minutes.

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http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/sh...nks-the-Patriots-may-bug-visit?urn=nfl-287763

He is this generation's

As long as the Patriots keep winning I am happy. I recognize how difficult it is to sustain excellence in this league and appreciate how long this group has done it. I think its silly when fans are overly critical of moves, particularly of draft picks where the results won't be known for sometimes years.

The problem with some of his hometown critics, is that they don't follow other teams as closely as they do the Patriots. The hidden gem that they swore by turns out to be an All-Pro and the drafted a player who eventually gets cut. Never mind that there were seven rounds to the draft and the next man up never fails. Have seen too many really bad Boston teams, including some miserable Patriot teams and will overlook BB's "lows" because we have the best Coach-GM in the history of the NFL.

The 4th and 2 play in Indy was the dumbest move I've ever seen him make. It was actually multi-dumbentional, because he passed the ball on both 3rd and 4th and 2, which left the clock barely over 2 minutes for the 4th down play, and because we had wasted a timeout earlier we couldn't ask for a replay and there was no automatic replay on the 4th down pass to Faulk. Dumb, dumber, dumbest.

Objective Homer.. tell people around me repeatedly IN BB I trust.

1960Pats said:

The 4th and 2 play in Indy was the dumbest move I've ever seen him make. It was actually multi-dumbentional, because he passed the ball on both 3rd and 4th and 2, which left the clock barely over 2 minutes for the 4th down play, and because we had wasted a timeout earlier we couldn't ask for a replay and there was no automatic replay on the 4th down pass to Faulk. Dumb, dumber, dumbest.

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The problem was the Colts had been driving down the field in 15-20 yard chunks the whole second half, and there was little reason to believe a tired defense would fare any better at the end of the 4Q. The odds of the offense getting a first down and keeping Manning off the field were much better than the D keeping them out of the end zone in that game.

Percentage wise I think he made the correct call given the circumstances. It didn't work out, but I wouldn't call it a dumb move.

Definitely Number 2. That is, BB is right until proved with hindsight wrong. I am hoping that every draft pick will be a coup until the very day he's cut.

That said, I have no doubt that there is some objective data (NFLdaft: http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2014/2/25/5430150/nfl-draft-history-worst-picks) that the Patriots have been much better at winning games than at drafting players.

Fair enough. It's a price worth paying for the best coach in the NFL.

Rusty Coupe said:

The problem was the Colts had been driving down the field in 15-20 yard chunks the whole second half, and there was little reason to believe a tired defense would fare any better at the end of the 4Q. The odds of the offense getting a first down and keeping Manning off the field were much better than the D keeping them out of the end zone in that game.

Percentage wise I think he made the correct call given the circumstances. It didn't work out, but I wouldn't call it a dumb move.

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Agreed. Far from dumb. It just didn't work. The Colts went the length of the field in 2 minutes or less in the 4th quarter twice, so handing the ball back would seem like a bad idea for a cooked defense. The Pats had no bulldozers at the time to guarantee a two yard gain to run out the clock. Statistically, Faulk would gain more than 2 if he caught the ball.

I give BB the benefit of the doubt and love that he coaches the Pats, but I don't believe every decision he makes is a winner (personnel or coaching). His pros in decision-making far outweigh the cons. I would put myself in group 3 or 2. He is still the man.

At First I saw the picture for homer and was drawn to it, but then I noticed those crazy eyes and had to move to Objective Homer.

I'm the long term BelichickFan having been a Browns fan when he was there. But I'm objective, he's fallible too. The best coach of our generation (Parcells could have been had he not had wandering eyes wherever he was) but still fallible.

Objective critic.

BB is maybe the best HC of all time, but he should have been stripped of his GM duties years ago. If Brady wasn't the QB of this team, they'd be an average team that wouldn't be thought of as a true contender year to year. Maybe a playoff team here and there, but nothing major. You look back on the last 6 drafts or so and no one can act like he's been some wizard in the draft other than stockpiling picks that he never did a whole lot with. He has had some decent off seasons with free agents, but typically likes to fill holes with sub par talent that Brady is forced to over achieve with. The one year they went all out talent wise they created the best team of all time. One miracle play away from ending all conversations about that, and yet he hasn't realized that those moves really helped that team to accomplish that. He hasn't been that good about making the defense a power house again being a defensive mind either. He seems to be trying a lot harder now, so we'll see.

Lets be honest about the obvious as far as this forum goes though. 95% of the members in here are hardcore homers. Not many are objective at all.

Objective Critic

But critical is an inclusive term, not a negative one. It means intelligent praise, high regard, as well as citing errors, misjudgements, and lack of insight. When it comes to BB specifically, it almost entirely positive criticism--or smart praise.

Im a huge BB fan and I put Objective Homer. I think he is the best coach of his era and has the possibility of going down as the best ever. But he has to do 2 things

1. Win a post spygate SB...even though i think spygate was way overblown, his critics will always use it against him
2. be successful after Brady....he has to have multiple deep playoff runs with another QB

I like Brady, and I will be rooting for him to win #4 this year, but i like BB even more and i want to see him do the 2 things above. Luckily he seems very healthy and i think he has at least 5 more years. I mean, look at coughlin...he is gonna be 68 this year, and he looks A LOT older than BB.

I selected objective homer. What people (usually # 7, but it varies) often forget is he, or any GM, may have more info than we do