I don't care what happens to the Patriots or what their fans think but I'm just telling you that the only escape from the 4 above points in to get rid of BB.
After some reflection I can only state that the loss of Bill Belichick would only amplify the disaffection. He is neither the culprit nor the cure. After the franchise he is the most damaged by the factors leading to the disaffection. He is first and foremost an introvert and an obvious target for bully boys and easy shots. He cannot command the microphone like Bill Parcel’s, he doesn’t show his emotions like **** Vermeil, or wear his faith on his sleeve like Tony Dungy.
I also know that he is passionate about football, and is devout in his studies. For those willing to listen he is a fount of football knowledge and history. As an introvert it is his passion and consuming interest. He was also brought up with a strict work ethic and morality, a family influence that extended into his youthful environment with the Navy at Annapolis. His character, upbringing and vocation all point to the fact that doing anything that would bring the game he so dearly loves into disrepute would be anathema.
He is, like all other coaches and human beings, flawed. He lacks grace when it is needed and never suffers fools gladly (an unfortunate characteristic that I share). But these are not bad faults, they are all too human. However because of them he is reviled and hated to the point of distraction.
Many will point to the cheating as his worst sin. But here I have to go back to the Number 1 layer of disaffection, I still don’t know if or how he cheated and nor does anyone else outside of NFL headquarters, and sometimes I wonder if even they do. (Incidentally the NFL never used the word cheat in their verdict or sentence). Bill’s admission that he had “interpreted the rules differently” was dismissed as disingenuous. However I do believe him because of his past, because of his love of the game, and because only an introvert could have made that statement.
Sadly no-one gave any space or thought to what he had said. There was no analysis or credence given to a word of it. But by piecing together fragments of the history that preceded the scandal, one can understand what he was saying.
I believe that the Patriots-Dolphin game in December 2006 had much to do with his response. In that game the Dolphins had videotape of Tom Brady’s signals at the line of scrimmage. They also had audio tape of the same, and by marrying the two together were able to detect the play called on each play. Dolphin team members were open about knowing his signals as he called them. The game ended in a humiliating blanking by the Dolphins 21-0. The NFL after some investigation into the event stated that there was no misconduct by the Dolphin coaches.
From this one can surmise that videotaping signals and using them for an advantage is condoned by the NFL. So from that BB knew that he could videotape with impunity (especially since he was the disadvantaged). He also knew that he could not use live capture of information within the game itself and nothing indicates that he ever did. Quite simply he underestimated the importance of videotaping on the sidelines, especially since he knew that other teams did the same. The Jets are one of them, but all were too cowardly to come forward and admit their involvement.
He also knew, as did all other coaches, that offensive and defensive signals are being scouted. Many teams employ decoys, so the practice is well understood and commonplace. I still wait to hear what advantage was gained by capturing those signals (real and decoy) for the future, other than over time they show how the coaches react to certain situations. Not exactly real time, not exactly dynamic information, nor anything you can place a Vegas bet upon.
Bill’s response to the furor that erupted was typically phlegmatic and typically introverted – an apology delivered in measure to the infraction. Nothing remorseful or dramatic, further emphasizing that Belichick considered he had made a mistake rather than anything greater or more sinister.
I would strongly urge anyone who doubts any of the above to read David Halberstam’s book on Belichick, “The Education of a Coach”. This is a work of literature by a Pulitzer Prize winning author, one with a high faculty for observation and a sharp intellect to interpret and annotate.
The following quote was written several years ago and is as apposite now as it was then:
“In his professional role … he thought he had to win football games, not hearts and minds. Because of that he had slipped at a critical moment in his career. That which made him most human and revealed his personality, he shielded from the public. In a way, thought a talented writer named Peter Richmond, who watched him closely and later wrote about him, what sometimes bothered the media was that he was too straight, that he had so little in the way of artifice. “What’s interesting about him…was that he did not play any games. There’s nothing fake and there never was. He is what he is. There is no pretense, and he is utterly authentic in a world where because of television there is more and more which is unauthentic. What is troubling about all this is that a lot of people are more comfortable with the inauthentic, if it is reassuring, than they are with the truth, if is not reassuring.””
My biggest fear after the SB defeat was that Bill would do what many other introverts do when faced with unrelenting criticism and pressure, and that is remove themselves from the spotlight. Through the two weeks leading up to the game, I was worried that I was witnessing someone other than the BB I knew. Gone was the intensity and the focus, replaced by a relaxed and joking carbon copy. The red hoodie on game day suggested an impostor and most alarmingly of all there was the absence of the famed two-weeks-to-prepare game plan. In the original note I idly speculated that the Patriots played as if they knew the Lombardi was out of bounds, another idle speculation is that BB coached the same way.
Maybe he hoped to expunge the criticisms and hatred with a narrow defeat, the fact that it did little became layer 4 of my disaffection. Vox populi should not dictate the resignation of the Patriot’s coach, if it does then it will become the fifth and sealing layer of my disaffection.
