Bill Belichick Appreciation Thread

[slash83]

Already miss the GOAT.

 

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

What's left to be said?

It isn't so much that there's more to be said, but I've seen threads miles long thanking departing players. I know BB's legacy has been tarnished the last couple of years, but there isn't any way the Pats have 6 rings without him. He was already showing his greatness as a DC for the Giants before ever coming here.

I'm ready for the Bill era to end, but I will never forget what he's done here. Every single person who has enjoyed 20 years of dominance should be posting here.

 

[Pats1971]

It isn't so much that there's more to be said, but I've seen threads miles long thanking departing players. I know BB's legacy has been tarnished the last couple of years, but there isn't any way the Pats have 6 rings without him. He was already showing his greatness as a DC for the Giants before ever coming here.

I'm ready for the Bill era to end, but I will never forget what he's done here. Every single person who has enjoyed 20 years of dominance should be posting here.

Well without Brady Belichick is not even coach here past his second year, so true, there would be no 6 rings. He would have been fired shortly after 2001, not sure what would have happened after that.

 

[vicspats]

Starting with number 1 here, so many things BB brought to the game made the "old way" look stupid as surely as grunge killed 80s hair bands.

- Was it just the fact of Lawrence Taylor or his coaching of Lawrence Taylor, or both, that caused the Left Tackle to become the must-have prestige position on the O-line, and caused experimentation in offsetting the way the LT (no pun intended) lined up? Yes LT was the amazing, prototypical blitzing LB who started the modern era... but do we think BB just lucked out and coached a "natural" blitzing linebacker who freelanced his way to being the most feared QB-rusher in the league?

- Depth over star power: I remember plotting salaries and salary cap numbers in Excel to test, as best I could, this idea. At first it was SO true. We were the youngest team in the league. only TFB drew "superstar" treatment. It took a then-substantial deal to Richard Seymour to answer the question of whether they'd ever pay anybody else other than Brady.

- That ethos was more or less powerful throughout his tenure, but looked less so because there is more copying in the NFL than at Kinkos. Don't believe me? Our first SB appearance in 2002 ended forever the individual SB introductions.

- Another era-ending difference: From the days of Aikman's Cowboys onward, every team was assumed to need Triplets (Fantastic talent at QB, at least one receiver, and running back.) TFB is TFB; as to the others, Antowain Smith and David Givens say hi.

- Remember guys who "just had fun out there?" Remember gunslingers? Another set of cliches ended by BB's grim efficiency, as practiced by TFB. And throughout the latter's career, even at the end, haters were still saying Brady wasn't that great because he wasn't starring in some athletic Munchausen Syndrome drama, where you get into trouble, scramble your way out of it, throw one more TD than INT (maybe the week after your dad died) and so on. There are gunslingers and there are assassins.

I don't think the game has passed BB by, but I do think Kraft wants to be clear that he doesn't tolerate **** results forever.

I also think that even when the Pats return to greatness (sic), [BB's team here]-week will be a week when I get queasy.

He can innovate like Lombardy on LSD, he can embody discipline, he has more schemes than your first wife, and like your first wife, he had so many ways to beat you that you grew nostalgic for the good old rolling pin.

Fair Winds and Following Seas to the captain of the VI Rings if I remember the Bill's Boat name thing right. We won't look upon his like again, and neither will anybody else.

Excellent… well said .

 

[archstanton543]

Excellent… well said .

Well except for the first wife thing. Who are you guys marrying out there?

 

[signbabybrady]

Well without Brady Belichick is not even coach here past his second year, so true, there would be no 6 rings. He would have been fired shortly after 2001, not sure what would have happened after that.

This couldn't be more incorrect. Coaches got a longer window back then and when your franchise QB goes down like that it gives you a pass. The tricky part would be what happens in 02.

But I think that the defense was good enough to win one without Tom. They gave up like only a 13 point average for the 03 season. They don't win 3 out of four but I think 1 is very reasonable to consider.

And Drew had a little bit of resurgence in his first few years in Buff who knows if he does that for us in 02 and 03.

 

[vicspats]

Well except for the first wife thing. Who are you guys marrying out there?

Funny enough a Sicilian/ Lebanese from New York.

 

[*ChungFu*]

Funny enough a Sicilian/ Lebanese from New York.

Glad to to you're still alive.

 

[vicspats]

Glad to to you're still alive.

Me too …

 

[SVN]

Let the turmoil of yesterday settle a bit before thinking about what to post

Been to a lot of games, watched even more over the decades... We have seen the Patriots transition from a team of also rans in the 70's to a somewhat competitive team in the 1980's... While competitive, they were never consistently competing for the Lombardi

When Belichick first came here, the team was still embroiled in the fallout between Robert Kraft and Bill Parcells... Pete Carroll might have been a bit of a buffer for a few years, but Carroll and Ernie Zampese & Steve Sidwell really were just place holders while the team continued to crumble... I didn't want him as a coach, didn't think he offered much outside of maybe improving the defense... Boy was I wrong...

What he brought was consistency to the team... He brought in novel elements to the team as a whole (Ernie Adams) and promoted a team first mentality, something that had been lacking, even if we didn't know it at the time... 2000 was a tough year... The team didn't do well, somewhat similar to what occurred this year... But 2001, he took a shot a changing the dynamic of the team by putting the ball in the hands of Tom Brady... They are, and forever will be intertwined because of what they accomplished... While never flashy (except for 2007) the Patriots became the paradigm of what an NFL franchise should be... deliberate, methodical and efficient, much like the man himself...

Never thought we'd win a Super Bowl, let alone six - and even better, was able to see three if those victories in person... talk about a dream come true... 9 trips, 6 victories, and always in the hunt... The way the roster and team was maintained over the course of 20 years is nothing short of outstanding... So many moving pieces from players to staff to cap management, we became what every other franchise aspires to... The winning was handled by Brady (cannot stress this enough - Players Play, coaches lose), while Belichick ran the Patriots like they were Jeff Gordons pit crew, keeping everything in working order, with the efforts always focused on one thing - winning... attention to detail became synonymous with Bill Belichick...

What he accomplished here stands tall amongst the coaching greats... Lombardi, Walsh, Brown, The fedora guy from Dallas... Thats some heady company to keep...

Proud he was our coach for so long... Proud that he lead the franchise to so many years of unqualified success... Its something I don't think will ever be replicated in the NFL again as the game is pushed further away from its roots.

just watched this today again . We probably will never have the same type of players and coaches ever again. Great memories

 

[BUSTAMOVE]

just watched this today again . We probably will never have the same type of players and coaches ever again. Great memories

Thanks SVN
This sums up the Years of Glory that we had as fans
Some of the Greatest players and Coaches
2 GOAT’s (BB and Brady)

All this was made possible because of Bill
I am not saying that it was not Brady also
2 ends of the spectrum. Player and Coach. both had jobs to do and they did them to the extreme

I know we have suffered through the last few years. it’s a what have you done for me lately society
I remember what BB did for us for 20 years before that
I will miss him.
He was our Grump. He was the Best

 

[upstater1]

Tirico on doing some prep for the Steelers/Seahawks Super Bowl with Belichick.

Before the game Belichick tells Tirico that at a crucial moment, Ben Roethlisberger will run the ball on 3rd down near midfield, and on the next play, they'll throw it on 1st down into the endzone. It happened. Belichick knew what Tomlin was going to call before Tomlin:

 

[PatsWSB47]

Well without Brady Belichick is not even coach here past his second year, so true, there would be no 6 rings. He would have been fired shortly after 2001, not sure what would have happened after that.

What's the point here? Who knows what would have happened to lots of coaches and players "if this or that"? The thing is he did have Brady and Brady had Belichick. It worked for 20 years.

 

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

Well without Brady Belichick is not even coach here past his second year, so true, there would be no 6 rings. He would have been fired shortly after 2001, not sure what would have happened after that.

So that's it? I'm right there with the belief that Brady was the best to ever play the game. But Bill was the perfect coach for Brady and for those teams. I think it's a shame to not recognize that because things didn't end well.

 

[DarrylS]

There is more to BB than meets the eye, he is the GOAT... at an event for the Amer-I-Can Program when he first rolled into town I was working and was in charge of greeting guests at a youth correctional facility, Bill showed up in his well worn pea green suit he used to wear. Unfortunately after the ceremony I only had my pix taken with Jim Brown and missed the opportunity to do so with BB, I thought he was just coaching passing through in our coaching carousel.. little did I know or recognize his greatness.

During the ceremony Jim Brown (#32) said this about Bill Belichick:

"Brown: I don't compare myself with anyone. Let me tell you about someone I do admire. Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots has contributed more to the work I surround myself with than any black athlete in modern times--financially, intellectually, every way. He's been in the prisons with me. He's met gang members in my home; he's met gang members in Cleveland [where Belichick coached the Browns from 1991 to '95]. He's put up money. He's opened up areas of education for us very quietly and very strongly. Imagine what would happen if Michael Jordan did the same thing."

 

[Triumph]

BB was correct to avoid Lamar Loser Jackson like the plague.

BBs method of team building is still dead on, but you just need a QB who is smart and can make every throw. A Leader. The Chiefs are built like the Pats. They did not have a 1000 yard WR/TE this season. KC has DEFENSE. A grand total of 10 points were given up by the KC defense in the 2nd half vs Buffalo, Miami and Baltimore. 10 points in 3 post season games.

Defense still wins Championships.

 

[Lansdowne]

Tirico on doing some prep for the Steelers/Seahawks Super Bowl with Belichick.

Before the game Belichick tells Tirico that at a crucial moment, Ben Roethlisberger will run the ball on 3rd down near midfield, and on the next play, they'll throw it on 1st down into the endzone. It happened. Belichick knew what Tomlin was going to call before Tomlin:

My apologies for nitpicking but you probably mean Cowher as he was the Steelers coach that year. The Super Bowl the Steelers won under Tomlin happened 3 years later against the Cardinals.

 

[upstater1]

My apologies for nitpicking but you probably mean Cowher as he was the Steelers coach that year. The Super Bowl the Steelers won under Tomlin happened 3 years later against the Cardinals.

I missed that. I actually didn't mistype it, I just missed it entirely.

 

[h0c2000]

 

[HSanders]