MoLewisrocks Again, you are giving me one side of the story. There are two sides of every story. If you can't get that you never will. If you listen to Asante Samuel and Deon Branch, they will tell you that Belichick and Pioli disrespected them and I am sure Belichick and Pioli will say they treated them fairly. And depending on who you talk to in the lockerroom, they will probably come down on different sides of the issue.
There are a lot of conflicting reports of what happened. You choose to only accept one side, but there is plenty of evidence in other situations that Belichick has had communication problems with his players (Ted Johnson leaving the team, Lawyer Milloy, Deon Branch and his contract negotiations, Ted Washington and the rumor he walked away from a new deal because of the way they handled the final stages of the deal). Yes, some of those guys were wrong in their own respect, but better communications skills might have made those situations different.
Belichick is the greatest coach ever, but even his most ardent supporters will agree that player relations is his weakest suit. It is very conceivable that Bledsoe's dissatisfaction and attitude was brought on at least in part by Belichick's poor handling of communicating with Bledsoe.
I am not one of the people who will always just automatically take sides with Belichick and the Pats on every little issue. There is a pattern here with Belichick that points to that he probably didn't handle the Bledsoe situation as well as he should. Then again, I am sure that Bledsoe should have handled it differently too. I am not going to just assign all the blame to anyone when there is a lot of ambiguity to the situation with conflicting stories.
Hey Rob0729... I shouldn't have to do all the work. Besides, you seem to have the other side fully covered. We're all free to form our own opinions, and in this case we apparently have. The good news for all concerned is I have to leave for work now.
I've been critical about Belioli's approach to player relations in the past. But the longer I look at it the more I realize he's absolutely right. He's not interested in players he has to stroke and coddle. He also doesn't sit up nights thinking about how he can disrespect them, either. In fact I've grown to believe that to those who deserve it and even some who don't, he is one of the most respectful and consistent HC's in the league. He doesn't fawn over them or blow smoke up their asses to motivate or placate them. He also refuses to backstab them or throw them under the bus, preferring to publicly shoulder the blame for whatever shortcomings this team the players he constructs it with may ultimately have. He is honest with them, at times brutally so, but he does it behind closed doors and does whatever he can to insure it remains there (at least until you are long gone). He's more than willing to work with imperfection and make the most of any players individual abilities. All he really won't tolerate is lack of effort. He spends his time scheming to make this team the best it can be. He doesn't have time left for nursing delicate egos or bandaging hurt feelings. He barely sleeps 10 months of the year as it is. And he and Pioli don't just talk the talk, they walk it in their own business dealings with the organization - and that is beyond rare.
When I first started posting here it was because I was enraged that they appeared to be frigging with Brady over his contract extension. I came to realize over time that there were factors there beyond their control, not to mention perhaps a subtle message being sent to the troops - we don't roll over even for the franchise, and thankfully he doesn't ask us to either. Kraft articulated that pretty bluntly on the same night we won our 3rd championship in just 4 seasons. He said the team was eager to sign Tom to a long term extension PROVIDED he was not insistent on getting Manning type money. As usual, Tom passed the test. At the end of the day Belioli are left to divide a fixed salary pie. They aren't trying to pocket money for themselves or ownership or playing favorites with it.
I haven't been living under a rock or polishing my rose colored glasses for the last 6 years. I believe courtesy of the Boston media not to mention this website (where I found sometimes if you read more than you post you learn things you didn't realize you didn't know...) I have heard both sides of most of these stories. And in my opinion, the players who are no longer here are by and large not here for good reason, be it overriding personal, professional or financial concerns, with the possible exception of the kicker who always met them more than half way and probably deserved a little more consideration. But hey, that's why he landed on his feet, so they're even.
There was an interesting story after the first superbowl about the night the team arrived in NO. Several players were apparently upset with their accommodations, particularly in relation to the accommodations they saw assigned to some of the youger or in their view of the pecking order less significant or deserving players. They put Lawyer on the case, and he actually went to the HC's room to complain. Belichick (needless to say) was both dumbfounded and more than a little disappointed that this us and them mentality still apparently lingered just under the surface of his TEAM. In a way to both show them up while appearing to placate them, he refused to engineer a player room swap, but rather instructed several of his coaches to give up their larger rooms to these whining players.
I think this was the nexus of the second wave of core roster turnover, and it came at no small expense to Belichick since guys like Lawyer among others were the kind of players he is inherently drawn to - the ones he believes are students of the game to whom winning truly matters. But some of them still had that little character flaw that Belichick just can't tolerate - the need to be perceived as more deserving of deference than the rank and file guys who surround them. The ones who need to get their respect be it in salary or accolades. Which is why even coming off a Superbowl victory he began to realize that sooner or later at least a few more of them had to go in order to underscore the departure from a culture of entitlement that had pervaded this franchise for years.
His NFL mentor and our former HC Parcells treated his players differently in any number of ways based on any number of variables including their talent or personality or team needs or his own personal preference or his mood on any given day. Belichick didn't have the personality to pull that off and quite frankly after years of observing the pifalls of that approach he didn't care much for it. He wanted his talent and his leaders to be men who were willing to make some sacrifices for the greater good and who could conform to the same discipline required of every one in the organization from the CEO down to the towel boys. It's a pretty tough sell in today's personality driven NFL, and would be impossible to sell if it didn't work. But it has, and enough of them see that. Even this past season, you can sense how impressed this team was in hindsight with what it accomplished once they got over the sting of losing another trip to the Superbowl by mere minutes. It underscored once again that while talent matters, system trumps it provided there is sufficient talent willing and able to just do their job. Belichick had a few personnel missteps in 2006 which he readily admits may have cost them. But the fact that he even got the resulting team that far given the obstacles it faced is testament to the system and the intestinal fortitude of the core. Belichick is god like, but he's not god. He was ultimately done in by an intestinal flu...go figure. Smart players saw that and they also see what he has done to insure he doesn't come up just short in back to back to back seasons.
If some of them ultimately want to go play somewhere where they believe they will be more appreciated, so be it. More often than not they'll be sorry when they end up with half the money they anticipated when they sought to showcase their talent, and when they discover the bruising from publicly inflicted tire marks those player coaches tend to administer are tougher to get over from than a mere privately bruised ego. The Bills threw Drew his own ego boosting parade when he arrived in Buffalo, and by year two his release was being timed with a stop watch. When he decided to reverse that field position call on a lost coin toss, they opted to regroup with a wild eyed rookie. Of course by then Drew had cost them their jobs too. Parcells alternately publicly waxed poetic about what he felt a matured Drew could offer and then proceeded to regularly paint him as a continuing befuddlement. Midway through year two he publicly humiliated him on national television. Not to mention leaking the little sidebar that he refused to backup his replacement. By comparison, Belichick treated Drew with the utmost dignity, even extracting a first round draft pick in compensation for him while merely characterizing his last days here as understandably strained and uncomfortable. And for that, Drew will never forgive him. Whatever.
As for Chicago, I guess they figure they are no worse off with an inconsistent young QB prone to bad decisions who may yet develop (although I doubt it) than they would be with an aging veteran who has been prone to bad decisions throughout his lengthy career who isn't going to outgrow his negatives. If only they realized it was never Drew's fault. All he ever needed was an all pro Oline and a solid running game and an all world TE and pair of top flight WR's and he could make a top 5 defense look good too. LOL
