There is a certain sensibility in New England that I think I've grown to understand better since I left it. Not trying to turn this thread into something it's not, but I think there is an answer to your question -- one is more likely to encounter people like Adams in New England. And Belichick, though not a born New Englander is an adopted one that belongs there, and I think you could find some pretty significant similarities between Annapolis and New England.
I live in a place where you can often tell how much a man makes by what kind of car he drives. Where you don't need to know a man more than a few hours to hear about his faith. Where the notion of a man living with his mother would spur immediate Beavis and Butthead like jokes. Where talking is often more important than doing. Where a house built in 1920 is old.
I come from a place where the wealthiest man in my town drove the crappiest truck. Where a man's relationship with his creator was his own business. Where my friends' granfathers knew their friends' grandfathers. Where the people who talked the least often did the most.
Perhaps nowhere was the difference between two worlds with which I'm most familiar more on display than in the pregame ceremonies for the World Series. At Fenway, the Anthems were a new, original composition by John Williams and by James Taylor. In Colorado it was Carrie Underwood.
I'm not trying to sound like an elitist. I think it's hard to hide my bias of which I think is better, but there also is much that is negative about provincialism, and it can lead to closed mindedness. There are definitely things I don't miss. My point only is that I think the places in this country in which you could find a man like Ernie Adams are few, so I would not dispute the notion that its no coincidence that he and Belichick have found themselves coaching in New England.
