Longtime, well, second time, but this thread inspired me to jump as I've been debating (with myself) the semantics re: this very question.
Cause Belichick has become my all-time favorite Boston __________.
I know "athlete" doesn't work here. Maybe "sports figure"? But that doesn't quite capture it either. In football, coaches are so much more involved in the play itself.
Especially the best one ever.
Coaches in other sports have increasingly insinuated themselves into their games, calling every pitch, calling every play IN BASKETBALL! (How many plays can there be? What would poor KC Jones have done?) But in football it's always been utterly necessary, too much timing, coordination, and strategy. And all those plays!
And practice seems far more a part of the game itself. An entire week for each contest, mimicking opposing players and plays, the connection between good weeks of practice and good games played.
Considering this and more, hard to not be in awe of the man after we've somehow won so many close, high stakes contests in which we've almost always seemed out manned. Before this year of course.
AND during the salary cap era. It drives me a little nuts that everyone always says the salary cap parity should've made dynasties no longer possible. But evening the talent makes coaching even more significant. Teams can no longer ride the same great players year after year, but if you're coaching staff is better than everyone else's... well, we know the result.
Plus running the show from top to bottom (humbly, I would add for the many ignorant haters)... and the Pats record in this era... and, for those of us older than 23, it's the friggin Pats for god's sake!
I know he's not an athlete, per se, but I want a list where he sits at or near the top, among Orr and Williams and Russell and Larry, not in a separate list where he kicks Dave Galvin's ass or something.
So I guess I'm voting "other"
