A great head coach recognizes talent, and has the guts to act decisively. That’s part of the job.
By your username, I’m guessing you were 15 in 2001. You don’t understand just how much Belichick put himself out on the line, compared with what the landscape was at the time —
- starting a 6th round pick over a 1st rounder #1 overall who just signed the highest contract in NFL history and was locally beloved,
- Belichick had literally done that in his prior gig, was proven right, but was roasted for it and was cited as a major reason for his being ****canned,
- as we learned this year, Kraft himself said that if you start Brady over Bledsoe and don’t make the playoffs, I’m ****canning you.
What head coach does what Belichick does back then? It’s easy to say anyone would with 20/20 hindsight. But you need to understand just how conservative the NFL was at the time. For example, Belichick (and Parcells too) was considered very aggressive at 4th down attempts; when Belichick was canned he was among the most conservative, and it’s because the league shifted, not him. Other starting big name QBs have been benched in the last 25 years — but *because* Belichick set the standard for it being acceptable. It never happened beforehand.
Belichick did what no one else of the time would have done. For that reason alone, he is among the greatest head coaches of all time.