There's a risk factor at work for Belichick (TBT)

[trevrox]

Here's a little something for "Throwback Thursday" that I found very interesting to be reading 14 years later. We had no clue what was in store for us then...

Boston Globe Online / Sports / There's a risk factor at work for Belichick

 

[neuronet]

Here's a little something for "Throwback Thursday" that I found very interesting to be reading 14 years later. We had no clue what was in store for us then...

Boston Globe Online / Sports / There's a risk factor at work for Belichick

Wow what a throwback....

Borges, can you ever be right?

Belichick will not be so lucky. He doesn't have Johnson's personality, which can be as jovial and charming as a snake oil salesman's. Worse, this Patriot team isn't going to win two Super Bowls any time soon.

 

[trevrox]

Wow what a throwback....

Borges, can you ever be right?

That part stuck out to me most too! lol and they went on to win 3! Truly a magical time to be a Patriots fan...

If you take a look at the old chat on that website too many fans were predicting 7-9, 8-8 and seemed perfectly content with it.

 

[The Brandon Five]

Here's a little something for "Throwback Thursday" that I found very interesting to be reading 14 years later. We had no clue what was in store for us then...

Boston Globe Online / Sports / There's a risk factor at work for Belichick

Belichick will not be so lucky. He doesn't have Johnson's personality, which can be as jovial and charming as a snake oil salesman's. Worse, this Patriot team isn't going to win two Super Bowls any time soon.
...
So now Belichick has hitched his future to Tom Brady. The remaining games are his to win or lose, barring injury or waffling from the coach. How those games go, and where Drew Bledsoe goes, will decide a lot of things for the New England Patriots.

Nice work, Borges.

 

[supafly]

Borges, ha.

In hindsight, I suppose it's a bit unfair for anyone to blame him, all things considered. Looking back now, it certainly seems ironic.

 

[captain insano]

borges open mouth insert foot. could anybody be more wrong more often then borgy.

 

[DarrylS]

Borges vitriol towards BB stems from that era, as for some reason Borges always held a grudge because allegedly BB lied to him about the status of Drew.. that was also around the time that Borges beat up a NY sportswriter who needed a cane to walk over some old "beef".. great guy Borges, flush!!!

Katz is a 60+ sportswriter who walks with a cane.. after telling Borges to shut the f____ up. Then Borges told Katz that he had been hiding behind his disability for years..

WHEN BOXING WRITERS ATTACK BORGES, KATZ HIT EACH OTHER, DECK

"This really sent Katz over the edge. In Zorro-like fashion, he began waving his cane menacingly, poking at Borges' chest. The Boston writer advanced on Katz. And then the melee broke out. HBO Sports executive Kery Davis, trying to break things up, grabbed Borges' head. Four other guys jumped Borges from behind, trying to pull him back. Bodies were seemingly flying everywhere, one of them landing on Arum, knocking him down. Adding to the chaos, one of Arum's PR men, thinking he had heard gunshots, dove on his boss to protect him. 'Get the (expletive deleted) off me,' Arum screamed."

From an ESPN interview in 2005...

"This fellow (Belichick) has cornered the market on convincing people with the help of his friends that no one has ever worked harder than he does and he's out, uh, you know, when everyone else is sleeping, he's working, when everyone else is eating, he's working, uh, I could say something, but I won't ... about uh, how at least some of his time is being spent..."

 

[JMC00]

Borges vitriol towards BB stems from that era, as for some reason Borges always held a grudge because allegedly BB lied to him about the status of Drew

borges was a huge Bledsoe guy, in fact it's easy to see now that Bledsoe was his only source of Pats inside information and once BB traded him borges lost his only connection to the Pats and for the last 14 years he hasn't been the source for any breaking Pats news and just writes opinionated hit pieces about the Pats

 

[Mike the Brit]

Poor old wRONg Borges! Once upon a time, it was great that Patriots' victories would ram his bitter and malicious articles back down his throat. Now he isn't even Public Enemy Number One.

 

[turkeyneck]

Wow what a throwback....

Borges, can you ever be right?

Belichick will not be so lucky. He doesn't have Johnson's personality...

Heh. Borges criticizing someone for their [lack of] personality.

 

[Tunescribe]

Wow what a throwback....

Borges, can you ever be right?

Not only that, but you can't discount the irony of Borges calling someone else "personality-challenged."

 

[mosi]

I love this line: "In a one-on-one meeting with Bledsoe, Belichick told Bledsoe that when he was declared fit to play, he would get enough snaps at practice to compete with Brady."

A one on one meeting would suggest that nobody else was there. How do you confirm such a statement? You are also throwing your source under the bus, which of course must have been Bledsoe. Just bad journalism.

People should always send stuff like this back to the editors every year. There should be consequences for being that stupid.

 

[n1997y]

I love this line: "In a one-on-one meeting with Bledsoe, Belichick told Bledsoe that when he was declared fit to play, he would get enough snaps at practice to compete with Brady."

A one on one meeting would suggest that nobody else was there. How do you confirm such a statement? You are also throwing your source under the bus, which of course must have been Bledsoe. Just bad journalism.

People should always send stuff like this back to the editors every year. There should be consequences for being that stupid.

Good observation. I'm sure it made Belichick re-evaluate his opinion of Bledsoe.

And when I read it my thought was "so, how many snaps did it take for Drew to lose the competition?"

Borges wrote it like he thought the only outcome of a fair competition would be Bledsoe winning. We know now that might not have been the case.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Hindsight's easy. I tend to think that there are a lot of articles that were written in the fall and early winter of 2001 that people would like to take back. I don't know how robust this board was in 2001, but I'd be willing to bet that a lot of posters are very happy that the search function doesn't go back 14 years.

If Belichick told Bledsoe that he would have a chance to compete to get his job back, as Borges reports, it was an empty promise from the beginning. Belichick knew there was little chance that Bledsoe would ever start again under normal circumstances.

BB has now said many times over the years that he thought Brady had outperformed Bledsoe during Training Camp in 2001 but gave the starting job to the veteran anyway. Why? We'll never know for sure, but it was probably some combination of Bledsoe's stature and Belichick's still feeling his way as a second year HC after getting fired from his last HC job. So, if Bledsoe competed for his job in practice, he would never have gotten it back. Belichick's promise (if indeed he ever made it) was empty.

But, in the end, however we might dispute the facts about who said what to whom and when they might or might not have said it, I will dare to run against the majority opinion in this thread and say that I think at least one of Borges' main points was correct:

"But of this you can be sure. If Bill Belichick is wrong and Brady doesn't become the future for the Patriots, Belichick will have no future in New England.
"If Brady is not a quarterback he can rely on to win for him and win immediately, he will pay the ultimate price, just as he did in Cleveland. He will get himself fired. The difference is this time he will not be given another head coaching job in the National Football League."

I think that statement was true. If Brady had fizzled and Bledsoe was playing well somewhere else, Belichick would not have lasted beyond the 2002 season. Belichick bet his career on Brady.

PS: in contrast to Borges' skepticism, there was a very interesting thread out here a few weeks back, in which the poster traced all the comments of Dr. Z. at SI on Brady in 2001 after the Jets game. It made for very interesting reading...watching the evolution of Zimmerman's thinking from "who is that guy?" to his recognition of what Brady might be. It would be great if the poster could resurrect that thread, as I have no idea how to find it.

 

[anditsgood]

borges was a huge Bledsoe guy, in fact it's easy to see now that Bledsoe was his only source of Pats inside information and once BB traded him borges lost his only connection to the Pats and for the last 14 years he hasn't been the source for any breaking Pats news and just writes opinionated hit pieces about the Pats

This

Its well known that Bledsoe was the source to most if not all of Borges inside scoops. I believe there are a lot of stories on the net about the personal relationship between the two.

 

[BelizePats]

Wrong Borges is just an awful human being. That's all I can say on the subject!

 

[The Boston Patriot]

Drew was Borges's' team snitch and the plagiarist paid his debts writing this crap. I'm sure that BB knew the lay of the land identifying the previous administrations pets and snitches as a first order of business and was hardly surprised at Drew's 'all about me' attitude. Bledsoe made millions with a big football arm, a small football brain, and a complacent, deserving attitude. Being ungrateful for that kind of monetary success is and was characteristically petty of him. Hindsight is great but I was not a Bledsooian at all and was elated when Brady took over. Drew was Wally Pipped and he had a right to be disappointed but he didn't exactly go with any dignity. He behaved like a petulant child for a long, long time.

 

[BelizePats]

Drew was Borges's' team snitch and the plagiarist paid his debts writing this crap. I'm sure that BB knew the lay of the land identifying the previous administrations pets and snitches as a first order of business and was hardly surprised at Drew's 'all about me' attitude. Bledsoe made millions with a big football arm, a small football brain, and a complacent, deserving attitude. Being ungrateful for that kind of monetary success is and was characteristically petty of him. Hindsight is great but I was not a Bledsooian at all and was elated when Brady took over. Drew was Wally Pipped and he had a right to be disappointed but he didn't exactly go with any dignity. He behaved like a petulant child for a long, long time.

Wow. Perhaps it was because I live in Canada and not the Boston area but I did not see a lot of the things out of Drew that you are describing.

 

[SVN]

I only got to know a game like football existed during the 2001 season 2 yrs into this country but I have read somewhere that bledsoe went and campaigned to BB that he should start the SB because brady was inexperienced and all that. Is that true ?

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

lol, picking Brady over Bledsoe was just like picking Todd Philcox over Bernie Kosar. Nice call, Ron!