We've Got Our First Good Belichick-Media Beef in a While and It's Glorious
The Patriots might be the defending champs and about to win the division and a tiebreaker out of best record in the conference and about to move into the top ten in the league in scoring defense. So you’d think it’s all good. But you’d be wrong. There’s been something missing. Something I haven’t been able to put my finger on. Like a splinter in my mind, driving me mad. Until now.
The one thing that’s been missing from 2017 has been a good pissing contest between the man who built and maintains this dynasty and the know-it-alls in the old Boston media. And here to fill the void for us is Dan Shaughnessy of The Failing Globe, right on schedule:
I like Bill Belichick and believe he’s the best coach/strategist/thinker we’ve had since Red Auerbach, maybe ever. … Belichick knows one hundred million times more football than I know.
Now that we have that out of the way, let me say that there’s no place for Belichick’s boorish, bullying response to a fair question regarding not taking Tom Brady out at the end of Sunday’s blowout vs. the chippy, dirty Dolphins. Furthermore, it’s fair to ask if maybe the Patriots are being arrogant and reckless in the belief that New England’s 40-year-old quarterback is impervious to injury and the aging issues that impact the rest of humanity.
Belichick was out of bounds when he dismissed the Boston Herald’s Karen Guregian for asking about maybe taking Brady off the field when it was 35-17 with less than five minutes left. Meanwhile, Brady and the Patriots — in their cult-like belief that Tom cannot get hurt — are asking for trouble by continuing to expose Brady to unnecessary assaults. …
Belichick’s answer is patently false. There was no time for Miami to recover in that game. They trailed by 18 points with less than five minutes left when Brady returned to the field for New England’s next-to-last offensive series. According to Pro Football Reference, NFL teams that trailed by 18 or more points with less than five minutes left are 0-988 in 988 regular-season games since 1999.
“I like Bill Belichick”? Way to come right out of the gate with the molten lava take, Shank. Now who’s being patently false? Shaughnessy and Ron Borges of The Herald have spent 18 years as Belichick’s Statler and Waldorf. Increasingly irrelevant fossils bitching non-stop at him from the balcony about how wrong he is about everything he’s ever done. Because they’re still operating of old model where they had all the power like it’s still the Pete Carroll era and people get their information from bundles of paper on their front steps in the morning. They and a lot of the pack they run with have resented Belichick from Day One because he doesn’t grabass with them or seek their approval like back in the old days because he doesn’t need it. “I like Bill Belichick” my ass.
But as far as how The Hooded One handled the question, it sounded to me like what they say in courtrooms all the time: “Asked and answered.” Karen Guregian asked a perfectly legitimate question, and got an honest answer. Why did he leave Brady in the game? Because in his opinion, being up 18 with 5 minutes to go isn’t a guaranteed win. You might think it is. But the highest football IQ of all time, who grew up watching game film the way Millennials grew up watching Nickelodeon, has scenarios in his head where a lead that size at that point in the game is blowable. She asked the question. He gave her his reasoning. Isn’t that sort of the whole point of having a press conference?
Maybe guys like Shank resent the tone of his answer, but is this supposed to be validating the feelings of sportswriters? I have no beef with Guregian. I read her stuff fairly often. She’s not a bomb thrower. She breaks stories. And also, she’s an adult. It’s not the first time she’s gotten a curt answer to a question and it won’t be the last. I happens when you step into the Thunderdome at Gillette and raise your hand. And for Shaughnessy to feel like he has to jump to her defense is just the lamest kind of condescending pandering. I mean, “bullying”? Really? What is she, in grade school? Belichick didn’t talk down to her. He didn’t mansplain. He answered exactly how he would have if Ben Volin or Tom E. Curran or I had asked the question. (Actually not me because what we have is special.) I don’t know what more anyone would want.
But like I said, this is exactly what I needed. It’s been too long since we’ve been treated to some good, old fashioned use of every Boston writers go-to word, “arrogant.” And I love it. Next to watching them bitch about the “arrogance” of running up the score, it’s my favorite complaint of theirs. Because it means they have nothing else to complain about since everything is going great on the field. So thanks, CHB for lighting the Beacons of Belichick Hate once again. Thornton Nation will answer.