Bill Belichick

I agree with Zip. A lot of people hated Dale Earnhardt Sr as well. He was the greatest NASCAR driver *IMHO*. I dislike the media, they ask stupid questions and  they all seem to have some hidden agenda.  IE Jim Gray. Do you think people hate Merriman, he cheated as well. If your a Bolts fan I'm sure you think he paid his price and its in the past. Pete Rose, how about him? Barry Bonds? Roger Clements. There wasn't any taping for 18 games this year so how do you explain some really good teams getting beat down?

Bill B makes people better then they are, makes em believe in each other. If he never gets in the hall of fame he'll always be the greatest coach to me.

> >> Winning seasons....thats pretty much what you'll get with Belichick at the helm<<<

I have to admire someone who doesn't let facts get in the way of his opinion.  Belichick in Cleveland:  6-10, 7-9, 7-9, 11-5, 5-11 and partial responsibility for Modell's moving the team to Baltimore.  You can have him.

What I think of Bill Belichick? 

1.  He's the best head coach there is.  He develops a team consciousness that puts egos to the side and concentrates on working together to win, not on individual glory.  The result is a team on which players are where they are supposed to be, not where they hope to run up numbers or make flashy plays.  Look at Moss and Welker last year.  As long as teams played more or less standard defenses, Brady burned cornerbacks with Moss.  When they went to deep zones, Brady took the openings that those defenses left, and Welker got the numbers.  Neither receiver complained when he didn't get the ball.  Let Ocho Cinco or Terrell Owens not get the ball for a couple of weeks and see what the local sports pages--and even the national sportscasts--look like.  But Moss and Welker knew how it's done.

2.  At a technical level, there is probably no one who builds a better defense than he does.  Last year, the team suddenly had a host of offensive weapons, but the genius of the team has been that it is almost impossible to blow the game open on the Patriots, even when their offense isn't 100%.

3.  Belichick is as much sinned against as sinning in the other stuff.  There's some history behind the way the media went after him last year.  Back when he was coach in Cleveland, he decided that the time had come to let local boy Bernie Kosar go.  The biggest newspaper in Cleveland decided it could sell papers by whipping up a lynch mob against Belichick.  (By the way, he was absolutely right--Kosar had nothing left.)  So they started jumping on him for anything--or for nothing.  He came to distrust the press, and stopped disclosing things to them, because he had seen everything he gave them turned against him in Cleveland.  Anywhere you go, once you have an adversary press, they will try to murder you again and again.

4.  Add to that the fact that national media are for the most part based in New York, home to the arch-enemies of New England teams.  Nothing a New York paper likes better than to demonize a New England team and its coach, especially one who left a New York team under the circumstances of Belichick's departure from the Jets.  With the national media right there, they pick up all the Post's "Belicheat" nonsense and the slightly less colorful but no less negative coverage of Belichick in the other New York papers, and it's all over the country.

In short, Belichick's a great coach who has a horrible relationship with the press.

Mr. Knoxvillepats, you name the time, place, and beer. I'm buying. I was going to respond to that terribly illogical rant, but I wouldn't have put it as eloquently as yourself. Kudos to you.

So thats 5 of the greatest coaches in the history of the sport who didn't find success except for one team... how does your argument hold water now?