Actually, Bill Belichick Kinda Lives for the Drama
For a long time, Bill Belichick has traded on a distinct reputation for stoicism. He is all business. He is your grumpy uncle. He is a Super Bowl champion, a record eight times over. He is football personified, a single-minded automaton reactivated every Sunday. Or, well. Saturdays, starting this fall.
And so it’s understandable that people have been a little surprised watching him seem… confusingly personable? I don’t have the official numbers on these — thanks for nothing, Pro Football Reference! — but I think he may have smiled in public more in the last year and a half than the prior ~30.
Much of that had been his media personality phase. Some people knew he had that in him. His players had always professed he was different in person than in a press conference. So maybe they were less taken aback than the rest of us to see him appearing in an ad for Underdog, much less any other company.
But I’ll admit. For me, it took some getting used to. And I think I’m still getting used to his new tabloid romance phase, as he very publicly dates 24-year-old Miss Maine hopeful Jordon Hudson. Now, I’m not one to judge, but I can’t blame anybody for raising their eyebrows at the age difference alone.
After the CBS interview, there’s a collective “WTF” ringing out clear across the American heartland.1 What happened to Coach Belichick? What happened to “do your job”? What happened to this guy?
The whiplash! My goodness! And people came out of the woodwork to wonder — they’re just asking questions! — whether elder abuse was on the table here, which seems like a little much to me, but again. I can’t really blame people for being surprised at this new direction.
What I would now submit to the court of public opinion, however, is that this is all a little less out of character than it might appear. While it may be difficult for some of us to accept, I’m of the opinion that Bill Belichick cares more than most about how he’s perceived, and the steps he’s taken to cultivate his no-nonsense vibe are less coincidental than orchestrated.
Obviously, much of it is real. I do believe he’s a pretty focused dude, and his success hasn’t been some accident. I just think that some of the gruffness has always been posturing. It’s the culture he wants to set, which is his right. It’s just also a little bit of a put-on.
Basically, what I’m saying is, this isn’t a guy who just learned about PR at the age of 73 (even if that interview might’ve given you that impression).
As the years have gone on, we’ve seen more and more evidence that Belichick’s a touch more diva than he let on. The clearest example of this would be the pair of feuds he had with Patriots owner Robert Kraft and quarterback Tom Brady, which mirrored earlier feuds with former mentors like Bill Parcells.
(And by the way, on that second one? Remember when Belichick tried to sub Brady out for a young model too?
Don’t tell me doesn’t have a track record.)
Those feuds were, in large part, about who deserves credit for the Patriots’ historic success. Belichick, Brady, and Kraft won six Super Bowls together as a trio, and the answer — hopefully, needless to say — is that each of them deserves a lot of credit. But each of them disagreed on the relative proportions of that credit, and probably continue to disagree in accordance with their respective egos, none of which are small. These are people who think highly of themselves. And wouldn’t you, in their position? So, fine. I get it.
But one reminder that emerged from all their sniping at one another was the fact that Belichick had a talent for passive aggression. In the memoir he went on CBS to promote, Belichick omitted all mention of Robert Kraft. It’s as if he didn’t exist. And you could understand that too, given Kraft fired him last January and subsequently gave him a pretty uncharitable portrayal in a documentary about the Patriots dynasty. So that’s not only the first stone, if you will, but two.
For Belichick to respond with the silent treatment remains petty. Belichick seems like the sort of golden-rule pedagogue that would be familiar with the whole “two wrongs don’t make a right” thing, and yet, here we are. That’s a calculated move, designed to draw attention, and it’s not an isolated incident.
It was widely reported that Belichick began to give Brady something of a silent treatment in the later years of their partnership. Both guys contributed to that, no doubt, but I continue to find it telling that Belichick opted to call him on the phone rather than meet him in person when Brady decided to leave New England. I find that strange! And yes, passive-aggressive.
Because the fact is, Belichick has always been driven, MJ-style, by perceived slights. For someone who’s long insisted that he doesn’t like distractions, he’s sure turned a lot of them into bulletin-board material.
Not to make light of a literal murder, but they won the Super Bowl the year that Aaron Hernandez was convicted. They also won the Super Bowl the year of Deflategate, as well as the following year, once they’d been docked a first-round pick and Brady was suspended to start the season. Spygate? As a loyal son of St. Louis, I have my own (conspiracy) feelings about how far that went back, but they went 16-0 the year after that one broke.
And that’s just the winning. A lot of people don’t remember this, but the whole cut-off hoodie thing was, seen through one lens, something of a PR stunt. Remember this look?
Yeah, that was from when the league inked a deal with Reebok to outfit NFL coaches. Belichick didn’t like being told what to wear — fair enough — and decided to flout their dumb dress code with a pair of scissors.
What I find notable about that is that he did this for years. It became part of the legend, which I think he has always seen and understood with extreme clarity. To be a grump was his thing. My feeling is that he learned to lean into that with more and more intention.
None of this necessarily means that everything’s all good with his gal pal. I can’t really comment on that intelligently. Strikes me as a little strange, to be sure. Not sure I trust her to be a productive addition on every email sent to Bill Belichick regarding the state of his college football program at UNC. I imagine my old pal Bubba Cunningham, the AD there, has some thoughts about all this.
My thought is that maybe we should all be a little less surprised to see this all happening. Just a little. Word is he’s now looking for some new PR help, which seems like an appropriate response to this week’s shitstorm.
On the other hand, I’ve been asked about this situation by people in my life who could not be any less interested in football. So, seen through one lens… maybe they don’t need much help?
🏒 Utah’s NHL team finally got around to getting a real name, which we love. The Utah Mammoth. Do I think that should be Mammoths, plural? I do. But I’m willing to let it slide in light of the logo, which just looks right to me. You’ve got mountains, the tusk is a U. It’s all there. I'm still not sure I get the Vegas Golden Knights (did you know that the owner wanted to call them that because, and I quote, “it’s the No. 1 precious metal”?) but after the Seattle Kraken, the NHL is on a little bit of an expansion hot streak. May MLB be comparably inspired when the time comes.
🏒 Unfortunately, my other hockey thoughts are a requiem for the fallen Blues. I was doing my damndest not to jinx their improbable upset of the Jets, aaaaand it didn’t work! Absolutely devastating L. On the bright side, this whole season was out of nowhere. Brighter days ahead.
🏀 The Celtics have officially backslid. There’s still time, but they’re looking a whole lot like the Celtics of a few years ago. The pre-title Celtics, who loved nothing more than going ice cold and giving up a big lead just for the fun of it. Bill Simmons has been using the word “arrogant,” last I heard, and I can’t say I disagree. One perceives a bit of an upturned nose on that leprechaun.
🏀 That all said. How ‘bout them Knicks, eh fellas? The Steph-less Warriors are kind of afloat against the Wolves, which is a little embarrassing for the Wolves, and the Nuggets are about where I figured they’d be by this point: three to four more Jokic 40-20 games away from the next round. Go basketball! Fantastic NBA playoffs so far. Keep up the good work, scriptwriters.
