For sure, and maybe not a perfect analogy (though I do think Bill could still "flame out" given his age and if he gets in the wrong scenario).
This is a good point. I remember reading that several owners who were still mad at the Raiders for all of Al Davis’ litigation in the 80’s and voted against them moving back to LA.
I mean, no it doesn't because at no point did I argue that Morris is a better hire? I pointed out that Vrabel has many of the same reasons for not being employed as Bill Belichick. People keep trying to rope in Morris because they want to point to his poor career HC record from 14 years ago. But the reasons Morris got hired over Bill (and Vrabel) have nothing to do with his HC record, or theirs. NFL owners don't just look at your record at your last stop however long ago it was, they factor in a lot more things than just that. Bill and Vrabel are both guys with success in the past, but less success recently, and a lot of concerns in some of the non-coaching areas. They also arguably both have a decent amount of concerns on field in terms of ability to develop young QBs, but that's likely a secondary concern.
Sure? That was kind of the point though, that coaches fail at a really high rate, and so if you think a guy is the best coach you should take him even if it means 3 or 4 good years over the guy you think is 2nd best but young.
This seems like a potentially significant point. Beyond not wanting anything to do with him, aren’t there supposed to be a number who want to actively stick it to him?
Why are you posting in this thread? Did BB kick your dog? We get it you don't like him.
I just don't understand why you care what is next for BB.
The building of the shit roster is precisely the reason why Belichick doesn't have a coaching job at the present time. I would say it's very relevant to this thread.
I’d say the teams recent performance is a pretty good guess. But you’re right, we don’t know.
This is true. But I think that more younger, inexperienced QBs are playing bigger roles now. I haven't t looked at rosters. That's just my sense of QBing.
I know it’s impossible, but I’ll bet the best use of Bill could be as one of these young QB/HC team’s Ernie Adams.
I think it is more or less this simple. BB wants to work with his guys and his guys are known around the league as kind of terrible.
Dan Campbell and John Harbaugh leap to mind. That’s half of the championship field. There are pluses and minuses to both strategies. The scheme guys tend to be less big-picture focused and not as good at managing big organizations, the motivational guys are more reliant on coordinators year to year (thinking for example Baltimore moving from Roman to Monken). The dream is hitting on someone who can do both, but I don’t see the inherent value in simply finding some scheme-wonk because of how often they flame out on the personality aspect.
I feel the same way.
I'm not sure it's impossible. The owner says "I'm going to pay you $5m for the season. Every Monday, I want you to have a one-hour call with our head coach and share as many observations as you can about our game film. We all agree that no one is allowed to talk about this publicly."
Right. I hate to admit it, as I grew up with the Red Sox - I didn't start watching football until I was in the 10th grade and playing football myself. And my dad was a Pats fan, so I just took them up during the Snow Bowl. And it stuck.
It’s really interesting — this comes up a lot in various contexts. I don’t really care what Bill does now. I guess I am a laundry guy. Even the record is of borderline interest to me now.
Same here. Loved the Belichick years, the Brady years and the bizarre cast of characters that they created. Now I'm interested in what comes next. It won't ever match what we saw for two decades, but'll hold my interest
Looking at this and the post Toe quoted, I genuinely wonder if the BB and his operation of the last few years just doesn't have the reputation around the league that those in Patriot fandom think he has (or think he should have).
There ya go. It's weird for me. 23 years, more than half my life...all with the same coach. He IS the Patriots for me.
The Krafts are still here.
That’s actually kind of what I had in mind. Maybe a couple times a week during training camp he walks around and grabs the long snapper for an hour then wanders over to the linebackers in the afternoon. Nothing is going to convince me he couldn’t flip at least one across the season. At least.
It is interesting to learn at what point we all came in as fans. My first year was Bledsoe’s rookie season. I was very attached to him as a player to the point I thought he got jobbed by the injury and should have started in the SB against the Rams. I’m obviously an idiot and eventually (by the end of that Super Bowl) fell in love with Brady and was devastated when he left to the point I irrationally hate BB for it. As soon as Brady signed with TB I bought my Brady shirt and had a hell of a good time watching him win it all one more time.
My first year I can remember getting hooked on the Pats was the SB run against GB. I was a kid. So, Brady/Belichick encompassed almost my entire fandom. I grew up loving football, but not really being into the NFL until the early to mid 90's. My first memories of the NFL were honestly the Giants/49ers NFC title game in 1991(?) where all the scoring was FG's. I was 7 years old.
I think I’m more struggling because the Sox are in a similar directionless state. Players don’t matter anymore - it’s only laundry now. And that only means so much when you don’t have a connection to the players.
Yeah, but even for someone whose first Pats memories are from the late 70s, Bill practically feels like a relative. I remember listening to all the "HC of the NYJ" drama at my parents' house during Christmas break of my last year in law school. Most of what I think of as my "adult life" has happened with Bill as the Pats' head coach.
I feel this. If we hadn’t won a billion times it would be different. To me - ending your career on your own terms is 100% earned. I didn’t watch the team for Kraft. They could sell the team tomorrow and I wouldn’t care.
If it wasn't for the Krafts you never would have had the chance to root for the new England Patriots.
I read that as 2003 and thought fuck yeah! Then read it correctly and got a little sad.
The Patriots moving to St. Louis is a fascinating what if and raises all sorts interesting questions
Sure. But they did. And they did a great job putting the winners in place. But now the winners aren’t in place - we have to hope the new ones are a quarter as good.
I get the distinct impression few from outside the organization want to come here. That sounds true of the OC position, and probably true of every other spot. Internal hires are going to be the way for now. Maybe it works, but other than Bill leaving (a big one for sure) we seem to be the same people with different titles.
Fascinating indeed. I think Frontiere goes to Baltimore and Modell moves the Browns to Boston into a new stadium on the waterfront.
You think all of those guys they've interviewed from outside the organization actually don't want to come here?
The dynamics might have been different if the team had left town, but it’s hard to see Modell getting the kind of deal from the MA Legislature that he got from Maryland. Even with that sweetheart deal, he was so inept as an owner that the league forced him to sell to Biscotti in 2003.
