"Because Belichick is unyielding, unapologetic and territorial, there are many who don't care for him. he is gruff with the media, and fans of other teams use disparaging remarks to describe their loathing of him, but until recently, one really didn't hear players - either his or on another team - speak of him with anything but respect - but have the times and the game changed so much that Belichick's way of doing things becoming archaic and too grounded in today's NFL?" - Foxborough Free Press, April 18, 2018The Patriot Way has been a paradigm for so long that when it's dynastic run began, Bill Clinton still ran things in the White House, Sony had just introduced the PlayStation 2 and the computer worm known as the Love Bug had just infected millions of personal computers.
A prototype of efficiency, the discipline and conditioning-based philosophy introduced by Bill Belichick has served as the model by which all other franchises are compared and has outlasted two different two-term presidential administrations, two incarnations of the PlayStation and countless computer viruses...
...notching seventeen straight winning seasons, which produced fifteen AFC Division titles, a dozen conference championship appearances, eight Super Bowl appearances and five Lombardi trophies in his eighteen years at the helm - so much success with such an idiosyncratic bent that to mess with his formula is not only potentially fatal to the franchise, but akin to sabotage, and to denounce it, sacrilege.
Yet here we are, dealing with the fallout over both, the common thread being Belichick's defiant silence.
*********************************
The thing about the way Belichick does things is that it will never be out of style, it will never be archaic and it can never be too grounded - because fundamentals are the base of what any sport is built upon.
The game has changed, and it changes every year as the league struggles to define the rulebook - but part of being fundamentally sound is to give all due diligence to the rule book, to the play book and to film study - taking to coaching and being mentally prepared to face your foe. That will never change, yet it seems at times that Belichick is the only coach who lives and breathes the rudimentary approach...
...which has been the cornerstone of the Patriots' dynasty from the start. Belichick can be a harsh taskmaster, what with his conditioning runs during the season and nit-picking on everyone, his all-inclusive bitch sessions the stuff of legend, but now a source of contempt from at least one high-profile player.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski is apparently unhappy and considering retirement, claiming that football wasn't fun for him last season, the source of his displeasure coming in the form of Belichick calling him out in a team meeting for refusing to follow his prescribed conditioning regimen in favor of quarterback Tom Brady's holistic approach with Alex Guerrero.
Gronkowski claims that he's never been as pliable as he was last season, referring to a catch he made against the Steelers, going at full sprint across the face of the coverage and bending to grab a low ball right off of his shoetops - and he credits the TB12 method, inclusive of conditioning sessions with Guerrero, for his new-found elasticity.
Which is fine. A loose and pliable Gronkowski is even more dangerous than the old version that was already the best, most menacing and most complete tight end in the game - but what has Belichick's feathers ruffled is that Gronkowski has reportedly refused to do squats, which is the traditional manner in which an athlete increases flexibility in his lower body - his defiance apparently prompting Belichick to single him out in the aforementioned meeting...
...as well as Belichick throwing a ban on Guerrero's presence on the sidelines and the team plane. Why? As reported by several sources, it was because Guerrero advised Gronkowski to refuse that part of the team-mandated conditioning regimen.
The story goes much deeper than that, and has been regurgitated by the media, ad nauseum, but none of that really matters in the grand scheme of things. What does matter is that Belichick is in charge, and his methods have produced more championships - divisional, conference and world - in a span that defies history, and he has done so with a strictly regimented routine and by employing low-priced role players to fill in gaps where the Patriots didn't have a permanent solution.
The conditioning routine has never been a cause for joy among the players, nor has the method in which Belichick determines a player's value to the team in free agency in terms of dollars where, instead of the team making an over-the-top contract offer to retain a player, Belichick simply gauges his need with what the players are offered on the open market, and then will decide whether to make a counter-offer.
The ploy has worked with much success throughout Belichick's tenure, yet has been met with considerable scrutiny this offseason, as the market priced a handful of regular contributors out of Belichick's range.
Running back Dion Lewis has defected and told the media in Tennessee that no one ever gave him a chance to prove what he could do on the football field, completely disregarding that Belichick was the one who stuck with him through his lengthy injury history before giving him the opportunity to display his considerable wares last season - a performance which earned him a tidy sum in free agency...
...while cornerback Malcolm Butler took the chip on his shoulder and hauled ass out of Foxborough to join Lewis in Tennessee, and also former Patriot Logan Ryan to help form a solid secondary for the Titans, signing a contract comperable to the one that Belichick signed Stephon Gilmore to last offseason, which miffed Butler and placed that chip squarely on his shoulder.
As mentioned in the first part of this series, wide receiver Danny Amendola opted to take his talents to South Beach for a exorbitant amount of money for a guy on the wrong side of 30 years old, and left tackle Nate Solder accepted a contract to make him the highest paid offensive lineman in the league to move to New York and play for the Giants.
The worst of the mutinous scenarios is still upcoming, citing a report that quarterback Tom Brady, who said he wanted to play until he was 45 in 2021, has reportedly been mulling retirement after this upcoming season which, if true, would be a debilitating strike on the franchise - because were this known last November, the team certainly would not have traded starter-ready backup Jimmy Garoppolo to San Francisco.
That, in itself, is a matter of some subterfuge theories, the most chronic being that team owner Bob Kraft ordered the trade. We may never know the true story of how it all came to be, but be assured that Brady's relationship with Kraft, who has often referred to Brady as "family", had something to do with it.
Brady revealed his true time line in the last episode of his self-serving Tom versus Time Facebook miniseries, which was recorded last August. In that last piece, he was sitting beside Gisele and stated that he wanted to play in two more Super Bowls and then he would retire, and he's already played in one since that statement - last February's unfortunate loss to the Eagles - and if he stays true to what he said in the miniseries, he could be finished playing after this season.
But what is. is. No sense in crying over melted avocado ice cream, but one must be curious as to whether Brady has communicated his intentions for beyond 2018 with management, but has reportedly been in talks with team management about a new contract - which may or may not sway them to approach next week's draft with the anxiety related to absolutely having to get Brady's successor, no matter who that might be, and no matter what it may cost in draft capital.
Regardless of Brady's plans, Belichick cannot get this wrong. If he has a player that he's absolutely stuck on and is as sure as can be about the talent level and fit, then he has to pull the trigger. He doesn't have any choice, because Garoppolo is already gone, and every team in the league knows it, which dissolves any leverage the Patriots might have had in negotiations to move up in the draft if need be.
And, yes. This is what Belichick is going through this offseason, from Gronkowski's ambiguity and Brady's arrogance to Robert Kraft's meddling and fans questioning his every move, this may prove to be Belichick's most challenging offseason yet, and training camp is still three months off.
We have seen how the players respond to Belichick after a Super Bowl win, and how Belichick responds to them. The season is over, the goal is accomplished and everyone is hugging and laughing and crying tears of joy - players hugging Belichick and telling him that they love him in the moment of unbridled euphoria...
...and in his moment to absorb the accolades of the media and of fans everywhere, he digresses to explain to the world that the title was all about his players, about all of the hard work they have put in, all of the blood, the sweat and tears - the pain and the exhaustion, they endured it all to reach the pinnacle of their profession.
Belichick deflects praise and absorbs criticism in public, all in the attempt to edify his players, to acknowledge their dedication and hard work, and to keep their morale steady in the midst of good time and bad, but in the privacy of team meetings will tear them down to be able to build them back up. It's a time-proven recipe for molding players into champions and boys into men, yet some players don't appreciate the effort he puts into making them better.
The Patriots are better off without such players, but they will never be better off without Belichick roaming the sidelines - because like it or not, Belichick is the embodiment of the Patriot Way, something that he has struggled to maintain lately, with salvos being fired from team management and select players.
But the local media has stood behind the Dark Master for the most part, some going so far as to hammer on Gronkowski and, more recently, hammer on Brady for being an instigator - being careful to not lend much credence to the rants of the former players, present players, nor the national media that is making way too big a deal over it without understanding the dynamic involved.
The "Patriot Way" means different things to different people, but former quarterback Drew Bledsoe perhaps defined it best when he said, "simply, no one player or group of players is bigger than the team or the organization." going on to to call himself "A prime example" of the definition - he also mentioned that he may have been "Example A", but that honor actually goes to Bernie Kosar...
...a popular signal caller and the face of the Cleveland Browns, Kosar was released midway through the 1993 season in favor of Belichick favorite Vinny Testeverde, and faced severe backlash from the media, the fans, and many of the players - so it's not as if Belichick has never been in this position before.
Belichick carries the same personnel philosophy now as he did then, and has never wavered from it - the only difference is that in Cleveland he took over a crappy team that needed an urgent rebuild just a season removed from playing for the conference title, while in New England he took over a middling team that had underachieved under Pete Carroll and had talent and depth everywhere.
But the main difference was that in Cleveland he had to deal with a half-crazy, meddling and impatient owner in Art Modell while in Foxborough, he worked for an owner who had learned from his failures in handling affairs with Bill Parcells and Carroll poorly, and in response gave total control over personnel to Belichick, and he built it into a juggernaut that stands as the gold standard today.
That gold standard has taken a few hits to it's position recently, but so long as Belichick is around, the Patriot Way will exist.
"While (the way they do business) is awfully painful when you're living it, the Patriots have had success by bringing in younger players and developing them so they are able to reload, as opposed to going through a down cycle like most teams." Bledsoe said, "so if you play for the Patriots - and, honestly, it doesn't matter if you're Tom Brady - you're there as long as you are useful."
Cold? Callous? Calculating? You bet. But there is no getting around the fact that Belichick is, in his heart of hearts, a player's coach. While they are in Foxborough, he has a detailed plan to make each man a better player. Many have come to Foxborough with dreams of winning, and many have left with substantial hardware to show for their time...
...as 248 players have earned world championship rings under Belichick's guidance. Think about that for a second - even with twenty-two players earning three rings during the three-in-four-years run at the start of the dynasty (plus 18 more who won two) and twenty-two more earning two rings in the latest two-in-three-years run, that makes 186 role players who have rotated in and out of the Patriots' roster that have won Super Bowl rings.
Just for the sake of comparison, the next closest is the Pittsburgh Steelers, for who just 107 players have won rings in the same time span.
You don't win as much as New England has by having a system that doesn't work. Sure, teams get lucky sometimes and win titles despite the deficiencies in their organization, but Belichick's Patriot way has stood the test of time - and the man deserves better than what team management, a few select players and many fans have been laying on him.
The Patriot Way began with Belichick, and it will end with Belichick - not Kraft, and not Brady - though the Dark Master is attempting to hand it off to offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, and though he showed he has a different on-field philosophy in his disastrous reign in Denver, hopefully he's learned enough in his time under Belichick to keep the dynasty rolling long after Bob Kraft, Tom Brady and Belichick have retired.
But one thing is for certain: we will never see a better coach than Belichick in our lifetimes, and we should all consider it an honor to have witnessed it.
No comments:
Post a Comment