Arguably the
greatest NFL coach of all time, Bill Belichick, will leave a lot of
marks in the highest level of football. With six Super Bowls he is
the winningest coach but despite that one mark that seems sealed in
stone is the awful mark his culture leaves on franchise after
franchise as his coaching tree continues to flounder.
Look no
further than this off season for the curse of the Belichick culture.
Bill O’Brien is a solid coach but continues to wreck the Houston
Texans as the general manager who continues to try and do it the
Patriot’s way. That has lead to the worst modern day trade with
DeAndre Hopkins being sent the Arizona Cardinals for not even a 1st
round pick. A ridiculous situation where the coach couldn’t
understand his player and work with him.
There was
another example, though a more minor one, with Darius Big Play Slay
to the Philadelphia Eagles. Immediately Slay came out and said he had
no relationship with Matt Patricia and was glad to leave Detroit. Yet
again, it’s a case where the Belichick coaching tree tries to do
things the Patriots way and loses a star player.
Josh
McDaniels, Jim Schwartz, Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel, Charlie Weis
they’re all busts. They have talent as coordinators but could not
find any continued success as the head guys. A lot of the criticism
was the same, they tried to do things the Patriot’s way but there’s
only one coach and organization that can pull that off.
Now, the whole
Belichick coaching tree is not a failure. It does contain the
greatest college football coach ever in Nick Saban. Kirk Ferentz has
been a fixture at Iowa with his own amount of success, but it’s not a
surprise they’ve had the college success since the coach in a college
program has much more control like the Patriot way. That’s not to
take anything away from very talented coaches, but the Patriot way
works in college.
Six Super Bowl
wins and nine Super Bowl appearances is what has made the Patriot way
something to emulate, BUT it’s not just because of Belichick. With
arguably the greatest QB of all time lock and step and reiterating
the message of the coach it keeps the message the same on the
sideline and in the locker room. It has been well stated that Brady
constantly taking less than he’s worth lets management do that from
the top down with every other player. Plus have the GOAT under center
covers up some of the shortcomings that could have been on the
roster.
The truth is
Brady and Belichick may not find the same success apart, and I would
argue they won’t. While the culture is well established in New
England, without the GOAT carrying Belichick’s message in the locker
room and on the sideline things may change. Big shoes to fill and a
new quarterback, or quarterbacks, could have the Patriot way fall
apart.
For Brady, not
having the strict man in control may also harm him too. Brady will be
in Tampa Bay the next two seasons and was wooed this off season to
find his new home. This could have the NBA type effect on his career.
He has earned having control and say, but there are plenty of cases
where players with too much control don’t find success. Belichick
having so much control left Brady to just do what he needed to on the
field and it worked. This isn’t also mentioning his age and the fact
that New England seems to be pretty good at knowing when to let
players go and they didn’t really seem to try and retain Brady.
Both Brady and
Belichick want to win without the other to add something more to
their legacy, but the truth is it could just be over for both when it
comes to Super Bowls. Belichick no longer has the GOAT and the right
player in place to reinforce his control while Brady could end up
with too much freedom for his own good.