This Article Trashing Belichick For Being A "Cheater" Is My Favorite Belichick Article Ever

(Source) — Did the Patriots really illegally deflate footballs in the AFC Championship Game, as the NFL is investigating? Well, put it this way: There have been a lot of unbelievable NFL stories this season. This is not one of them. This? This is totally believable. Around the NFL, people wait for stories like this to come out of New England. They wonder when Bill Belichick’s team will get nailed again. This is not as simple as saying, “Hey, they got caught for SpyGate!” It runs deeper than that. And if any coach would try it, it’s Belichick. He has earned his reputation for doing anything to gain an advantage. There are well-founded whispers in the NFL that the underlings who supply towels in the visiting locker room sometimes run back to the home locker room to share what they heard. The Patriots supposedly stopped videotaping opponents’ defensive signals when they got caught in 2007, but opponents wonder if they are still stealing them. Smart opposing coaches put locks on every entryway to the locker room, so nobody from the Patriots can walk in, “accidentally” grab a play sheet or two and “inadvertently” bring it back to the New England coaches. Even before the ball-deflating allegations, Belichick skirted the rules in the playoffs. Just last week, he declared certain players “ineligible” and gained a bunch of yards with that formation in a tight win over the Ravens. He confidently said afterward that it was all legal. The NFL concurred. Well, look closer. This is a pretty good window into how Belichick operates. It is customary for coaches to run usual trick plays past the league office during the week, to make sure everything is on the up-and-up. Belichick didn’t do that. Right before the game, he told referee Bill Vinovich he would declare certain players as ineligible receivers. This put Vinovich in the difficult position of deciding, with no notice, if he should tell the great Bill Belichick he was trying something illegal. How ingrained is the culture? On one end of Gillette Stadium is a lighthouse, the stadium’s signature architectural feature. But if you sit behind the opposite end zone and look at the lighthouse, you will notice something else: An enormous television beyond the lighthouse, in the parking lot. Officially, this allows people in the parking lot to watch TV. Is it a coincidence that you can see that TV from the Patriots’ sideline, but not from the opposing sideline, making it easier for the Patriots to watch replays and decide whether to throw the challenge flag? Belichick can get away with a lot in the moment. The code of silence in New England is legendary, and almost comical — Sunday night, a few players were wary of talking to me about getting together and drinking kava, a drink that is symbolic in Polynesian cultures. The drink is non-alcoholic, and it has nothing to do with football, but players understand: In New England, you don’t say nothin’ about nothin’.

I took the highlights because the article is super long but I suggest going to check it out. It. Is. AWESOME. It proves that Belichick is some kind of evil mastermind whose office is a lair a few levels beneath ground at Gillette. How every team who walks into Foxboro is paranoid and terrified at all times. He’s inside of everybody’s head. But I guess everything in that story is supposed to be a negative? We’re supposed to feel bad because Bill is the best at finding then exploiting gray areas? Because he’s totally comfortable doing things that are kind of mean with a hazy legality? GOOD! Everyone should want a fucking coach like that! That’s gamesmanship. That’s how you gain small advantages and play some mind games. It’s why Red Auerbach would constantly move the location of the visiting team’s locker room, clogged their toilets, and blasted the heat at halftime. It’s why Lawrence Taylor called hooker’s to the opponent’s hotel rooms. They did it because they wanted to win, not go home and think “stinks we lost but at least everyone on the other team still thinks I’m a super nice guy.” Fuck that shit. Give me Bill Belichick and all your hatred, we’ll see you guys in Arizona. (that’s where the Super Bowl is this year. And the Pats are playing in it. For the 6th time in the last 15 years. In case you forgot.)

PS – The part about the jumbotron outside CBS Scene is so funny. Because guess what? I guarantee that’s EXACTLY why that thing is there. Not Bill’s fault he’s the only one smart enough to think of something like that.