Closing Arguments: The Case IN FAVOR OF Keeping Bill Belichick (Part 2 of 2)

Jerry Thornton1/05/2024 10:20 PM

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, thank you. You've heard my distinguished, virile and handsome colleague's argument in favor of firing Bill Belichick at the conclusion of this disappointing season:

Now I ask that you give me the same consideration as I argue in favor of retaining the man that even my esteemed brother counsel concedes is the greatest football coach to ever coach football. My reasons for bringing Belichick back to Foxboro for a 25th season are as follows:

He's Bill Belichick

That should be enough. But I'll elaborate.

The 2023 Season Itself

As a former employee of a terrestrial sports radio station, I'm honor-bound by the oath I swore to take out this tired, overused cliche. "As Bill Parcells put it, 'You are what your record says you are.'" Which is, of course, true. What you are not is required to be what your record says you are in perpetuity. Every year is different. Teams change. Rosters improve. Group dynamics get better. More to the point, insisting that your record is all that defines you lacks nuance and attention to detail. Otherwise every team that underachieved would just clean house on the coaching staff, blow up the roster and start over. Where the Giants teams that won 10 and 9 games what their records said they were? Or are they Super Bowl champions? What about the Texas Rangers who went from 60 wins to 62 wins to a Wild Card? What were they the two years before they won their first World Series title, if not a team building a winner? Where would they be if they'd knocked the Jenga tower over and started over?

In this 4 (or 5) win season, virtually everything that can go wrong on a football team did. And yet at no point did Belichick's players pack it in. Not after two close, competitive losses to Super Bowl contenders started the season 0-2. Not after losing the best player on the roster through the first few games in Christian Gonzalez for the season. Followed soon after by the best player over the last three seasons in Matt Judon. Granted, week in and week out they managed to find ways to cost themselves Ws. Two of them on booth reviews that reversed calls in the Pats favor. First Keyshon Boutte can't tap a second foot down in bounds. Then a lateral to Cole Strange (sigh) gets stopped inches short of a 1st down. A fumble by Kenrick Bourne. A deep ball right through DeVante Parker's hands. Another through Juju Smith-Schuster's hands a foot off the ground that he flipped into the air for a interception. Two more through the hands of Jalen Reagor and Tyquan Thornton on a perfectly thrown Go routes that beat deep coverage. The point being that this team continually to Mr. Beaned their way through those 50/50, gotta-have-it plays that make the difference in football. They do not get nor deserve credit for that. But it does mean they were not far off from being .500 or better.

Moreover, they were not competitive in two games all season, both coming at the beginning of October. Their only other loss by two scores was a 10-pointer against the Super Bowl champions. That makes 8 one-point losses. Which, contradictory as this may be, is both frustrating and encouraging. Which brings me to:

Belichick Has His Players' Respect

The major narrative all spring and summer was the temperature of the coach's seat in Foxboro, which was deemed to be somewhere between black vinyl parked in the August sun and Death Valley. Ordinarily in that situation, once the losing starts, business decisions start being made. No one wants to tear an Achilles trying to gain an extra yard for a lame duck who'll be gone before the end of your next contract. This team never stopped fighting.

After losing a shutout to the Chargers in a game in which they didn't even allow a touchdown to fall to 2-10, they went on the road to Pittsburgh and won. More to the point, this is what one of the main leaders of the defense had to say:

Guys listed as Questionable who are starting the game on the bench are coming in to sub for injured teammates. They're rallying behind a backup QB pressed into duty as the starter after getting released as the end of camp. They're stepping up for teammates on IR and carrying bigger roles than was part of the original plan, like Ezekiel Elliot and Anfernee Jennings. The results across the board are not what anyone expected. But there's no questioning the effort behind a coach who's seat is supposed to be too hot to sit on. That is rare in this league. Which brings me seamlessly to this next point:

The Man Can Still Coach

From the report in The Herald my opposing counsel referenced:

“The guys still respond to him,” a tenured Patriots source said of Belichick. “And goddamn, we have so many squad meetings where he shows them what’s going to happen in the game, and it always f–ing happens. Even down to what we can’t do, and then we end up f—ing doing it.”

Consider this most recent game at Buffalo. On the road, in a place that's been The House of Usher for this team the past few years. Completely outmanned against a team that has gone entire games without a punt, Belichick (and son) schemed it up to hold the league's 6th best offense to just 20 points. And hold the QB with 27 passing TDs to zero. Despite a four turnovers and three Buffalo drives starting inside their 30.

The offense is a genocide of wrong. Of that there is no dispute. It needs a major infusion of talent. But even yoked to a non-existent attack, they're still just 6th in the league in yards allowed. I repeat, without their two best defenders. There's no disputing either that the guy who learned how to breakdown game film at his father's knee and stopped offenses like the K-Gun and The Greatest Show on Turf dead in their tracks still has it.

There is Young Talent All Over This Roster

The prosecution outlined the problems of recent drafts. Fair enough. But no assessment of them can be complete without mentioning Gonzalez, who had "Pro Bowler" written all over him before he went down. Keion White has emerged as a dependable, every down D-lineman who flashes brilliance as his playing time has increased. Douglas has had the best rookie season of any wideout in the Belichick Epoch. Two rookie guards have settled in on opposite sides of David Andrews to improve a chaotic O-line. While Michael Onwenu has been one of the great late round finds of the last decade at RT. Add Kyle Duggar, Jahlani Tavai and Christian Barmore, and you've got cornerstone type players on all three levels of the defense. They need help, but there is much to work with here.

Belichick Has a Unique Opportunity to Shape This Team for the Next 5-10 Years and Deserves It

This gawdawful season has put the franchise in a position it has never been before, with a 99% chance of a Top 5 pick, plus cap room that would make any GM ready to throw money around like a Russian Oligarch on Rodeo Drive. According to Over the Cap, Belichick has put them in a position where they have the third most cap space in 2024, and the MOST in 2025, by a margin of $41 million. Now, my opposing counsel would argue that GM Bill has forfeited the right to make these decisions after years of draft busts and bad signings. But here we have the opportunity to put these assets in the hands of the most successful figure in league history. Who time and time and time again has found the diamonds others overlooked. Who signed veterans no one thought much of for short money and brought out their hidden greatness. And who has the universal respect of every player and agent in the league. You can keep that responsibility in the hands that built this Dynasty brick by mighty brick. Or take your chances on some new hire of unknown quantity who might just do to Mr. Kraft's franchise what Bobby Grier did to it from 1997-99.

The choice, ladies and gentlemen, is yours. But I hope and believe you'll return with a verdict of retaining the man to whom we all owe everything. But just to make one last argument:

He's Bill fucking Belichick.

Kiss the rings.