Bill Belichick Authors the GOAT of Farewell Letters Thanking the Good People of Patriots Nation
In John Updike's celebrated essay about Ted Williams' retirement, "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu," he describes how even after Williams' homered in his last at bat, he refused to tip his cap, which was the custom of the day to everyone but him. Ballgame had long ago gotten sick of the treatment he received from the drunken, ink-stained wretches in the press box, and that was his protest. And he stuck with it. Even as he circled the bases at Fenway for the final time.
Explaining Williams' stubborn defiance even in that emotional moment, Updike writes, "Gods do not answer letters."
And yet, coaching god Bill Belichick does. With the best goodbye to the people he served since Washington's Farewell Address.
Let us never forget how he was talked about for the 24 years he's discussing. How he was slandered. Libeled. Called words you never heard in the Bible. How many times did we have to read or listen to some media member's bitter, self-righteous screed dragging Belichick for his "paranoia." Blaming every loss or decision he made that didn't work out on his "arrogance." Those lazy, clumsy metaphors comparing his football operation to Nixon's White House. The time he made Mark Brunell cry. When that doddering old crank Don Shula would call him "Belicheat" before flying his house back to Miami with a million balloons.
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This is what those who condemned him never understood. They could never figure out why the more they ripped him, the more Pats fans loved him. And here, in seven short paragraphs, is all the explanation you need. We loved him because we understood he loved us back. That everything he did, every public statement, every decision, every means of conducting himself, was done with one purpose: To bring us championships. There was never a secondary agenda. He didn't care what the detractors thought of him. He wasn't trying to score style points with the judges.
He just tried to win.
And that was what he and we had in common. Patriots Nation, as he calls us, took all those trips to far away places with strange sounding names like London, Mexico City, or Las Vegas confident in the knowledge he was going to guarantee his team was the better prepared one coming out of the tunnel. There was game at San Diego in 2014 where the Chargers congratulated their fans for selling out the game early in the week. Only to find out that, as Vince Wilfork put it, it was like a Patriots home game. And there might be no better example than Tom Brady's first game back from suspension in Week 5 of 2016 at Cleveland, when by halfway through the 4th quarter, 100% of the people still in the stands were from New England.
And the whole time, the head coach was paying attention. He knew how rare and special that was. Not just because he's a student of the game who's been in the league for a long time, but because he created it. I think we'd all suspected all along he appreciated it. It's just great to read it in his own words. Even if it was taken out in the Boston Globe, which has been denigrating the man and his accomplishments more than any other source. John Henry doesn't deserve his money. And I'd have preferred he put this out through any other source. But then again, he doesn't do MySpace, InstaFace or Pandorama.
So let this be a lesson to anyone doing the full page ad goodbye message thing. This is how it's done. Though I think we should have a moratorium on these for a while. Because no one can compete with this. Not if Updike, Shakespeare, Hemingway and Thornton all got together, could anyone put pen to paper and express sentiments like these so well. Though I have tried:
Anyway, buy a shirt: