The World is About to Witness Belichick's Genius for Succeeding in the Midst of Turmoil Once More

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Can't a man just enjoy the honor of being the Aer Lingus Cup champion for a few hours without the whole universe crashing down around him?

Not if said man just happens to be Bill Belichick. As Big Tennessee posted last night:

Which came in the wake of these little Category 5 storms:

WRAL -  University of North Carolina football general manager Michael Lombardi, the highest-paid general manager in college football, resigned Thursday after a tumultuous tenure in Chapel Hill working alongside Bill Belichick, the university said.

But the investigation is still ongoing, and lawyers hired by the university are now focused on behaviors by defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, people familiar with the investigation tell WRAL. …

Lawyers hired to conduct the investigation are also questioning people about whether defensive coordinator Steve Belichick used drugs on the job or provided drugs to at least one player — and, separately, about whether a member of UNC’s recruiting staff had a sexual relationship with a player, people familiar with the investigation told WRAL. The lawyers also asked about possible sexual relationships between assistant coaches and recruiting staff, the people said. … 

Unrelated to Steve Belichick, sources also told WRAL that the lawyer asked about reports of a purported sexual relationship between a female recruiting staff member and at least one UNC player. The people also said they were asked about similar possible relationships  between assistant coaches and recruiting staff. University policy prohibits employees from evaluating or supervising any student or employee they’ve had a romantic relationship with. It was unclear whether the alleged relationships would violate any of those policies.   

From Aer Lingus to cunnilingus in a span of five days, amirite? Up high!

It's a given that when you go off to college, there's going to be some drugs and sex. It's not the only reason you spend four years of your life learning Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, getting indoctrinated into Marxism, and wind up with $100K in debt. It's just that that's what you sign up for when you're a recent high school grad. Not septuagenarian legends just 26 wins away from Don Shula's record. 

But Bill Belichick has never done anything the conventional way. And if you've been paying even the slightest bit of attention to his career since all the way back to his days with the Giants, you should know exactly what's coming. This is about to be his time to shine. 

Let me count just some of the ways. Back when he was Bill Parcells' defensive coordinator in New York, he had a ton of larger-than-life personalities to deal with. Not the least of whom was Lawrence Taylor. But the most of whom was without a doubt Taylor's alter ego, LT. At least that's who Taylor would blame when he was showing up to practice late after a night of doing blow by the yard and hookers by the mile. And through it all, he learned to let his Giants be Giants and beat the John Elway Broncos and Jim Kelly Bills and win two Super Bowls. 

In Cleveland, he was running the show amidst the anarchy of Art Modell announcing he was moving the Browns to Baltimore. Fans were organizing protests. Trashing the stadium. Turning their home field into a disadvantage. Belichick himself was getting burned in effigy, like he had anything to do with the decision. It was like being mad because the Burger King near you is closing, so you take it out on the girl who works the drive-thru. And while the Browns went from the playoffs in 1994 to 5-11 in his final year, with two weeks to go they beat the Bengals to knock them out of the playoffs. And pulled off a series of draft picks and trades that built the foundation of what would be the 2000 Super Bowl champion Ravens. 

As far as New England? Where do we even begin? How about the media backlash against him being hired in the first place. Cleaning house after the roster disaster left behind by Bobby Grier and the utter lack of discipline under Pete Carroll? A year later, the Brady vs. Bledsoe controversy. After that, Lawyer Milloy's release and "They hate their coach." Spygate. Tom Brady missing the entire 2008 season. "Let's face it; they're not good anymore!" The Seahawks with 1st & goal from the 2. Deflategate. Then 28-3. The Pliability War against Brady and Alex Guerrero. Not to mention all his coaches getting hired away. Contract disputes. More cheating allegations. Unnamed sources feeding journos with dirt at every turn. 

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And all he's done throughout all of it, was to keep winning. At least until he didn't any more, and ended up on the sidelines of Chapel Hill. 

I'm not saying that managing his way through this will be easy. Mike Lomardi resigning is Charybdis. The allegations against Steve are Scylla. Navigating between them is going to be a nightmare, and could lose him a lot of men. But the task would kill a lesser coach. But he's one of those rare leaders - like Odysseus - who thrive when all about them is chaos. 

Pressure makes diamonds, but it also make rubble. Belichick has always been the former. He's just one of those leaders. Like Napoleon. Joan of Arc. Lincoln. Ernest Shackleton. Churchill. JFK. Those rare personality types who don't try to avoid the chaos, they seem to welcome it. Thrive on it. Who go by the old axiom JFK often repeated, that says the Japanese symbol for chaos is made up of the words "danger" and "opportunity."

As I've said countless times, for all his skills, his number one genius is preventing distractions from affecting his team. Or better yet, using them as rocket fuel. To create an "Us vs the World" mentality that makes them win even more. I almost pity the poor bastard who tries to prove this guy is on anything:

So congratulations, everyone. You just poked the bear down at UNC. The Tar Heels assault on the National Championship has just begun.