Peter King Has Identified the Man Most Responsible for Bill Belichick's Career Success. And it is Peter King.

George Gojkovich. Getty Images.

This will be a lot of inside baseball for the Boston fans, but bear with me. Glenn Ordway's podcast has Gerry Callahan on this week. Among other stories told about their WEEI days was this gem. About the time Peter King had been on the afternoon show the day before, and gave a single answer to a single question that rambled on for so long, that Kirk Minihane had time to go downstairs, walk across the street to the gym, do a rep on the weight bench, and get back in studio before King had finished talking. 

A hilarious story. And one that resonated with me because at some point, I was working in that studio too, one the business end of some of King's epic monologuing. Where a simple question would invariably begin with something like. "You know, it's interesting you asked that. I was having dinner Arthur Blank the other night. And we began to discuss …" and you could feel the vibration of thousands of car radios stuck in traffic on the Mass Pike changing stations through the windows. And by the third story about some private conversation the ultimate NFL Insider had with some bigwig, you got the sense you could've read the lyrics to Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda" over the air without getting in trouble because no one was still listening. 

Which I bring up because even in retirement, King is still at it. Still spinning yarns about his access to NFL power. Still in love with the sound of his own voice. The most recent one he told goes all the way back to the early '90s. Ignore the part about how Bill Belichick did a WWE Heel Turn on him when King was critical about Spygate. That's well-trodden ground by now. Skip instead right to the meat of the conversation. The 0:25 mark where King does nothing less than take credit for launching Belichick's unprecedented career:

…broken the rules. As a journalist, he reported it that way. For Belichick, that “was a bridge too far”. 

Here's the money quote:

"Look, I had had a great relationship with Belichick. I mean, I talked to Art Modell before Modell had hired him. Because there was a lot of thought that Bill Belichick was not going to be a successful NFL coach, because of his personality. And I told Modell I thought that was a pile of crap. 

"I said, 'Call Lawrence Taylor, will you? I mean, this guy helps people win! That's what this game is about!' And I said players love coaches who they know are going to help get them better and help them win."

First of all, we all know this guy. The one who's the hero of every story he ever tells. Where he spoke up at a meeting and the higher ups were so blown away by what he said they were practically speechless. The job interview where they stood and shook his hand and said it was the most impressive one they've ever been a part of. The pushy guy he told off who was taken aback and didn't know how to respond. "And then the whole store started to applaud." That sort of thing. You know the type.

Now consider this one for a hot second. You didn't have to be alive during the time period we're talking about here to understand what the dynamic actually was. Belichick was coming off his second Super Bowl win as Defensive Coordinator for the Giants. One of his gameplans was of such counter-intuitive, galaxy brain thinking - telling his players that if the Bills got 100+ rushing yards off them, they'd be able to shut down their offense and win - that the Hall of Fame immediately asked for it. Plus he'd been understudying for so long under Bill Parcells, he was arguably the hottest commodity as a head coaching candidate the league had ever seen. 

The idea that any owner needed to be talked into hiring him in 1991 is worse than laughable. It's revisionist history. Just because later on in his Patriots career Belichick got sick of dealing with the media's constant, negative bullshit and started shutting them down in his pressers doesn't mean he was considered some gruff, bitter, taciturn asshole back then. I mean, he wasn't David Letterman, but he was always willing to play nice with others:

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More to the point though, imagine expecting anyone to buy that this conversation took place between him and Art Modell? That Modell wouldn't check with anyone in the Giants organization, like the Maras. Or Lawrence Taylor, for that matter. Or talk to his own staff. Or ask around the league. 

No, he had to check with the guy from MMQB for his recommendation. And what finally convinced him was that brilliant insight about how winning is the goal of pro football. The profound philosophy which says that's actually what it's all about. The secret knowledge that players want a coach that will make them successful. Amazing. It's hard to believe everyone else missed this. But Peter King alone knew the special sauce recipe.

Where else was Modell ever going to unlock the secrets of successful NFL ownership besides hearing it straight from the mouth of the man who inserted a mention of his coffee order into every Monday recap? 

So if this meeting never took place, or if Belichick didn't get the coveted Peter King Seal of Approval [tm], not of his career would've happened. The 333 wins, regular- and postseason. The Super Bowl championships. The coaching tree. The Hall of Fame careers. None of it would exist were it not for the incredible wisdom of this football visionary. 

You're borderline insane if you think this story happened remotely the way King tells it. But I will give him credit for this. At least he didn't spend a trip to the gym and back telling it.