Belichick: Outcoached, and a sore loser
FROM THE PHOENIX AIRPORT — Some final comments on Super Bowl 42:
– No surprise that Bill Belichick walked off the field with one second remaining in the game. Belichick is a known cheater, which means he doesn’t respect the game or the spirit of competition. So of course he would be a sore loser. Of course he would disrespect the game once more. Of course he lacked the guts to stand with his team until the end, to watch it all go down.
– That said, it was pathetic the way Belichick ran off on his team, to leave the old guys on the defense to go out there and stand for one final snap. Whatever happened to the idea of a coach and players being in it together, win or lose? Not Belichick. They lost and he was outta there.
– Belichick’s aging defense couldn’t stop Eli Manning and the Giants on two crucial fourth-quarter possessions. They didn’t have the legs to keep up. I can’t help but think that all the blowouts., all the times that Belichick ran up the score, played a role in this. So many times this season, the Patriots kept their starters on the field much longer than they needed to, as Belichick tried to humiliate other coaches in some bizarre act of revenge for being fined for his cheating. Well, on Sunday night in the Valley, the age and the arrogance finally caught up to Belichick and his defense.
– Belichick and staff were outcoached. The Giants had better tactics on both sides of the ball. The Pats never adjusted to the Giants’ decision to go after Tom Brady, who was sacked five times and smacked around all night. And the Patriots were surprisingly flat, considering that they had a perfect season and a another Super Bowl championship on the line. “The Giants had a better game plan than we did, they came ready to play four quarters,” Patriots wideout Randy Moss said. “I think their intensity from the beginning to the end was higher than ours. It surprised me, because of all the work we put in the last two weeks.“It’s hard to explain. I don’t really have words for it.”
– The New York media is already mythologizing the Giants victory. Here’s the truth: it wasn’t the best Super Bowl ever. It was a clunky, sluggish game for three quarters. It was a tremendous fourth quarter, as good as any. But overall, this wasn’t a great game. Just a great, scintillating finish.
– Eli wasn’t Joe Namath in Super Bowl 3. He was better than Namath. The New York media keeps framing this as Manning shocked the world the way Namath shocked the world. No, this isn’t so. Yeah, Namath guaranteed a Jets win over the Colts, who were favored by 17. And that was shockling. But Namath did not play a major role in the game. The Jets won because their defense feasted on turnovers, and they won on the strength of Matt Snell and Emerson Boozer and a bruising running game. Eli Manning did something that Joe Willie didn’t do in Super Bowl 3: Manning brought his team back twice in the fourth quarter to win the biggest game of his life.
– That Manning scramble and the pass to David Tyree … Yeah, it realy was one of the great plays, and most memorable plays, in Super Bowl history. We’ll be talking about that one forever.
– I know they are overexposed with the commercials and nonstop interviews and everything, but the Mannings really are nice people, and gracious people. I am happy for their success.
– I dont know if the Giants put on the best defensive performance in Supe history; I tend to doubt it, given that all of those unbelievably intimidating Steelers defenses won four of these games. But for one night only, what the Giants did to the Patriots - who scored a record 589 points in the regular season - ranks right near the top.
– Rams coach Scott Linehan can learn something from Giants coach Tom Coughlin. Give Coughlin credit for improving his player relations by empowering the players to state their views and have a voice in how the team was being run. Coughlin’s “Player Council” was a good idea and Linny should do the same.
– Patriots fans, including ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons, are saying now they know how Rams fans felt after Super Bowl 36. NO YOU DON’T. The Rams may have been cheated out of that win. I don’t think the Giants cheated to beat the Patriots. So spare me this nonsense.
That’s all for now. Time to fly and make my way back to the STL …
Thanks for reading.
-B
Sore losers….now Brady and Moss have decided to skip the Pro Bowl. Does anyone believe (outside of New England) that those two wouldn’t have shown up in Hawaii if the Pats had won SB42?
LOL. That’s some real class there Bernie. I think we all know we would love to have a quality coach like Belichick here in STL. Since our last great coach, Dick Vermeil, we got the overhyped wunderkind Martz who can’t spell DEFENSE…and now the current crew of losers.
As a journalist for a city who fielded one of the worst teams in franchise history you’re getting pretty self righteous.
It’s all about winning baby. The Patriots had a great season and came up short to the better team on that night.
Congratulations to the Giants. They deserve the all the glory for playing a great game against a great team.
wow it’s really hard to believe that outside of Ram Nation how many people actually HATE the Patriots. In fact I think this has to be the most disliked team that I have ever come across. I’ve read blogs from different papers on the web and like here there are plenty of people that are glad New England lost. And now some of those people that called the Rams fans “whiners” back in 2002 are starting to question that we really may have had something to whine about. I too am glad to see the Patriots lose and I don’t care much for the Giants either but last night when Eli threw that TD pass with 35 secs left, you would have thought that the Rams were playing I was cheering so hard!
Re: #12
Since when is it classless to point out the classlessness of others? Bernie gets paid to comment on sports, pretty much what he’s doing in this article.
What the Patriots did at the end of the game was classless and Belichick is routinely a jerk. Pointing it out doesn’t make the other person one of the same.
Also, re: #12 I’m sure Bernie has a lot of pull in figuring out who the Rams hire as head coach? Also, because the Rams sucked this year and Bernie works in St. Louis he’s not allowed to comment on other teams? Sounds like you’re a sore Patriots fan to me. Again, lets point on that his job is to comment on Sports. The city from which he does so and how those teams fare has no barring on that job. Get a clue.
It sounds like the Sox Maniac is rationalizing. Right now we’re a bit past rumors for the 2001 Super Bowl. There is at least one person that could and possibly will come forward to the NFL or even Congress to testify that the Pats taped in their first Super Bowl “win”. The reason he isn’t on record now is because the Pats made him sign a non-disclosure agreement once they fired him. I wonder why the cover-up? Most analysts think that the new allegations (see, past rumors) should be considered a serious violation and do irrepairable harm to the legitimacy of the Pats victories.
As far as Belichick goes, winning doesn’t make it right. Thats not the culture of sport we’re supposed to have. He may be a very smart guy and a great planner, but if the cheating scandal goes further he is not a great head coach. He’s simply a smart guy that won by cheating. Then you add on the arrogance of being warned personally to stop the taping and to continue with the process. He runs up the scores on teams, he leaves the field and his players before a loss is over. He is a classless human being and a poor leader.
People disliked the Cowboys of the 90’s because they were cocky, not because they cheated. People dislike the Yanks because they win, true, not because they cheated. I found myself in the past few years appreciating and respecting the performance of Tom Brady despite the fact that he topped my home team for a title. I put him up with Joe Montana as my favorite player of all time. So it’s not the winning that I hate. Its the cheating that makes me happy Brady got destroyed last night.
People respect Bill Walsh and Don Shula and Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi. They all won. They can all be considered a genius when it comes to leading a football team. They will all live on in due to their respect and honor. Belichick will be considered nothing more than a Nixonian weasle. He is a guy that could have honorably lead a franchise to success, but maybe not as many titles. His greed and shamelessness however, tarnished the NFL. The Pats deserve, at most two rings, that we know so far.
The Patriots, like a number of other figures and teams, are destroying the respect of organized sports. The Pats are the Barry Bonds of football. 18-1 means nothing now. Their legacy will be tarnished throughout the NFL no matter what lies you Pats fans want to tell yourselves. No other team or fans can respect you.
I know this much. Instead of telling my future child about watching Montana as a little kid and Marino as a teen and Brady as a young adult, I’m going to tell him about Peyton and Eli Manning. I’m going to tell him the the Rams won one Super Bowl on the field and deserve to call themselves champs in a second. I’m going to tell him about three championships the Pats cheated their way into. I’m going to contrast Bill Walsh to Bill Belichick. I’m going to teach them to grow up to play and work hard and honest and not like the Patriots.
Your rationalizations disgust me Sox Nut.
Millions of people watched Belichick show himself to be the classless jerk that most everyone thought he was. Great article, Bernie.
How can you question the class of a millionaire that cuts up new sweatshirts and wears them the only time he’s in public?
Cheaters that disgrace the integrity of the sports championship should be banned for life. It happened to the Black Sox and it should happen to Belichek.
Why didn’t any NY Giant respond to the question of “How does this feel?” with “PERFECT!”?
My favourite NFL team is the RAMS.
My second favourite is whoever is playing the Patsieriots.
I was elated to see the Patsieriots go down yesterday.
Did I miss it, or did coach Belicheat really neglect to congratulate his opponent, like virtually every other coach in whole world does, during his post-game interview on TV yesterday?
I agree with much of what Bernie says.
Superbowl 36 was an upset, and the officiating very suspect. I don’t consider Superbowl 42 to be an upset; because I am so happy about the outcome.
[...] I think Bernie Miklasz may have gone a bit over the top… Belichick’s aging defense couldn’t stop <strong>Eli Manning</strong> [...]
I really do not understand how walking off the field with 0:01 left is classless?
do we know what Belichick said to Coughlin???
it seemed like he was conceding the game.
is that classless?