ESPN Rick Reilly: Top 20 NFL Coaches

[KDawg]

Not to mention that Brady only started due to Bledsoe being injured...it wasn't as if Belichick immediately saw some vast improvement with Brady and benched Bledsoe because of it.

He didn't have to immediately see vast improvement to see talent in the player.

The bottom line is that Belichick and the Patriots drafted Tom Brady in the NFL Draft. So they saw something that they liked. Maybe Belichick was waiting for the right moment to put Brady in because he had improved, or maybe he didn't see it. We'll never know. But either way, the kid that got drafted in the sixth round turned out to be better than a lot of better gave him a shot for.

You don't think some of that was Belichick's doing?

 

[Henry]

He didn't have to immediately see vast improvement to see talent in the player.

The bottom line is that Belichick and the Patriots drafted Tom Brady in the NFL Draft. So they saw something that they liked. Maybe Belichick was waiting for the right moment to put Brady in because he had improved, or maybe he didn't see it. We'll never know. But either way, the kid that got drafted in the sixth round turned out to be better than a lot of better gave him a shot for.

You don't think some of that was Belichick's doing?

Not really.

Bill already had a three-time pro-bowl Franchise QB in Bledsoe, who the Patriots had JUST signed to a huge extension, and the Pats had gone 5-13. Bledsoe gets hurt, Brady comes in and the team goes 15-3 and wins the superbowl.

That's catching lighting in a bottle. There's no way anyone could look at that series of events an conclude Brady stepping in and outplaying Bledsoe was part of some plan. Brady was a late round project and he panned out better than anyone in the history of late round projects. If Bill was so amazing at getting the most out of a QB he would have done so with Bledsoe. If NE had such an awesome scouting department, they wouldn't have bothered extending Bledsoe and would have just started Brady in 01.

That was insane luck, pure and simple. Good on Bill for taking advantage of it. But that was luck.

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[Califan007]

He didn't have to immediately see vast improvement to see talent in the player.

The bottom line is that Belichick and the Patriots drafted Tom Brady in the NFL Draft. So they saw something that they liked. Maybe Belichick was waiting for the right moment to put Brady in because he had improved, or maybe he didn't see it. We'll never know. But either way, the kid that got drafted in the sixth round turned out to be better than a lot of better gave him a shot for.

You don't think some of that was Belichick's doing?

I do think some of that was Belichick's doing. I also think an equal part of that was luck, though lol...

 

[Califan007]

One thing I've brought up in the past was "Can you imagine Gibbs if he had Marino?"...I think the success would have been ridiculous.

The opposite of that would be, "Can you imagine Belichick with Jay Schroeder, Doug Williams and a player's strike?" lol...I'm not thinking it ends with a Super Bowl.

 

[KDawg]

Agreed! Gibbs = GOAT

 

[KDawg]

If he is/was so great, why'd he need to cheat.

I don't condone that act, but I also can't tell you why.

Hey, he got caught and basically got off the hook. Look what happened in New Orleans last year...for a transgression a lot less serious than undermining the integrity of the game.

I don't know if putting players' lively hood is less serious than filming signals is... I'd say they're both in pretty poor taste.

In life, it's impossible to beat those who cheat...

I'd have to say I disagree, seeing how New England has lost games even while they were cheating.

 

[Henry]

If we are going to start talking about cheaters, I do find it interesting how much of a free pass the 49ers have gotten for circumventing the salary cap in the late 90s. Not some phantom 'competitive spirit' cap nonsense that we got hammered for, but the actual, real salary cap. Walsh and York basically got away scott free and the team was docked ... I think it was a 3rd and a 5th rounder? With no actual cap penalty imposed at all.

And these days, when talk of shady teams with cheating front offices comes up, I never hear anyone mention the 49ers.

For my part, it's one of the reasons I don't like them, to this day.

 

[KDawg]

See, here's the problem...if we continue to coddle those in sports who cheat, what's to make any statistic or record meaningful?

Look at baseball and those juiced players. There's a decade and a half where statistics should all be asterisked.

I laugh when the NFL says it's really, really interested in the integrity of the game. If they were, they'd have 'banned-for-life' rules.

Honesty is something we should reward. Dishonesty should always be punished.

In your workplace, would someone who got caught changing their numbers for personal gain be 'ranked' in office lore?

No, they'd be fired.

Well, I don't work in an office, so no one would be changing their numbers, so no

In all seriousness, though, I agree with your points. I never understood why someone would do what they did as an organization. It's clearly not ethical.

Picking up on signals in-game via observation, while in the heat of the battle is a strategy that is fair and ethical in my opinion. Video taping them is a totally different animal and wildly unethical.

Keep in mind, I'm not speaking on his ethics, one way or the other. I'm speaking entirely on their ability to lead a football team, X's and O's and adaptation to personnel as well as staff contributions to the NFL and NCAA in general.

If ethics were involved, in my personal synopsis, I would revise my wording in the argument and position a bit.