My illustrious colleague harmlessly noted in his previous post that Bill Belichick would be on a list of his least favorite sports personalities. This disclosure set off a firestorm of controversy in the world of the Shockey Brigade.

The first, and less significant point, is that there is no good reason for Giants fans to hold any ill will towards Bill Belichick. He was one of the key individuals in their first two Super Bowl’s. In particular in Super Bowl XXV, he orchestrated the downfall of the vaunted K-Gun offense. The second reason why Giants fans do not have the right to hate Belichick is that they won the Super Bowl, and thus he does not belong on a list of individuals who have tortured the Giants franchise. Giants fans (unless they are those general New York bandwagon fans, which I will happily admit there are plenty of) are not Jets fans who routinely get victimized by Belichick’s team, and who he deserted in 2000. In fact, as the coach of the Patriots, Belichick has never brought about a significant defeat for the Giants (the Patriots win to go 16-0 this year was obviously a big win for them, but really was not significant for the Giants).

The second reason that people need to lay off Coach Hoodie is that he has not done anywhere nearly enough to warrant the anger directed his way. Unless you count dominating the NFL for the past seven years. Ever since the Patriots were caught filming the Jets defensive signals in week one of this past NFL season, Belichick has been enemy numero uno on ESPN, and thus for sports fans throughout the country. While this post is not meant to be a discussion of spygate, the penalty levied against the Patriots served to question his credentials as a Hall of Fame coach and unfairly called in to question his general character.

Jose claims that Belichick has reached the same point as the New York Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, Notre Dame Football and Duke Basketball, a point that I have a problem with. The difference between Belichick and these four contentious American institutions is that all four have sought out the spot light in various forms through out their histories, while Belichick is criticized for shunning the spotlight: George Steinbrenner and Jerry Jones are two of the greatest self-promoters in the history of sports; Notre Dame would like to see itself as John Winthrop’s City on a Hill to the rest of College Football; Mike Krzyzewski can be very sanctimonious and is particularly visible as the Head Coach of Duke Basketball. Criticism of Belichick revolves around generic clips of press conferences in which non-answers are provided to journalists who ask questions they know will not be answered and the fact that his game day outfits usually choose comfort over style. Together with spygate and his relationship with Eric Mangini, these transgressions are interpreted as arrogance and disrespect. Should Giants fans really care about the HC of the NYJ being insulted? What does not get reported about Belichick is the good work that he does in the community, his general self-deprecating comments to the public and the fact that he does not bad mouth his opponents.

When discussing his shortcomings, Belichick is often compared to his chief on field rival Tony Dungy. Dungy is consistently portrayed as the perfect puritan gentleman. Dungy’s persona is driven by his good works, and his outspoken opinions on his religious believes and family values. Belichick on the other hand has been reluctant to talk about the work he does and as a result little is known about his personal life, his charity work and his general personality. What we do know is that Jim Brown has claimed that Bill Belichick is the one person in sports that he respects and that he has done more to help his causes with at-risk youth in the African American community than “any black athlete in modern time.” According to Brown, Belichick has visited prisons, met with gang members and contributed significant financial resources. Now undoubtedly, some of this is hyperbole on Brown’s part, but it does not take away from the fact that Belichick has significant more involvement in community work than the average person acknowledges.

Ultimately nobody, not intimately involved with the NFL, really knows Bill Belichick. I cannot really say who is a “better person” between Belichick and Dungy. What I can say is that unless talking about players who consistently put themselves into the public spotlight, we should hold back our knee jerk criticism against them (this is my built in excuse to bash Roger Clemens). For individuals like Belichick who shun the spotlight, I suggest we hold back the vitriol regarding their personal lives. Instead, chant 18 and 1, or join the I hate Bill Belichick and his sweatshirt with a passion group on facebook. Or you can just make spygate jokes as your team gets beat by three touchdowns next year.

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