Bill Belichick held hands with his girlfriend as he ambled down a back hallway corridor after winning Super Bowl XLIX. They stopped and got some snacks before getting on the victorious team bus. She was wearing fashion torn jeans and a custom blue jacket, not a hoodie, with the Patriots and Super Bowl logo on the front. On the back in a bedazzled, sparkly, cursive font spelled “Belichick”. She, after all, is his Chick to his Belly.
Belichick himself didn’t wear a Super Bowl Champions tshirt, although he had one of those hats. He put on a red New England Patriots t-shirt that had a subtle Patriots logo over his right breast, but on the back was an American Flag, with the new Hampshire snake logo and the saying “don’t tread on me”. Quiet, but deadly has been his Mantra for this suspected cheated Dynasty that can be criticized and belittled, but ultimately has come through as the greatest NFL Franchise of all-time.
Moments after seeing the loving couple move along, I passed Josh McDaniels in the same hallway. He had his crew cut head down. Josh was wearing a suit with a gatorade towel slung over his right shoulder. He was alone, deep in thought and conviction that once he’s given the chance to be the head coach again, he ain’t gonna blow it. This entire week had been a job interview for McDaniels. He told reporters repeatedly he would be a better listener if given the chance. Victory for Hurricane Josh won’t truly come until he wins his own Super Bowl instead of being a critical member of the supporting cast. When we last saw this Rocky Mountain villian, he was slinking out of town in the darkness with a cardboard box filled with his office belongings. Today, he has another ring and is the best offensive mind in the NFL.
How did McDaniels and Belichick succeed with an elderly, non-mobile QB when the Broncos couldn’t? Well, first of all, lets just admit the fact that the Patriots shouldn’t have won the game in the first place. But, Pete Carroll’s Seahawks team never should’ve beaten Green Bay. Karma is a weird bitch. You never know when she’s gonna run up and bite ya. Carroll took the bullets as bravely as any man or coach could. Pistol Pete didn’t even wait for a question. He jumped right up at the post game press conference and explained he had called for the pass, not offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. He said he decided that they wanted to milk the clock and were really waiting to score on 3rd or 4th down with :26 seconds to play. John Fox is full of meaningless cliches, but when he told me, “It’s good to point fingers. When things go right point them at other people. When things go wrong, point them at yourself.” It’s a saying he got from Chuck Noll that is well applied in the wake of the worst Super Bowl call of all time.
All the Seahawks had to do was either hand the ball off to the goalline destoryer, Marshawn Lynch OR run read option and have Russell Wilson walk in the end zone. Either way would’ve made total sense. Go back and watch Aquib Talib duck like a scared schoolgirl when he had to face Lynch at the goalline earlier in the season. Nobody wants to face that kind of punishment and determination. Watch Wilson pull the ball away from Lynch at the last second and take the ball in himself against the Packers at the goal line. The only team I can think of that runs an inside slant at the one is the Broncos. They run that play because they don’t trust their running game to run or their QB to move. They also, generally throw to Julius Thomas who’s as big as a house not Ricardo Lockette who is as skinny as a toothpick.
All the credit in the world goes to… uh… what’s his name… you know the guy that made the play… he’s uh… you know… the player… ah whatever. Michael Bennett and his other teammates didn’t know his name either. He was referred to as “that guy”. Malcolm Butler is his name and he will be remembered as making THE most intelligent, clutch play in Super Bowl history. As dumb as it was to not simply hand the ball to Marshawn Lynch, the play shouldn’t have been, at the worst, an incomplete pass. There had been ZERO interceptions the entire year on balls thrown from the one yard line. It simply doesn’t happen. The Seahawks had thrown the ball inside the 5 with 6 seconds to go for a touchdown at the end of the 1st half. It was a dumb call no matter how you slice it, but an interception? No reasonable person would’ve expected that. However, the Patriots are damn good. Butler explained that he had been beat on that exact same route in practice. He said Belichick chewed him out. When the Seahawks lined up in a bunch formation, BOOM, he knew what he had to do. Butler didn’t fall for the pick play. Instead, he took THE most direct line to where he thought the ball was going to be thrown. Had the pass been back shoulder or had Lockette taken a route like Edelman, where he started in on a slant and cut outside, the game would be over because the catch would’ve been so easy. Lockette looked open and WAS open so Wilson made the throw that was called for. What nobody anticipated was a rookie would make a play for the ages.
Well, nobody except for Belichick, who had properly prepared his players and that player in particular for that exact scenario.
Amazing.
Championships aren’t won with luck. They are won with aggressive hard work done by men who settle for nothing but excellence day in and day out. Success is a repeatable behavior but can only be achieved with a heavy dose of courage and risk taking. It’s one thing to talk the talk, but its another to walk the path of the Patriots and Bill Belichick.
Belichick through whatever means neccessary blazes that trail, hand in hand with Tom Brady and his hot girlfriend.