By all accounts, the New England Patriots are the most disliked team in the NFL.
They owe it all to Bill Belichick. Not all good. Not all bad.
From their cold, calculated persona, to their suspicious image to, yes, all that winning that grates on their detractors, it is the team’s long-time coach and franchise architect who made the Patriots who they are today.
Certainly Tom Brady deserves partial credit. But there would be no Tom Brady in New England if Belichick did not approve the draft pick, help groom the young quarterback and ultimately choose to keep him over veteran Drew Bledsoe 15 years ago.
The Belichick-Brady partnership, operating in Belichick’s disciplined, preparation-heavy organisation, have four championships and will be playing in their seventh Super Bowl on Sunday. No other team in this era compares.
In Belichick’s 17 season, the Patriots have won 14 AFC East Division titles. No other team compares.
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Sustained success often attracts legions of new fans, as the San Francisco 49ers once learnt, and more recently have the Green Bay Packers.
In the Patriots case, the winning has become resented, in part because Belichick has positioned himself as a cold, unsympathetic grouch.
The next time he offers an informative, helpful insight to his team will be a first.
His public facial expressions — whether on the sidelines or at a press conference — range from blank to “I have a toothache”.
His smile, occasionally seen at the end of a victory when congratulating a fellow coach or player, more closely resembles a grimace.
The veteran coach has no interest in cultivating a warm, friendly persona, which is OK since that is what comes naturally to him, and has worked in building a no-nonsense team. But the consequence is an unlikeable aura.
Adding to the chill is Belichick’s propensity for trading away stars at the peak of their careers, and letting his top free agents walk away, instead of paying them their market value.
It is an astounding list that includes Super Bowl ring bearers, All-Pros and beloved fan favourites. Richard Seymour to Adam Vinatieri to Wes Welker to Jamie Collins and a dozen more.
But it is the Patriot Way. Belichick constantly finds younger and cheaper talent, teaches them how to succeed and plugs them into his ever-evolving offensive and defensive schemes. And they keep winning.
Of course, there also is the giant elephant in the Patriots room: they are cheaters, right?
Early in Belichick’s reign, New England were falsely accused of videotaping an opponent’s walk-through session before a Super Bowl. But the foundation was set.
In 2007, the Patriots were caught and admitted to videotaping opponents’ coaching staffs, in violation of NFL rules, to intercept play-calling signals.
The team was fined US$250,000 (Dh918,270) and lost a first-round draft pick. Belichick was fined the maximum $500,000.
This year, Brady was suspended four games by the NFL for his alleged role in deflating game footballs in the Deflategate case.
Whether there was any intentional deflating or not is highly debatable. Scientists have largely debunked the NFL’s case, and other voices around the league have criticised the severity of Brady’s suspension.
But the whole incident fit the established narrative, that Belichick is a willing rule-breaker who created a shady atmosphere in which the team has done its nasty business since the millennium began.
Outside New England, that is the story anyway. The undeniable fact is that the grumpy guy with the image problem has made the Patriots the most accomplished NFL team of the last 50 years.
They are not done, and most of the football world cannot stand it.
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