Mazz: The quarterback who executed Bill Belichick’s demise
If Tom Brady made Bill Belichick, maybe the end can be equally simple. Maybe another quarterback effectively executed Bill Belichick’s demise.
Mac Jones.
Sure, that’s overly simplistic. But with the news that the Atlanta Falcons have hired Raheem Morris to be their next head coach, it’s now fair to wonder whether Bill Belichick will ever coach again. While the Washington Commanders and Seattle Seahawks still have coaching vacancies, recent reports suggests Belichick is a longshot to land either position. And while many have suggested Belichick will have a better chance to land a job next offseason, there will be one significant obstacle: Belichick will be 72 going on 73. That doesn’t exactly seem like a point in his favor.
Bill Belichick’s demise in New England, then, could also be the demise of Bill Belichick’s career.
So where does Jones come in? Simple. Whether Belichick wanted Jones or not – and that is certainly up for debate – his job as coach of the Patriots was to put his young quarterback in a position to succeed. (The coach has a responsibility to do this for all players, but the quarterback, as we know, sits on another level.) Even before Tom Brady departed from the Patriots following the 2019 season, finding and developing the next Patriots quarterback may have at the very top of the team’s priority list, above even winning. You think that’s absurd? Go back and look at the reports and reaction following Jones’ first career start, a 17-16 loss to the Miami Dolphins. New England fans celebrated the defeat after Jones went 29-of-39 for 281 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. Jones finished that day with a quarterback rating of 102.6.
What happened after that – or, really, after Jones’ entire rookie season – is a cautionary tale.
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – SEPTEMBER 26: Head coach Bill Belichick and Mac Jones #10 of the New England Patriots walk off the field after the loss to the New Orleans Saints at Gillette Stadium on September 26, 2021 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
With the benefit of time and hindsight, think about all of this again: after offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels left the Patriots to become head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, Belichick’s solution was to promote Matt Patricia and Joe Judge to the offensive side of the ball, where they served as Jones’ primary coaches. That single choice started Jones down a path that to the destruction of both the player and the head coach, in that order. In the NFL, in fact, one often leads to the other.
Now, if you wanted to cite this as one among the multiple instances of Belichick’s self-destructive behavior – Spygate and the benching of Malcolm Butler are two other examples that come quickly to mind – you’d be right to do. The more accomplished Belichick became as a coach, the more he believed he could get away with. The decision of to hire Patricia and Judge as offensive coaches at any point in time would have been a colossal act of stupidity, never mind that it happened a key stage of development for arguably the most important player in the entire franchise.
So why did Belichick do it? Who the #$%! knows. Seriously. Maybe he didn’t want Jones and was tweaking owner Robert Kraft. Maybe, if Jones succeeded, Belichick would have otherwise been denied the right to take credit for any success Jones had. To that point, credit for the drafting and first-year development of Jones went to people other than Belichick – Kraft and McDaniels? – and that must have been difficult to accept for someone who seems plagued by a god complex.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – DECEMBER 18: (L-R) Bill Belichick and senior football advisor and offensive line coach Matt Patricia of the New England Patriots talk with quarterback Mac Jones #10 of the during a timeout in the first half of their game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on December 18, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The point: placing the quarterback in a position to succeed is perhaps the most important job of any coach, especially now in the modern NFL, and Belichick didn’t merely fail at it. He torpedoed it, largely as the result of his own vanity and selfish needs. If you were Arthur Blank, the Jones debacle should have been at or near the top of your questions for Belichick during the coaches first interview. So what was Bill’s answer? That he never wanted Jones in the first place? That the player was a petulant child? (Which may also be true.) Even if Belichick admitted a mistake, how might he have answered Blank’s question as to why he hired Patricia and Judge in the first place?
And if you then surmised that Belichick put his own agenda before that of on-field success, how could you possibly entrust your franchise to someone so hell-bent on recognition that he would torch the very things that could help him get it?
Yeesh.
So look, did Mac Jones single-handedly get Bill Belichick fired? No. But Belichick’s handling of the quarterback position in general – and Jones, in particular – was perhaps the single, greatest illustration of the coach’s considerable flaws. And while Mac Jones didn’t create them, his Patriots career certainly brought them all to light.
Mazz: The Bill Belichick era was dramatic to the very end
So this is how we mark the end of the Bill Belichick era, by dissolving the final bond that linked the Patriots to the greatest dynasty in the history of the National Football League. It ends with a simple snip, at least in the literal sense, though we know the reality is far more complicated. In New England or anywhere else, Bill Belichick remains one of the most complex, fascinating, accomplished, conniving, deceitful, brilliant and downright incomparable figures in the history of sports.
If the Patriots dynasty was the sports world’s version of the Roman empire, Belichick was your Caesar.
And like Caesar, Bill Belichick’s end was the result of his unquenchable thirst for power, his pride or his hubris, or some combination of all three. Of course, it was also the result of simply losing. But one of those groups inevitably led to the other, which is why the Patriots are precisely where they are today – at the bottom of the NFL food chain, possessors of the second-worst record in the NFL and the third pick in the annual NFL draft, at the decrepit end of an old era before they embark on the humble beginnings of a new one.
Still, make mistake: in its entirety, the entire Belichick era was a indisputable, invaluable gift.
As for the wrapping paper, do with it what you will. (I usually throw it in the trash.)
For example: in one of the many accounts this morning of Belichick and the Patriots electing to “part ways,” ESPN reported that “Belichick, who had one year remaining on his contract, will be allowed to leave the team without the Patriots seeking compensation.” Allowed to leave? Please. It’s not like Belichick was being held captive here. He’s not being paroled. The Patriots are as happy about Belichick’s departure as Belichick may very well be, but let’s not act like this is an act of generosity on the on part of Patriots owner Robert Kraft. The Patriots went 4-13 this season, not 13-4. The end came because things went south. Belichick wanted to keep coaching and the Patriots no longer wanted him to do it here. If only the latter were true, the Patriots would have given Belichick some sort of ceremonial role the way the Seattle Seahawks did for Pete Carroll.
Instead, Belichick became another NFL coaching casualty in an especially dark corner this year’s Black Monday. The list of high-level coaching changes include even college king and 72-year-old Nick Saban, who joined fellow Golden Girls Belichick (71) and Carroll (72) in at least temporary unemployment. Saban’s departure is being called a retirement. Carroll’s is being a reassignment. Belichick’s is being called whatever you, he or Kraft wants it to be, which is perfectly fine. We’re all allowed to spin our own memories.
What will all those stories become over time? We shall see, but it depends on where Belichick coaches again and whether Saban pops up in the NFL.
As for how Belichick’s time here will be defined, there’s an easy answer: by the winning. And that will always remain true. But, again, it really isn’t that simple. For starters, Brady and his seven Super Bowl titles muddy what many would like to be a clean narrative. Belichick’s time in New England included 13 AFC Championship Games, nine Super Bowl appearances, six Lombardi Trophies and a stream of memories and catchphrases. The Patriots were deemed guilty by the league in two cheating scandals – Spygate and Deflategate – each of which resulted in financial penalties and the loss of first-round draft picks. Drama followed Belichick almost everywhere he went. The phrases “In Bill We Trust,” “We’re on to Cincinnati,” and “Mona Lisa Vito” are now as synonymous with New England as the lanterns in the Old North Church. Bill was playing chess while everyone else was playing checkers. Better to be a year too early than a year too late.
And the games? They were compelling, particularly the big ones, which produced a an avalanche of memories and discussions, good and bad. Vinatieri’s kick. 28-3. Malcolm Butler against the Seahawks and then Butler again against the Eagles. The duels with Payton Manning. The Snow Bowl. The tactical mismatches against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the epic struggles with both Ray Lewis’ Baltimore Ravens and Tom Coughlin’s New York Giants. The perfect season with the imperfect ending.
Belichick commanded all of that, which is not to say that he was more important to the success than Brady was. In the end, his unwillingness to accept that was part of his undoing. Since Brady’s departure, Belichick’s Patriots have gone 28-39 in the regular season and 0-1 in the playoffs, their only postseason appearance a 47-17 defeat to the Buffalo Bills. During that span, against anyone other than the perennial doormat New York Jets, the Patriots went 21-39. Belichick got sloppy with his roster, downright silly with his coaching staff. He started doing things like employing longtime defensive coaches on the other side of the ball, the kind of arrogant behavior that comes when you think you can do anything and get away with it.
Does that all make this a bad ending? Perhaps. But it obviously and hardly makes it all a failure. Whether a direct result of Belichick’s actions or those of the quarterback and players he coached, Belichick’s presence in New England was marked by unmatched heights in the history of the Patriots or all of Boston sports. Only Red Auerbach is qualified to share the same stage. Everyone else is at least a level or two below.
What happens next?
Good question.
But whatever it is, it can’t possible be as compelling as the last 24 years.
Tony Massarotti is the co-host of the number 1 afternoon-drive show, Felger & Mazz, on 98.5 The Sports Hub. He is a lifelong Bostonian who has been covering sports in Boston for the last 20 years. Tony worked for the Boston Herald from 1989-2008. He has been twice voted by his peers as the Massachusetts sportswriter of the year (2000, 2008) and has authored five books, including the New York times best-selling memoirs of David Ortiz, entitled “Big Papi.” A graduate of Waltham High School and Tufts University, he lives in the Boston area with his wife, Natalie, and their two sons. Tony is also the host of The Baseball Hour, which airs Monday to Friday 6pm-7pm right before most Red Sox games from April through October. The Baseball Hour offers a full inside look at the Boston Red Sox, the AL East, and all top stories from around the MLB (Major League Baseball).