Bill Belichick has nothing left to prove. As a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan and avid hater of the Patriots, even I have to admit that. He has so many rings he needs to wear an elbow brace or his tendons will snap. He’s won almost as many games as Brett Favre has thrown interceptions (329 wins including the playoffs / 336 picks). But he’s a bit like Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones now; too old to believably play the role anymore. Let’s just hope that when they fashion his bust for the Football Hall of Fame, it has a scowl on it.
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It’s time for the Patriots to move on, if for no other reason than this: Belichick will never win the AFC East Division title again. Here’s why.
Bill Belichick Will Never Win the AFC East Again
Everyone Else Keeps Getting Better Except the Patriots
Have you seen the rosters of the Jets and Dolphins? Young, fast, and confident. Oh, and don’t forget the Bills — winners of the division the last three years — as good as ever, battle-tested and hungry. Perennial Super Bowl Favorites.
The starting quarterbacks of the AFC East are: Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, Tua Tagovailoa… and Mac Jones. One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong.
The Patriots literally look like the B team for the rest of the division. Heck, I’d take the backup quarterbacks of the other three teams (Kyle Allen, Mike White, and Zach Wilson) over Mac Jones. He’s got the stodgy personality and lack of pizzazz of ol’ Billy B to boot. Nothing about the Patriots looks remotely encouraging that they will end up anywhere but at the bottom of the standings this year.
He Refuses to Get With the Times
The phrase ‘Old School’ can have both positive and negative connotations. When paired with Belichick, it’s definitely negative. It seems that his inability to change with the times and keep up is finally catching up with him. The Patriots last playoff game was an absolute thrashing at the hands of the Bills. It was embarrassing and showcased not the passing of the torch, but that the torch has fizzled out in New England.
What Belichick did over the span of the Patriots cheating Super Bowl-winning years was phenomenal, but it’s also become like a horse and buggy in the age of motor cars. It works, sort of. But it’s not going to work well against the new fast automatics. What was tried and true has become tiresome and outdated. Time to hang up the hoodie.
No One Respects Him or Fears Him Anymore
It used to be that commentators and self-appointed experts would overuse the word ‘outcoached’ like a broken record when pontificating about the mighty Bill Belichick. Fill in the blank head coach got outcoached by Belichick again. It’s been a while since any self-respecting NFL guru or know-it-all has dared make that proclamation in regard to the senior signal-calling citizen.
Many have said that it has been proven how much more the success of New England fell on the shoulder (pads) of Tom Brady than Belichick, given the track records of each since their parting of the ways. I can’t argue with that, nor do I care to since I can’t stand either one of them. But it seems abundantly clear that without Brady, Bill Belichick is only Clark Kent, a bumbling stuttering ‘just like the rest of us’ dude who needs glasses and a boost of courage.
He’s Fallen Out of Favor With Robert Kraft
The honeymoon, as long and annoying as it was, is over. Robert Kraft thought he married a supermodel and woke up to find out he wed Mamma from Throw Mamma From the Train instead. There is a rift, and it doesn’t appear to be shrinking. Kraft has made his share of questionable boneheaded decisions, and keeping Bill around seems to be a growing lump on the skull.
If Kraft had any sense (the jury is still out on that), he let this season be the farewell tour for Belichick and then send the old goat out to pasture. Let him go star in commercials for Aflac with the other has-beens Sanders and Krzyzewski. I’m just not sure the room could hold that much ego…
