When you've been an NFL head coach for 24 years — 18 in one, highly successful place — there isn't a lot that you haven't seen, endured or overcome.
Bill Belichick, obviously, has certainly seen and conquered it all.
Not only did he face the Browns leaving Cleveland in his first coaching stint, but his Patriots tenure started with the harshest of challenges — benching the franchise quarterback for an unassuming backup. Toss in the whole Lawyer Milloy — "They hate their coach" — episode and Belichick's start in New England was a baptism by scorching fire.
That's only continued in the years since, whether it be with Spygate, the 2009 squad, Randy Moss' meltdown, Deflategate, Aaron Hernandez and Yoko Guerrero.
And Belichick has largely come out the other side successfully.
But with the 2018 Patriots leaking oil with a two-game losing streak heading into the final two games of the season, starting with today's clash with the 5-9 Bills, the argument could be made that Belichick is facing the toughest challenge of his tenure.
Look, I get it, many will scoff at that statement.
Drew Bledsoe?! Spygate?! A murderer in the midst?! Bedahd, you been making some trips to Cultivate in Leicester or whaaat? Come on, bro.
But hear me out, with the focus on the in-season performance and with the Patriots having uncharacteristic struggles late in the schedule.
In my opinion, you can divide up some of the other Belichick challenges into categories:
1. This is going to blow people's minds outside the building (and some in it), but this is the best thing for this football team.
This is where the classic, "Belichick is two steps ahead of everyone else" comes into play. Whether it be Bledsoe, Milloy, Ty Law, Deion Branch, Richard Seymour, Moss, Logan Mankins, Wes Welker or Jamie Collins, Belichick was largely proven right by moving on from big-time players before many fans (and media members) thought their usefulness was exhausted.
Sure, the Bledsoe/Brady thing threatened to pull the team apart at the seams, but Belichick didn't really have much of a choice since the team started playing better under Brady. As for the other moves, there have been some that have not gone over well in the locker room, but once Belichick was proven right by Brady and with a Super Bowl victory in 2001, that made it easy for Belichick to deal with those issues within the team.
The trade of Mankins was probably the closest the team came to becoming fractured by a Belichick decision. The Patriots had not won a Super Bowl in 10 years when the All-Pro guard was shipped off to Tampa for peanuts, and the veterans were not happy with the move. Belichick was going to do his usual maneuver by not addressing it, but Vince Wilfork and Brady were so ticked off that they made Belichick address it with the team.
The Patriots won their fourth Super Bowl that season.
2. Us against the world.
This is where Spygate and Deflategate belong. Those "controversies" were right up Belichick's alley. They just handed the coach an easy way to unify the team.
They think you're a bunch of cheaters, that it's the only way you can win.
They hate our success so much they'll resort to anything to dock us draft picks and even suspend our quarterback, your captain.
I mean, come on, that's a layup for Belichick when it comes to motivating and rallying his troops: the Patriots went 16-0 in '07, won the Super Bowl at the height of Deflategate in '14 and then again when Brady was suspended in '16.
3. Yeah, we're not that good but we'll coach them up.
There have been times, like in '11 and '17 (with the Julian Edelman and Dont'a Hightower injuries), when the Patriots were picked over by critics for not being as good as their record indicated. Yet Belichick and his coaches did an unbelievable job covering up their warts and getting some players to play over their heads.
Each team was one play away from winning a Super Bowl.
To me, that '11 squad was Belichick's best coaching performance. Yes, the Patriots had Welker, Gronkowski and Hernandez at the height of their powers, but the Patriots had no running game and had to bring back Deion Branch out of mothballs to have another functional receiver. Defensively, that unit was hot garbage on all three levels — to the point they used Edelman to cover Anquan Boldin in the AFC Championship Game. Yet if Brady and Welker connect on that catch, the Patriots win it all again. It was amazing to watch.
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