Bill Belichick isn’t the only person publicly disputing details of Seth Wickersham’s upcoming tell-all book chronicling his relationship with Tom Brady and the unraveling of the Patriots’ dynasty. Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth are doing the same.
During the second quarter of Tampa Bay’s heart-palpitating 19-17 win over the Patriots Sunday night, Michaels and Collinsworth spent a couple of minutes talking about Belichick’s reaction to Wickersham’s book, “It’s Better To Be Feared.” Apparently, Belichick was miffed when they spoke about the topic in their production meeting.
“There’s so much noise and stuff about these guys. They were a symphony orchestra for 20 years,” Michaels said. “Six super bowl titles, nine trips to the Super Bowl, division titles every year almost. I mean, really?”
After that lead-in, Collinsworth dropped the rhetorical hammer. It was the biggest spin job to emanate from the “Sunday Night Football” booth since Collinsworth lauded Roger Goodell’s leadership in the aftermath of the Ray Rice scandal.
“Bill Belichick was hot. Getting ready to play a game like this. All the stories, all the books , all these things start coming out,” Collinsworth said. "And he was like, ’20 years, and you’re going to take 10 seconds out of this conversation this year and 20 seconds out of that conversation in that year, and somehow you’re going to make this into something it wasn’t? We had a great relationship. We learned a from each other. I learned a lot from Tom Brady.’”
It’s apparent Brady and Belichick hold an immense amount of respect for each other, which nobody is denying. The two all-time greats met after the game for upwards of 20 minutes.
But there’s also little doubt their storied relationship encountered riffs towards the end of Brady’s run. After all, Brady did leave.
Collinsworth didn’t want to entertain that side of the story.
“When he got to talking about ‘you guys in the media,’ we both threw up our hands and said ‘woah woah,’” Collinsworth said. “But it was an emotional thing for Bill. He did not like that people were trying to portray it besides something very very positive for the two of them.”
It’s not surprising Michaels and Collinsworth would downplay the reported tension between Brady and Belichick. They are league guys first and foremost.
But it’s disingenuous to blame the whole affair on misreporting and innuendo. That’s about as believable as saying Deatrich Wise Jr. is the Patriots’ best all-around defensive player, which Collinsworth claimed later in the telecast.
There was a way to present Belichick’s side without launching into his full-throated defense. In doing so, Michaels and Collinsworth came off as PR agents rather than broadcasters.