Bill Belichick is one of the greatest football minds of all time and he showed that over the last two decades with the New England Patriots. However, it hasn't been the same since Tom Brady left for Tampa Bay in 2020.
Belichick has been known to run a tight ship with the Patriots, and that's worked for him, but it may be getting tiring in New England.
Nick "Fitzy" Stevens and Chris Scheim expressed their frustrations with Belichick on Audacy's "6 Rings and Football Things" podcast.
“This is not the time for that fooling around with Bourne on the Belichick front. It’s a little exhausting now,” Fitzy said (12:20 in player above). “Will you leave Kendrick Bourne alone? He’s a fan favorite. His energy, it’s infectious. The team gets by on that kind of stuff. It makes the team happy. It makes the fans happy. Don’t put the guy down because he talks a little bit.”
“And also, don’t get on Mac’s a– just because he says like he and Joe Judge are in a collaborative process,” he continued. “Everything top down is so like Catholic school nun rapping you across the knuckles for ever speaking out of turn. It’s ridiculous, the authoritarian control that they exercise over these guys. You need their personality. You need their energy. And you need their speed.”
Belichick will always be revered in New England for the dynasty that helped put together, but things aren’t running so smoothly now.
“On the BetQL Boston pod with Mut, I went into like a two-minute rant on how I’m growing very tired of Belichick,” Scheim replied. “I continue to grow more and more wary with his displays of just – it’s monotonous. It’s like what are we doing, Bill? Stop it. Stop being a jerk and a d–k to everybody. Answer some questions and help everybody understand what the hell’s going on. Because right now your offense sucks. Mac Jones today, according to Andrew Callahan, was 7-for-17 with an interception. That’s not good!”
The Patriots are out in Nevada having joint practices with the Las Vegas Raiders. Fitzy was quick to remind the listeners the status of the Raiders defense. They have a good pass rush and average linebackers, but they “do not have a good secondary in any way, shape, or form.”
“So if Mac has a second and a half to breathe or survey the field, he should be able to get some work done,” Fitzy said. “So if he’s going 7-of-17 against an inferior secondary while you’re secondary, which has been trending upwards the last couple of weeks, is getting carved up like a Butterball turkey by Davante Adams, Derek Carr, and company? Not great!”
“That’s awful. It’s horrendous. So at some point he needs to answer for all of the things we’ve been seeing,” Scheim replied.
Scheim’s biggest issue is that despite Belichick’s success over the longhaul, he hasn’t done much in recent years.
“What have you done for me lately? What have we established? And now, not only that, your offensive coordinator … is now gone and a head coach of the team you’re currently practicing against and you have Matt Patricia calling plays for you,” Scheim said. “What kind of boobery is this? I don’t understand. We’re running like a second-rate organization like Urban Meyer’s in charge now all of a sudden and everybody’s OK with it. And it’s becoming infuriating and upsetting.”
“Most people aren’t OK with it,” Fitzy interjected. “There’s the In Bill We Trust crowd, which I’m a member of by the way. I am a card carrying member of the #ThankYouBelichick and In Bill We Trust club, and at the same time now I’m getting exhausted by this.”
One of the things that is frustrating regarding Belichick is his secrecy and unwillingness to answer questions. That may be tolerable if the team is winning, but it gets old quickly when times are tough.
“When you just show a little curiosity, when you just sort of wonder like ‘Hi Bill, since there is a giant shroud of secrecy and a curtain of expositional darkness over the organization fundamentally preventing any and all of us from understanding what’s going on, could you maybe explain it because you know, we tell fans things, then fans talk to each other about stuff? But we get nothing. We get nothing,” Fitzy said.
According to Fitzy, it’s not just the fans and media that are growing wary of Belichick’s ways.
“And then Mac Jones is getting tired of it. And Kendrick Bourne and other players are secretly — and I’ve heard stuff, and I’ve read things in DMs from people where it’s like yeah, there’s players that … they seem to understandably be not thrilled about some of this stuff, but how come he can’t put his finger up there and be like, you know what, maybe we should do things a little different right now.”
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