Bill Belichick might’ve been the only person in New England who believed in Cam Newton last season. Even as Newton spent weeks flinging balls into the dirt and leading the Patriots offense on continuous drives to nowhere, Belichick affirmed he was sticking with the former MVP as his starter.
Even at the nadir of the campaign, Belichick never entertained the idea of replacing Newton with Jarrett Stidham. “We’re trying to win the game,” he said last December when asked why he was sticking with Newton following a dreadful slate of performances.
Now, Belichick won’t even utter Newton’s name. We’ve gone from “Cam’s our quarterback” to “we'll just leave it the way it is.” Even for Belichick, this is a stunning about-face.
That’s because his interests have changed.
There’s a misconception that Belichick disregards the media. While he may scowl at the post-game podium, he understands the power of setting the narrative — in his own subtle way. Look no further than Deflategate. In the immediate aftermath of ESPN’s phony air pressure report, Belichick stepped up to the podium at Gillette Stadium and deflected all of the blame onto Tom Brady. Remember: Belichick is not exactly the “Mona Lisa Vito” of footballs himself.
A more recent example of Belichick protecting himself happened on two occasions last fall: once on WEEI, and once on Sirius XM.
In late October, Belichick appeared on his pal Charlie Weis’ radio show, and blamed salary cap constraints for the Patriots’ stunning lack of depth. “We were pretty heavily invested in our team in the past few years,” Belichick said. “From a salary-cap standpoint, we didn't have much flexibility at all.”
At the end, Belichick also snuck in a line about Newton’s discounted deal. He said it was “obvious” the Patriots were cash-strapped when you look at the “Cam Newton contract.”
In other words: “I had no money to spend. This was the best I could do.”
The following week on OMF, Belichick doubled down, again using Newton’s salary as an illustration of the team’s payroll situation.
“Look, we paid Cam Newton $1 million. I mean it’s obvious we didn’t have any money. It’s nobody’s fault," he said. "That’s what we did the last five years. We sold out and won three Super Bowls, played in a fourth and played in an AFC championship game. This year we had less to work with. It’s not an excuse, it’s just a fact.”
Though Belichick often defended Newton last season, he also used the struggling veteran as a crutch.
At the end of year, it seemed inevitable the Patriots would part ways with Newton. ESPN’s Mike Reiss even reported as much. But Belichick pushed back against that report in his annual post-mortem presser.
When asked about Newton’s performance (8 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 82.9 QBR), Belichick doled out the love. “Nothing but respect for Cam and the way that he’s approached every day that he’s been here,” Belichick said.
It’s apparent Belichick meant what he said. He chose Newton over an assortment of stopgap veterans this offseason — including Fitz Magic — and brought him back on a one-year deal worth up to $14 million with incentives.
But that doesn’t mean Belichick was ready to go with Newton as the starter. The next month, the Patriots drafted Mac Jones.
Faced with a looming QB battle, Belichick unsurprisingly declared Newton was the starter on draft night. He did it again at the start of training camp.
“Cam’s our starting quarterback,” Belichick said on July 31.
Why would Belichick personally inflame an already boiling QB controversy?
Belichick didn’t give any indications he was leaning towards Jones during training camp. Newton played most of his practice snaps with the first team and started all three preseason games. Jones received the bulk of the reps — a summer workload typically reserved for the backup.
Then came the “misunderstanding.” Two weeks ago, the Patriots issued a brief press release — conveniently right after Belichick had spoken — explaining Newton would miss five days after violating the NFL’s COVID protocols.
The team said he traveled to a club-approved medical appointment outside of New England, and had a “misunderstanding about tests conducted away from NFL facilities.”
The screwup was uncharacteristic for the Patriots. In their statement, they made sure to state it was a team-approved medical trip, insinuating Newton was the one responsible for the “misunderstanding.”
Now, Newton hardly exists. On Wednesday, Belichick didn’t even address him by name. “I'm not going to go through all the different things with any player on that, so we'll just leave it the way it is and go from there,” he said when asked whether they thought about keeping Newton around in a backup role.
This time around, there was no “respect” for Newton’s efforts. Instead, Belichick said the Patriots will “take it from there.”
The only clarity he offered was when he said vaccination played no factor in Newton’s release. Now the NFLPA can get off his back.
And Newton is off his mind.
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Who was right and wrong on Cam vs. Mac?: Credit goes to the litany of former players — including Rodney Harrison, Louis Riddick, Ryan Clark, Rob Ninkovich and Dan Orlovsky — who trumpeted Jones over Newton all summer long. They were willing to go against history and bet that Belichick would start a rookie QB for the first time ever. Good for them.
On the other side, Mike Lombardi once talked about the possibility of “redshirting” Jones. Now, he says Belichick was surprised that Jones came along so quickly.
Is Lombardi giving us a genuine read into Belichick’s mind, or just speaking extemporaneously? That’s the question that’s followed him throughout his media career.
Red Sox turn down the press curtain: In a totally avoidable blunder, the Red Sox accidentally uploaded a team to their team website Wednesday that captured Sam Kennedy telling Chaim Bloom to not allow his upcoming interview with reporters to be too much about vaccinations.
The tactic didn’t work, as 16 of the 22 questions were about the Red Sox’s COVID outbreak.
Per usual, that’s the wrong approach from the Red Sox. Stories die faster when they’re addressed head on. Evasion only creates more questions.
More answers needed on COVID outbreak: With that said, what is going on with the Red Sox and COVID? Bloom said Wednesday most of the infections are breakthrough cases, but we don’t know how the outbreak started, and the role of unvaccinated players. The Red Sox are one of six teams below MLB’s 85% vaccination threshold.
Since reporters are still barred from locker rooms, teams are free to operate with secrecy. If there were pens on the ground — so to speak — perhaps we would know more particulars. But now, we’re completely in the dark.
