A recent FOX NFL Sunday pregame show featured former Patriots Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and Julian Edelman together on the panel taking questions and having fun. It was great to watch.
Former Pats coach Bill Belichick’s name naturally came up, and the former New England stars were asked about rumors that Belichick was looking at taking a college coaching job at the University of North Carolina.
Laughs all around.
“No way,” said Brady.
The consensus was that Belichick is profoundly ill-suited for the college game. College coaches don’t draft players, they recruit them. Can you imagine Belichick doing a home visit and bending a knee to some skeptical parents and their pampered star son to make the case as to why their boy should go to Chapel Hill?
Ha!
Coach Bill is going on 73 years of age—almost 50 years older than his girlfriend, Jordan Hudson. Somehow that relationship doesn’t enhance his bona fides. Neither did the recent Patriot “Dynasty” television series. And neither does the fact that he had a losing record before Brady as well as after Brady.
The notion of Belichick returning to coach now draws some laughter, despite Bill having taken nine teams to the Super Bowl. His star has dimmed. The mighty can fall.
Still, there is a hunger and a longing for that tough guy authoritarian who can come in and kick ass and turn things around. Think Vince Lombardi. In 1959, the no-nonsense New York Giant offensive coordinator took over a Green Bay team that had won but a single game in 1958 and immediately turned a losing franchise into a winner and then a five-time NFL champion.
Think Bobby Knight. Also known as “The General,” Knight went to Indiana University from West Point to take over a struggling Hoosier program that had suffered through three straight losing seasons. Two years later, in 1973, Knight’s Hoosiers were in the Final Four.
Think George Patton. (Also known as “The General.”)
The 1970 Patton movie remains an all-time classic. That Academy Award winning film captured how the charismatic autocrat took over a downtrodden American army in North Africa and quickly turns that outfit—and later other outfits—into victorious, invincible forces.
The desire for that ass-kicking, no-nonsense, charismatic leader to step up and lead has animated countless millions of people throughout the ages. Think Alexander the Great. Julius Caesar. Napoleon. Alpha males who wanted and needed to lead.
Love him or hate him, Donald Trump is of that “alpha male” ilk.
Given how very badly things ended for Alexander, Caeser, Napoleon, Patton, and so many other historic alpha males, we hope and pray that Trump’s journey concludes in a better way.
In the meantime, we’ll keep an eye on Bill Belichick and see where the sports currents take him.
Chapel Hill? Some other campus? It’s hard to imagine. Still, I love the imagery of Belichick making a recruiting visit to some household in the Tar Heel State and having a mother of a 17-year-old dictate terms to the coaching legend.
“Do your job, Bill!”
Sports Quiz
In what Olympic event did George Patton compete in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics? (Answer follows)
Born Today
That is to say, sports standouts born on December 19 include baseball Hall-of-Famer Al Kaline (1934) and Celtic star Kevin McHale (1957).
Sports Quote
“Don’t tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they’ll surprise you with their ingenuity.” –George Patton
Sports Quiz Answer George Patton finished fifth in the modern pentathlon in Stockholm in 1912.
#####
State Representative Mike Moffett was a Sports Management Professor for Plymouth State University and NHTI-Concord. He co-authored the award-winning “Fahim Speaks: Between Two Worlds: A Hollywood Actor’s Journey as a U.S. Marine Translator through Afghanistan” which is available on Amazon.com. His e-mail address is mimoffett@comcast.net
Author
image sources
- Michael Moffett: Michael Moffett
- Belichick and Patton: Belichick and Patton: Michael Moffett