During his weekly appearance on SiriusXM’s “Let’s Go” podcast, Bill Belichick doubled down on his long-held belief that players win games, and ultimately win championships.
Publicly anyway, the former Patriots coach, who is now at the helm of UNC, puts the impact of a coach as being secondary.
“You can’t win games without good players. I don’t care who the coach is, it’s impossible. You can’t win without good players,” Belichick said. “You know, I found that out when I had [Lawrence] Taylor and [Carl] Banks and Harry Carson, Pepper Johnson, Jim Burt, Everson Walls, all those guys at the Giants. And same thing when we got good at Cleveland and then at New England.
“I mean, it’s [Tom] Brady, it’s [Willie] McGinest, it’s [Mike] Vrabel, it’s [Tedy] Bruschi, it’s Corey Dillon, it’s Randy Moss, Troy Brown, Lawyer Malloy, Ty Law, Rodney Harrison. Those are guys that won the games, man. I didn’t make any tackles. I didn’t make any kicks. That was [Adam] Vinatieri that made that kick in four inches of snow.
“You gotta have good players and as a coach, you want to give your players a chance to win,” he went on. “You wanna put ‘em in a position where if they go out there and play well, they’ll have a chance to win. That’s what Coach Parcells taught me, is there’s always a way to win. You just gotta figure out what it is, and you have to give the players a chance.”
Belichick was then asked why the Super Bowl trophy is named after a head coach, Vince Lombardi. By his model, it should be named after a player, shouldn’t it?
Belichick then cracked: “Maybe they should name it the Brady Trophy. He won seven of them!”
- BETTING: Check out our MA sports betting guide, where you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts.