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  • Do you think Bill Belichick has a point?

  • He has.

  • He absolutely has a point.

  • It's a matter of fact.

  • I don't think it's an excuse.

  • It all he's giving you facts.

  • Andi.

  • I think his reputation precedes him because he is absolutely right.

  • When have we heard Bill Belichick making excuses?

  • I mean, you could make a legitimate argument that it was when he brought up when he tried to explain, you know, the air in footballs involving Deflate Gate.

  • But that's about it.

  • When you when you watched him talk about the New England Patriots as a football team and you watched him talk about games that have transpired, the results that emanated from them And what have you You didn't hear him making excuses, and in this particular case, he gave you fact he talked about for the last five years.

  • Listen, we went all in.

  • What did we do?

  • He said we said, Okay, we clearly didn't have any money.

  • We spent all our resource is over the last five years.

  • And what did we do?

  • We went to three Super Bowls.

  • Okay, um, you know, we went toe on a F C championship game.

  • He's absolutely right.

  • Those are points of fact.

  • And so I think that when you look at it from that perspective and you look at the level of success that he's had it to me.

  • What I find to be ultimately cruel about Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots is that they enjoyed unprecedented success spanning 20 years and the very first season that Tom Brady is gone.

  • Suddenly they're struggling, but they ain't just struggling because of football.

  • If it was just football, I get it.

  • But when almost, I think eight or nine different players, including Dont'a, Hightower and Patrick Chung and his boys don't show up because of covert 19.

  • When your your starting quarterback catches Cove in 19, he catches Verona.

  • Okay, when Stefan Gilmore, the same thing happened to him, arguably the best quarterback in the game when numerous times Patriots facilities had to be shut down because of the virus.

  • And we're sitting up here and talking about Bill Belichick and wondering whether or not his excuses, I just listen.

  • If it's an excuse for him, I got news for you.

  • All of us make excuses.

  • All of us should be crucified because they enjoy the success that he has had over the last 19 years and literally the very first season.

  • He doesn't have the catalyst that that sparked it all for which is Tom Brady.

  • Alright and and covert, 19 comes down and we talk and excuses.

  • I just think that's incredibly incredibly unfair to him.

  • I can't do that to him.

  • I really, really can't because that's basically implying we never thought you were great at all.

  • And that would be utter nonsense because we know how great of a football coach he is.

  • First of all, is he making excuses?

  • Well, I don't think he is.

  • I think there's a difference between, like, you know, when people say everything happens for a reason.

  • I don't believe that the same way other people do.

  • But everything does happen for a reason.

  • It's literally true that cause and effect exists, right, so if you want to explain cause and effect, that's one thing.

  • It excuses when you don't take responsibility for what happened.

  • I is he doing that?

  • It doesn't sound like it quite to me, but let me say something.

  • I don't think he's really able to say what he means This is what really happened with the Patriots.

  • You know when you hear a guy restructures his contract constantly, that frees up cap space for the team.

  • Usually it gives the player more money in the short run and research and restructures, uh, to lower the salary cap for the team.

  • But what you're doing is you're kicking the can down the road so you could like pro rate bonuses and stuff over years.

  • Like Jerry Jones invented this after he ushered in the salary cap, how he signed Dion Sanders.

  • And but eventually you got to pay the piper and what Belichick was trying to do towards the end of Tom Brady's career as he saw it.

  • He's Brady, in fact, is still going was get out of paying the piper.

  • We can get out of the Brady situation and hand the ball to Garoppolo, who I think can do more or less what Brady could do.

  • Probably less, but still can.

  • We can compete with them every year, and we don't ever have to pay the piper on Brady.

  • Brady didn't end around to the owner, went around the GM and coach to the owner.

  • Kraft told him what was up, obviously, right, as was reported, and what was the upshot?

  • The owner goes to the G M.

  • Bill Belichick says.

  • Uh, you're gonna send Garoppolo out of town now?

  • Belichick didn't want to do that.

  • I don't think it's because he thought Brady gave them a lesser chance to win that season.

  • But I do think he thought we have a chance to have a smooth transition here, to manage our cap space, to get out of having like, a cap hit on a Brady deal and to go forward remaining competitive.

  • And that's not what happened.

  • That's why when Belichick says we sold out to get to those three Super Bowls, that's what he means.

  • Brady wound up being a $13.5 million cap it for the Patriots.

  • Dead money.

  • That's what really affected their salary cap.

  • Now I'm not arguing.

  • I don't know if Belichick is either.

  • That was the wrong move.

  • Because you went to three Super Bowls, you won two Super Bowls.

  • That's a great thing.

  • Who is that better than going to the playoffs 10 straight years and winning two or three Super Bowls over that time versus doing this and maybe having a dry spot for a year or two.

  • That's debatable, right?

  • He's not arguing.

  • They did the wrong thing.

  • He's explaining why this thing happened, but he can't come out and say, Look, the owner tied my hands in terms of the cat because of Brady.

  • So he sounds like this.

  • And to some, it may sound like an excuse.

  • Yeah, I'm gonna agree with both of you.

  • I will say this with With with reference to Bill Belichick.

  • The whole listen, the salary cap is what it is.

  • Had they wanted more players on this football team, could they have made things work?

  • Everybody can do those things.

  • I think he understands when you when he looks at the landscape of his football team and Stephen A.

  • You made the point great, Right?

  • When you bring up the cove in list, the notable injuries, all those kinds of things, you know it There were there was nowhere to really go because of the talent on his football team.

  • So he knows it.

  • So what you gonna do?

  • You're gonna kind of grin and Barrett and that that's I think that's where he is.

  • I I agree with you as far as the excuse making, um, if he is making excuse.

  • Great, right?

  • I mean, this is the best coach in the NFL history.

  • He's explained the facts.

  • If you think it's an excuse, you know, fax excuses, whatever how everybody wants to frame it.

  • If you hate him, that's what you're gonna say.

  • If you love, you're gonna say the other thing.

  • But when I do look at this football team whether Garoppolo was there or whether Brady stayed there, this offense was gonna struggle this year.

  • Irrespective of that, they have not done a good job of putting the pieces and parts around offensively.

  • This team was built toe win defensively last year, and it was gonna be the same way this year.

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Do you think Bill Belichick has a point?

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