Chiefs Foe Belichick Fathers “Quote-Throat” Football

Some head coaches go the silent treatment routine. Some hit you with plain and simple truths about the opposition. Coaches will sometimes only talk about their own team. Others will pan their own team and attempt to convince you they don’t have a chance against this week’s opponent. Still other coaches will throw numbers at you to provide the media a slippery salvo for headlines. A few coaches talk up the playmakers on the other team as if there’s no reason to talk about his own playmakers.

Bill Belichick? He does it all. And more. In fact he’s the CEO “Head-Game-Master” of the NFL universe. He not only plays cut-throat football — just ask the Jets — but Belichick plays “quote-throat” football against everyone.

Anything for an edge. Rile up the troops by calling them out? Yep, that’s Billy ball. Mumble one-word answers when asked about specific players? Oh yeah, that reeks of Belichick, a true media escape artist. No matter how much, or how little, Bill Belichick shares, it’s all a highly orchestrated form of quote-throat football.

Following an early season September defeat in 2005, USA Today reported Coach Belichick responding to the loss by saying,

"“This won’t be good enough. It wasn’t good enough today. It won’t be good enough against anybody else, either.”"

Telling it like it is.

That’s an important part of any coaches job. However, a coach also has to deal with the fragile psyche of today’s athlete. So, at times the coach is “The Encourager” shown in a classic Belichick reply as,

"“What pleased me most probably was that we made decent steps with fundamentals and the foundation of the team.”"

So, what’s Mr. Mind Game saying about the 2014 Chiefs? Lord knows he could dump a load of judgement on the Chiefs offensive line, defensive backfield, field goal kicker and wide receivers. In fact, there are so many ways he could lay into the KC team it could spin-dry the rest of Henry Paulson’s hair off. So, what does Belichick say about the Chiefs?

He starts with the Chiefs running backs, beginning with Knile Davis (coming from a post by ESPN’s Boston correspondent Lee Schechter):

"“I think they are different skill sets but they do different things with them — kind of the same plays look different depending on who is carrying the ball… Davis is strong. They are both very fast. Davis is strong — 230 pounds. He breaks tackles, good lower-body strength, hard guy to bring down. You see that on some of those kickoff returns from last year where he runs through tackles.”"

Kill ‘em with kindness, Bill.

It’s funny when you think about a quote like that — and that was only half of it — when you juxtapose it with his utter-n-mutter sessions where you can hardly hear a word he’s saying. Some of his press conferences are monotone, sub-vocalization performances that make him a prime candidate for an Emmy named “The Word-Whisperer.”

Here, Belichick does nothing but praise Knile Davis. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, his comments border on tampering. *wink-wink*

Mr. Bill tops off his Chiefs RB assessment by stating,

"“[Jamaal] Charles has good playing strength too, but he’s more elusive — great quickness, acceleration. …They both have great home-run speed.”"

Thanks, Mr. Belichick. We did not know that.

So, what’s Belichick really getting at here? Do you expect him to reveal the holes in the Chiefs’ obvious holeyness?

Not gonna happen.

How about Bill’s take on the Alex Smith-Andy Reid approach?

"“There was that play last year to Donnie Avery — a 75-yard post. I think that is part of what Andy [Reid] does, takes what the defense gives you… If you want to lay back, they will take the short passes. Those receivers, tight ends and backs are all capable of catch-and-run plays where they turn a 5-yard pass into a 25-yard gain.”"

Hmm, “5-yard pass into a 25-yard gain?” Double-hmm. Maybe he’s talking about Travis Kelce. Maaaybe he’s talking about Dwayne “6-catches-so far-this-year” Bowe.

In any case, Bill Belichick is usually never going to be the idiot who gives the other team bulletin board fodder that inflames their competitive loins.

So what does Bill Belichick have to say about the return of his own safety Patrick Chung after a year with the Eagles? You remember Patrick right? He’s the player the Pats chose in the second round of the 2009 draft, a pick the Chiefs, I mean Pioli, gave them for QB Matt Cassel.

Belichick says of Chung,

"“Pat has been good… He was obviously familiar with our system. We are familiar with him. I’m glad that we were able to get him back on the team this year. He has contributed well on first down, third down, fourth down. Pat is pretty much the same player he was when he was here.”"

Wow. What a ringing endorsement. One quizzical note about Belichick’s thoughts on Patrick Chung is his statement, “He has contributed well on first down, third down, fourth down.” What happened, did he forget how to tackle and defend the pass on 2nd downs?

Bill Belichick is just never going to allow you to see how happy he might be about the return of a player who can certainly help his team.

So, he plays Mr. Cloak-n-Dagger with his word games.

The point is… if you compare what Coach Belichick has said about Jamaal Charles, Knile Davis, Andy Reid and Alex Smith, he makes them sound like Greek gods compared to the sucky second-down performer in Chung.

Faint praise is what Bill Belichick excels at. It’s his bailiwick, his arena, and a brainchild he has perfected like no other coach out there.

It’s as if the idea of controlling and manipulating the crowd, and specifically the opposition, through the words heard in the media didn’t exist before William Stephen Belichick was born, and then when he came along the fireworks exploded out of his mouth.

In New England, Bill Belichick is a super hero. You would be too with multiple Super Bowl rings to wear at parties. Which Belichick never goes to. No, Bill is the every-man’s super hero. His cape? A hoodie. His Robin? Tom Brady. His super power? Twisting words.

Yes, Bill Belichick knows how to leave others twisting in the wind.

Vince Lombardi quotes? They’re old school for sure, and I’m old school, too, so I should know. Bill Belichick quotes? They’re hip and relevant and more importantly, so well-crafted that the layman would never know what a bunch of psycho-babble he really casts into the wind each day.

Try these on for size and then tell me if you’d rather have a Lombardi moment or a Belichick jam session?

"“There’s an old saying about the strength of a wolf is the pack, and I think there is a lot of truth to that. On a football team, it’s not the strength of the individual players, but it is the strength of the unit and how they all function together.”“What this trophy stands for is the team. This is what it symbolizes.““For a team to accomplish their goal, everybody’s got to give up a little bit of their individuality. And that’s what these players did and that’s why they’re champions.”“I’m not really worried about the other 31 teams.”(Yeah right, and there’s also no such thing as Spygate.)“I wish all there was to it was to take a chair and throw it into the blackboard or something and then all of a sudden, everything is [fine]. I don’t think that’s really the answer.”"

You see, there’s always been the Belichick way, or the highway. That’s one thing Coach Belichick has always made clear.

Belichick also comes from the Bill Parcells School of the Obvious.

"“Any time you lose yardage in the running game, there’s a mistake somewhere.”“Sometimes we’ve missed blocks. Sometimes we’ve missed an assignment and didn’t block a guy that we should have blocked.”“We hurt ourselves with some penalties [and] turnovers, and we gave up some big plays. In the end, Tom made some good throws.”"

This last quote should be Bill Belichick’s speech when he is inducted into Canton one day…if he ever retires. He seems so married to the game that you could see him keeling over during practice one day.

So, what does Coach Belichick have to say about Arrowhead Stadium, “pre-snap checks” and “calls on offense”?

“I think you have to be careful. I would say, like at every away game, there are going to be times that it will be really hard to do that. Other times, I’m not saying it is easy, but it’s doable… third down is challenging on the road everywhere. Might be a little louder there; it probably is.”

Might be a little louder there???

Now that sounds like bulletin board fodder for Chiefs fans. On the other hand, Chiefs fans are already planning “a little louder” on Monday evening and that’s all it will take to set a new world record. And, hopefully to win another game.

What say you, Addict fans? Who will be the most quotable coach following this contest?