Bill Belichick's legacy-altering beef with Eric Mangini destroyed a beautiful friendship

bill

belichick

one of the greatest nfl coaches of all time mentored

eric

mangini

from ball boy to head coach to say thank you genius you ruined

belichick

's

legacy

oops

bill

belichick doesn't really give off vibes that say that I have friends, he usually seems upset with something or someone, his conversation skills are often extremely poor and well, I mean, this is what he looked like after his team won a game 27 to nothing. What unlucky demon would want to hang out with this meets Eric Mangini? He's the guy holding the kid. Belichick is not tickled. The real kid he and Belichick first met in Cleveland, where Mangini was a 23-year-old ball boy and Bill, the head coach, Belichick had risen through the NFL ranks over the previous two decades, becoming best known for his defensive coordinator job with the giants there.

Since he won his first two Super Bowls and demonstrated the ability to really rock a sweater once in Cleveland, he looked to pay it forward. Mangini caught the coach's attention. He liked the kids' work ethic and attention to detail, so when the days of the ball boys came. a finale in cleveland belichick asked what they were going to do with that guy

eric

a few days after eric kidd was an offensive assistant when belichick joined the jets in '97 he brought eric with him and when he jumped ship to the patriots then his coach of jets for a daytime incident bill made room in his lifeboat for the boy the couple made sense angie was a smart guy who absorbed every detail he could under belichick similar to bill

mangini

had done everything he could to gain experience, even if it was somewhat unorthodox Many people focused on them sharing an alma mater and a fraternity, but while that would surely never be the reason someone got a job in the NFL, it is what many

friendship

s are based on.

In 2005, Mangini was not only a friend of Belichick, but he was a friend too. Also Bill's defensive coordinator, who gave Belichick the opportunity to praise Mangini the only way he knows how, based on facts and to the point, but it was true that he had done a great job for the team and continued to do so for a season further. Tell me if you've heard this before, in 2005, the Patriots made the playoffs and the Jets, right? New York needed a head coach for its 4-12 team, so they looked to New England if they had looked during the fourth quarter of New England's championship game. wild card game would have seen ahsante samuel cap off a fantastic patriots defensive performance with a pick six and then belichick shows the affection right here belichick might as well have slapped a higher self sign on mangini's back the jets they wanted this new younger belichick that belichick wanted to keep the conversation going about their next playoff game, but he also let his feelings for mangini shine, he even used the f word, but new england got some reasons to say the other f word, his Loss to Denver meant the Jets could officially interview Mangini.

A couple of days later, the Jets officially named Mangini as their new head coach. Now I emphasize it officially because rumors arose immediately. There was talk that Mangini had not only accepted the job before the Denver game, but had also sounded out which Patriots coaches or players might want to defect to him. Belichick allegedly responded by changing the locks on Gillette so Mangini couldn't do what he did. his or not both coaches played well in public mangini continued to credit belichick for everything he knew about coaching belichick respected the move and others that having to share the afc seemed happy, but noting how often he had hired Mangini Belichick mentioned that actions speak louder than words, an interesting choice, a phrase based on how many actions and few words were ahead of them, they started with some older brother.

Little brother dynamic When Belichick wanted something good, it's no surprise Mangini wanted it too That desire for similar athletes quickly caught Belichick's attention at the start of the 2006 season The Patriots looked to move Dion Branch They told the receiver he could talk with the teams on contract extensions to facilitate a trade, the Jets were one of those interested teams, although New York did not land the receiver, they received something else from New England, tampering charges. The patriots claimed that the planes had given information to the branch. They should not have information that could have impacted. potential trades mangini said they did nothing wrong and were just looking to move on new england got first round pick seattle got branch conveniently over this all took place right before the jets hosted the patriots that moment might have justified why mangini said oh no, I would never do anything wrong to bill my dear friend, whom I would definitely call friend all my life.

It is true that he and his friend had not been very talkative, but the good thing about football is that it forces people to be close to each other after a new victory for England the attention was focused on the midfield because of this handshake pretty normal, aside from the crowd, but the media tore it to shreds and found out that the only words belichick could say were good game they wanted excitement they wanted affection they wanted something belichick wasn't really known for because when belichick argued that he wasn't a coach first, the other but the patriots first, jet reporters pointed out his inability to refer to mangini by name which turned him into a baby, little billy baby check these handshakes became the focus of this fight .

In their second matchup, Mangini's defensive game plan harassed Tom Brady all day, helping the Jets pull off an upset. Belichick seemed stunned when he blew the final whistle and with handshake number two you could see the awkwardness a little more clearly. Mangini described it after the game as a pretty one-sided affair, but it made sense that the Jets were just one game away from the paths in which the Belichick trainee had been proclaimed the man of genius. There was no escaping the head coach narrative and any conflict between them only made the talk louder, so that's good news.

They met in the playoffs, the game was closer than the final score, but the most important result was another inevitably awkward handshake that this poor cameraman got in Belichick's way before a moment so absurd that Jim Nance had to confirm what the spectators witnessed. How about that this time? hug this time a hug after a flash where it seemed that Belichick could hit Mangini or kiss him he settled for the middle and everyone could shut up about this duo that Belichick out of season talked a little about the departure of Mangini clearly hurt by On the move , he seemed ready to move on and be friends again, there were still times when the jets brought in players that the patriots had just cut, but when Brady pointed out that that's part of the process, you have to remember where Mangini got his processes from, him regularly.

He confessed to having learned everything from Belichick. Mangini witnessed firsthand what Patriot success entailed and now he wanted to use it to find success for his own. Mangini had used those Patriot ways to turn a four-win team into a one-time contender. impressive start that seemed to get better in year two, which coincidentally started against the Patriots Wilde, how does that happen, you know, the drill at this point, the result, a blowout by the Patriots didn't matter, but this time the emotionless greeting In the end it didn't matter either. because well, cheating during the game, the jets noticed the New England camera operators filming the New York training signals.

This is totally legal if the camera operators follow certain instructions, however, they were on the bench which is a definite no-no mangini and the jets alerted the league. After this and the fun began, Commissioner Roger Goodell quickly swooped in to announce that New England had violated the rules. Belichick apologized saying he thought they were following the guidelines but they must have misunderstood something the league essentially responded no we reminded everyone of the rules last year and made it pretty clear you can't sit on the sidelines. Goodell handed Belichick the largest fine. He, too, was able to find the pats and took away what eventually became a first-round pick after Goodell handed out the punishment.

He then asked to see what New England was. He had filmed the league, reviewed it and found nothing else, but they also

destroyed

all the tapes, which sort of ended the potential for an escalating reaction to the news. Varied hall of fame coach Jimmy Johnson said Belichick did what everyone else does. They just caught him. Others took. The problem with how the league handled the punishment before reviewing the materials, especially by doing so rather quickly, reignited conversations such as Heinz Ward believing the Pats cheated during an Afc championship. The same thing happened with the Eagles in the 2005 Super Bowl and whether there would have been validity to those specific claims.

Well, a former Patriots defensive coach like Mangini would have been quite aware of those spy-based antics. Later in the 2007 season, accusations surfaced that Mangini had actually done the same thing against the Pats in their playoff game the year before. . New England just didn't do it. 't loop in the nfl and mangini suffered some consequences and an anonymous coach noted his surprise that the situation did not develop behind closed doors and thought that a warning would have been enough, that maybe that had happened and this was an escalation, but Based on Mangini's earlier admission, that's a bit iffy, regardless of who did what and when, Belichick's group was labeled cheaters and a big question was how this would affect the 2007 Patriots.

They went 16-0 , so thank you very much Mangini ahead of the Jets of the second way. Showdown Belichick swore there was no extra motivation, but when you're a 24-point favorite, do you really need extra motivation? When asked about Mangini, Belichick shrugged with a "I've talked about him enough" mentality as far as Mangini goes, he went on to state. how impactful Belichick had been in his career and I thought nothing had changed since September, but to me this dizzy look after the game says otherwise, we can't see Bill, but don't worry, the papers weren't going to miss this moment .

He smiled and returned the

friendship

. in the menu let's skip ahead and see what happiness he had in stone belichick completely stopped talking to his former protégé this admission from 2016 was one of some honestly pretty depressing statements from mangini that he was hopeful that their friendship could one day be restored belichick was someone Mangini named one of his sons after but now couldn't even have a conversation with. Mangini was very sorry that Spygate had blown up bigger than he expected, which was supposed to be a message to Bill to understand that he couldn't. Doing that at Mangini's house became spygate, but it continued to snowball.

The way the league handled it further untangled the situation. The idea that the Patriots cheated stuck, so the next time they faced accusations about deflated balls or whatever some people believed the league handled the new gate more strictly to compensate for the way they rushed via Spygate, whether it's true or not, the person who set the snowball rolling doesn't change this problem, it cost both guys a friendship they clearly cared about. Little further damage was done to his

legacy

and Mangini has to sit there knowing it's up to him, hoping that eventually they can get back to the good old days, probably well, when Belichick said actions speak louder than words, which is still more deafening is simply not saying a word.

Damn hey thanks for making it this far, if you want more meat I think you'd enjoy the Harbaugh Sherman episode just to keep the coach vibes going or here's something a little different but it'll still suit you trust me it might not It's meat, but it's still juicy