The Boston Globe Publishing a Ben Volin Piece Complaining About Belichick Being Treated Unfairly Proves Their Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds
I've posted three times about the Apple+ docuseries The Dynasty. And I'm fairly certain that each time I mentioned the strangely negative tone to the thing. Admittedly, I've only seen the first two episodes, but there is that element to it. Particularly when it comes to Bill Belichick. Like I mentioned, you know that documentary cliche where they cut to an empty chair and the interview subject walks in, offers a friendly quip and takes a seat? They do that here with pretty much everyone, with the exception of Belichick. He just kind of appears, scowling into the camera like he's the Big Tobacco executive in a 60 Minutes segment or the prime suspect in a True Crime series. It's an odd, somewhat jarring choice. Suddenly he's there like Palpatine on his throne, trying to start a Skywalker fight instead of explaining his thought process behind some of the best decisions in the history of pro sports. And it's weird.
But that's me talking. My fanboying of Belichick is without shame. They could do a treatment of him like North Korean propaganda about Kim Jong Un and I wouldn't be satisfied. And I apologize for nothing. It's one thing if I'm bitching about this. It's another thing entirely when Belichick is being defended by The Boston Globe. Specifically by Ben Volin in The Boston Globe. Yet that's where we find ourselves today:
Saints preserve us. Has the world gone mad? Is there a glitch in the Matrix? Am I hallucinating?
This is one of those times where you go to reTweet something and it says "Would you like to read the article first?" and you don't even bother clicking it. One, because it's behind a paywall I refuse to climb over. And two, it doesn't matter what the arguments are. All that matters is this is not the publication and this is not the Patriots beat writer that gets to make them.
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I've spent too many hours of my life Defending the Belichick Wall against these people. I have too many arrows in my shield to sit here listening to them lecture the rest of us about fairness and villains and Kill Bill when they spent 24 years screaming these very words into their Public Address system. One that used to be loud as hell. That people used to listen to. But which lost all its credibility with Pas fans thanks to hundreds of hatchet pieces over the years. Most of them aimed directly at Belichick.
A short list, in more or less chronological order:
--Ron Borges infamous draft analysis that "Richard Seymour is too small to play tackle and too slow to play end and Matt Light won't help any time soon."
--Borges hammering him for "lying" to Drew Bledsoe about getting his job back.
--Attacking him for his "arrogance" every time he made a tough decision over a player's contract, from Lawyer Milloy to Seymour to Ty Law to Logan Mankins and beyond.
--Insisting he should've known that he had a murderer on his roster. Basically implying he's partly responsible for the killings. Despite the fact no one - not law enforcement, teammates, or New England's biggest news gathering operation - had any clue until he got arrested on the charges for which he was ultimately convicted.
--Of course Spygate. And Deflategate. And Spygate 2. And suggestions by the Colts he was bugging the visitors locker room. All nothingburgers of various sizes, that The Globe didn't hesitate to issue a felony conviction on.
All part of a pattern of arguing that he was either dishonest, or lucky (The Tuck Rule), or a miserable little tyrant who treats people terribly doesn't deserve to be celebrated. Anything other than to give Belichick the credit he earned. Remember this, from long before he was done bringing championships to Foxboro?
Yeah, this is not the news outlet that gets to lecture anyone about how the Patriots get portrayed in the press:
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And Volin is not the columnist who gets to come to Belichick's defense:
So nice try. But you can't spend almost a quarter of a century attacking a man and trying to reduce all his accomplishments to nothing, then cry that he's being treated unfairly by somebody else. And for sure you can't wait until after he's gone to say it. Volin and John Henry's paper trashed Belichick every chance they had. Now they don't get to send flowers to his funeral. So back off and quit working my side of the street.