I Could Listen to Matt Rhule Say He's 'Embarrassed' by Belichick's Coaching Brilliance All Day Long

Maddie Meyer. Getty Images.

If I had a dollar for every time over the last couple of decades I've been asked how long Bill Belichick planned to coach, I could pay off Dave Portnoy's UConn bet. And my answer never varied. I always said the only way his career would end would be with him getting beamed up to his home world, having taught the human race everything we can learn about the game of tackle football.

Of course, that means I'd never considered the possibility that he'd get fired. But cruel fate will throw a fastball at your ear flap every once in a while to get you off balance and keep you from crowding the great plate of life. Still, my premise about how Belichick had zero desire to go do anything else with his life was as correct as it should've been obvious to everyone. All you had to do was watch him walk around the practice field, spinning a whistle around his fingers, alternately telling stories about his days of playing at Philips Andover Academy with Ernie Adams and putting his team on blast for a bad rep and screaming at them to do it again:

… to realize you were witnessing a Man in Full. Someone competely self-actualized. Doing exactly what he wanted to do with his life, exactly where he wanted to do it. With no plans whatsoever to hang up the whistle and go sit at a desk in some studio trading barbs with Terry Bradshaw every Sunday. 

And now that he finds himself inexplicably out of work, he's proving me right. The coach is still coaching. Whether it's his son's team:

Or it's Nebraska, the program being run by Matt Rhule, with whom he has a relationship from their days of running joint practices when Rhule was head coach of the Panthers. And Rhule has many thoughts about the experience:

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"He is so smart, has seen so much that he can make the complex so simple that it humbles you and embarrasses you. I was embarrassed yesterday listening to him, how smart he is, how simple it was. 

"How long was it? He went four and a half hours, just with the coaches. Forget the clinic. He came in and met with our coaching staff. Three and a half hours in, I was like, 'Coach, would you like … a water? Cup of coffee? Would you like to use the restroom?' Because I desperately had to use the restroom, and he's like, 'I'm fine, Matt.' And I was like, 'Yes, sir.' And just sitting there and just talking, right, and just his recall from 15 years ago. And the only reason why we don't get through more information is because he's having to slow down to make sure you understand what he's saying.

"I mean, so you have this man who's a savant, who's been a defensive coordinator. He's been a special teams coordinator. He could be an offensive coordinator. He's been a head coach twice. He's been a GM, personnel. And he's talking about football in a way that just like … I mean, illuminates things and makes things so simple that you're like, 'Oh my goodness.'"

Whoa. Back off there, Matt. You're making a spectacle of yourself. The job of fanboy shamelessly gushing over Belichick's prowess has already been filled. And I'm not about to let a little detail like his unemployment make me give up my position at the top of the organizational chart. 

Still, it's refreshing to hear. And it's an important reminder to everyone who's been dismissing everything he's accomplished as nothing more than the result of luck or cheating or having Brady on his roster to make up for all his shortcomings. (I'm looking at you, producers of The Dynasty docuseries.) There has never been a fellow traveler walking upon this spinning blue marble who understood this game the way this man has. And continues to. 

Meanwhile, the ranks of pro and college football are loaded with employed coaches and personnel people that Belichick either raised from pups or coached circles around for the past 30 years. Which makes zero sense on any level. But rather than feel sorry for himself or get all bitter, he's choosing instead to tour the country like an itinerant preacher, spreading his football gospel. Teaching the Washington Huskies, the Nebraska Cornhuskers and anyone else with the good sense to listen everything they know. But will never be everything he knows.

If you're a college coach and you don't have him in to give a clinic, you deserve to get fired immediately. Oh my goodness, indeed.