Bill Belichick Is TV’s Cuddly Grampa, at Least Until His Next Coaching Gig

Whatever the hell Brat Summer was supposed to be, it’s over now. Make way for the Autumn of Belichick.

In his first fall away from the sidelines in 49 years, football’s dour Da Vinci is keeping the wolf from the door with at least six different media gigs, including a plum role as the first-half scowler-in-residence on ESPN2’s Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli, aka the ManningCast. And as much as Bill Belichick presumably would like to switch back to his “we’re on to Cincinnati” default setting in 2025, the show he put on during the Jets-49ers game suggests that a return to coaching would be TV’s loss.

As much as Belichick’s RBF (Resting Bill Face) makes renowned grumpuses like Gregg Popovich seem as huggable as Winnie the Pooh by comparison, anyone who’d ever caught his segments on WBZ-4’s Patriots All Access already knew that he’d crush it alongside the Bros. Manning. For Boston-area football nerds, Belichick’s weekly breakdowns and analyses were a bit like listening to God talking about the logistical challenges of dividing day from night, only in this case the Supreme Being always seemed to be wearing the same exact Van Heusen dress shirt. (Sleeves: intact.)

While he ditched the button-down for a hoodie emblazoned with the legend “USS. Carl M. Levin DDG 220” (a recently commissioned guided-missile destroyer), Belichick brought the old Beantown magic to MNF. The Xs and Os stuff was predictably glorious—an aside to Peyton Manning about quarterbacks who call a lot of audibles at the line of scrimmage served as a hyper-concentrated master class in the art of defensive camouflage—but few people outside the 617 area code were likely prepared for the Belichickian charm offensive.

Yes, we’re grading on a curve here, but for a 72-year-old football coach, Belichick was practically bubbly. While he can rightfully take his place among the legendary death-stare artists of the ‘70s—“Icy” Bud Grant, Chuck Noll, Chuck Knox (not…

Source link : https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bill-belichick-tv-cuddly-grampa-095500515.html

Author : Sportico

Publish date : 2024-09-13 09:55:00

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