Was Bill Belicheat About To Cry?
September 4th, 2014
The loss of All-Pro guard Logan Mankins to the Bucs is still a tough subject for the Patriots head coach
The Bucs have All-Pro guard Logan Mankins. The Patriots don’t.
Joe was listening to Tom Brady and Bill Belicheat talk on Boston sports radio about the subject Tuesday, and Joe’s got fresh audio of Belicheat sighing and sounding like a man who just turned his faithful Labrador over to the Humane Society.
In typical Belicheat fashion — on his own weekly radio segment — the Patriots head coach refused to acknowledge that his longtime relationship with Bucs general manager Jason Licht had anything to do with the Mankins trade to Tampa Bay, and Belicheat wouldn’t share any details on how the trade evolved. (What a weanie!)
Belicheat was then tossed a softball question that teed him up to praise his current New England guards, but Belicheat wouldn’t go there. Instead, he lamented the loss of Makins and sighed.
WEEI-FM host: Can we look at the trade as not necessarily an indictment of Logan Mankins, but as more of an endorsement of some of his peers? Did you feel like you can make a deal for Logan Mankins and still have a good core at the guard position?
Bill Belicheat: Well, I think that’s really pretty independent of Logan’s situation. Logan and I talked about his situation multiple times. We tried to look at different options, but in the end we just weren’t able to work it out.
(The full exchange from Belicheat is in the audio below, 8:40 – 10:50.)
Pedestrian-bumping, olive oil-lapping, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, beer-chugging, cricket-watching, scone-loathing, college football-naïve, baseball box score-reading, NPR-listening, filthy-hotel-staying, fight-instigating, barista-training Peter King, of Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports fame appeared on the station yesterday and talked about his 1-on-1 conversation with Mankins after the trade. King painted a picture of a man who didn’t want to leave New England but also wouldn’t cave in to Belicheat’s demands to cut his pay. Per King, Mankins’ agent knew the Patriots would find a trade partner willing to take on Mankins’ salary.
Joe wonders whether it was Licht who quietly advised Mankins’ agent to sit tight and not negotiate with Belicheat because the Bucs would pull the trigger on a trade.
September 4th, 2014 at 8:07 am
“Joe wonders whether it was Licht who quietly advised Mankins’ agent to sit tight and not negotiate with Belicheat because the Bucs would pull the trigger on a trade.”
So you’re suggesting that Mankins’ agent did this without consulting Mankins? By all reports Mankins didn’t know it was coming.
September 4th, 2014 at 8:10 am
?? @Netwalker
Agents don’t make trades. Teams do. The point was Licht might have told Mankins’ agent not to renegotiate because there was a taker (Bucs) for Mankins at full price.
September 4th, 2014 at 8:11 am
I was about the money. BTW, feel good article on NFL site about NE’s addition of Tim Wright.
September 4th, 2014 at 8:13 am
MGM is correct. Lovie’s agent didn’t see it coming either.
September 4th, 2014 at 8:20 am
Very, very happy to have this guy on board. Probably my favorite move by L&L thus far.
September 4th, 2014 at 8:21 am
Of course gents don’t make trades, but Joe’s saying Mankins’ agent might have known it was coming. If so it means the agent didn’t tell Mankins so that he could make a choice based on that knowledge. Would an agent sit on that knowledge keeping it secret from the guy he works for? Time to fire the agent if that’s so.
September 4th, 2014 at 8:21 am
I don’t think I would like to know all the games going on behind the scenes involving general managers, coaches, and agents.
Probably not pretty
September 4th, 2014 at 8:34 am
As great a coach as Belichik is, he is the most miserable person every time you hear him. So condescending, how can that interviewer even stand to be in the same room with that hunk of crap. Geez Bill, it’s just football – you know, a GAME! You aren’t solving any world issues or finding the cure for cancer. What a miserable SOB!
September 4th, 2014 at 8:41 am
Good! Now if we could just grab another guard somewhere out there…
September 4th, 2014 at 8:43 am
So Joe and others are suggesting the Bucs GM may have tampered with another team’s internal contract negotiations with their own player? In order to make that player easier to trade for? You realize this would put Licht in a category so far beyond what Belichick has been accused of cheating on – and cost the Bucs draft picks and an incredible amount of negative PR?
This TMZ stuff Joe posts is too funny.
September 4th, 2014 at 8:45 am
Tim Wright lighting up secondaries will make them all but forget mankins
September 4th, 2014 at 8:45 am
@lightning
They say he abhors being forced to speak to the media and is a much different guy in real life. Not sure if true, but, I could understand his lack of congeniality with reporters. Some of those writers think they know more than the coaches (Draft Manziel!).
September 4th, 2014 at 8:52 am
@LouisFriend — Licht can say anything he wants to an agent. That’s not tampering. Stop watching X files reruns.
September 4th, 2014 at 9:02 am
Tim Wright wasn’t even starting for us, so if he’s that good for the Patsies then we must be loaded at TE. ASJ will be a beast!
September 4th, 2014 at 9:06 am
Why?
Do you find The Sports Hub and/or WEEI that much more interesting for sports talk than our local stations?
Errrrr…..don’t answer that.
September 4th, 2014 at 9:18 am
Call him a cheater all you want, most teams would be lucky to have a cheater like that running the show.
September 4th, 2014 at 9:32 am
ODB (can’t get used to your new name),
I doubt any coach’s favorite part of the job is speaking to the media. But without it, then a coach isn’t speaking to fans, which is what pro sports is all about. It’s part of the job – he could do it with some class and dignity.
September 4th, 2014 at 9:34 am
The “Belicheat” thing is getting old now. I think it does a disservice to all of the players who actually won those games. And every team in the league would happily line up for his head coaching services. Plus it just makes you look childish and bitter.
September 4th, 2014 at 9:39 am
There’s a NFL regular season game tonight – I’m really stoked about that.
Not quite sure I care about King and Belicheat with football being here.
I care more about Tedford absence.
September 4th, 2014 at 9:43 am
@Lightning
fair enough!
September 4th, 2014 at 9:55 am
Lots of speculation here. Did Belicheck talk to Licht? Did Licht talk to Mankins’ agent? Will Wright light up Foxboro?
This is the kind of stuff I’d expect to be confronted with on the front page of The Enquirer while waiting to check-out at Publix.
Seriously? ‘Was Belicheat about to cry?’
September 4th, 2014 at 10:15 am
Belicheat should cry.
Mankins is a giant superman from some antediluvian continent.
September 4th, 2014 at 10:22 am
Joe wonders whether it was Licht who quietly advised Mankins’ agent to sit tight and not negotiate with Belicheat because the Bucs would pull the trigger on a trade.
________________________________________________________
So you’re basically saying the Bucs tampered here? Yeah highly doubt it.
September 4th, 2014 at 10:59 am
Just pray he is not another Todd Steussie.
September 4th, 2014 at 11:48 am
Let’s see…..Mankins wasn’t the original player we started talking to Patriots about a trade with in early July. It was a back-up and the Patriots specifically asked for Tim Wright to be included in the trade talks….hmm yea sounds like conspiracy theories are afoot! You know like Bigfoot is an alien and was on the grassy knoll. Or, the moon is hollow and holds secret Nazi-space station that controls the weather.
September 4th, 2014 at 3:00 pm
Seriously? ‘Was Belicheat about to cry?
Nah to Belichick no player except Tom B is greater than the team. Probably went down like Logan will you restructure your contract so we have cap room for a WR? Nope, OK we’re trading you to the Bucs. Good luck