Bill Belichick Tries The Jedi Mind Trick To Explain Moss Trade

Added on Oct 07, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

…or ‘This isn’t the wide receiver you’re looking for’.

We’ve complained about coaches that won’t just come out and say what they mean in the past, but New England Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick takes it to another level today with a completely unintelligible ’explanation’ for the Randy Moss trade. Despite reports to the contrary, Belichick suggests that the move wasn’t made due to a discipline issue or for financial reasons:

“There was never any incident or discipline problem with Randy, there never has been one with me in four years. It certainly wasn’t about contract and money, I think Randy showed and proved from the first year he was here what that was all about. He [re-did] his contract and made the whole [trade from Oakland] work. I think you can eliminate those two things.”

OK, we can eliminate behavior (despite Coach Hoodie giving the ‘no comment’ to questions about a reported Moss ‘outburst’ aimed at the team’s QB coach Bill O’Brian on Monday night) and money/contract (despite the obvious appearance that Moss wasn’t going to re-sign and the move was intended to get some value in return rather than lose him to free agency). We can also eliminate performance, since Moss is still playing at a high level. So why was the move made?

Belichick only said it was a ‘combination of factors’ without suggesting what those factors might be. In other words, he was as vague as humanly possible without giving a ‘no comment’. This opening statement from his media conference is equally as obtuse:

“When I spoke with Randy yesterday morning, the conversations were consistent with what they’ve been for the last four years: honest, open, very forthright. We talked about a lot of things that I’ll keep between Randy and myself. In the end, it was a difficult decision, but one that I feel is in the best interest of the football team.”

“Our team, organizationally, we’ve had conversations and obviously are comfortable with the trade. We wish Randy the absolute best. He’s been a player I’ve had a good relationship with. He’s very honest, when I’ve asked him questions about football and personnel and things like that. He’s been very helpful to me personally. He’s been very professional and I think a good teammate and a good contributing member of this team.”

“But in the end, that was the decision. I have confidence in our players, that if they continue to work hard and improve that we’ll be competitive and be able to win games. That’s what we’re here to do — win games. We’ve won more games than any other team in the last decade. Hopefully we’ll continue to win them going forward. That’s what we’re here for.”

I get that the Pats have no obligation to explain their thought process in detail, but its just amusing to watch Belichick say so much while not really saying anything at all. James Brown called it ‘talkin’ loud and sayin’ nothing’. Unlike Belichick’s explanation, the ‘Godfather of Soul’ rocked it hard…..