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COLLEGE PARK, Md. — For about two hours on a recent March morning, Maryland‘s indoor football facility was quiet enough to hear the smack of the ball hitting the receivers’ hands at the Terps’ pro day.

With 51 representatives from all 32 NFL teams watching and taking notes, the auditions were consequential and, at times, tense — until the reggae music began blasting through the speakers.

The song by artist Lucky Dube was a special request from the Big Ten’s all-time leading passer, Hawaii native Taulia Tagovailoa, as he began to showcase his arm strength with some deep passes.

“I’m an island boy,” Tagovailoa said with a smile following his throwing session, noting the braids sprouting from the top of his head as evidence of his laid-back, pro day vibe.

As the younger brother of Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, it’s impossible for Taulia to forget where he came from — or where he’s trying to go. The two brothers, once teammates at Alabama, continue to forge their own paths but are forever linked by Tua’s success — the barometer by which Taulia will always be measured. And while Taulia leaves Maryland as one of the most decorated quarterbacks in school history, his potential to go undrafted leaves him in a familiar position — looking up at his brother, the No. 5 overall pick in 2020.

“That’s one of the things when Taulia came here that was a concern of mine because I understood the family dynamics, understood being in Tua’s shadow,” said Maryland coach Mike Locksley, who recruited Taulia when he was the offensive coordinator at Alabama before reuniting with him at Maryland. “But what I’ve been able to see, and if you ever get to know the kid, he’s a kid that’s really stood on his own.

“His stats provide that data to show that he’s a guy that can make those type of plays. I thought he handled — because of his love for his brother — being in that shadow as an honor, rather than something as a hindrance.”


TUA, A 2023 Pro Bowl selection, has started 51 NFL games, completed 66.9% of his passes (second best in team history) and has the best passer rating (97.1) in Dolphins history. In 2022, at just 24 years old, Tua became the youngest NFL quarterback since Dan Marino in 1984 to lead the league in passer rating, with his 105.5 just a notch above reigning Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes (105.2).

It’s a standard Taulia said he considers a “big blessing” as he works to join Tua at the professional level. But the NCAA played a role in his decision to enter the draft earlier than Taulia had hoped. In early January, Tagovailoa entered the NCAA transfer portal and filed a waiver with the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility to improve his draft stock.

“The opportunities these kids have with the extra year, the NIL piece, that’s a smart business decision that Taulia made, his family and his group decided,” Locksley said. “I thought it was a great decision on his part to maximize the financial gains of college if you’re not maybe where you see yourself at the next level.”

Taulia’s waiver request focused on the circumstances surrounding his freshman season in 2019, when he was Alabama’s third-string quarterback behind his brother, who was the starter, and backup Mac Jones. That season, Taulia played in five games — barely.

He played four total snaps in two of those games, including a 38-7 route at Mississippi State when he entered to honor Tua, who suffered a severe hip injury earlier in the game. The maximum threshold for redshirting is playing in four games. The 2020 season doesn’t count toward eligibility because of rules that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, which would have left Taulia another year to play if he had redshirted in 2019.

“Going into college you always have goals, and I just wanted more,” he said. “I felt like I left a lot of plays out on the field, and with another year, I felt it was going to be another opportunity to show what I can do and maybe improve on the things I didn’t do well the past couple of years. That’s all I was trying to do with getting another year.”

Maryland filed the waiver on his behalf, and coach Nick Saban and Alabama wrote a letter of support to the NCAA, according to ESPN sources. The NCAA denied his request a few weeks later, and Tagovailoa left for California, where he trained for Maryland’s pro day.

The NCAA declined to comment on the case.

“When the NCAA didn’t accept it, I felt like it was God’s plan for me to — I mean, I only had one decision,” Taulia said, “to go to the NFL draft.”


TAULIA’S PATH WAS more indirect than his brother’s from the start, even though they both began at Alabama.

Tua quickly made a name for himself as a freshman in 2017, when Saban made the historic coaching decision of benching Jalen Hurts at halftime of the national championship game against Georgia in favor of Tua. He threw the winning touchdown pass in overtime and was named the game’s offensive MVP.

In 2019, when Taulia was a freshman at Alabama, his older brother reached the peak of his collegiate career before suffering the season-ending injury at Mississippi State in mid-November. Despite having his Alabama career cut short by injury, Tua finished his junior season as the program leader in total touchdowns with 96 (87 passing, nine rushing).

Meanwhile, Taulia completed nine passes for 100 yards and one touchdown in five games. With Jones the heir apparent to Tua at Alabama, Taulia transferred to Maryland following the 2019 season in search of more playing time.

He found it.

Taulia finished his collegiate career with 11,356 passing yards, eclipsing almost every Maryland passing record along the way. He set a school mark for touchdowns (77), career completions (955), career completion percentage (67.1) and career 300-yard games (15).

Despite his eye-popping numbers, Taulia wasn’t invited to the NFL combine. Taulia is also not listed among the 257 players ESPN NFL draft analyst Matt Miller projects to be chosen in the seven rounds.

As scouts watched him at Maryland’s pro day, the reviews were similar — Taulia is a “camp player only right now.”

“He has experience, was very productive in college, is very athletic and can extend plays,” one NFL scout told ESPN. “He escapes the pocket too soon, though, and his accuracy on film is not good.”‘

Taulia said his brother has been giving him advice.

“I want to be where he’s at, and he helps me a lot,” Taulia said. “The biggest thing for me, he knows how to talk to me. I’m more like, ‘What should I do? Just tell me what it is; don’t beat around.’ Basically, just be myself and have fun.

“It’s not a make-or-break thing if I don’t do good. It’s just being right with myself and making sure I’m at peace with everything and putting in the work the right way.”

Taulia had an impressive showing at the East-West Shrine Bowl, where he completed nine passes for 142 yards and no interceptions. He also added a rushing touchdown.

He said his strengths are throwing the football from the shotgun and being on the move and scrambling — he had 201 career rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns for the Terps — but felt his arm strength has been one of the scouts’ biggest questions. One NFL scout agreed, and told ESPN that overall, Taulia is “not a pocket passer and plays small.”

“He has to be outside the pocket to make throws and see,” the scout said. “He’s not consistent enough.”

Locksley said Taulia’s biggest growth since his freshman season at Alabama has been the “football intelligence piece.”

“Throwing the football’s not the question,” Locksley said. “What I’ve seen Taulia be able to do, with this father who’s trained two NFL quarterbacks, is the mental piece of it, the maturity that comes with being able to make the right decision at the right time. I’ve seen that growth, I’ve seen the football maturity out of Taulia, and he will make somebody’s NFL team because he is talented enough.”

Locksley also noted that Taulia has had success in Maryland’s pro-style system, which will equate to him being able to play for any team in the NFL.

“I know I’m a leader and a hard worker,” Taulia said. “I’ve earned the respect of people in the locker room, every locker room I’ve went to. I’m a competitor and I love my teammates. That’s the biggest thing, you earning their respect. I’m going to give it my all in everything I do.”

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College football Luck Index 2025: Who needs luck on their side next season?

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College football Luck Index 2025: Who needs luck on their side next season?

Almost no word in the English language makes a college football fan more defensive than the L-word: luck.

We weren’t lucky to have a great turnover margin — our coaches are just really good at emphasizing ball security! We’re tougher than everyone else — that’s why we recovered all those fumbles!

We weren’t lucky to win all those close games — we’re clutch! Our coaches know how to press all the right buttons! Our quarterback is a cool customer!

We weren’t lucky to have fewer injuries than everyone else — our strength-and-conditioning coach is the best in America! And again: We’re just tougher!

As loath as we may be to admit it, a large percentage of a given college football season — with its small overall sample of games — is determined by the bounce of a pointy ball, the bend of a ligament and the whims of fate. Certain teams will end up with an unsustainably good turnover margin that turns on them the next year. Certain teams (often the same ones) will enjoy a great run of close-game fortune based on some combination of great coaching, sturdy quarterback play, timely special teams contributions … and massive amounts of unsustainable randomness. Certain teams will keep their starting lineups mostly intact for 12 or more games while another is watching its depth chart change dramatically on a week-to-week basis.

As we prepare for the 2025 college football season, it’s worth stepping back and looking at who did, and didn’t, get the bounces in 2024. Just because Lady Luck was (or wasn’t) on your side one year, doesn’t automatically mean your fortunes will flip the next, but that’s often how these things go. Be it turnovers, close-game fortune or injuries, let’s talk about the teams that were dealt the best and worst hands last fall.

Jump to a section:
Turnover luck | Close games luck
Injuries and general shuffling | Turnaround candidates

Turnover luck

In last year’s ACC championship game, Clemson bolted to a 24-7 halftime lead, then white-knuckled it to the finish. SMU came back to tie the score at 31 with only 16 seconds left, but Nolan Hauser‘s 56-yard field goal at the buzzer gave the Tigers a 34-31 victory and a spot in 2024’s College Football Playoff at Alabama’s expense.

In the first series of the game, Clemson’s T.J. Parker pulled a perfect sack-and-strip of SMU QB Kevin Jennings, forcing and falling on a loose ball at the SMU 33-yard line. Clemson scored two plays later to take a 7-0 lead. Late in the first quarter, Khalil Barnes picked off a Jennings pass near midfield, ending what could have become a scoring threat with one more first down. A few minutes later, Clemson’s Cade Klubnik fumbled at the end of a 14-yard gain, but tight end Jake Briningstool recovered it at midfield, preventing another potential scoring threat from developing. (Klubnik fumbled seven times in the 2024 season but lost only one of them.)

Early in the third quarter, after SMU cut Clemson’s lead to 24-14, David Eziomume fumbled the ensuing kickoff at the Clemson 6, but teammate Keith Adams Jr. recovered it right before two SMU players pounced.

Over 60 minutes, both teams fumbled twice, and Clemson defended (intercepted or broke up) eight passes to SMU’s seven. On average, 50% of fumbles are lost and about 21% of passes defended become INTs, so Clemson’s expected turnover margin in this game was plus-0.2 (because of the extra pass defended). The Tigers’ actual turnover margin was plus-2, a difference of 1.8 turnovers in a game they barely won.

Clemson was obviously a solid team in 2024, but the Tigers probably wouldn’t have reached the CFP without turnovers luck. For the season, they fumbled 16 times but lost only three, and comparing their expected (based on the averages above) and actual turnover margins, almost no one benefited more from the randomness of a bouncing ball.

It probably isn’t a surprise to see that, of last year’s 12 playoff teams, eight benefited from positive turnovers luck, and six were at plus-3.3 or higher. You’ve got to be lucky and good to win, right?

You aren’t often lucky for two straight years, though. It might be noteworthy to point out that, of the teams in Mark Schlabach’s Way-Too-Early 2025 rankings, five were in the top 20 in terms of turnovers luck: No. 5 Georgia, No. 7 Clemson, No. 9 BYU, No. 11 Iowa State and No. 17 Indiana (plus two others from his Teams Also Considered list: Army and Baylor).

It’s also noteworthy to point out that three teams on Schlabach’s list — No. 6 Oregon, No. 8 LSU and No. 15 SMU — ranked in the triple-digits in terms of turnovers luck. Oregon started the season 13-0 without the benefit of bounces. For that matter, Auburn, a team on the Also Considered list, ranked 125th in turnovers luck in a season that saw the Tigers go just 1-3 in one-score finishes. There might not have been a more what-could-have-been team in the country than Hugh Freeze’s Tigers.


Close games

One of my favorite tools in my statistical toolbox is what I call postgame win expectancy. The idea is to take all of a game’s key, predictive stats — all the things that end up feeding into my SP+ rankings — and basically toss them into the air and say, “With these stats, you could have expected to win this game X% of the time.”

Alabama‘s 40-35 loss to Vanderbilt on Oct. 5 was one of the most impactful results of the CFP race. It was also one of the least likely results of the season in terms of postgame win expectancy. Bama averaged 8.8 yards per play to Vandy’s 5.6, generated a 56% success rate* to Vandy’s 43% and scored touchdowns on all four of its trips into the red zone. It’s really hard to lose when you do all of that — in fact, the Crimson Tide’s postgame win expectancy was a whopping 98.5%. (You can see all postgame win expectancy data here)

(* Success rate: how frequently an offense is gaining at least 50% of necessary yardage on first down, 70% on second and 100% on third and fourth. It is one of the more reliable and predictive stats you’ll find, and it’s a big part of SP+.)

Vandy managed to overcome these stats in part because of two of the most perfect bounces you’ll ever see. In the first, Jalen Milroe had a pass batted at the line, and it deflected high into the air and, eventually, into the arms of Randon Fontenette, who caught it on the run and raced 29 yards for a touchdown and an early 13-0 lead.

In the second half, with Bama driving to potentially take the lead, Miles Capers sacked Milroe and forced a fumble; the ball sat on the ground for what felt like an eternity before Yilanan Ouattara outwrestled a Bama lineman for it. Instead of trailing, Vandy took over near midfield and scored seven plays later. It took turnovers luck and unlikely key-play execution — despite a 43% success rate, Diego Pavia and the Commodores went 12-for-18 on third down and 1-for-1 on fourth — for Vandy to turn a 1.5% postgame win expectancy into a victory. It also wasn’t Alabama’s only incredibly unlikely loss: The Tide were at 87.8% to beat Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl but fell 19-13.

(Ole Miss can feel the Tide’s pain: The Rebels were at 76.0% postgame win expectancy against Kentucky and 73.7% against Florida. There was only a 6% chance that they would lose both games, and even going 1-1 would have likely landed them a CFP bid. They lost both.)

Adding up each game’s postgame win expectancy is a nice way of seeing how many games a team should have won on average. I call this a team’s second-order win total. Alabama was at 10.7 second-order wins but went 9-4. That was one of the biggest differences of the season. Somehow, however, Iron Bowl rival Auburn was even more unfortunate.

Based solely on stats, Arkansas State should have won about four games, and Auburn should have won about eight. Instead, the Red Wolves went 8-5 and the Tigers went 5-7.

Comparing win totals to these second-order wins is one of the surest ways of identifying potential turnaround stories for the following season. In 2023, 15 teams had second-order win totals at least one game higher than their actual win totals — meaning they suffered from poor close-game fortune. Ten of those 15 teams saw their win totals increase by at least two games in 2024, including East Carolina (from 2-10 to 8-5), TCU (5-7 to 9-4), Pitt (3-9 to 7-6), Boise State (8-6 to 12-2) and Louisiana (6-7 to 10-4). On average, these 15 teams improved by 1.9 wins.

On the flip side, 19 teams overachieved their second-order win totals by at least 1.0 wins in 2023. This list includes both of 2023’s national title game participants, Washington and Michigan. The Huskies and Wolverines sank from a combined 29-1 in 2023 to 14-12 in 2024, and it could have been even worse. Michigan overachieved again, going 8-5 despite a second-order win total of 6.0. Other 2023 overachievers weren’t so lucky. Oklahoma State (from 10-4 to 3-9), Wyoming (from 9-4 to 3-9), Northwestern (from 8-5 to 4-8) and NC State (from 9-4 to 6-7) all won more games than the stats expected in 2023, and all of them crumpled to some degree in 2024. On average, the 19 overachieving teams regressed by 1.9 wins last fall.

It’s worth keeping in mind that several teams in Schlabach’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 — including No. 6 Oregon, No. 8 LSU, No. 11 Iowa State, No. 13 Illinois and, yes, No. 21 Michigan — all exceeded statistical expectations in wins last season, as did Also Considered teams like Army, Duke, Missouri and Texas Tech. The fact that Oregon and LSU overachieved while suffering from poor turnovers luck is (admittedly) rather unlikely and paints a conflicting picture.

Meanwhile, one should note that three Way-Too-Early teams — No. 12 Alabama, No. 23 Miami and No. 25 Ole Miss (plus Washington and, of course, Auburn from the Also Considered list) — all lost more games than expected last season. With just a little bit of good fortune, they could prove to be awfully underrated.


Injuries and general shuffling

Injuries are hard to define in college football — coaches are frequently canny in the information they do and do not provide, and with so many teams in FBS, it’s impossible to derive accurate data regarding how many games were missed due to injury.

We can glean quite a bit from starting lineups, however. Teams with lineups that barely changed throughout the season were probably pretty happy with their overall results, while teams with ever-changing lineups likely succumbed to lots of losses. Below, I’ve ranked teams using a simple ratio: I compared (a) the number of players who either started every game or started all but one for a given team to (b) the number of players who started only one or two games, likely as a stopgap. If you had far more of the former, your team likely avoided major injury issues and, with a couple of major exceptions, thrived. If you had more of the latter, the negative effects were probably pretty obvious.

Despite the presence of 1-11 Purdue and 2-10 Kennesaw State near the top of the list — Purdue fielded one of the worst power conference teams in recent memory and barely could blame injury for its issues — you can still see a decent correlation between a positive ratio and positive results. The six teams with a ratio of at least 2.8 or above went a combined 62-22 in 2024, while the teams with a 0.5 ratio or worse went 31-56.

Seven of nine conference champions had a ratio of at least 1.3, and 11 of the 12 CFP teams were at 1.44 or higher (five were at 2.6 or higher). Indiana, the most shocking of CFP teams, was second on the list above; epic disappointments like Oklahoma and, especially, Florida State were near the bottom. (The fact that Georgia won the SEC and reached the CFP despite a pretty terrible injury ratio speaks volumes about the depth Kirby Smart has built in Athens. Of course, the Dawgs also enjoyed solid turnovers luck.)


Major turnaround candidates

It’s fair to use this information as a reason for skepticism about teams like Indiana (turnovers luck and injuries luck), Clemson (turnovers luck), Iowa State (close-games luck), Penn State (injuries luck) or Sam Houston (all of the above, plus a coaching change), but let’s end on an optimistic note instead. Here are five teams that could pretty easily enjoy a big turnaround if Lady Luck is a little kinder.

Auburn Tigers: Auburn enjoyed a better success rate than its opponents (44.7% to 38.5%) and made more big plays as well (8.9% of plays gained 20-plus yards versus 5.7% for opponents). That makes it awfully hard to lose! But the Tigers made exactly the mistake they couldn’t make and managed to lose games with 94%, 76% and 61% postgame win expectancy. There’s nothing saying this was all bad luck, but even with a modest turnaround in fortune, the Tigers will have a very high ceiling in 2025.

Florida Gators: The Gators improved from 41st to 20th in SP+ and from 5-7 to 8-5 overall despite starting three quarterbacks and 12 different DBs and ranking 132nd on the list above. That says pretty spectacular things about their overall upside, especially considering their improved experience levels on the O-line, in the secondary and the general optimism about sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway.

Florida Atlantic Owls: Only one team ranked 111th or worse in all three of the tables above — turnovers luck (111th), second-order win difference (121st) and injury ratio (131st). You could use this information to make the case that the Owls shouldn’t have fired head coach Tom Herman, or you could simply say that new head coach Zach Kittley is pretty well-positioned to get some bounces and hit the ground running.

Florida State Seminoles: There was evidently plenty of poor fortune to go around in the Sunshine State last season, and while Mike Norvell’s Seminoles suffered an epic hangover on the field, they also didn’t get a single bounce: They were 129th in turnovers luck, 99th in second-order win difference and 110th in injury ratio. Norvell has brought in new coordinators and plenty of new players, and the Noles are almost guaranteed to jump up from 2-10. With a little luck, that jump could be a pretty big one.

Utah Utes: Along with UCF, Utah was one of only two teams to start four different quarterbacks in 2024. The Utes were also among only four teams to start at least 11 different receivers or tight ends and among five teams to start at least nine defensive linemen. If you’re looking for an easy explanation for how they fell from 65th to 96th in offensive SP+ and from 8-5 to 5-7 overall, that’s pretty succinct and telling.

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Good Cheer rallies in slop to win Kentucky Oaks

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Good Cheer rallies in slop to win Kentucky Oaks

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Unbeaten filly Good Cheer rallied on the outside through the slop to overtake Tenma by the final furlong and win the 151st Kentucky Oaks on Friday at Churchill Downs.

Louisville-born trainer Brad Cox watched the heavy 6-5 favorite cover 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.15 with Luis Saez aboard. Good Cheer paid $4.78, $3.62 and $3.02 for her seventh dominant victory.

The bay daughter of Megdalia d’Oro and Wedding Toast by Street entered the Oaks with a combined victory margin of more than 42 lengths, and on Friday, she added more distance to her resume with a stunning surge over a mushy track.

Cox, who grew up blocks from Churchill Downs, earned his third Oaks win and Saez his second.

Drexel Hill paid $21.02 and $11.76 for second while Bless the Broken was third and returned $4.78.

A thunderstorm that roared through about two hours before the scheduled post left the track soggy and sent many of the 100,910 fans seeking shelter at the track’s urging. The $1.5 million showcase for 3-year-old fillies was delayed by 10 minutes, and the conditions proved to be a minor nuisance for Good Cheer.

She was off the pace after starting from the No. 11 post but well within range of the leaders before charging forward through the final turns. Good Cheer was fourth entering the stretch and closed inside and into the lead, pulling away for her fourth win at Churchill Downs and second in the mud.

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Wetzel: Never mind the girlfriend kerfuffle. Belichick will always be fine.

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Wetzel: Never mind the girlfriend kerfuffle. Belichick will always be fine.

It once seemed improbable that the most compelling figure of the college football offseason would be Bill Belichick’s 24-year-old girlfriend, but somehow, here we are.

Jordon Hudson’s spot in Belichick’s life has always been a public talking point. After all, they started dating two years ago, when Belichick was 71. Of late, though, she’s become an obsession.

Belichick is arguably the greatest coach in the history of the sport, winner of six Super Bowls leading the New England Patriots. His jump to the college ranks and the University of North Carolina is, for purely football reasons, of great intrigue.

Would this work? Could this work?

Currently though, the focus is on Hudson, who takes an active role in managing Belichick’s affairs, including running point on publicity for his new book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football.”

That includes a viral clip from a “CBS Sunday Morning” interview when Hudson shut down a question about how the two met and was deemed a “constant presence.” That led to all sorts of attention on the relationship, not to mention Belichick’s acuity and Hudson’s recent real estate holdings. Former Patriots great Ted Johnson even told WEEI radio in Boston that “the Tar Heels should consider firing Bill Belichick.”

A few days into this modern controversy, where a social media clip redefines someone with decades in the public eye, can we all settle down for a moment?

As with any relationship, only Belichick and Hudson are privy to what is transpiring between them. But as sensationalistic as all the TikTok comments and website stories currently are, when it comes to actually coaching a football team, let’s settle back on one undeniable truth.

This is Bill Belichick.

Sure, the current attention can be fairly labeled as the kind of “distraction” that might personally crush and professionally derail most people. Belichick is not most people.

“Never been too worried about what everyone else thinks,” Belichick told CBS.

If you allow his history — a lesson from his life in football, if you will — to inform, then you would know that there has rarely, if ever, been any personal feud, situation, tabloid headline or bit of accusational strife that has derailed the man’s single-minded focus on winning.

Belichick doesn’t just thrive in the briar patch of controversy — he seems to prefer it. The more external noise, the better.

A former player standing trial for murder? Win the Super Bowl.

Accused of illegally videotaping opponents? Post a 16-0 season.

A star quarterback alleged to have cheated to win the AFC Championship Game by deflating footballs? Name-drop “My Cousin Vinny” in a news conference, then win the Super Bowl.

Have the team get fined and stripped of a first-round draft pick and the quarterback suspended for the start of the season? Win another Super Bowl.

Maybe this isn’t what he was expecting from the book release, but let’s be clear, he was expecting to create a major media stir.

Belichick is famously passive-aggressive. When he never once mentioned Patriots owner Robert Kraft in his memoir — not even in the acknowledgments — he did so expecting a commotion. This was likely to make it clear that Belichick believed the Patriots’ success during their 24 years together was more based on the coaches and players than the very front-facing owner who, depending whose version you believe, fired Belichick in January 2024.

This was throwing red meat to the sports media machine. It just turned out that the Hudson situation represented even more red meat to the far larger American pop culture/social media machine.

Belichick might not have seen this coming, but this is how he has always operated. He welcomes speculation and even being painted as the villain. Even his closest confidants, from Bill Parcells to Tom Brady, often wind up in prolonged, public ice-outs. There are the endless scraps with the media, the league office, officials or other coaches.

The public questioning his actions and motivation? Please.

Consider that back nearly two decades ago, the NFL made a deal with Reebok for its coaches to wear approved clothes. Belichick bristled at being told what to wear. In an act of fashion defiance, both Patriots and Belichick sources say, he took a plain gray sweatshirt and cut off the sleeves to make it ugly. (It inadvertently became a huge seller, labeled the “BB Hoodie” in the Patriots Pro Shop.)

Or when, in an effort to protest the NFL making teams categorize player injuries — doubtful, questionable, etc. — Belichick began listing Brady as “probable” on the report with a shoulder injury week after week for years despite there being no known injury. Brady would just laugh when asked about it.

Or when he thought the NFL was getting too commercialized, so he refused to have his name used by EA Sports in the Madden video game — “NE Coach” was all that was listed — even though he would make money for literally doing nothing.

Or maybe consider in 2000, when he reversed course on accepting the head coaching job with the New York Jets. Rather than get all apologetic, he handwrote a note that read: “I resign as HC of the NYJ.”

He loves this stuff. Like many highly competitive people, finding an enemy, or some doubt, or some negative opinion about him seemingly feeds him. It certainly doesn’t cause him to wilt.

The current kerfuffle isn’t much different from past ones. He’s been through divorce, and his dating life was even fodder for the New York tabloids. It didn’t matter. He just kept winning.

All of that makes it unlikely that Hudson is somehow bossing Belichick around — or that she would even want to. This is just BB.

Whatever happens with the couple — we wish them the best — is one thing, but anyone who thinks Belichick is somehow incapable of weathering some gossip or jokes, or won’t be laser-focused on coaching, teaching and preparing his players, hasn’t been paying attention.

Here’s guessing Belichick will be fine. He always has been.

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