Buffalo Bills who could never beat Bill Belichick marvel as mysticism fades: ‘His image has changed'

New York Times

16-06-2025

It's like learning Clint Eastwood doesn't know how to load his .44 magnum, Idris Elba can't tie a Windsor knot, Steve McQueen couldn't drive a stick shift and Prince's lost tapes are just him playing the accordion.
Much of Bill Belichick's menacing aura has evaporated into the ether, never to return.
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His signature schlubby sideline appearance aside, Belichick established an impeccable reputation through years of dominance and cold control over all aspects of his football enterprise and his personal life. Then he started dating Jordon Hudson, nearly five decades his junior.
If there was a Venn diagram of the New England Patriots' dominance under Belichick's watch and the Buffalo Bills' 17-year playoff void, then there would be only one circle. As players from those forsaken seasons see what Belichick and his girlfriend are up to these days, many wonder whatever happened to that ominous Belichick mystique.
This is the guy they couldn't beat for two decades?
'All the distractions that he talked against,' laughed former Bills defensive back/linebacker Bryan Scott, 'that's why he's in the headlines.'
Do your job. No days off. Put the team first. Personal accountability. Commitment, discipline, focus. These beliefs comprise Belichick's core messaging, known collectively as The Patriot Way, an ethos that helped them reach nine Super Bowls and win six. Only Don Shula and George Halas compiled more NFL victories than Belichick's 333, including the postseason.
And no team suffered more than the Bills. He went 37-12 against them as the Patriots' coach and from 2003 through 2010 won 15 straight in the series.
'It's kind of odd to see how the narrative has changed surrounding him, but everybody rediscovers themselves and goes through phases,' said a chuckling Jairus Byrd, the Bills' three-time Pro Bowl safety and the NFL's interception king as a rookie. 'Maybe this is just the phase of life where he's at right now.'
A popular debate was whether Belichick or all-world quarterback Tom Brady meant more to the Patriots' dynasty. The discussion skewed toward Brady when he won another Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Belichick struggled without him.
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Belichick's reputation as a lockdown overlord hasn't subsisted since he undertook the University of North Carolina program and his 24-year-old girlfriend has become popular fodder for celebrity gossip magazines and sports outlets alike.
'It's kind of funny,' former Bills captain and defensive end Chris Kelsay said. 'It's not very reflective of the person we always thought him to be, competing against him and his teams for, in my case, 10 years. He's one of those guys that you would never expect to change, right? It worked for him for so long.
'I don't follow the media a ton as far as college football goes, but some of the headlines are unavoidable.'
We didn't know much about Belichick's depth charts, let alone his ex-wife or his subsequent, longtime girlfriend. Hardcore NFL fans couldn't pick them out of a lineup. But right in front of Belichick at 'The Roast of Tom Brady,' players made lewd jokes about the May-December romance with Hudson. We've seen red-carpet photos of Belichick and Hudson all over the place. She posts candids on her social media to get people talking. A recent example showed them on a Florida beach, Belichick on his back, her in a swimsuit and propped on his raised feet for an airplane ride. She placed third in the Miss Maine USA pageant last month.
That publicity is purposeful and authorized. Belichick and Hudson have generated a lot of unintentional attention too.
There was the 'CBS Sunday Morning' clip of an off-camera Hudson interrupting an interview to promote Belichick's book, 'The Art of Winning.' She objected to co-host Tony Dokoupil asking Belichick how he and Hudson met in 2021 (she would have been a Bridgewater State University student at the time). Podcaster and TV host Pablo Torre reported significant friction between Hudson and North Carolina's athletics department and that Belichick's children (all of them older than Hudson) have grown increasingly worried the relationship is damaging Belichick's legacy. TMZ Sports reported last month that Hudson and Belichick's ex-girlfriend/former foundation director, Linda Holliday, had a confrontation when Hudson surprisingly turned up at Holliday's annual charity Christmas gala on Nantucket Island.
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'Before, he had it locked down in New England and it built that level of mystique,' said Byrd, who also played for the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers. 'You wondered what you didn't know about.
'I would hope he's judged on the merits of what he's done. But it has to do with where we are right now in time. People might think first about him having this 24-year-old girlfriend. His image has changed.'
Belichick tolerated zero nonsense; now he seems knee-deep in it.
Consider how opposing colleges will greet Belichick on their campuses and in their stadiums. All-Pro edge rusher Shawne Merriman played for UNC rival Maryland and knows ACC fans won't be kind to Belichick or Hudson.
'People are going to have T-shirts and signs,' said Merriman, the San Diego Chargers star who spent his final two seasons during the Bills' drought. 'I would let him have it pregame, for sure. I would've talked trash about the picture of them at the beach and him holding her up, something to get under his skin at some point.
'But I don't know if you can ever get to somebody like him. You have to be so thick-skinned. To win like he did, I don't want to say you have to be a psychopath, but you've got to be a little deranged to spend that much time in the office, breaking down film, meetings. It's got to be your life, and you don't get there without being locked in totally.'
Belichick's tunnel vision was evident when he coached the 2006-07 Pro Bowl. Merriman missed fellow drought defensive end Aaron Schobel by two years in Buffalo, but they started together for Belichick in what is supposed to be a casual exhibition.
Schobel, barely suppressing a laugh, declined to discuss Belichick's newly public life. Schobel said little can change his opinion of the coach who beat him 15 times and then somehow turned the Pro Bowl into a dogfight.
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'That game got real,' Schobel said. 'By the end, it was full-speed. We were going.'
We remember that's the game Washington safety Sean Taylor detonated Bills punter Brian Moorman on an unsuccessful fake, but it was a remarkable contest that Belichick insisted his roster practiced hard for in Honolulu.
In the fourth quarter, Schobel tackled running back Tiki Barber for a 3-yard loss, stuffed quarterback Tony Romo for no gain on fourth-and-goal from the 1 and, after the NFC recovered an onside kick, sacked Romo on the next snap. Two plays later, Merriman forced a Romo fumble. AFC kicker Nate Kaeding made a 21-yard field goal as time expired to win 31-28.
'The way Belichick talked to us was something I'd never heard,' Schobel said. 'He went in there at halftime and corrected every position. 'We need to do this with our tight ends up the middle. The pass rushers are running upfield too much. You're hurting us because of this, this and this.'
'I was in my sixth season by then but hadn't had a lot of that kind of talk from a head coach. We would hear individualized feedback from our position coaches, and the head coach would be more like 'Let's go out there and play hard.' What Belichick said was simple, but it was impressive. It was honest and accurate at every single position.'
Belichick was that obsessed with winning. His biggest professional scandals – spying on opponents' sidelines and deflated footballs – dealt with exploiting tiny details to gain an edge.
Belichick's genius was augmented by the intimidating image he created. He relished being painted as a sinister force, his invisible hand working the NFL's levers and haters spitting his name.
Frustrated opponents, meanwhile, mostly admired the hell out of him.
'Anything goes,' Byrd said. 'Whatever it takes to win. That's what made them special.'
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Will all the tabloid sneering seriously impact Belichick's legacy?
'This is going to be a surprising answer even for me: I hope not,' Kelsay said. 'As much as we really disliked the Patriots and the success they had against Buffalo during my tenure there, I'd never guess I'd say 'I hope not' to that question.
'With social media and the talking heads out there and fans who are younger than us and don't fully understand what he accomplished in New England, their opinions and perspective will be different. But he'll always be known as one of the top two or three coaches in NFL history.'
Kelsay's NFL debut was a 31-0 victory over New England on opening day in 2003. Then he lost to Belichick each of the next 17 times they played. Among position players, Kelsay ranks second only to former Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams' 21 defeats against Belichick. Schobel lost 15 times, tied for fourth with cornerback Terrance McGee, defensive end Jerry Hughes and four longtime New York Jets.
Scott conceded the theater surrounding the Belichick-Hudson relationship has punctured the coach's mystique balloon, but offered another point to ponder.
'Look, let's keep things in perspective,' said Scott, a 12-time loser to Belichick, including once with the Atlanta Falcons. 'One of the struggles, whether you're a coach or a player and you leave the game – or the game leaves you – is to find happiness in other things. That's true whether you only got a chance to play one year in the league or you were there for 50.
'I'm happy to see him loosen that necktie a little bit. Or, should I say, take off that hoodie.'