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Bill Belichick thinks the Lombardi Trophy should be named after this football legend
"You can’t win games without good players. I don’t care who the coach is, it’s impossible."
Bill Belichick’s resume as a coach speaks for itself, with the Patriots legend winning six Super Bowl titles as head coach in New England — along with another two titles as the New York Giants defensive coordinator.
There’s no questioning Belichick’s role in establishing a two-decade dynasty in Foxborough, with his impressive football IQ, exacting demeanor, and tireless preparation regularly putting his rosters in positions to succeed during crunch-time situations.
But during his latest appearance on the “Let’s Go!” Podcast with Jim Gray, Belichick stressed that most of the credit for championships should still be directed toward the players out on the field.
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“You can’t win games without good players. I don’t care who the coach is, it’s impossible. You can’t win without good players,” Belichick told Gray. “I found that out when I had [Lawrence] Taylor and [Carl] Banks and Harry Carson, Pepper Johnson, Jim Burt, Everson Walls, all those guys at the Giants. And same thing when we got good at Cleveland and then at New England.
“I mean, it’s [Tom] Brady, it’s [Willie] McGinest, it’s [Mike] Vrabel, it’s [Tedy] Bruschi, it’s Corey Dillon, it’s Randy Moss, Troy Brown, Lawyer Malloy, Ty Law, Rodney Harrison. Those are guys that won the games, man. I didn’t make any tackles. I didn’t make any kicks. That was [Adam] Vinatieri [who] made that kick in four inches of snow.
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Even though Belichick’s exhausting prep work and defensive schemes routinely helped his team capitalize against opponents, Belichick stressed that all of those game plans, practices, and film work didn’t mean all that much if the players themselves didn’t execute on the field — especially during critical situations in January and February.
“You gotta have good players and as a coach, you want to give your players a chance to win,” Belichick noted. “You wanna put them in a position where if they go out there and play well, they’ll have a chance to win. That’s what Coach [Bill] Parcells taught me, is there’s always a way to win.
“You just gotta figure out what it is, and you have to give the players a chance. … “You’ve got to have great players, and they’ve got to play well. And I think that’s the key, is getting your good players to play well. And if we look at what happened last week, Buffalo’s players played just a little bit better than Baltimore’s.”
Despite Belichick’s insistence that the players deserve most of the credit for football titles, Gray asked why it is that the NFL’s championship trophy is named after legendary head coach Vince Lombardi.
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“They don’t name it the Star Trophy. It’s named the Lombardi Trophy,” Gray noted.
It didn’t take long for Belichick to offer up a retort.
“Maybe they should name it the Brady Trophy. He won seven of them,” Belichick added.
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