A Tale of Two Bills

I apologize if anyone is actually reading this and is disappointed by the lack of recent updates. I've had a combination of issues with writing a new update, which is mainly due to an inconsistent Internet connection and a lack of inspiration.

The truth is I've somewhat zoned out on the world of sports for the past three or so days. This all started on Monday, as while I was working out I saw on ESPN's Jim Rome Is Burning a group of talking heads do their daily contest of seeing who can argue louder than the others. The then-breaking news of Bill Parcells resigning as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys came up, and multiple people agreed that his resignation was selfish because it was announced the day after the conference championship games. As soon as this show ended, it went into Around the Horn, where it was further argued - albeit not unanimously this time - that Parcells was an egotistical fool who used the NFL to garner his own person some fame by leaving the Cowboys at that time.

Now, I'm not a huge Parcells fan. I think he does have issues with his ego, most notably with his poor handling of Terrell Owens this year. But I think that if the sports media wanted to be angry at a head coach, they should have looked at a one-time successor of Parcells: Bill Belichick.

A bit less than 24 hours before Parcells resigned, we had Bill Belichick refuse to shake hands with his greatest rival of the Patriots' Super Bowl era, Peyton Manning, after Manning's Colts defeated the Patriots for the AFC Championshp. The week before, his players took the San Diego field and did a rendition of Shawne Merriman's celebratory dance, causing LaDanian Tomlinson to call out the Patriots over their behavior. The week before that, the drama between Belichick and his former assistant and current New York Jets head coach Eric Mangini continued over if Belichick would actually acknowledge Mangini's presence. Also, Belichick shoved a reporter out of the way while walking to Mangini.

Despite all of these events - some of which actually do bother me (the Manning and reporter incidents), some of which do not (the Chargers dance) - the media continue to treat Belichick as the second son of God. Even Parcells, typically a media favorite, catches grief on a regular basis from the media. I just wonder what it would take for Belichick to be justly criticized for the things he does wrong.