BRADY VS. BELICHICK

Who ya got?

Sports fans constantly compare players, as Myers did in a previous book, Brady vs Manning. But can a player’s value be measured against a coach’s? The veteran sportswriter thinks so. “Who deserves the most credit” for the New England Patriots’ six Super Bowl wins, quarterback Tom Brady or coach Bill Belichick? Myers consults football experts. Some humor him, but others get into the spirit. Ex-Patriot Ted Johnson says Brady deserves at least 60% of the credit for the Patriots’ championships because Belichick focused on defense and “can’t coach offense.” Rodney Harrison, another former Patriot, speaks for some fans when he says, “It’s such a stupid foolish ass argument to sit here and try to figure out which one is more responsible.” There are no statistics that lend themselves to Myers’ made-for-sports-talk-radio debate, so he pens what is essentially a dual biography, retelling familiar anecdotes about pre-Patriots Belichick coaching the Cleveland Browns, Brady being “an afterthought sixth-round” draft pick, and their many shared victories. More than once, he strays far from his ostensible point, recounting Donald Trump’s apparent friendships with the coach and player and airing Tom Brady Sr.’s opinions on Netflix’s ribald roast of his son and Belichick’s harsh treatment of “Tommy.” The elder Brady assures us that his son didn’t lie during the Deflategate scandal. So that’s settled. Myers deserves originality points, though, for he is surely the first writer to contrast Brady’s relationship with former 49ers QB Joe Montana to the “beautiful friendship” of characters played by Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains in Casablanca. Unlike “the politically correct crowd who split it down the middle,” Myers picks a winner in his contrived matchup, but his methodology, like much else in this book, is uninspired.

A weak effort to settle a futile debate.