Bill Belichick squares off against Eddie Shore in the second round of the Boston’s Biggest Sports Legend tournament.
Since 2000, no NFL team has won as many championships as the Patriots. Then again, no other NFL team has Bill Belichick as its coach. After coming to New England in 2000 to bring the Patriots to the top of the football world, Belichick has been at the helm of three world titles and four Super Bowl appearances. With victories in Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII and XXXIX, Belichick has put himself near the top of the coaching ranks in NFL history and, in the process, has turned the Patriots into the model franchise for the entire league. Named AP NFL Coach of the Year in 2003 and 2007, Belichick led the Patriots to an undefeated regular season in 2007 and their fourth Super Bowl appearance in seven years, a feat deemed improbable in the salary-capped NFL. Under Belichick, the Patriots have gone 116-45 (.720) in the regular season and 15-4 (.789) in the postseason.
Eddie Shore, the NHL’s No. 1 hoodlum, naturally fit right into Boston when he dominated the ice surface from 1926 to 1940. In a franchise chock full of beloved goons and bruisers, the “Edmonton Express,” sticks out as the first and fiercest of them all. He pioneered the blue-collar culture of Boston hockey and put American hockey on the map with his vicious and vindictive ways roughly 10 years after the birth of the NHL. Shore set the penalty minutes record in just his second season with 165 and won the Hart Trophy as league MVP four times — only Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe captured more. In 546 career regular-season games with the B’s, Shore scored 103 times to go with 176 assists and 1,038 penalty minutes.
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