All eyes used to be on Bill Belichick and Eric Mangini when they would meet at midfield for their postgame handshakes. Now, in the wake of Sunday's Jim Harbaugh–Jim Schwartz debacle, the New England head coach has spoken out about the NFL tradition.
Belichick feels like the media has turned it into what it is today — a heavily scrutinized event that often overshadows the game.
"Like a lot of things in football it's become something a lot different than what it really was intended to be or really is," he said. "I think there was a time when you could go out there and actually exchange some words with your competitor after the game, like a lot of other players do, you have a relationship with a guy or whatever and after the game you go up say something to him."
"Of course, now it's so heavily scrutinized by the media that it is an event bigger than the game itself which is so absurd," he added. "Like a lot of things it takes any personalization out of the game and makes it a public topic for discussion. I think it's ridiculous that the media focuses on it the way it does. I'd like to think the reason the people are there is to see the game and see the competition, but we seem to want to talk about anything but the game. That's the media's job so that's what they do but it takes away from the things you would say as a coach."
