Skip Bayless usually only has glowing things to say about Tom Brady, but the same certainly can’t be said for Bill Belichick.
Bayless, “Undisputed” partner Shannon Sharpe and guest Rob Parker had a lengthy discussion about the New England Patriots on Friday’s FS1 show in the wake of Eric Mangini’s recent comments that he regrets his role in Spygate. Mangini, of course, was the one who turned Belichick into the NFL in 2007 for videotaping opponents’ signals, but he now says “it wasn’t worth it.”
However, if you ask the “Undisputed” crew, Mangini has nothing to apologize for. And Bayless even took it one step closer, calling into question whether Belichick can be considered the greatest coach of all time because of Spygate.
“All I know is, it was against the rules for a reason,” Bayless said. “In perspective, Rob and I have covered a lot of baseball. In baseball, ‘if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying,’ that’s the old saying, right? So they’re constantly trying to steal signals, and they would laugh at this rule. But there was a reason this rule was in place, because you could tape the defensive signals and then go in at halftime and decipher them. So the competition committee agreed, this is no good for our game. …
“I’m good with the rule, I’m good with what Eric did. My problem with Bill Belichick, he is obviously a great coach. (Shannon) and I go back and forth on who gets more credit between Brady and Belichick, and I say 75/25. But I can’t go greatest coach of all time with Belichick because of all of this. And I’m going to bring this up, even thought it might be unfair, but there were lots of accusations by the St. Louis Rams, and then the Carolina Panthers, off those first two Super Bowls, that they were videotaped at their walk-through the night before the Super Bowl. And they have alleged it publicly, both of them. Never proven. Never proven, just for the record. …
“Why would the ‘greatest coach ever,’ why would he have to stoop to any of these things to gain that edge? That’s like rampant insecurity. If you’re that great, you’ll just say, ‘I’ll figure it out. I can beat you within the rules. I don’t need to cheat or even bend the rules.’ “
If that got you mad, Patriots fans, wait until you hear the rest of the discussion the trio had in the video below. Warning, though: You might want to sit down first.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
