Stoned thoughts coming in..holy wall of text..TL'DR

There were alot of rumors coming out of Patriots camp this season and looking at the overall picture of Bill Belichick..I really don’t know if there was some truth to them or if it was just click bait fodder from that rag, ESPN

BB is one of the GOATs in coaching lore, its clear at this point. He learned under another NFL all timer and it would be difficult to find someone with BB’s football knowledge in the history of the game. He’s also a guy who is obsessive with winning to the point of bending the rules as far as they can be bent without having a severe consequence. And its known that he is the one guy who has complete control of football operations for an NFL team. With the people he is hiring it is truly ‘You buy into what I’m selling or you can take a walk.” BB biggest asset is his ability to read people. You can see it when he is observing players at the combine. He’s up there, not conversing much with the other coaches or sitting near them. He is intently scanning the players and trying to figure out who has skills he can utiize, if he can get them at a reasonable cost, and most importantly if they will buy into his process at the cost of being selfless for the team. (Look at Gronk, he parties hard for the summer but when football season comes around, game time. Unfortuantely Aaron Hernandez, he was the same way in regards to showing up to play, but Bill did misfire and missed that the guy was a psychopath, which can be overlooked if someone knows how to cover those feelings in an interview)

There were rumors that BB wanted to move on from Brady for Garoppolo, I have no problem believing this. BB would do whats best for the team and sees players as expendable in that regard. If Brady’s guru bothered BB as much as we know he probably did. Interferring in his day to day operations. It probably would still be difficult for BB to let Brady go since Brady does still look as if he could go a few more years. Brady also has that desire that BB covets. Bill has let plenty of players go and you know all of them bought into his system or they wouldn’t have been there. They all seem to leave the organization saying the same thing “Thank you NE, Kraft, and BB for the opportunity, yada yada yada”. Of all the backups that Brady has had, BB saw that Garoppolo had ‘it’, the tools plus that mental toughness and belief in himself, but not the false confidence version. It’s not a coincidence that Bill traded Garoppolo as far away as he possibly could, the polar opposite division/team. At the cost of better offers rumored to be on the table. The only chance they meet in a game that “matters” is the Super Bowl. That’s more valuable for BB to avoid. BB and Brady are in it to win rings each year and two of the best ever. But I do think BB would have stuck around longer than Brady in the NFL if he still had Garoppolo

As for Malcolm Butler…Bill Belichick sat Malcolm Butler on defense and only played him on special teams because they needed a body out there. Based on rumors it was due to being sick, having a poor week of practice, and he probably broke the curfew doing something he shouldn’t have been doing during the climax of BB’s process. BB is the coach who would let Butler know how selfish he was by sitting him in the the championship game and letting him be the one who abandoned his teammates. BB was going to let the others know that it would not be tolerated. Apparently that divided the locker room. Someone on here made a thread that the Patriots didn’t look as if they were trying out there, I wouldn’t say its because they weren’t trying, they are still professionals who want to win and one of the best coached teams in football. They do the little things right and put the team first, both of those can overcome talent deficit’s on the individual level. But its correct to say that something was off in their body language as a team, you couldn’t really place it at the time but if the locker room was indeed divided over Bill sitting their best corner, that would explain what we saw.

TL’DR: Bill Belichick is on the Mt. Rushmore of coaches. Tom Brady is on the Rushmore of QBs. There were rumors about the organization this year. Bill has always put forth that its about the team first, and when Butler disobeyed, the team suffered.