Spygate Sour Grapes: Patriots' Bill Belichick Still Ignoring NFL Expert Peter King?
This is one comeback that New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick can't ... or won't ... complete.
Several streaks in New England have ended over the past few seasons - including the team's 19-year run of having at least one undrafted free agent make its final roster - but one appears relatively healthy, or toxic, depending on your point of view. This upcoming season will mark 17 years since Belichick last spoke to his formerly close friend Peter King, a long-tenured football writer currently stationed with NBC Sports (previously with Sports Illustrated).
King touched upon his eroded relationship with Belichick in a profile for The Athletic. The three-time National Sportswriter of the Year award winner previously established a strong relationship with Belichick during his time covering the New York Giants, where Belichick won his first couple of eight Super Bowls as a defensive coordinator.
That friendship vanished, King claims, when he was critical of Belichick's role in the infamous "Spygate" scandal of 2007.
"That’s the cost of doing business sometimes,” King said. “He’s one of the greatest coaches of all time. I’m not sure I put him above Paul Brown, but he’s right up there with the greatest to ever coach in any sport. But I think what he did in 2007 was wrong.”
The Patriots' undefeated regular season in 2007 was marred by the haze of the scandal, which accused the team of video taping sideline signals of opposing coaches. It was said to be a practice dating back to Belichick's earliest days at the New England helm in 2000.
The NFL eventually charged the Patriots with the loss of their regularly scheduled pick in the 2008 draft and fined Belichick $500,000 for his role in the activities, the largest monetary penalty ever bestowed to a coach in the history of the NFL.
King named one coach who was more forgiving, saying that he has mended fences with Denver Broncos boss Sean Payton after the former New Orleans Saints chief took offense to an SI-covering column regarding the team's "Bountygate" incidents. He also had kind words for former Patriots franchise quarterback Tom Brady, placing him in a three-way tie for his best interview subjects alongside Brett Favre and Peyton Manning.
