As a winner, Belichick's a loser

[many a good man]

snip

Yet look at Belichick now. He has morphed from colorless loser to black-hearted bully, from a man whose Patriots teams once exemplified unity to the Oakland Raiders without an interfering owner, from fan pariah here to outcast among his peers.

The plot line for today's Patriots-Jets game is that Mangini is either the noble whistle-blower who outed the Patriots' video spies or the disloyal former lieutenant who broke a Mafialike NFL code of silence about his ex-boss.

If that damaged Mangini, then the spying episode, as well as Belichick's Ming the Merciless reaction in running up scores, has hurt Belichick worse. You have not seen such villainy as Belichick intends to visit on Mangini outside a slasher flick.

Yet the most significant connection is from Mangini now to Belichick in his Browns days. Neither Belichick (a diminished Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, Todd Philcox) here nor Mangini (Chad Pennington, Kellen Clemens) there had a quarterback he could rely on. Mangini is simply Belichick in Cleveland.

more at http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2007/12/bill_livingston_belichick_is_t.html