Was Bill Belicheat About To Cry?

September 4th, 2014

The loss of All-Pro guard Logan Mankins to the Bucs is still a tough subject for the Patriots head coach

The Bucs have All-Pro guard Logan Mankins. The Patriots don’t.

Joe was listening to Tom Brady and Bill Belicheat talk on Boston sports radio about the subject Tuesday, and Joe’s got fresh audio of Belicheat sighing and sounding like a man who just turned his faithful Labrador over to the Humane Society.

In typical Belicheat fashion — on his own weekly radio segment — the Patriots head coach refused to acknowledge that his longtime relationship with Bucs general manager Jason Licht had anything to do with the Mankins trade to Tampa Bay, and Belicheat wouldn’t share any details on how the trade evolved. (What a weanie!)

Belicheat was then tossed a softball question that teed him up to praise his current New England guards, but Belicheat wouldn’t go there. Instead, he lamented the loss of Makins and sighed.

WEEI-FM host: Can we look at the trade as not necessarily an indictment of Logan Mankins, but as more of an endorsement of some of his peers? Did you feel like you can make a deal for Logan Mankins and still have a good core at the guard position?

Bill Belicheat: Well, I think that’s really pretty independent of Logan’s situation. Logan and I talked about his situation multiple times. We tried to look at different options, but in the end we just weren’t able to work it out.

(The full exchange from Belicheat is in the audio below, 8:40 – 10:50.)

Pedestrian-bumpingolive oil-lappingpopcorn-munchingcoffee-slurpingfried-chicken-eatingoatmeal-lovingcircle-jerkingbeer-chuggingcricket-watchingscone-loathingcollege football-naïvebaseball box score-readingNPR-listeningfilthy-hotel-stayingfight-instigatingbarista-training Peter King, of Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports fame appeared on the station yesterday and talked about his 1-on-1 conversation with Mankins after the trade. King painted a picture of a man who didn’t want to leave New England but also wouldn’t cave in to Belicheat’s demands to cut his pay. Per King, Mankins’ agent knew the Patriots would find a trade partner willing to take on Mankins’ salary.

Joe wonders whether it was Licht who quietly advised Mankins’ agent to sit tight and not negotiate with Belicheat because the Bucs would pull the trigger on a trade.

26 Responses to “Was Bill Belicheat About To Cry?”

  1. Netwalker Says:

    “Joe wonders whether it was Licht who quietly advised Mankins’ agent to sit tight and not negotiate with Belicheat because the Bucs would pull the trigger on a trade.”

    So you’re suggesting that Mankins’ agent did this without consulting Mankins? By all reports Mankins didn’t know it was coming.

  2. MGM Says:

    ?? @Netwalker

    Agents don’t make trades. Teams do. The point was Licht might have told Mankins’ agent not to renegotiate because there was a taker (Bucs) for Mankins at full price.

  3. biff barker Says:

    I was about the money. BTW, feel good article on NFL site about NE’s addition of Tim Wright.

  4. biff barker Says:

    MGM is correct. Lovie’s agent didn’t see it coming either.

  5. Andrew 1 Says:

    Very, very happy to have this guy on board. Probably my favorite move by L&L thus far.

  6. Netwalker Says:

    Of course gents don’t make trades, but Joe’s saying Mankins’ agent might have known it was coming. If so it means the agent didn’t tell Mankins so that he could make a choice based on that knowledge. Would an agent sit on that knowledge keeping it secret from the guy he works for? Time to fire the agent if that’s so.

  7. billy buckaroo Says:

    I don’t think I would like to know all the games going on behind the scenes involving general managers, coaches, and agents.
    Probably not pretty

  8. lightningbuc Says:

    As great a coach as Belichik is, he is the most miserable person every time you hear him. So condescending, how can that interviewer even stand to be in the same room with that hunk of crap. Geez Bill, it’s just football – you know, a GAME! You aren’t solving any world issues or finding the cure for cancer. What a miserable SOB!

  9. Skyline Crew Says:

    Good! Now if we could just grab another guard somewhere out there…

  10. Louis Friend Says:

    So Joe and others are suggesting the Bucs GM may have tampered with another team’s internal contract negotiations with their own player? In order to make that player easier to trade for? You realize this would put Licht in a category so far beyond what Belichick has been accused of cheating on – and cost the Bucs draft picks and an incredible amount of negative PR?

    This TMZ stuff Joe posts is too funny.

  11. robert9 Says:

    Tim Wright lighting up secondaries will make them all but forget mankins

  12. Love and Warrick Dunn Says:

    @lightning

    They say he abhors being forced to speak to the media and is a much different guy in real life. Not sure if true, but, I could understand his lack of congeniality with reporters. Some of those writers think they know more than the coaches (Draft Manziel!).

  13. Prince Says:

    @LouisFriend — Licht can say anything he wants to an agent. That’s not tampering. Stop watching X files reruns.

  14. The Fuzzy Red Coin Purse Says:

    Tim Wright wasn’t even starting for us, so if he’s that good for the Patsies then we must be loaded at TE. ASJ will be a beast!

  15. D-Rome Says:

    Joe was listening to Tom Brady and Bill Belicheat talk on Boston sports radio…

    Why?

    Do you find The Sports Hub and/or WEEI that much more interesting for sports talk than our local stations?

    Errrrr…..don’t answer that.

  16. Joseph Mamma Says:

    Call him a cheater all you want, most teams would be lucky to have a cheater like that running the show.

  17. lightningbuc Says:

    ODB (can’t get used to your new name),

    I doubt any coach’s favorite part of the job is speaking to the media. But without it, then a coach isn’t speaking to fans, which is what pro sports is all about. It’s part of the job – he could do it with some class and dignity.

  18. ShutTheBucUp Says:

    The “Belicheat” thing is getting old now. I think it does a disservice to all of the players who actually won those games. And every team in the league would happily line up for his head coaching services. Plus it just makes you look childish and bitter.

  19. Architek Says:

    There’s a NFL regular season game tonight – I’m really stoked about that.

    Not quite sure I care about King and Belicheat with football being here.

    I care more about Tedford absence.

  20. Love and Warrick Dunn Says:

    @Lightning

    fair enough!

  21. dick2111 Says:

    Lots of speculation here. Did Belicheck talk to Licht? Did Licht talk to Mankins’ agent? Will Wright light up Foxboro?

    This is the kind of stuff I’d expect to be confronted with on the front page of The Enquirer while waiting to check-out at Publix.

    Seriously? ‘Was Belicheat about to cry?’

  22. mpmalloy Says:

    Belicheat should cry.
    Mankins is a giant superman from some antediluvian continent.

  23. bucrightoff Says:

    Joe wonders whether it was Licht who quietly advised Mankins’ agent to sit tight and not negotiate with Belicheat because the Bucs would pull the trigger on a trade.
    ________________________________________________________

    So you’re basically saying the Bucs tampered here? Yeah highly doubt it.

  24. Jim Walker Says:

    Just pray he is not another Todd Steussie.

  25. OAR Says:

    Let’s see…..Mankins wasn’t the original player we started talking to Patriots about a trade with in early July. It was a back-up and the Patriots specifically asked for Tim Wright to be included in the trade talks….hmm yea sounds like conspiracy theories are afoot! You know like Bigfoot is an alien and was on the grassy knoll. Or, the moon is hollow and holds secret Nazi-space station that controls the weather.

  26. ToesOnTheLine Says:

    Seriously? ‘Was Belicheat about to cry?

    Nah to Belichick no player except Tom B is greater than the team. Probably went down like Logan will you restructure your contract so we have cap room for a WR? Nope, OK we’re trading you to the Bucs. Good luck