The longtime dance between former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and former president Donald Trump lived in the rumor mill and the grapevine until this year, when Apple’s The Dynasty documentary on Belichick’s Patriots revealed how much Belichick’s support of Trump ruffled feathers among Patriots players.
In an interview on The Herd on Tuesday, former Patriots defensive back Logan Ryan explained how Belichick expressing his political views created a rift in a locker room that had always been told to keep quiet.
“I see kind of the turn of the political statements coming out from Bill, supporting Trump and whatnot, and he said, ‘We’re not going to talk about anybody’s own personal beliefs,'” Ryan said of the changes in New England after he left in 2016. “I saw all that kind of (shake) the locker room, like, ‘Hey we don’t talk about those things, why are you talking about those things?”
Ryan said watching The Dynasty and hearing former players speak out about this double standard confirmed what he saw and heard behind the scenes.
Logan Ryan describes how Bill Belichick may have lost touch with “tired” Patriots locker room by expressing personal beliefs but not letting players do the same:
“Bill, he did a great job of putting this camp around and not letting cameras inside … but times have changed.” pic.twitter.com/7rw2OEZ2t5
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 28, 2024
Belichick infamously wrote a letter to Trump praising his “toughness” and “leadership” on the eve of the 2016 election before later refusing a Presidential Medal of Freedom following the storming of the capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by Trump’s supporters.
Ryan added that when he competed against the Patriots later in his career, he sensed how “tired” and “defeated” New England was top to bottom after so many years of pressure and incredibly high standards.
“Bill, he did a great job of putting this camp around and not letting cameras inside,” Ryan added. “But times have changed, people want to talk about political views. Political views got into football. People want to do commercials. It’s OK to have your cellphone in a meeting. These things, employees in a workplace demand change, and I think as a boss you’ve got to understand that.”
Ryan compared the Patriots’ locker room to the film The Village, in which an old-fashioned, luddite community is operating in modern society.
It became hard to maintain that facade when Belichick himself went outside the rules to express himself.
Now, Belichick is once again looking to the media to rehabilitate his image and find a new job as he chases the NFL all-time wins record for a coach. Belichick will appear on The Pat McAfee Show and the ManningCast each week this fall.
[The Herd]