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Bill Belichick Sends Message During Stunning Announcement With 'The Pat McAfee Show'

The legendary coach lands his first media gig after parting ways with the Patriots.

Jimmy Traina

In this story:

1. Bill Belichick made an appearance on Wednesday's Pat McAfee Show that was notable for two reasons.

For starters, whether intentional or not, Belichick's background for his Zoom call was significant.

There has been a bizarre backlash against Belichick in recent weeks. The AppleTV+ documentary, The Dynasty: New England Patriots, faces scrutiny for being too anti-Belichick. Former Patriots players who appeared on the show even called out the producers for only focusing on the negative things they said and leaving the positive stories on the cutting room floor.

Then on Wednesday, ESPN released a feature story on Belichick's failure to land a head coaching job after parting ways with the Patriots this offseason. The story had anecdotes about New England owner Robert Kraft telling Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank "not to trust" Belichick while Atlanta was considering hiring the legendary coach. Kraft denied this allegation after ESPN's story came out.

I'm not going to go full conspiracy theorist here and speculate about why there's a movement to discredit one of the greatest head coaches in NFL history or who is behind this attempted take down of Belichick, but it is bizarre. It also makes no sense for one simple reason: HE WON SIX FREAKIN' SUPER BOWLS! SIX!

Who cares if he's stubborn or ornery? Sure, you can criticize Belichick for being a terrible GM in recent years and you can get on him for the Mac Jones disaster, but if winning six Super Bowls doesn't give you immunity from getting bashed, what does?

This brings us back to McAfee's show on Wednesday. Again, who knows if he did this on purpose as a response to the recent hit jobs against him, but Belichick used his background to send quite a message.

Yup, those are Belichick's six Super Bowl trophies on prominent display behind him. Try topping that backdrop!

The other piece of significant news that came out of Belichick's interview with McAfee is that the host announced Belichick would be co-hosting his show's NFL Draft special next week.

Think about that for a second. The NFL Network and ESPN probably did everything they could to hire Belichick for the draft. He chose McAfee. That's why ESPN is going all in on McAfee despite protests from former executives and some people in the media.

The Belichick announcement came one day after McAfee landed Caitlin Clark for an interview.

You cannot be on a better run in the sports media world than McAfee is right now.

2. Back-to-back missed free throws by the Miami Heat on Wednesday night led to free chicken for the Philadelphia 76ers crowd. This led to a memorable call by ESPN's Mike Breen.

3. Tampa Bay Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks, who has given memorable postgame press conferences before, was as honest as you'll ever hear an athlete after he blew a save against the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday by giving up two runs on three hits and a walk.

4. Former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce lost his Super Bowl ring last week when he did a live show of his New Heights podcast in Cincinnati. According to Kelce, the ring disappeared during the part of the show when people had to try to find the ring in an inflatable pool filled with chili and other food.

The best part of this is Travis Kelce's disgust with his brother's actions.

5. If you're an old-school, 1980s WWF fan from the Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan days, you absolutely must watch this video.

6. A brand new episode of SI Media with Jimmy Traina dropped on Wednesday and it features a conversation with the new WWE Undisputed Heavyweight champion, Cody Rhodes.

Rhodes talks about "finishing his story" at WrestleMania 40 by beating Roman Reigns for the title, the epic main event which featured appearances by John Cena and The Undertaker and whether he had a moment with Reigns after the match.

Rhodes also discusses the WWE changing the WrestleMania event after it was announced that it would be The Rock vs. Reigns, the WWE pushing the envelope with its content during the storyline of Rhodes vs. The Bloodline, the special gift that Triple H gave him after the WrestleMania main event, the Undertaker taking the place of “Stone Cold" Steve Austin during the main event and Paul Heyman's Hall of Fame speech.

Other topics covered during the interview include Rhodes’s tour bus catching on fire during WrestleMania weekend, his love of giving out gifts, issues with going to Disney World, being a "needy" superstar and much more.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the tweet below or by visiting Apple and Spotify and you can watch the podcast on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 61st birthday to Conan O'Brien.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X, Instagram and TikTok. 

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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