Sports fans in the Boston area have become used to Patriot coach Bill Belichick's dour personality, showcased on the sidelines each week during the football season. We've also come to accepted his attitude toward the media, evidenced through the scripted, evasive, dismissive responses in news conferences and radio interviews. It's safe to say that any of us who have ever coached spokespeople cringe at Coach Belichick approach to the media in these situations. For any spokesperson, it's important to avoid providing information that might give opponents a competitive advantage or create unwanted controversy with your public comments, and this is especially true for a coach or manager in professional sports today (we can address the trials of the verbose former Red Sox manager Bobby Valentive at another time). But Belichick takes this confrontational, say-nothing attitude to an extreme. It was there in full force in recent days -- in a post-game news conference and in his weekly radio interview on WEEI. For me, it's an attitude that is not only highly questionable from a PR perspective -- it's disrespectul to the media and to fans. Success or not, this is one fan of the Patriots and follower of the media that finds Coach Belichick's act unacceptable. It's time for this football genius to smarten up.
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