By Geoff Walter / SNY.tv

 

Monday I conceded that Jets head coach Eric Mangini was still the schoolboy to Bill Belichick's headmaster. Imagine my surprise when later that day I found out that the teacher was stooping to the level of a delinquent freshman coming to school on the day of the big exam and having not paid close attention to his studies, resorted to peering over his classmate's shoulder and copping the answers.

 

What you can't understand is why Belichick would do such a thing? Why would the man who is considered to be the best in the league, and the coach of the team considered to be among the elite, who has superior people on his staff, and three Super Bowl rings for cryin' out loud take such a stupid risk to win the first game of the season against the Jets who are 50-50 to make the playoffs this year? Is it just a simple case of insecurity? Maybe Belichick's ego just couldn't take being beaten by his former protégé, maybe he had to rub his former pupil's face in the turf one more time since the Pats eliminated the Jets in the wildcard last season, or maybe he just couldn't stand being shown up by the Mangenius, so he had to win at any cost.

It is that deal with the devil which has thrown a shadow over Belichick's legacy now, that grab by Belichick to disrupt the natural order of things: for the learner to one day surpass his teacher and become the master himself. The irony is, to try to keep the paradigm between Mangini and himself intact, Belichick disrupted it entirely. Mangini has now surpassed his former tutor, if not entirely on the field than in character, and he didn't even have to lift a finger off the 'record' button.

Wanna argue with the Ref? Don't like the call? Go ahead and make your own!