Vote for Belichick was cast by Bob Costas

Not to mention we lose our #1 tailback Maroney, our do-everything Adalius Thomas, our heart and soul of our secondary Rodney Harrison and many other players to IR.

Just a tremendous year and I'm glad Bob had the intelligence to give him some recognition.

Bob Costas gets a vote for Coach of the Year? Well, so much for having media experts pick these awards. He seems the least knowledgeable, least interested in football of the entire NBC Sunday Night ensemble. Maybe they should ask Meredith Viera for her choice.

And just when I thought Costas was a complete dope...

Belichick loses his starting QB. So his team goes from the #1 team in the NFL to the #7 team in the AFC. That deserves a coach of the year award? Seems like a mediocre job to me.

Hey Bob, Thanks for recognized Mr Bill work.

And #4 post, you must be joking...

#4 your an idiot...Good year, US pats fans should really be proud of the team and staff. If someone would have told me Brady's gone 11 plays in and they still finish 11-5(despite competition being what it was, I'd take it!

Peter, it's tiring to read posters whine about how horrible announcers are. Criticize as much as possible but at least provide a name of someone you like. Costas comes from the old ABA and while he's a bit "boys department at Sears" he is very knowledgeable.

I respect him even more for this little incident.

If Bill the GM had re-signed Asante Samuel, maybe Bill the coach would have been in the playoffs.

"Me" - this wasn't last year's #1 team. Plus we lost more than our starting QB - no Maroney, no Thomas, no Harrison, and many other injuries. A quarterback who hadn't started since high school. Mike Smith and Tony Sparano also coached teams to 11-5, last I checked. Get a clue.

23.5 + 22.5 + 4 + 1 = 51 votes not 50.

Agreed. Amazing job by coach Belichick. There's not another organization that could have made this happen.

Take nothing away from Belichick, but how can one NOT vote for the Baltimore Raven's rookie coach John Harbaugh.....he took a 5 and 11 team to 11 and 5 with a rookie quarterback in Joe Flacco... and NO, I'm not a Ravens fan at all............it shows the quality of the voters if Costas was involved .........to me Harbaugh has got to be right up there with Mike Smith and Tony Sparano in votes......

i believe jeff fisher had 3 votes. to add up to 50 correctly.

Belichick loses his starting QB. So his team goes from the #1 team in the NFL to the #7 team in the AFC. That deserves a coach of the year award? Seems like a mediocre job to me.

Really! I mean REALLY!!! - me, lose the best player in the league, lose the two best players on defense, lose your running back, have your back-up running backs injured and put in BJGE, put in a qb who has not started a game since high school, have one of the worst secondary's in the league, and STILL GO 11-5. By the way, they pounded the Cardinal's who have now advanced to the next round. Believe me, I was there to see it. (ME) do us all a favor......run head first into a wall and DO NOT STOP until you can no longer get up. Thanks a bunch!

They should make people take IQ tests before they post. Mike, any way you can test football intelligence before people are allowed to post????

Take nothing away from Belichick, but how can one NOT vote for the Baltimore Raven's rookie coach John Harbaugh.....he took a 5 and 11 team to 11 and 5 with a rookie quarterback in Joe Flacco... and NO, I'm not a Ravens fan at all............it shows the quality of the voters if Costas was involved .........to me Harbaugh has got to be right up there with Mike Smith and Tony Sparano in votes......

He's just trying to get the edge to write the authorized bio of BB

Good catch Jim L. I gave Jeff Fisher an extra vote. My oversight. It is now fixed.
--Mike

I don't care much for Bob Costas, but he certainly got this right. In fact, he understated things a little, if anything.

Thanks, Bill Belichick, for being the Patriots coach. (Raising a glass), "Here's to many more years."

Lets see the facts: 16 teams in the AFC. Patriots finish 7th. Average. Matt Cassel has no experience before this year. Belichick still decides to make him the backup QB for 2008. The defensive secondary has holes. Belichick decides Deltha Oneal is sufficient replacement. The state of the Patriots roster is Belichick's own making. So why are people wanting to give him credit for coaching substandard talent? Sorry you homers. Giving coach of the year to someone whose team finished in the middle of their conference makes no sense. Now take off that Bruschi jersey, go step out of your mother's basement, and do something with your life before the start of next year's season.

Let's see "me". The Pats actually finished 6th in the conference and 9th overall. That appears to be above "average" from where most people stand. "Haters" need to take a math course before next season.

The people without the guts to post their names to their comments are weak and cowardly.
So, consider the source of the comments before you let the comments get you riled up.

I consider Tom Brady a Top #5 QB of all time. Most coaches who lose a HOF QB, best LB, best DB, starting RB will not be contending for playoffs, never mind finish above 0.500. And the arguments about the "state of the roster" vs. "if we only had Asante" really offset each other. Pioli and Belichick make the salary cap work--they are arbitrageurs, despite the mistakes in hindsight. Asante is a $9 mil cap hit this year. You'd prefer cutting 2 of the following: Seymour, Moss, AD, Warren, Light, Vrabel to accommodate Asante? Or let's just cut bottom half of our entire roster to get that $9 mil, which includes Cassel. Tradeoffs in life, tradeoffs in football.

I consider Tom Brady a Top #5 QB of all time. Most coaches who lose a HOF QB, best LB, best DB, starting RB will not be contending for playoffs, never mind finish above 0.500. And the arguments about the "state of the roster" vs. "if we only had Asante" really offset each other. Pioli and Belichick make the salary cap work--they are arbitrageurs, despite the mistakes in hindsight. Asante is a $9 mil cap hit this year. You'd prefer cutting 2 of the following: Seymour, Moss, AD, Warren, Light, Vrabel to accommodate Asante? Or let's just cut bottom half of our entire roster to get that $9 mil, which includes Cassel. Tradeoffs in life, tradeoffs in football.

HELLO FOLKS!! Good news!! We are all entitled to opinions, and some are "worthy" of reading, based on facts. Others are FRIVOLOUS filled with IGNORANCE (THINK COMMENTS BY, THE DUDE CALLING HIMSELF "ME") and lack of factual Football knowledge. So stay off his sinking boat. Hmmm wonder who he roots for??? OK, Bill B. did a heck of a job, but it is not surprising considering The Pats are a TEAM UNIT. He simply plugged in players who get paid very well NOT to sit the bench and to hop in the foxhole when called upon. He does not deserve the Coach of The Year Award, but certainly more than one vote.
The Pats lost many amazing "team" players,, but still went 11-5. They would have been highly competitive team in Playoffs!!!!! Cheers to all the coaches that worked hard!!

Lance, Bob Costas is certainly a terrific broadcaster. Hosting a panel, keeping things lively, he's excellent. One on one TV interviews, again, he's tops. But there is just no question that his insights on the NFL are the weakest of anyone on SNF. I often get the feeling that his producer is whispering in his earpiece the next question to be asked. Does he know more than I do? Absolutely. Is he one of the 50 top media experts in the country? Hardly. I believe he has made no secret of this himself, this seems to be the role he plays on SNF. And I think his vote for Coach Belichick is a reflection of that. It is certainly a sentimental choice, a nice little accolade or acknowledgment of a job well done, overcoming adversity. But in the No Fun League, if you don't even make the playoffs, you can't be Coach of the Year.

As for others, there have to be at least thirty-two beat reporters covering the NFL, probably more in cities (NY, Boston, others) with more than one daily paper. Two from each network is at least eight more, at least half a dozen magazine types, and you're easily pushing fifty.

So Belichick is the coach of the year for making due with sub-standard players that he picked himself? Genius!
Let me guess...it's not his fault that he has sub-standard players...it's the NFL's silly salary cap...right?
Ridiculous.
If the pats are supposed to be about team and hard work...how come all I ever hear from the fans is whining and complaining? That's some real old-school, work-ethic behavior. Stand proud guys.
The new era pats fans are the kind of people who would applaud the Globetrotters for overcoming adversity against the Generals.

No way the hoodie deserves coach of the year. He simply found a new way to cheat.

what if John Harbaugh takes the Ravens to the championship game or the superbowl, win or lose, should he not be considered for coach of the year? Should they wait till the entire season is over before deciding?
BB did a great job, had he got to the playoffs Costas' argument would carry more wieght.
Nevertheless you gotta ask, would any other team have done as well as the Pats did with the same losses?

Sometimes even the best experts, so-called, are wrong. The whole media world lined up behind drafting Vernon Gholston last year. The guy has been a huge flop.

Even a blind squirrel gets a nut sometimes, and if you read Costas comments, he gets a lot of credit for casting his vote where he thought it was deserved and would be missed by others. I don't think he could have made it any more clear that was what he was doing, and he read the situation perfectly.

None of that takes away from the many other coaches that had an equal or even greater claim to the title.

The dude got one...ONE... vote for coach of the year. If he was deserving, someone other than Costas trying to increase ratings for his show would have given him the nod. Ask the people in Cleveland how good of a coach he is. A stand up individual too...ask the teams he videotaped because he 'didn't know he couldn't' or his ex-wife what a great guy he is. The guy can coach, no doubt, but not even close to coach of the year...Costas' vote should be stripped.

DB and Andrews--you big dopes!--go away!

I turned on Around the Horn at the gym and saw those awful "journalists" flipping out because Belichick got one vote. Imagine if he got 5...sheesh.

Costas also says that this award tends to go to coaches of teams that were the biggest "surprise" of the season. There were the 'expected' surprises - teams like Atlanta and Miami, who start the season with low, low expectations, and surprise everyone. The Patriots were an "unexpected" surprise, in that - going into the season everyone expected them to roll along at greatness, tragedy struck (as it always does at some point) early in the season, a college back up takes the reigns and NOW no one will be expecting much from the Patriots. So yah - what the coach did with this team was a big surprise this season. It deserves some cnsideration - no one is saying he should have WON.

costas was right to speak up fof belichick he is one of best best coaches look at all the players he lost this season their are a lot of salty people in the world

So Belichick is the coach of the year for making due with sub-standard players that he picked himself? Genius!
Let me guess...it's not his fault that he has sub-standard players...it's the NFL's silly salary cap...right?
Ridiculous.

Dude, you are clueless too. Its not that they are "sub-standard" players. THEY ARE BACKUPS! In some cases BACKUPS to BACKUPS. I don't think any one player started every game on defense except Mayo (who was a beast) In the last two games Colvin and Seau were playing LB and they were even in the league at the beginning of the season. Despite all that, these "sub-standard" players got the job done to a record of 11-5 (the same record they had in 2001 which earned them a bye) BB found the backups that fit the Patriots team for the right price to keep the team as it needed to be. Name one person he should have chased after?

Andrew, While we're on the subject, lets ask Tony Dungy's son how good of a father he is and what a good example he sets.........oh wait

#4 is obviously an Indy fan. Funny how Manning's offseason surgery justifies (and even more, supposedly makes miraculous) a weak start followed by a bunch of wins over mostly inferior teams. I must have missed where Sorgi stepped in and led them to 11 wins while Addai, Rhodes and a guy from the practice squad all got injured. Dungy isn't great, he should have brought in a guy who didn't have offseason surgery at QB!!1!!! (just to extend the foolish argument that coaches should not receive credit for doing well with personnel problems). Also, the in-season injuries for the Patriots at key positions obviously precluded getting high-quality replacements, but anyone without an agenda knows that.

It's not homerism to think he did a great job. I know fans of other teams who have said the same.

The "7th best" tag is also laughale and intellectually dishonest when applied to assessing how the coach performed. That ranking only applies to playoff seeding. Actually, I don't think the league seeds any after #6, so it has no application.

The bottom line is that he was deserving of a vote (or more). Sparano or Smith should have been the leaders, and they were. No conflict there, unless one adopts the Simple Simon view of the world.

Nice ad hominem attacks, though. He must know Mazz.

#4 comment your a commplete ass we lost key players in are defense adalious thomas, and harrison not to mention who knows how many corner backs. The worst was loosing the best quarterback in the league. To go 11-5 was a great job by bellicheck, i thought the team was gonna fall apart at the seems, but that didn't happen because all of our players respect this guy, i'd like to see what happens to any other team that looses at least 4 key players, I HIGHLY doubt ny of them would go 11-5

Wow.... Look at all you sore losers with all these excuses... Bottom line is that Dungy won 10+ games in EVERY SEASON he coached the Colts. Have some respect, and see that you are all are a bunch of pricks!!! F*#k the Patriots!