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Tom Brady Trophy? Bill Belichick floats renaming Lombardi Trophy in honor of former QB
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Tom Brady knows a lot about winning the Lombardi Trophy. He knows so much, in fact, that his former head coach in New England is pitching the idea of renaming the trophy in the quarterback’s honor.
During an appearance on the “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Gray, the former head coach of the Patriots who won 6 Super Bowl titles alongside Brady made his case for players ultimately winning games — not the coaches. Belichick then rattled off a laundry list of elite players he credited for helping win Super Bowls, including some from his time as an assistant with the New York Giants.
“Players win games. You can’t win games without good players. I don’t care who the coach is, it’s impossible. You can’t win without good players. You know, I found that out when I had [Lawrence] Taylor and [Carl] Banks and Harry Carson, Pepper Johnson, Jim Burt, Everson Walls, all those guys at the Giants,” said Belichick, who has won eight Super Bowl rings, including two as an assistant with the Giants. “And same thing when we got good at Cleveland and then at New England. I mean, it’s [Tom] Brady, it’s [Willie] McGinest, it’s [Mike] Vrabel, it’s [Tedy] Bruschi, it’s Corey Dillon, it’s Randy Moss, Troy Brown, Lawyer Milloy, Ty Law, Rodney Harrison. Those are guys that won the games, man. I didn’t make any tackles. I didn’t make any kicks. That was [Adam] Vinatieri that made that kick in 4 inches of snow.
“You got to have good players and as a coach, you want to give your players a chance to win. You want to put them in a position where if they go out there and play well, they’ll have a chance to win. That’s what Coach [Bill] Parcells taught me, is there’s always a way to win. You just got to figure out what it is, and you have to give the players a chance.”
Of course, Belichick’s co-host reminded the former head coach that the trophy is named after the legendary head coach Vince Lombardi — not any of his star players.
“They don’t name it the (Bart) Starr Trophy,” said Gray. “It’s named the Lombardi Trophy.”
But that was just a precursor to Belichick pitching a name change for the trophy:
“Maybe they should name it the Brady Trophy. He won seven of them,” Belichick campaigned.
On the one hand, Belichick has a point. Tom Brady retired as the platinum standard of a championship-winning player in NFL history with 7 Super Bowl titles, including 6 with Belichick.
Still, any sort of change such as the one Belichick pitched seems unlikely given the historic and longstanding nature of Lombardi’s legacy and the trophy that bears his name. But at least the head coach can dream a bit.
(H/T ESPN)
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
