SPORTS

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Okay, so by now most of us know who Bill Belichick is. He's the head coach of the New England Patriots, the team of the decade. He's the proud bearer of-count 'em-- five Super Bowl rings. He is widely considered the most ingenious coach in the National Football League. He's also classless.

Before I go on, let me throw out a quick disclaimer. This particular column has nothing to do with the alleged "Spygate." I can give you a handful of reasons why I lack respect for Bill without delving into the cheating accusations brought against him by former Patriots employees.

He is often seen in a hoodie with cut-off sleeves. I realize that there are more important things than the way one dresses, but this man makes a Central Park hobo look classy. A head coach is generally considered the "face" of an organization. You'd figure this would inspire Belichick to present himself in a professional manner. You'd be wrong.

Belichick is also known to run up scores on his opponents. Take, for example, week nine of the 2007 NFL season. Bill's Patriots are up 38 points on the Washington Redskins late in the second half. Most coaches would be perfectly content in this situation to throw in second-stringers and run the ball to kill the clock. Not Belichick. He kept Tom Brady, Randy Moss and company on the field and continued tearing up the hopeless Skins with deep routes, leading to a colossal 52-7 victory.

A 45-point victory is, in my mind, unacceptable in the NFL. I know teams can come back quickly in today's NFL, Bill, but seriously, there's no way the Redskins were going to put up 39 unanswered in one quarter. You had the game well in hand...why continue to slaughter them?

What bothered me the most, though, was Belichick's behavior during Super Bowl XLII. With two seconds left on the game clock at University of Phoenix Stadium, the New York Giants had stopped the Patriots' final attempts to tie the score. Instead of watching the final play of his defeat, Belichick saw fit to quickly dash across the field to prematurely shake hands with Giants coach Tom Coughlin. He then slipped away into the locker-room along with most of his team, leaving the Giants to kneel the ball to officially end the game.

What Belichick did during Super Bowl XLII was nothing short of disgraceful. Never before have I seen such poor sportsmanship from a NFL coach. A coach should never leave the field early, win or lose.Nobody likes to lose, Bill Belichick can't handle losing. He would rather leave the field early to go hide and wallow in his sorrow.

After the game, when Belichick was interviewed, he gave mainly two-word answers and never gave the Giants one word of credit or congratulations.

The New York Giants deserve more respect than that. Football fans deserve an opponent who doesn't run up the score. The Patriots deserve a coach who doesn't dress like a bum in the biggest game of their franchise history.

Belichick may be the most brilliant, influential coach in the league today, but he is far from the classiest.