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Belichick chases away Steeler trainer trying to help Matt Light
Belichick went overboard
Bill Belichick has three Super Bowl rings as head coach of the New England Patriots. What he's done there is remarkable, so it's difficult to second-guess anything he does right now.
But what he did Sunday in Pittsburgh when he shooed away Steelers trainer John Norwig from injured tackle Matt Light was a troubling glance at the coach's dark side.
Light clearly had suffered a serious leg injury and was in pain. Norwig, as the home team trainer, offered his assistance -- a common courtesy in these circumstances.
When Belichick wandered onto the field, I thought it was out of concern for his injured player. Instead, he sneered at Norwig, reportedly saying, "Get away from my [expletive] player."
Without having any direct knowledge of why Belichick snapped, here is what I am assuming: He is so paranoid about injury information that the Steelers' trainer presented a potential breach in his ability to control that information. In the coach's mind, it is a competitive issue, which would allow an opposing trainer to inform his own sideline about the status of an injured player.
The competitive aspect of Belichick's actions would have been understandable had it not been so obvious that Light was seriously hurt.
Steve Antonopoulos, the trainer for the Denver Broncos and the president of the pro football athletic trainers (PFAT), told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he had never heard of anything like Belichick's actions in his 30-plus years in the business.
"If a player goes down on the field … and has a recognizable serious injury, the home trainer will go to that area of the field to offer his assistance," Antonopolous told the paper. "That's a common courtesy. That's something each of us does. It helps the situation as it is on the field to expedite the medical care of the individual -- expedites getting the cart on the field, paramedics if needed, if they need to be transported off the field."
Typically, Belichick refused early this week to acknowledge what everyone knew: Light has a broken leg.
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