Bill Belichick says Lombardi Trophy should be named for Tom Brady

Bill Belichick thinks it's time for Tom Brady to get some permanent glory from the NFL.

Giving an interview on Jim Gray's "Let's Go!" podcast this week, Belichick was talking about the impact players have on team's success relative to coaches. As part of that discussion, he made a push for his longtime star to get some love from the league for his postseason success.

After Gray noted that the trophy given to players is named for Vince Lombardi, who coached the Packers to victories in the first two Super Bowls, and not his quarterback Bart Starr, Belichick joked that maybe it was time for the title trophy to get a new name.

"Maybe they should name it the Brady Trophy," Belichick said, "He won seven of 'em."

"They don't name it the Starr Trophy. They name it the Lombardi Trophy."

"Maybe they should name it the Brady Trophy."

🏆 @Belichick_B & @JimGrayOfficial on always crediting players before coaches, on this week's "Let's Go!"

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Gray's point here may have been slightly misplaced; the trophy was named for Lombardi to honor the Packers coach after his untimely death in 1970, rather than as a celebration of his considerable accomplishments as Green Bay's coach. Prior to the start of the Super Bowl, Lombardi had won three more NFL titles from 1961 through 1965.

While Belichick may have been joking about naming the trophy for the most successful quarterback in league history, his larger point about players being the key to success shouldn't get lost in the hubbub around his Brady comments. He was making a larger point that coaches don't factor into teams' success nearly as much as the players being coached.

"Players win games. You can't win games without good players,” Belichick said on the podcast. "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 [when I was 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 four 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."

Ultimately, Belichick is right about this; while coaches can have an impact on a team's fortunes in both a positive and negative way, the players are the ones who ultimately dictate success and failure. A perfect play call can only go so far if you don't have players who can execute.

But while he may be right about players being the primary difference maker, I wouldn't hold my breath on seeing Brady's name on that trophy for a long, long time.

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