So the head coach of the Buccaneers and the greatest NFL coach of the modern era talked about dealing with hype this week.
Listeners of [_The Rock Riley Show_](https://x.com/realrockriley) on WDAE radio today heard an interview with Todd Bowles from an Arians Family Foundation event in South Tampa. Bowles was asked about being a media/betting favorite this season after being in an underdog role in past years.
Bowles said that doesn’t change anything at team headquarters and a steady approach is always been a constant for him.
Joe found that interesting in how it compared to Bill Belichick’s take on the subject.
Belicheat is pimping his new book that’s all about winning on the football field, and he was a guest of host Michael Strahan on _Good Morning America._ Strahan asked Belicheat to elaborate on his belief in delivering messages “that his team needs to hear” versus getting out what he wants to say.
Belichick immediately turned to the regular praise dropped on his Patriots.
> “As a coach, when things are going well, you’re getting a lot of praise, everybody’s just heaping the praise on, and I was really the voice to bring things down,” Belichick said. “It’s like, ‘Well, we’re not as good as everybody’s saying we are. Here’s all the things that we’re not doing well and we need to do better.”
The opposite also is reality for Belichick, he said.
When his teams were getting skewered by media and fans, Belicheat said he would soften up with his players, pointing out how many things they were doing well enough to win — while also noting they weren’t far off from winning if they could fix mistakes or issues in certain areas.
> “I always tried to be the balance on that,” Belichick said. “When things were bad, I try to be positive. When things were good, I had a way of trying to bring things down and say, ‘Look, don’t believe the hype. We still gotta a lot of work to do.”
There are many ways to be a winning coach. Joe is not slapping Bowles here, but Joe sure hopes Bowles knows how to handle a team that’s projected to do great things and one that jumps out to a strong early record.
After 3-1 starts in each of the past two seasons, Bowles’ teams have gone into extended tailspins.
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