Bill Belichick

Is it just me, or did Roger Goodell come off looking like the shill for the NFL owners that many players in the league have always thought him to be when he opted not to suspend Bill Belichick on Thursday? In Goodell's opinion, Belichick cheated, or at least oversaw a team that was cheating, last Sunday when a team official videotaped the New York Jets' defensive signal callers. Goodell had the camera and the tape, and what he saw convinced him that the Patriots - i.e., Belichick - were cheating.

Now stepping up to the NFL karaoke machine and belting out a few bars of "My Way," the dedicated but dour, self-assured but oft-misunderstood head coach of the Cleveland Browns, Mr. Bill Belichick. "My job is to win. I'm not worried about popularity contests or whatever," said Belichick, 42, who takes his surprising Brownies into Three Rivers Stadium for an AFC division playoff game Saturday against the rough, tough Pittsburgh Steelers. So there is your cue. Ridicule him for his apparent lack of a sense of humor, or for his flat, computer-programmer monotone.

Eagles coach Ray Rhodes recently warned Cleveland coach Bill Belichick not to rule out a rerun of last year's draft day. Before last year's draft, Belichick didn't see Rhodes as a threat. Rhodes was the defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers, who held the 23rd pick. The Browns were picking ninth. "I was at the workouts, next to Belichick at Notre Dame, sitting there with a late draft pick," Rhodes said. "Belichick was drooling over Bryant Young, saying, 'Ray, I'm going to draft this guy. I love him. I've got to draft this guy.' And on draft day, I jumped ahead of him (to No. 7)

Andy Reid never ceases to amaze Bill Belichick. Nearly 7 years ago, the Patriots coach was absolutely dumbfounded as he stood on the sideline of what was then called Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville during the waning minutes of Super Bowl XXXIX and watched Reid's Eagles, who were trailing by 10 points at the time, stroll down the field on a time-consuming 13-play drive as if they were on a leisurely sunset walk along the beach. "Have I got the score right?" Belichick asked his assistants up in the booth via his headset.

This is not what Randy Moss wanted. Not this week, with his team a win away from a Super Bowl berth and two wins away from an unprecedented undefeated season. He did not want to be a . . . distraction! The D word is the scarlet letter of coach Bill Belichick's world, the worst possible thing you could do to interfere with preparation, which is the only thing that has mattered week after week as the undefeated New England Patriots have run roughshod over the rest of the NFL. At 17-0 entering Sunday's AFC championship game against San Diego, the Patriots have shattered some of the game's biggest offensive records, and Moss - acquired from the Raiders through a trade last February - has been a big part of the reason.

It was not Tom Brady's cleanest performance, but then again, for this team of the ages, the first to win 18 games in a season, it did not really matter. The thing about these New England Patriots is this: They are relentless, balanced and loaded with playmakers, guys who, as Junior Seau so elegantly put it, need to go to the Super Bowl, not ones who merely want to go. It had seemed destined for months, and the Patriots made it happen yesterday. New England is headed to Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz.

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick lashed out at the team's former video assistant yesterday, saying in a televised interview that Matt Walsh was a low-level staffer who was fired for "poor job performance. " "There's not a lot of credibility," Belichick said in an interview broadcast on CBS Evening News. "You know, he's tried to make it seem like we're buddies and belong to the same book club and all. That's really a long, long stretch. " Belichick acknowledged that he violated NFL rules prohibiting filming opponents' signals but insisted there was no intent to hide what he was doing.

Marshall Faulk hasn't been ruled out of Sunday's game against the New York Jets despite a bruised right knee. "He really could possibly play this week," St. Louis coach Mike Martz said yesterday. "We're not going to rule the possibility of him playing completely out. At this point, he's listed as out. We'll just see where he is. " Minutes after the Rams' 15-14 victory over the Giants on Sunday, Martz said that Faulk, the NFL's MVP last year, probably would miss three to four weeks.

Tim Hasselbeck spent last fall talking football instead of playing it. He was doing football commentary for a Boston sports radio station, which meant dissecting the way New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick handled his quarterback situation. "[Tom] Brady vs. [Drew] Bledsoe," Hasselbeck said yesterday. "It was fun. It was tough to criticize Coach Belichick. He was making all the right decisions last year. " Belichick and the Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl.

Bill Belichick is hardly the first football coach to "wait and see the film" before answering a question. The New England Patriots head coach raised that ploy to a new level of absurdity yesterday. In a move that kept hundreds of American sportswriters from making their dinner reservations, Belichick further delayed the announcement that Tom Brady will start at quarterback in the Super Bowl. After promising to make his decision after practice, he told a pool reporter that he would "wait to take a look at the tape" before deciding whether Brady's sprained left ankle was healthy enough for him to play.