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Adam Butler reveals a universal fear among players coached by Bill Belichick
Playing for the Patriots during the Bill Belichick era was known for being historically tough because of the winning culture, built upon hard work, no excuses, and doing your job.
Over the years, some spoke out about their time within the organization, some of whom were all too happy to share their unfavorable feelings about Belichick and the environment. Others believed in the hard work and dedication it took to be successful for the legendary head coach and were open to the style he imposed upon the team.
Most of those who have been the most vocal about their negative experience with the Patriots clashed with Belichick at some point or were not on the team for very long. The first part applies to Adam Butler, an undrafted defensive tackle the Patriots signed in 2017.
He spoke about a moment when he felt Belichick had "disrespected him" after a game, so when he recently opened up about a general fear among Patriots players Belichick coached, it wasn't shocking to hear him tell it.
The current Las Vegas Raider appeared on teammate Maxx Crosby's YouTube channel recently and detailed why players were scared of making any sort of mistake when playing for Belichick, causing them to feel like they had to tiptoe around the coach when in New England.
“So if you ever been in his system, anybody you talk to, I don't care who it is, if you’ve ever been in his system, like the fear level is like up here. You know what I'm saying, you’re always on egg shells in the building. You know, you’re always worried you’re going to f— up on this or that.
Because like when he punishes you, he punishes you to the maximum. Let's say you get a personal foul in the game, and the league fines you $15K, this man would turn around and also fine you conduct detrimental to the team. So instead just getting the $15k from the league you finna get another $25k on top of that.”
It does seem over the top, especially if the league had already fined the player for their foul. But at the same time, this doesn't sound like a normal occurrence simply because this detail has not become common knowledge. So, did Belichick really do this every single time a player was fined?
We may never know. Regardless, Butler praised Belichick, stating he is the greatest of all time. But that doesn't change his instilling fear in players.
“I still think he's the greatest coach of all time, I don't think there's really any debate on that. r. “And you can't say that his philosophy didn't work as hard as it might be you know. But yeah when I tell that man would strike fear in you’re a–, he will strike fear in your a–.”