Fans sadly must agree with Patriots HC Bill Belichick’s Yankees take

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick might be transitioning into the Legends Wing of the sporting world soon and away from the active playing field, but as much as Yankees fans detest his team/his region, they must admit that the man’s résumé makes him a consummate winner.

It also makes him someone you can trust on matters of greatness — unless you’re looking for him to name a great offensive coordinator, in which case you’ll probably have to settle for Matt Patricia and like it.

It’s a well-known fact that the way to get Belichick to open up and spill his wealth of knowledge is to ask him in a press conference/public event to start talking about NFL history rather than the here and now. Want to know why something went wrong against the Jets? Belichick’s onto Cincinnati. Want to know his personal ranking of the top-five pocket passers? He’ll unfurl a scroll and start listing them off.

This week, that knowledge-spilling pivoted to baseball, when Belichick called Jabrill Peppers’ onside kick recovery a “shortstop play.” That opened up the door to someone in the press corps asking about his favorite shortstops growing up.

Unless Belichick is much younger than we thought, he managed to manipulate the question’s timeline just to sneak some praise in for Yankees icon Derek Jeter.

Yankees SS Derek Jeter tops Patriots HC Bill Belichick’s shortstop list

Bill Belichick is a genius! We have always said this!

In terms of embodying all the good things Belichick’s Patriots have always stood for — doing your job, winning at all costs, ruthless efficiency — Jeter is a perfectly appropriate choice here, and Yankees fans are simply forced to shake the head coach’s hand one time and one time only.

On the flip side, Jeter’s flair for the dramatic/jump throws might not fly in Belichick’s locker room, and we suspect the Yankees’ captain would’ve had something to say about video taping his opponents’ practices, but we digress.

Belichick embraces greatness, sure, but there’s nothing he likes more than an athlete who’s also a trained media professional, elite at staying on message after dominating between the lines. He and Jeter might just get along pretty well — or, at least, a Belichick/Jeter marriage would be better than Belichick explaining to Ozzie Smith why he should stop doing all those backflips and focus on punt coverage.