The envelope please... Thursday, January 3, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | N.E. Patriots The Herald polled the 50 media members voting for the AP NFL Coach of the Year and asked them two yes-or-no questions: 1. Did you vote for Bill Belichick?; 2. Did Camera-gate influence your vote? Twenty-five of the 41 who responded said they voted for Belichick. Of those who didn?t, eight split their votes among five other coaches while six would not reveal their selections. Two others chose not to participate in the poll. Based on those numbers, Belichick will earn the award when it is announced on Jan. 12. Below are the 33 voters who agreed to allow the Herald to use their names and responses: Name--Media outlet--Vote for Bill--Vote influenced by Camera-gate 1. Brian Allee-Walsh, New Orleans Times-Picayune: no, yes 2. Howard Balzer, The Sports Xchange/USA Today Sports Weekly: yes, yes 3. Don Banks, Sports Illustrated: yes, no 4. Jarrett Bell, USA Today: yes, yes 5. Bob Berger, Sporting News: yes, yes 6. Chris Berman, ESPN: yes, no 7. Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: no, yes 8. Mark Curnutte, Cincinnati Enquirer: no, yes 9. Tom Curran, nbcsports.com: yes, yes 10. John Czarnecki, Fox Sports: yes, no 11. Paul Domowitch, Philadelphia Daily News: no, no 12. Boomer Esiason, CBS Sports: yes, no 13. Clare Farnsworth, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: yes, yes 14. Mark Gaughan, Buffalo News: yes, no 15. Bob Glauber, Newsday: yes, no 16. Rick Gosselin, Dallas Morning News: yes, no 17. Tony Grossi, Cleveland Plain Dealer: yes, no 18. Ira Kaufman, Tampa Tribune: yes, yes 19. Peter King, Sports Illustrated: yes, yes 20. Tommy Kowalski, Booth newspapers: no, no. 21Howie Long, Fox Sports: yes, no 22. Alex Marvez, foxsports.com: yes, no 23. John McClain, Houston Chronicle: yes, no 24. Chris Mortensen, ESPN: yes, no 25. Mike O?Hara, Detroit News: yes, no 26. Jay Paris, North County Times: no, yes 27. Dan Pompei, Sporting News: yes, no 28. Kevin Seifert, Minnesota Star-Tribune: no, no 29. Len Shapiro, Miami Herald: no, yes 30. Tom Silverstein, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: no, yes 31. Adam Teicher, Kansas City Star: yes, no 32. Larry Weisman, USA Today: yes, yes 33. Charean Williams, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram: no, no
Mike McCarthy, Bill Belichick, Romeo Crennel, and Joe Gibbs would probably be the top 4 finishers in the voting. I looked at the 1972 results. That was the year, of course, when the Dolphins had a perfect record. Don Shula won two Coach of the Year awards that year. Shula won the PFW/PFWA and Sporting News awards. Packers coach Dan Devine took the Associated Press award. The AP award is the most prestigious one.
The greatest team I ever saw during the regular season was the 68 Colts. It don't mean a thing if he doesn't get the ring.
But they won 16. McCarthy did a great job no doubt about it but when a team goes 16-0 that's a once in a lifetime achievement.