PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

hoodie

Will Belichick’s Hot Jacket Surpass His Famous Hoodie in 2017?

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We’re just 50 days from the opening game of the 2017 season, when the Patriots will raise their fifth banner and take on the Chiefs, as their fans unload two-and-a-half years worth of built up boos and jeers at the commissioner whose avoided all things New England like the plague since butchering the whole Deflategate saga.

With the positional previews out of the way it’s time to focus on training camp here on the blog, but first a look at the site’s very, very important signature stat — Bill Belichick’s hoodie tracker.

2017 provided one of the biggest plot twists ever for a site dedicated to tracking and analyzing what the head coach wears on game day. After much speculation what Belichick should and would wear in Super Bowl 51 he threw a giant curve ball.


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Yes, he wore the Hot Jacket, which he had gone 9-2 in during the regular season, but with one strange alteration —  the Flying Elvis had been ripped off the jacket. And no, it was not simply inside out as many have wondered. It was torn off.

Why? This is something we’ll ponder for generations. Was it a message to the NFL? Or was it simply a frustrated Belichick, having no sleeves to cut off, turning his shears on something else? We might never know.

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Belichick’s Hot Jacket Lives!!!

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The biggest surprise of Super Bowl 51 was not that the Patriots came back from 25 points down to win, but that Bill Belichick decided, for some unknown reason that will befuddle me for all eternity, to remove the Flying Elvis from his beloved Hot Jacket for the game. There had been much speculation as to what Belichick would wear in the big game. Heck, it even got me on national TV as everyone speculated if he’d wear a hoodie and which one it might be.

Instead, Belichick wore his Hot Jacket, which has been his favorite coaching attire since 2013 with that one small modification. Since the Hot Jacket is no longer being made, I wondered if this meant the end of it. Or would Belichick really continue wearing an Elvis-less jacket while coaching the team?

Yes, these are the things that keep me up late at night. Well today, we got an answer.

As you can see it looks like Belichick was sitting on a new Hot Jacket, because there it is back in its fully Elvis’d glory. We might never know why Belichick decided to cut off the logo for the Super Bowl, but it’s a good bet that this new version will carry him into future seasons and continue to build upon a post-Hoodie legacy.

10 New Belichick Hoodie Facts

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By now you’re probably getting sick of the Bill Belichick Hoodie Database. I know I am, but with the help of a great Patriots fan twitter user @fearthe_beard11 I’ve been able to fill in all but ONE hole in the database going all the way back to 2003. (If anyone has the 2003 at Eagles game handy let me know!!)

Just when I think I can take a Hoodie vacation, they suck me back in!

Thanks to his great work, rounding up more than 10 missing games, it means we finally have the complete record of Bill Belichick and his hoodies, especially the one he’s most known for, shown above, the 2003 Gray Reebok Hoodie.

I even went back and re-tallied all the records to make sure it’s all accurate. In all, Belichick wore a variation of the 2003 Reebok Sweatshirt, both hoodie and mock versions, gray and blue, 97 times, going 74-22 (.762 win percentage).

All this new information uncovered even more interesting tidbits about Bill Belichick and the hobo-esque attire he made famous.

Here are 10 new Hoodie Facts I’ve uncovered.

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Why Did Belichick De-Elvis the Hot Jacket?

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It was quite the banner weekend for PatsPropaganda, even before James White scored the touchdown in overtime to win Super Bowl 51. It all started when old friend Kyle Brandt mentioned my Belichick Hoodie Database on Good Morning Football. Soon after I was being interviewed by USA Today about it, and the day after that I was contacted by ABC News to be interviewed for a national news feature on Belichick’s hoodie.


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What everyone of course wanted to know? What Belichick should wear in the Super Bowl. My choice was the 2016 Blue Hoodie, as ABC mentions at the end of their segment. He was 3-0 in it on the season, including the win in Denver and both playoff victories.

All signs pointed to that direction.

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Which Hoodie Should Bill Belichick Wear in the AFC Championship?

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Bill Belichick AFC Championship Hoodie

It’s that time of the week again, when I take a look at the history of the game and the opponent and try to figure out what Bill Belichick should wear.

Last week, Belichick went against my prediction, which was admittedly flawed, going with the 2016 Blue Hoodie and he didn’t cut anything off of it. On the season, Belichick was .5-0 in the 2016 Blue Hoodie, wearing it for just the first half of the Week 16 matchup against the Jets.

Should he stick with that Blue Hoodie or change gears in the AFC Championship? And what’s he worn against the Steelers in AFC Championships past? There’s a ton of data to digest, let’s dive in!

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Which Hoodie Should Bill Belichick Wear vs. Texans?

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By now you should all know about the signature stat here at PatsPropaganda.com, a metric so advanced it has immeasurable effect on every single game. I am of course talking about the Bill Belichick Hoodie Database and the vital information it contains. Each playoff season I like to take a look back and figure out what BB should wear based on his history against a particular opponent and in that round of the playoffs.

This year, Belichick continued the trend of getting away from hoodies, preferring to stick with the “Hot” Jacket that came out in 2013. This season he raised his all-time record in the Hot jacket to 24-8, just eight games behind the gray Reebok Hoodie that Belichick made famous.

What should Belichick wear against the Texans? Let’s take a look…

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The Bill Belichick Hoodie Change

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No one was more surprised than I was when Bill Belichick changed his hoodie at halftime of the 2015 AFC Championship in Denver. As most of you know by now, I’ve carved out a little niche by tracking Belichick’s gameday attire, and never before had I noted him changing his hoodie like this.

Everyone seemed to notice this bit of minutiae, but at the time I failed to see a clear reason for the switch. But as I dug into the hoodie database a little deeper, an answer became so obvious it seemed like Belichick was digging into my hoodie stats even deeper than I myself ever had!

From Hot Jacket to Sleeved Hoodie

Belichick started the game in the 2013 “Hot” jacket, which I saw as a reasonable second choice in my hoodie prediction article. Belichick was 10-1 last season in the “Hot” jacket, including the divisional round win over the Chiefs. The only loss was the stinker in Miami, the last game of the regular season.

I thought, due to weather, a hoodie was the more likely choice, so my final prediction was the 2015 Blue Nike Hoodie. Belichick was just 1-1 in that Hoodie during the season, the best win (Giants) and the worst loss (Broncos), but it seemed to make the most realistic sense given the weather outlook. It was 46 degrees at kickoff, so it was a bit of a surprise that he stuck with the Hot jacket, that was his go-to last season so it wasn’t a total shocker.

Belichick’s switch at halftime wasn’t into that 2015 Blue Hoodie, but to a never-before-worn 2015 Gray Hoodie, with uncut sleeves. Now, this is the first I’ve mentioned sleeve cutting here. At a certain point it was cutoff sleeves that defined Belichick’s hoodie. But in truth, Belichick has been cutting off the sleeves less of late.

But this was the key finding as I searched for a statistical impetus for Belichick to change his outfit.

The problem with the Blue “Hot” Jacket (which has short sleeves of course) was that Belichick had lost to the Broncos in the 2013 AFC Championship in it. Go further back and you’ll find a number of other losses to Peyton Manning and the Broncos came when Belichick had his arms exposed.

Both 2005’s Week 6 loss and the playoff season-ender to the Broncos in Denver came in the classic Gray Reebok Hoodie with the sleeves cut off. So did 2005’s first regular season loss to Peyton and that Colts, as well as 2006’s playoff season-ender in Indy. 2009’s 4th-and-2 loss in Indy came in the Blue Reebok Hoodie, and yes, the sleeves were cut off there too.

But then you look at 2003 and 2004, the height of dominance for Belichick and the Patriots over Peyton Manning, and the first two games that jump out are the 2003 AFC Championship and the 2004 AFC Divisional Round. What’s Belichick wearing in both?

Gray Hoodies with the sleeves intact. Just like he changed into for the second half of the 2015 AFC Championship.

Now some of you might say to me, “Deuce, the weather was just getting cold and he grabbed whatever random hoodie the equipment guys packed. Your stats are stupid and he doesn’t give a shit about superstitious bs like this.”

Well, you’re probably right, but with the Patriots trailing 17-9 at halftime after a slow start, is it a coincidence that he happened to pick a the same kind of sweatshirt he hadn’t worn against Manning since the last time he ended him in the playoffs, circa January 2005, ten years ago? Probably yes. BUT MAYBE NOT!

Manning and the Broncos offense would score just three more points in the game, a performance that brought back memories of the near-total shutdown the Patriots pitched in the 2003 and 2004 playoffs against him.

Perhaps if I had broken the code of the short sleeve/long sleeve paradigm when putting my hoodie prediction together, he would’ve gone with an uncut Gray hoodie from the start and the Patriots would’ve played far better in the first half.

Overall, Belichick was 8-3 against Manning when he had full sleeves on. Of the three losses, one was 2005 in a red hoodie (eeek), another came in 2008 with Matt Cassell (doesn’t really count!!) and the final one came against the Broncos in the regular season finale of 2015. With sleeves cut or in a short sleeve against Manning, Belichick was 3-4 overall.

Yes, I blame myself and now the information about the power of full sleeves against Peyton Manning is unfortunately of no use to us.

What good is a Bill Belichick Hoodie Database if it’s not used correctly? At least we now (might) know why he went back to the trusty old gray hoodie in a time of need.

Bill Belichick Hoodie

Current stats through 2015 season.