Bill Belichick is known for his brilliant, scheming and, according to some people, evil ways. But despite rumors to the contrary, the man does have a heart.
Is there a more romantic way for a football coach to express love than naming a play after his girlfriend?
During the third quarter of Sunday night's Patriots-Broncos game, cameras caught Tom Brady yelling the following audible: "Cougar! Cougar! Linda!" On that play, Brady threw a touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski.
Belichick's girlfriend is Linda Holliday.
Coincidence? Perhaps, but Belichick doesn't let anything past him. And it's doubtful that he or someone else would name a play "Linda" without his approval. Plus, the fact that the word "cougar" preceded Linda (she is 50, but doesn't look it) makes one wonder whether Belichick was behind the call. Technically, a cougar is an older woman with a fondness for younger men. Belichick is 61, so that might be an added layer of the coach's sardonic wit revealing itself. In either case, here are some looks at Linda:
Holliday -- who began dating Belichick in 2007 after his divorce a year earlier -- has denied that the play was named after her:
Ha! Can't take credit-just a well named play RT @plumcrazydodge:I heard a cougar and a Linda. Hmmmm wonder who that's about! Lol
— Linda Holliday (@LindaH_BBChic) November 25, 2013
Ha! Can't take credit ~ just a well named play! RT@alex_lanstein:@LindaH_BBChic did you give tb12 permission to name that audible after you?
— Linda Holliday (@LindaH_BBChic) November 25, 2013
"Well, since it was obviously a good call and a well-executed play, I'll take a tiny bit of credit -- but only for a well-named play,” Linda told the Boston Herald. "Seriously, the whole team played hard and we all couldn’t be happier, right?!?"
When Brady was asked about the call, he carefully skirted the question.
"We've got a lot of calls at the line of scrimmage," Brady said, "some are protection calls, some are calls where we’re directing guys, we got run calls, we got pass calls, we got protection calls, we got dummy calls, so you don't get locked into one or two things ... we ended up using them all."
Knowing the Patriots, we may never get a straight answer on this. And now that the play call has been made public, we'll probably never hear it again. But all things considered, it's not hard to see why many people think the audible was named after Holliday.
