Opinion | Life is shorter than you think. Just ask Belichick.

The Boston Globe · Alex Beam · 2026-11-06 08:00 UTC

His understanding of situational football offers a sobering lesson about time, aging, and the increasingly limited opportunities to change the game.

I first heard the term “situational football” during an interview Bill Belichick gave to journalist Suzy Welch two months after the Patriots’ miraculous comeback in Super Bowl LI. Down 28-3 to the Atlanta Falcons late in the third quarter, the Patriots rallied to win the game in overtime, 34-28.

Situational football has become something of a cliché in the ensuing nine years; for instance, former San Francisco sports columnist Lowell Cohn recently suggested the NFL “should ban the word ‘situation’ from the announcers’ booth.” But what struck me about the 2017 interview was Belichick’s singular understanding of how time passes during a football game.

He does not perceive the game as we do, as a chronological unfolding of 60 minutes. By way of example, he pooh-poohed the notion of game-altering “halftime decisions,” because “at halftime, the game is two-thirds over.”

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