Bill Belichick's Off-Season Look Is Basically Breitbart in Margaritaville

From Esquire

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is well known for a number of things: Being very good at coaching football, his surly demeanor, his abhorrence of sleeves. Increasingly, with the rise of his good pal Donald Trump to the office of the presidency, Belichick has also been garnering attention for his politics. Take this recent photo of Belichick vacationing on Nantucket, where he can be seen wearing a T-shirt done in the style of the iconic Life Is Good brand, featuring an armed soldier watching a dog attack a man in a turban. "Life is great," it reads.

It's certainly no surprise that a football coach, particularly a son of a Navy man, might have an affinity for the military, or for a "strong" leader, as we saw in his support for Trump. But Belichick has attempted to have it both ways. On the eve of the 2016 election, when the coach confirmed the authenticity of a letter Trump read aloud at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Belichick, like Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady and owner Bob Kraft, said it was more about supporting a friend than supporting his policies.

"I think anybody that's spent more than five minutes with me knows I'm not a political person," Belichick said at the time. "My comments are not politically motivated. I have a friendship and loyalty to Donald. A couple of weeks ago we had Secretary of State (John) Kerry in our locker room. He's another friend of mine. I can't imagine two people with more different political views than those two. But to me, friendship and loyalty are just about that. It's not about political or religious views."

That may have been a fence-sitting position possible in a bygone era, but everything in this post-Trumpian era is political now. It doesn't help matters in that regard that the imagery on the T-shirt in question seems pulled directly from the old-timey cartoon loop that runs Homer Simpson-like in the president's brain. The message behind it couldn't be any clearer. While the original Life Is Good designs are about the chill-bro vibes of tossing a frisbee on the beach, this is a much darker state of affairs: Watching a dog maul a brown-skinned, presumably Muslim man, is supposed to be ... delightful?

It couldn't have come at a worse time, as a video emerged this week of a San Diego police dog viciously attacking a black man who's been handcuffed. How fun!

The shirt in question comes from a company called TridentK9 that sells police and military K9 equipment. It's operated by a man named Jim Amann, a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles, and a former Navy SEAL. Amann, who has not responded to a request for comment from Esquire, told The Boston Herald that sales of the shirt have spiked since Belichick was spotted wearing one, although he was unaware of how it made its way to the coach. That's unsurprising, because Belichick, while being one of the most reviled sports figures in the country outside of New England, is also one of its most influential. Fawning coverage in the media, like Barstool Sports, which wrote "Belichick's t-shit may have just defeated ISIS," and a second article in the Herald, have certainly helped fuel that.

"Is this hate-wear?" the Herald's Tom Shattuck asked.

"No way."

"This is patriot-wear the Patriots head coach was showing off."

Because what's more patriotic than attacking Muslims?

Complicating matters somewhat, is that the description of the t-shirt on TridentK9 says it's meant to denote the capture of Osama bin Laden. "If you are a military K-9 handler, then life is great!" it reads. "Celebrate the end of Osama Bin Laden with this T-shirt."

Amann, who served with a K9 unit in Afghanistan, said it's a tribute to military dogs.

"These dogs have saved more lives than we can count," he told the Herald.

Surprisingly, Life Is Good has yet to take issue with the infringement. The Boston-born company, now valued at over $100 million, with it's products in thousands of stores around the world, has been a part in a number of lawsuits over the years, including a dispute in 2009 with a company called Life is nutz Inc., one with a designer who claimed they had ripped off his stick figure character that found in their favor in 2013, and a disagreement with retailers that were selling a similar Life is Crap style apparel line.

The company also did not respond to a call or email from Esquire this morning for comment, but in a weird message to Vice, they indicated that they are at least aware of it.

"Hello Fellow Optimist, Thank you for taking the time to email us with your suggestion and for being a fan of Life is good. We don't have an immediate plans to add this design, but I will be sure to send your email over to our Design Team, have a great day! :)"

Belichick wins again.

Update: 2:35 p.m.

A spokesperson for Life Is Good responded to an email from Esquire after publication. "As you may realize, the t-shirt in question is not from Life is Good," Len Cercone explained. "Our mission is to spread the power of optimism and to focus on what's right in the world and help it grow. All of our designs and actions support this mission, and they always will."

The Life Is Good company does appear to have a relationship with the Patriots organization. There is a Life Is Good retail store at Patriot Place, the shopping area adjacent to Gillette Stadium owned by Kraft. Kraft himself, as well as players like Malcolm Mitchell, have partnered with the brand on various charity events over the years.

Asked if they had any plans to take action on the potential complications of the Life is Great design infringement, he responded with a Belichickian dodge: "We're just focused on the mission of optimism."

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