In 2006, I was a part of the Oakland Raiders front office and was witnessing one of the worst seasons in Raider history and my NFL career. As many of you know, when things go wrong in the NFL, change is inevitable — and this change was not going to be good for me. I knew my professional life was at a crossroads, so I decided to take a writing course in San Francisco to explore the idea of sharing my football knowledge with others. It changed my professional life for the better. Since that class, I have been fortunate enough to start my own website, the National Football Post, freelance for Sports Illustrated, and write regularly for NFL.com. I returned to the NFL in 2013 as the general manager of the Cleveland Browns and then went on to reunite with Bill Belichick as a member of the Patriots coaching staff. But my passion for writing never subsided.

And today, I am excited to announce that I will be joining The Athletic as a writer for its national NFL coverage. I’ll be showing the reader the inner workings of front offices, giving insight into how to build a team rather than just collect talent, and exploring how often the perception of what happens on Sunday isn’t actually the reality.

One particular perception I like to dismantle is one of the most talked-about plays in Super Bowl history — Seattle coach Pete Carroll’s decision to throw the ball instead of run it from the one-yard line in Super Bowl 49. On that warm Arizona night, everyone watching could practically feel some small part of Belichick’s legacy slipping away as the Seahawks had a first-and-goal from the Patriots’ five with under a minute left in the game. Well, everybody except Belichick, of course, who was instead focused intently on the Seattle sideline. From his vantage point, he sensed his opponents’ confusion and indecision. “Something just did not look right,” he told me later.

Instead of calling timeout, a preternaturally calm Belichick just stared straight ahead, a predator stalking his prey.

Suddenly, he burst into action, becoming the aggressor. Shouting into his headset, he commanded: “Just play goal line!” Except not the traditional 6-2 goal line. Our defensive backs coach, Brian Flores, yelled, “Malcolm, go!” and undrafted rookie Malcolm Butler entered the game as the third corner.

Everyone — myself included — had expected Belichick to take a timeout to preserve precious seconds for his team should it get the ball back if the Seahawks took the lead. Carroll expected that, too. And when no timeout came, I suspect it might have thrown him just a little. Whatever the case, he looked to the field, saw the six Patriots defensive linemen and yelled into his own headset, “They’re in goal line!” His counter call, sending in three receivers, was intended to spread the field. Instead, it played right into Belichick’s trap. Belichick and his defensive staff had been working on goal-line nickel since April, and the first time it was ever needed was on that fateful play that decided Super Bowl 49.

Running the ball for the Seahawks then would have been a grave error. Football is a game of numbers, and the numbers in that formation favored the Patriots. No matter how great and powerfully Marshawn Lynch can run, he would not have been able to get much traction blasting into unblocked defenders. People forget that on the play before the Butler interception, linebacker Dont’a Hightower, who was playing with a severely injured shoulder, made a one-armed tackle of Lynch, which prevented him from scoring. How could Lynch break tackles against unaccounted big tacklers? He couldn’t. That’s the kind of inside perspective I’ll be trying to bring to readers.

Football, as well as the media landscape, has been ever-evolving. The Athletic gives serious football fans serious football insight. Football has become an elaborate game — it’s high-level chess on grass, and I hope to offer insight, stimulate thought and share my perspective. I am excited to write about the game I love along with so many other outstanding reporters in every NFL city. Together, we’ll make The Athletic your must-read sports site each day.

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(Top photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)