Let’s just say Jim McMahon and Bill Belichick are not on good terms from way back in 1995.
Former NFL quarterback and two-time Super Bowl champion Jim McMahon is still not a fan of Bill Belichick after all these years from their brief time together with the 1995 Cleveland Browns.
McMahon appeared on 850 ESPN Cleveland (H/T ProFootballTalk) earlier this week, expounding upon how much of “a liar” Belichick really is. Earmuffs, kids.
McMahon said the Browns were going to cut him because they needed to fill up roster spots because they had so many guys hurt. Belichick said they were going to bring him back because they really needed him in the quarterback room alongside Vinny Testaverde and Eric Zeier.
Questioning if Belichick was a man of his word, McMahon called his attorney to vet if the Browns were really going to pay him not to sign anywhere and wait to rejoin Cleveland at a later date. If McMahon was going to play for the 1995 Browns, he said he was going to bring up his family to join him there and there were going to look for a place to live together.
McMahon would make the Browns roster, dressing for Weeks 8 through 10. But when it came time to be paid, he confronted then-general manager Mike Lombardi, who said essentially, “well, maybe we’ll pay you, maybe won’t.” That is when McMahon lost it and he began to choke out Lombardi against the wall. Realizing how bad this looked, McMahon decided he needed to be cut.
“I walked into the training room and called my attorney and said, ‘Hey, get me cut right now.’ He called me back within two minutes and said they’ll release you, if that’s what you want. So I had just walked out of the QB meeting to go to the rest room and all this had just happened in 10 minutes.”
“So I walk back into the QB meeting — it was Vinny Testaverde, myself and Eric Zeier and just said ‘Hey, boys, I’ll see you all later. I’m outta here’ The coach said, ‘Have you talked Bill?’ I said, “You can tell Bill to kiss my ass. He’s a lying piece of s**t.’ Then, I was gone. The very next day, I was up in Green Bay.”
Jim McMahon held nothing back when calling Bill Belichick “a lying piece of s**t”
It has been over 25 years since it hit the fan in Cleveland. Belichick was fired by the Browns after that season. Since 2001, he has won six Super Bowls and been to three others with the New England Patriots. The former punky QB from BYU went on to play two more years with the Green Bay Packers, retiring after the 1996 season as a two-time Super Bowl champion, so it worked out.
McMahon may have only been a journeyman backup quarterback at that stage of his career, but this incident shows the cutthroat nature Belichick has always had as a head coach. The winning in New England has allowed him to conduct himself in the unemotional robotic manner, but apparently, not everybody is a fan of Belichick. Some people like McMahon like to never forget.
McMahon may still be bitter with how things ended in Cleveland, but he won another Super Bowl.