Belichick’s a-door-able
R.I. artist’s sculpture of coach no knockoff
If Palmer Murphy didn’t like Christmas movies he never would have made the connection, but then again, if he didn’t grow up watching the “Prestone Giants Journal” in New York he might not have either. Really, who would look at Bill Belichick with a headset jammed around his ears and think “Jacob Marley?”
Because he’s a sculptor living in Westerly, R.I., with an artist’s fine eye, Palmer Murphy did. He saw a vision. So did Ebenezer Scrooge when he saw Marley’s face on his doorknocker that wintry Christmas Eve night Charles Dickens brought to life, but unlike Ebenezer, Palmer didn’t say “Bah, humbug!” or think he’d seen a ghost. He saw art.
Not long after seeing the film version of “A Christmas Carol,” Murphy was watching the Patriots do battle on TV and there was Belichick, hooded and with his headset on. Most people saw a coach but artists see what you and I do not.
“He flipped that Bose microphone down and
I thought, ‘He looks like Jacob Marley’s doorknocker,’ ” Murphy said yesterday. “I did a few drawings and showed them to some friends. They liked it and got a laugh out of it. So I went to work creating a doorBelichick. I thought somebody might like it. If you’re a fan it’s a piece of art, and if you want to knock Belichick you can do it on your door any time you want.”
Murphy’s sculptures are owned by collectors worldwide. He’s done ones of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle (do we see a theme here from this transplanted New Yorker?), Tom Seaver and many others. He’s done commissioned limited-edition corporate pieces, a series of prototypes for miniature soldier companies that included likenesses of Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln and was retained by HBO to sculpt a bronze memorial plaque commemorating six firefighters from Ladder 10 killed in 9/11.
A few years ago, he even gained national notoriety when he created a bronzed Bernie Madoff piggy bank.
“You could put your money in but you couldn’t get it out,” Murphy said.
Murphy also once created a 50-pound bronze sculpture of Sugar Ray Robinson for HBO Sports that was awarded to Bernard Hopkins
when Hopkins unified the middleweight title by upsetting Felix Trinidad in 2001. Although the trophy was on display at the pre-fight weigh-in, Hopkins never received it as planned in the ring at Madison Square Garden, an occurrence that came with the usual boxing intrigue. “I spent 400 or 500 hours on that,” Murphy said. “They kept it locked in a safe. When Bernard upset Felix, the promoter, Don King, was so upset they couldn’t find the key to the safe. Bernard believes they’d already put a plate on it with Trinidad’s name. I don’t know about that but he got it a couple weeks later at Gallagher’s Steak House in front of about eight people.”
Murphy’s fascination with Belichick began in the 1980s when he was the New York Giants defensive coordinator under Bill Parcells. It was there that he w a s first recognized as a budding strategic genius and from time to time would appear on MSG Network’s “Prestone Giants Journal’’ with host Sam Rosen to discuss the defenses he concocted. Murphy, a Giants fan, was an avid viewer.
“I used to wonder, ‘Who is this kid?’ ” Murphy said. “Back then he was a mad genius. Now he’s a senior citizen. You can’t help but admire the guy’s accomplishments.” In this case, admiration turned into drawings of a one of a kind doorknocker. After studying a parade of pictures from all angles, Murphy first crafted a clay model of his vision. Jacob Marley had been transformed and Belichick’s headset had a new use.
“It’s the knocker,” Murphy said. “I thought it would take no time at all to make. I just did it because I liked the concept.”
Art, like an artfully built football team, takes time, however. If you are interested in precision, as both Belichick and Murphy clearly are, the hours tick away as you tinker and refine your ideas.
Murphy estimates he put in over 80 hours crafting the image of Belichick’s head. The microphone alone took him another 10 hours at least.
“You start to ask yourself, ‘Why are you doing this?’ ” Murphy said.
He was doing it for art and for a few laughs, and he created both. When it was done, he spoke with Dan Kendall, founder of Sincere Metal Works in Chelsea. Kendall, an old friend, agreed to cast two copies of it in bronze and by April the job was done.
“They’re Patriots fans and understood the concept,” Murphy said. “It’s amazing to me how people identify with a team or a guy. Certainly a lot of people do with Belichick. When he was with the Giants, I was one of them.”
So now what? What do you do with a doorknocker likeness of the most successful football coach in NFL history?
Murphy isn’t sure, but through Kendall one copy landed at the Patriots offices in Foxboro. He hasn’t heard from Belichick or the team and has no idea if the man now preparing the Patriots for their eighth Super Bowl appearance in his 18 years as coach knows he bares enough of a likeness to Jacob Marley that he inspired a sculptor to put his face on a doorknocker.
He doesn’t know where this might lead, either, but he’s sure of one thing: Art ain’t Tupperware.
“It’s not something that’s going to be mass produced,” Murphy said. “I just did it in the spirit of fun and living history. It’s a oneof-a-kind piece of art.”
Murphy decided to put his prototype on eBay on Friday to see what happens. After all, you never know when a knock on the door might come.