Belichick can cheat off of Bonds’ talking points

Before Bill Belichick starts planning his Hall of Fame acceptance speech — which will not be a spoken speech, but rather 20 minutes of glowering at the audience — he should check in with Barry Bonds.

Barry and Bill are frauds of a feather. Brothers, practically, considering:

Both are (were) great at what they do, but they decided their greatness needed an artificial and illegal boost.

Both are in denial. Bonds said sure, he used the cream that the steroids were in, but he had no idea the stuff was loaded. Belichick referred to his cheating episode in ’07 as a “misunderstanding,” but evidence shows that he had cheated since becoming Patriots’ coach in 2000.

Both forms of cheating were outside the accepted cheating norms of sport. Everyone cheats in sports (see my book, “How To Cheat In Sports”), but there’s cheating and then there’s cheating. Grease your jersey? Fine. Use a secret camera to steal enemy secrets? Not fine.

Both fellas have a quirky personality. Sour at times. Super-duper sour at other times. Bullying. Condescending to the max. So when Belichick doesn’t get the call from the Hall, many will say it’s because the voters are exacting their revenge. Horsefeathers. Professional sports journalists are not the Kardashians.

If Belichick, when he is five years retired, doesn’t get voted in, that might be a subtle message to future Bills and Barrys: Don’t cheat.

Elise Amendola / Associated Press 2007 Both Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Barry Bonds have been accused of cheating to improve their chances of success. The charges could keep each out of his sport’s hall of fame.

Denis Poroy / Associated Press 2002