Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Belichick’shoodie provides cover from more than inclement weather.

It also serves to block the periphery, the noise, the distraction. Belichick can only see what’s in front of him. Perfect for a man with tunnel vision.

Belichick, coach of the National Football League’s New England Patriots, has always seen things in concrete terms. Black. White.

In professional sports that means winner and loser. There’s no middle ground. Belichick finds no comfort, gains no solace, from workmanlike effort or oh-so-close. There are no moral victories in the NFL, not to Belichick, only the euphoria of his team scoring more points in the allotted time.

Cold and calculating, yes. That’s Belichick, who walked off the field on Sunday night a loser. His late-game decision to go for it on fourth down with two yards to go from his own 28-yard line didn’t work. He was universally panned, called everything from stupid to egomaniacal.

The assertion that ego played a role in Belichick’s decision is, well, dumb.

Belichick went for it for two reasons: 1) he thought it gave his team the best chance to win and 2) his three Super Bowl rings give him enough clout with ownership that he doesn’t have to worry about what anyone thinks.

Not newspaper columnists. Not babbling sports radio hosts. Not even his former player Rodney Harrision, who called it “the worst decision” he’d ever seen, or former coaches like Tony Dungy, he of one Super Bowl victory, who told NBC’s audience that punting was the only option.

In the Gut

You better believe coaches, too many of them, go against their gut, that they suppress their instinct, after a split- second factoring-in of the fallout. If this doesn’t work, they wonder, then what?

Most NFL coaches operate on auto pilot, which is why they carry those ridiculous cheat sheets that tell them when it’s supposedly appropriate to go for two points instead of kicking the extra point.

Belichick, though, often tries for two earlier in the game than most coaches. He thinks.

I like what Belichick did against the Colts. So, by the way, did former General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch, who tweeted as much. Passing on the punt, passing up the safe, certainly beats boring.

This time, though, it didn’t beat the Colts, who, behind Peyton Manning, took over and found the end zone.

Colts won. Patriots lost.

Back to Work

If you thought a night’s sleep and retrospect would weaken Belichick’s resolve then you don’t know Belichick. He woke up, went to work and reiterated why he did what he did.

“I put my team first,” he said in that familiar monotone mumble.

And please don’t ask what other great coaches would’ve done.

What other coach would have run up the score in a 52-7 win over Joe Gibbs and the Redskins a couple of seasons ago? During that game Belichick went for it on fourth-and-two at Washington’s 37-yard line -- with a 38-0 lead.

Asked why, Belichick said: “What do you want us to do, kick a field goal?” Pressed he said, “It’s 38-0. It’s fourth down. We’re just out there playing.”

Belichick doesn’t give a second thought to consequences beyond that play, that game, that result. That’s how it should be.

Right Thing

I could bore you with the statistical analysis, all of which, by the way, says Belichick, percentage-wise, did the right thing. I won’t.

Instead I offer Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who was second-guessed plenty for his decision to use a three-man rotation in the World Series. The howls got louder after A.J. Burnett stunk in Game 5, leaving the Yankees with Andy Pettitte pitching on short rest.

“The interesting thing about what people were calling second-guessing is they don’t know if their idea would have worked,” said Girardi, who, oh yeah, won the World Series. “We base our decisions on a lot of preparation. We don’t do anything where we just pull something off the wall. Every decision is not going to go according to plan, and you have to deal with it and you have to answer for it.”

Belichick dealt with it. He answered for it. Now you can bet he’s forgotten about it. New England hosts the Jets on Sunday.

Don’t be surprised if, somehow, someway, unconventional wisdom emerges from the hoodie.

(Scott Soshnick is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

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To contact the writer of this column: Scott Soshnick in New York at ssoshnick@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 17, 2009 21:00 EST