Bill Belichick's Magic Act

There's plenty of people in the sports world with entertainment doppelgängers: Adam Schefter and Paul Rudd; Ron Jaworski and Lewis Black; Mike Tomlin and Omar Epps; Stan Van Gundy and Ron Jeremy; Andy Reid and a walrus:

Source: http://41.media.tumblr.com/8bd8f0cf10e25bf3a9efe0e6e31aae8d/tumblr_mm72x8RZro1splqw3o1_1280.jpg

But the pairing I see the most is Bill Belichick and Teller of Penn & Teller. For one, they look a lot alike. Just look at them.

They also both usually don't speak. Bill speaks at media days and press conferences, but only because he has to. Teller speaks on a few of his shows, but only because he has to. Neither of them speak when they're at work on their master-crafts. 

I'm sure both are accused of worshipping the devil by people who either don't understand or are jealous of them, too. Bill is also great at illusions, and Teller also totally knows how to shut down Indianapolis regardless of who's at QB. Both are powerless against the Giants in the playoffs.

More than any of these similarities, they're both gurus within their fields. Teller isn't just a phenomenal magician, he's also a magician buster. In Penn & Teller: Fool Us, he and Penn watch magic acts that other magicians have put all their time into and reveal if they've figured the act out, if they can expose it. If the other magicians can stump the duo, they get to perform in Vegas as a reward for fooling the best. The other magicians are simply trying to outsmart the #1's.  

There's some great coaches in the NFL, but only one of them is the Penn & Teller of the league: Bill Belichick. He sees right through other coaches' acts, regardless of how much time the other coaches had to put into them. He's seen all the tricks and can think so fast on his feet that if something does seem new, he figures it out right away. If they do manage to beat Belichick, which statistically speaking happens about as infrequently as Penn & Teller are fooled, they don't get to go to Vegas, but usually on to the next round of the playoffs. Belichick isn't unbeatable, just real hard to get past, exactly like Teller.

Are either Teller or Belichick doing real magic? No. But to both the untrained and trained eye, it sure looks like it. That's why it's so captivating to watch either of their performances.

Teller does have Penn, to be fair. Does Belichick have a Penn? Uh, kind of: