There is a problem with the Bill Belichick "coaching/GM tree," and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what it is. The one thing that Romeo Crennel, Charlie Weis, Eric Mangini, Thomas Dimitroff, Scott Pioli and Josh McDaniels all have in common? None of them is Belichick.

I believe the Patriots' head coach will be one of the six greatest of all time before he's through. Trying to pick a No. 1 is impossible, but there is little doubt in my mind that right now Don Shula, George Halas, Vince Lombardi, Paul Brown and Bill Walsh are in a league of their own.

Cowboys fans can argue all day long for Tom Landry, and he'd certainly be in my top 10, but none of my top five had front-office talent like Tex Schramm and Gil Brandt around throughout their reigns to share credit with. Bill Parcells might have been a contender if he hadn't spent more time looking for greener grass and bigger paydays than he did trying to build a dynasty and legacy.

There are other names you can throw around, but what separates my big five is games and championships won; the contributions they made to the game as a whole; their unique abilities to evaluate, develop and coach talent; and their indelible imprints on the one franchise they each made into a dynasty.

Belichick has been the one guy in the NFL over the past decade to handle the dual roles of head coach and general manager (or whatever you choose to call a guy with complete control of football operations) and consistently identify and develop All-Pro talent, win games and win championships. The Patriots are the envy of the rest of the NFL, and the franchise most used as a model by lesser clubs looking to learn to win.

I know the haters are out there who will quibble over Belichick's interpretation of rules and willingness to bend them to his own and the Patriots' advantage. But I promise you my big five all had their detractors everywhere but in the cities they worked in, for the same reasons you might not like Belichick. I'm not asking you to like the guy, just give credit where it's due.

The tree, however, is wilting in spots. The only Belichick protégé we can give high marks to at the moment is Dimitroff in Atlanta, but it's early there and he's only trying to be half of what his mentor is. Similarly, Pioli in Kansas City has to be graded differently and for the moment can't get anything but an incomplete.

Crennel was just too nice a guy and made some poor personnel decisions in Cleveland. At Notre Dame, Weis appears to be a little too impressed with himself to understand he's competing on a completely different playing field than his mentor did — and failing. And give McDaniels all the credit you want for his winning start, but he's done it against cupcakes, and his bungling of the Jay Cutler situation suggests he's light-years away from walking in Belichick's shoes.

Which leaves us with the "Mangenius" and the biggest question of all in my mind: What the hell was Browns owner Randy Lerner thinking when he made that call? There's this one story out there right now that I just can't get out of my mind: "Browns player files grievance against Mangini for $1,701 fine for not paying the hotel bill for a $3 bottle of water." Regardless of whether it was a misunderstanding or the player was really trying to steal the $3 bottle of water, just how much time do you think Halas, Lombardi, Brown, Shula or Walsh would have spent on that one? What was the story about Nero fiddling while Rome burned? Sorry, Browns fans, but unlike Belichick, who had to fail once at your expense to become who he is today, it would appear Mangini is determined not to learn from his mistakes in New York.

Perhaps Belichick's greatest accomplishment is how much better he makes the people around him, until they try to succeed on their own.

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