In refusing to issue an order Tuesday freeing Belichick to negotiate with other NFL teams, U.S. District Court Judge John W. Bissell said Belichick had no one to blame but himself for the quandary the suddenly unemployed coach faces.

	Official NFL statement
	We are pleased with the court's ruling which properly recognizes two principles that are fundamental to a sports league's operations: 1) the validity of a contract between a club and its employee and 2) the Commissioner's authority to resolve internal League disputes. -- Official NFL release

Belichick's lawyers claimed the NFL is preventing the defensive guru from making a living the only way he knows, and Bissell acknowledged Belichick's distress at not having a team to coach.

"But who does he have to blame for that?" Bissell asked. "He had a head coaching position with the New York Jets, highly compensated, with the prestige, the title, the exposure, the market and the team that certainly should have provided to him adequate rewards.

"It was he who turned his back on that," Bissell said in denying Belichick's request for a temporary restraining order that would have enabled him to seek coaching opportunities with other NFL teams, notably the New England Patriots. "In large measure, he put himself in this position."

Belichick, angry with NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue's ruling last week that he cannot coach another team this year without the Jets' permission, sued the league Monday. His lawyer, Jeffrey Kessler, said the league's coaches have been ordered to "boycott" Belichick in violation of federal antitrust laws.

Tagliabue's ruling applied only to the upcoming 2000 football season, and did not address the other two years remaining on the contract Belichick signed with former Jets owner Leon Hess, who died a year ago.

That $1.4 million contract called for Belichick to assume the role of head coach upon Bill Parcells' retirement, which occurred Jan. 3. But Belichick stunned the team by resigning the next day, citing the uncertainties posed by the impending sale of the team, and potential problems from Parcells' continuing association with the team in a front-office capacity.

Jets lawyer Glenn Kurtz said Belichick asked last Friday if the Jets were willing to let him return as head coach at the same salaries and duties, but was turned down.

Kurtz said allowing Belichick to coach New England, a key division rival, would seriously harm the Jets. Belichick served as the Jets' defensive coordinator under Parcells, and was credited with greatly improving the defense.

"He's got intimate knowledge of the health of the players, the team's free agents, their goals," Kurtz said. "Having him negotiate with the Patriots is problematic."

But Kessler said the real harm would come to Belichick if he misses out on the Pats job, which would include the dual posts of head coach and general manager.

"New England is particularly well-suited for him," Kessler told the judge. "It's in a conference he knows, he coached there, he's familiar with the players, and he has a relationship with the owner of the team. If this opportunity is lost to Coach Belichick, there is no assurance he will ever be given another opportunity to be a head coach in the NFL again."

Bissell quickly rejected this argument, suggesting that Kessler and Belichick tune in Sunday to the Super Bowl, where former Philadelphia Eagles coach Dick Vermeil, after a long absence from the sidelines, will lead the St. Louis Rams in football's championship game.

The judge scheduled a conference call with lawyers for both sides Wednesday to determine if another hearing should be held Friday to consider a preliminary injunction enabling Belichick to seek another job in the league.

The practical difference between a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction is that an injunction could last longer. But, more significantly, if Bissell denied a preliminary injunction, Belichick's lawyers would then be free to take the case to a federal appeals court.

Bissell said an early look at evidence in the case did not bode well for Belichick's antitrust claims. He said Tagliabue's ruling prohibiting Belichick from coaching elsewhere for the 2000 season was logical and well-reasoned, and said the league's anti-tampering policy was "a legitimate program to ensure the sanctity of contracts."