Column: Looking for Darth Vader? Ask the Pats.

No, he doesn’t have a helmet or a lightsaber, and he can’t choke people with the Force, but can’t you see Bill Belichick donning Vader’s black armor? Even Patriots fans should be able to admit this. He wears a smug smile on the sideline, stating not-so-subtly that he is better than his opposing coach, and he knows it.

Already a somewhat shady figure, Belichick’s dealings with the New York Jets at the turn of the millennium cemented his unscrupulous nature. Believe it or not, he was actually the head coach of the New York Jets for one day in January of 2000. Yes, after Bill Parcells resigned as the Jets’ head coach, Belichick was named as his successor. But the next day, during what was supposed to be his introduction to the media, Belichick hastily scribbled out his resignation on a piece of loose-leaf paper and then rambled for 30 minutes to the media on the reasons for his decision.

Many rightly suspected that Belichick wanted to coach the Patriots instead, and shortly thereafter, New England named him as its head coach. The Jets cried foul, as Belichick was still under contract and was not supposed to talk to other teams, and eventually received a first-round draft pick in 2000 from the Patriots.

Better known is the 2007 spying controversy — Watergate was 36 years ago, so can we please stop adding “gate” to every scandal? — in which Belichick was accused and found guilty of stealing the Jets’ defensive signals. He was personally fined $500,000 and the team was stripped of its first round draft pick. Face the facts: Patriots fans — Belichick cheated. He was not the first, and he won’t be the last, but he broke the rules.

It is nearly impossible to deny that Bill Belichick is an arrogant jerk of a head coach. But if you had to choose between him and your favorite team’s current head coach, who would you pick?

It’s not even a question. You would choose Bill Belichick.

As an opposing fan, it’s impossible to like him. But love him or hate him, Belichick is the best coach in the league today by far. Monday’s game against — really, who else? the New York Jets is an excellent example of this fact. Both the Jets and the Patriots played on Thanksgiving, meaning they had a week and a half to prepare for the Monday night showdown. Jets head coach Rex Ryan talked big as usual, saying that the Jets were ready to win against their division rivals.

Belichick said nothing leading up to the game and did what he does best: crushed the hopes and dreams of a division rival in a 45-3 domination of the suddenly inept Jets. And in typical Belichickian fashion, even when the Patriots were up 31-3 and 38-3 in the third and fourth quarters, Tom Brady was still playing quarterback and the Pats were still passing, instead of running the ball to kill the clock faster.

Sportsmanlike? No. But knowing Belichick, this strategy should not have been surprising at all — he was out for blood. New York’s win over New England earlier in the season, coupled with the Jets’ brash attitude and Rex Ryan’s trash talk leading up to the game, only gave him more of an incentive to run up the score.

Sure, it cannot be denied that the emergence of Tom Brady in Belichick’s second year as head coach was pure luck. But look at the 2008-09 season when Brady was hurt in the first quarter of the first game. A total no-name, Matt Cassel, who had not started a football game since he was in high school, led the team to an 11-5 record. The Pats missed the playoffs only because of a tiebreaker and were much more deserving than the 8-8 San Diego Chargers, who made the playoffs simply because they won the woeful American Football Conference West Division.

His ability to make star wide receivers and running backs out of seemingly average players is uncanny. Who are the Patriots starting this year now that they traded star wideout Randy Moss and running back Laurence Maroney? BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Danny Woodhead, Julian Edelman, Ron Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Have you heard of any of these guys? Look at Belichick’s former assistants who have left to become head coaches elsewhere, including the recently fired Josh McDaniels, Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini. Have they done anything of note?

All signs point to Belichick being the evil mastermind behind the Patriots’ operation.

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Belichick has the most wins — 158 — of any current coach and had a losing record only during his first season as the Patriots’ head coach. The next four active coaches on the win list are Mike Shanahan, Jeff Fisher, Tom Coughlin and Andy Reid. Would you really pick any of them over Darth?

As the James Bond song goes, “Nobody does it better.”