Belichick sets gold coaching standard
• He values the team’s overall culture ahead of its individual parts.
He rules his team with an iron fist, and yet, instills that team with a sense of family.
He can appear heartless — quick to say “goodbye” to those who no longer fit in — and yet, he is deeply loyal.
He has hard-and-fast ideas about how to run his own team, but is never against learning and adding bits of others’ expertise to his own repertoire.
Yes, this is a description of New England coach Bill Belichick, who can set himself apart Sunday by winning a record fifth Super Bowl title as a head coach.
It’s also a description of former coaches Chuck Noll of the Steelers and Tom Landry of the Cowboys and Alabama’s Nick Saban..
“Xs and Os are the price of admission,” says John O’Sullivan, founder of the Changing the Game project, who speaks often about the importance of coaching in society. “But great coaches, the first thing they do is connect. When you connect with people, they’ll run through a wall for you.”
Belichick, a people person? The same might have been said, or asked, about Noll, Landry, Saban or any of these coaches, whose time facing the public usually involves 5- and 10- minute segments with the media during which their main goal is to not reveal anything i mportant about their game plan — or much about themselves.
The effort — and sometimes, accolades — they get from their players says more.
Terry Bradshaw couldn’t stand Noll on their way to winning four Super Bowls with Pittsburgh. Only years later did the Hall of Fame quarterback concede that he benefitted from Noll’s coaching. “Did I respect him? Of course I did,” Bradshaw said last year. “Like him? No, I didn’t like him.”
A lot has been made this year of New England’s decision to part ways with two key cogs in its defence — Chandler Jones in the offseason and then linebacker Jamie Collins, who was (ruthlessly?) traded away to winless Cleveland in October. That defence still allowed the fewest points in the league.
Famous are the stories of Belichick’s willingness to go the extra mile — especially in the film room — from the time he got his first NFL job, as an assistant to Colts coach Ted Marchibroda in 1975.
“The impression he made on colleagues was almost universally favourable — open- minded, i ncredibly hard- working, absolutely committed to being a little better every day, a master at using film,” wrote David Halberstam in his 2005 profile on Belichick, “The Education of a Coach.”
Another great coach took note of that.
Before Nick Saban started winning his five national titles in college, he was Belichick’s defensive co-ordinator with the Browns from 199194.
“That time in Cleveland probably helped me as much as anything in developing the kind of philosophy and organizations that have helped us be successful through the years. I attribute a lot of it to Bill Belichick,” Saban said.