Belichick shares some thoughts

Bill Belichick sat down for an interview recently with The 33rd Team, a media site founded by former Jets and Dolphins general manager Mike Tannenbaum. An introspective Belichick revealed the coaches he most would have liked to coach with (Paul Brown at the top), provided insight into how he built his programs in Cleveland and New England, and expressed gratitude for coaching whom he believes are the best offensive player (Tom Brady), defensive player (Lawrence Taylor), and special teams player (Matthew Slater) in NFL history.

But what struck me about the interview was how strongly Belichick believes that young coaches don’t deserve to make much money. He brought it up a number of times in the 20-minute interview.

“I kind of saw how my career went — I started off working for nothing for the Colts, and I couldn’t have been happier. It was a break of a lifetime,” Belichick said. “I’ve liked for people to come in and establish themselves, establish their work ethic, gain respect in the building from the other coaches and players who see what they put into it . . . and then move up in the organization as they are able to accumulate more experience. It’s always worked pretty well for me, and I said when I got to Cleveland that’s what I would try to do.”

Belichick said that, in Cleveland, he would eliminate a job candidate who asked about salary.

“Somebody on the staff would kind of tell the person that was coming in to interview, ‘Look, if you get offered the job, don’t ask about the money. Just take the job and figure all that out later. But if you ask about the money, you’re probably going to end up working somewhere else,’ ” Belichick said.

Patriots coaches in the past have joked about the “20-20 club” — 20 hours a day for $20,000 per year. Belichick said almost every successful coach that has come from his tree basically started off working for peanuts.

“We’ve had tons of them — Josh McDaniels, Matt Patricia, all the people in Cleveland who basically worked for free, put in a lot of hard hours, a lot of hard work for no pay, but for the experience, for the opportunity,” Belichick said. “All have done, I would say, pretty well for themselves. I think that’s really a good quality, when you invest in yourself like that, it has a way of paying off.”

It should be noted that Belichick is believed to be the highest-paid coach in the league at a rumored $20 million (or more) per year.