Belichick appreciated by coaches
He is a reliable friend with a good sense of humor who often provides sound advice.
That’s not necessarily the version of Bill Belichick fans became accustomed to seeing on television. But Red Sox manager Alex Cora, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, and Bruins coach Jim Montgomery came to know a different side of the now-former Patriots coach.
Their relationship with Belichick is one based on admiration of his ability to last 24 seasons on the job and win six Super Bowls. In an era where coaches and managers come and go at a whirlwind pace, Belichick was the model of consistency.
Counting interim bosses, the Bruins have had nine coaches since Belichick first coached the Patriots in 2000. The Celtics have had seven and the Red Sox eight managers — nine if you count Cora twice.
“To do that job so long, it’s impressive,” Cora said. “For all the madness and all the noise, he didn’t change. He stayed with his approach and went about his job trying to make the players better.
“That’s the mark of a pro, and us who are in the coaching business, we can learn from it and hopefully at some point come close to it. Or as close as we can.”
Cora texted occasionally with Belichick. They first met in person at Gillette Stadium in 2018, after the Red Sox won the World Series, and stayed in touch.
“He kept up with us,” Cora said. “You knew he was there.”
As the coach and general manager of the Celtics, Brad Stevens feels the same way. Belichick is a resource for him when needed.
“Anything that I ever asked, to come over to practice or meet, he was always available. He is always available,” said Stevens, who coached from 2013-21 before moving into the front office.
“He came to a lot of our games last year and we sat together, and I’ve just always appreciated him because it’s so hard to be consistent … He’s always been the same person to me regardless of how it was going week to week, game to game, whatever the case may be.
“He was just very kind, very open, and I’m really appreciative that I got to watch him work up close the last 11 years.”
Mazzulla was wearing a hooded Celtics sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off in a tribute to Belichick when he spoke to reporters on Thursday.
“I would say we share a similar sense of humor. He’s very funny,” Mazzulla said. “I would also say his attention to detail, but also his ability to look at other sports and build connections. In training camp last year we started talking about two-forones and pressing defenses. So his ability to make connections through different sports is kind of a unique way to stay ahead of the curve.”
Mazzulla unexpectedly became coach last season after Ime Udoka was suspended; he was later fired. Mazzulla led the Celtics to a 57-25 record before they crashed out of the playoffs against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.
It was an instant lesson in the peaks and valleys of his profession.
“When you see guys that go through coaching changes or slumps, it’s easy to forget how hard it is to be a coach, and it’s easy to take for granted longterm success,” Mazzulla said.
“We’re just normal guys who have a job and try to do the best we can. So I’m just grateful for the relationship and the standard that [Belichick] set.”
That standard resonated beyond Foxborough.
“There’s the shared idea of coaching in Boston,” Stevens said. “It’s such a privilege to coach in New England, and at the same time you feel the weight to perform and put the best product you can out there every minute of every day.”
Said Cora: “I felt it when I came here as a player in 2005 when it was Bill, Doc Rivers, and Tito [Francona] all in the same city. The standard they set was real. But Bill took it to another level.”
Football and baseball have different rhythms to the season. But Cora looks to the Patriots teams Belichick coached as a model.
“You want that feeling of intensity every day — to be locked in as a group,” he said. “We had that in ’18. Over there, [the Patriots] had players retire and they gave everything they had. They took no days off mentally.”
Former Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy, now with Las Vegas, said he spoke “at length” with Belichick before the 2019 Stanley Cup against St. Louis.
“It was a lot about not beating yourself. He talked about the line of scrimmage and then protecting the football, taking care of the football. That’s puck management to me,” Cassidy said. “He was good to me as a young coach there.”
In 2016, Bruins coach Claude Julien wore a gray hooded sweatshirt as he coached in the Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium. The Hoodie saw the hoodie before the game and had a big smile.
For Montgomery, there were lessons in watching Belichick’s methods from afar.
“I know he has impacted a lot of football coaches, but I think it goes across every sport because you study other coaches and how they handle players, the team, and the difference between the motivational and the structure — the X’s and O’s, so to speak,” Montgomery said.
“Obviously, he’s a master at it all and someone that I’m very lucky to have spent time with.”