I think I know a little bit about
competition. I think I know a little bit
about leadership. And I think I know a
little bit about football.
"Bill Belichick, the greatest coach of all time."
We're at mission BBQ in Annapolis
Maryland your choice why are we eating
here? Well, first of all I love Annapolis
this is home and I love what the mission
barbecue stands for I love their message
the fact that they support the people that
serve. When I was here last night they
were packing up a few hundred pounds of
their BBQ to ship off to Iraq. Is it true
that at twelve noon and mission barbecue
they stand up and sing the national
anthem? You'll see for yourself. There's a
sign over there that says every battle
is won before it is fought. You said
that's one of the few signs you have in
the Patriots headquarters. Sun Tzu, "The Art of War."
It's all about preparation you know
what you're doing and you have an idea
what the opponents can do what their
strengths weaknesses are. Then, once you
get into the game then those adjustments
will be I won't say easy but relatively
easier more manageable. How do you know
when you're well enough prepared? When
everybody knows what to do because our
games are so fast, things happen so quickly.
So you review the situation to review
the communication, you try to make sure
that everybody's on the same page if
it's too complicated it's probably not
going to work. If it's too simple
that might not work either because it's
too obvious so you try to find that that
that fine line in the middle where it's
challenging enough for your opponents
but something you can execute again it
comes down to execution.
Let's talk about the Super Bowl for a second.
It's been two months and it was amazing. Are you still processing it?
Yes I have to go back and watch it every once in a while
just to make sure it came out the way
I remember it.
Was there any point where
you thought you weren't going to win?
It was funny this
is one of those games where we didn't
have control of the score, but I didn't
feel like we had lost control of the
game. We could move the ball, we were able
to stop on third down we were able to do
things but the scoreboard was very much
against us. As long as there was still
time I felt we had a chance.
Were you scared?
No, I just tried to take it
from play to play and make, you know, the
best decision we can for the next play
you know it all fell in place for us at
the end which it had to if one thing had
gone wrong we would have probably come
up short.
What did it feel like? Close to
a miracle. I think we had one
of those great catches go in our favor
and we've seen him go the other way in other games, so you know that was a kind
of a miracle.
What's fascinating about
your job and what the world watches you
do is you make decisions and have plays
before the game but then you get out
there in the field and the entire game
is making a decision after decision in
the moment I mean this is sort of like
leadership on steroids.
I think General
Eisenhower put it pretty well a battle
plan is great until you actually get
into the battle then it doesn't mean
anything. So, that's the way it is in
football, you have a game plan you go
into the game now you start playing you
see what your opponent's doing or they make
an adjustment to what you're doing and
then you have to change so my job as a
coach is to make good decisions it's not
to go out there and block or tackle
thank God that wouldn't be very good.
To take information, calculate it, put it
through some kind of process and figure
out what's the next thing to do and so
that happens from really the first play
of the game.
I want to play a
little word association game. Okay i'm
gonna say word and just want your
immediate snap reaction.
Sure.
Football.
More sport than business but
it's a business. But I respect the game
for the game and for the sport.
The media.
It's how a team connects to its fans.
Deflategate.
Ridiculous.
Aaron Hernandez.
Tragedy.
Heartbreaking.
Yes, that'll be another word.
Winning.
The goal. There's no medals for trying. This
isn't like eighth grade where everybody
gets a trophy. We're in a professional
sport and its competitive to win that's
what we do.
Well you've been called the
chief economist of football you were the
person who saw the financial value of
undervalued players I mean it's
considered one of your great skills and
you always had incredible financial
discipline as a coach.
Right but none of
us got into football to be a
professional football player none of us
got into professional football to be a
professional coach or to manage a cab or
manage a team all of us that got into
football got into football because the
game because we love to go to practice
we'd love to play the game when we were
eight, nine, 10 years old.
It's hard to
even think about your story without
without thinking about your dad although
he's never the head coach in Annapolis
but he was an assistant coach was
enormously respected wrote a book about
football. Was football a calling to you?
Absolutely and my dad had great
relationships with other members of the
staff I learned coaching at an early
age, how coaches think, how coaches... you
know what bothers them what doesn't
bother i'm kinda then just a lot of
coaching styles. But again, that was part
of it too is you can learn like look all
ten of these guys are good coaches they
each have different personalities they
each have different styles what does
that mean you figure out what works for
you I took a lot from everybody and
somehow figured it out. I think that's kind
of I think to me in business or in
life there's a like "just figure it out."
Your dad taught you a ton about football
but what did your dad teach you about life?
I learned a lot from my dad.
He was the was the youngest of five
grew up in a poor environment. His
big break really was football. He worked his
way through college, lived in the gym and
a closet of summer jobs and all that. He made
a career out of football and ultimately
ended up here at the Naval Academy where
I think he was destined to be because he
loved his country and the quality of
people that come here because of their
toughness their work ethic and their
devotion to the country and their duty.
So that's really what he's about or
what he was about and so many of those
lessons I learned either from him or
from my association with the academy or
from my association with the people at
the Naval Academy which represented the
same values.
What would you call your most defining moments of your career?
Where I probably learned the
most is my first year in 1975 because I
took a job, was given a job with the
Colts and I didn't have any experience
and they were very understaffed. I wasn't
getting paid anything but I had a lot of
responsibility for that position and so
I was able to learn a lot it was like
having two or three graduate courses in
one year. After that year when I went to
Detroit, we were one in four we were
playing the Patriots who were four in
one. They had a great team and I went
back to an experience that I had
and I talked to our offensive
coordinator at that time and said, "Look I
know we haven't ever used this formation
but you know I studied this formation
while I was in Baltimore last year like
I think this is really going to give the
Patriots a problem. Can we take a look at
this?" So we went through it we looked at
it we used it and you know we won a game
by three touchdowns it was a huge upset.
That was kind of one of those where I'm
like okay I I can I can coach in this
league. What did you take away from that?
Don't be afraid to use
a good idea just because it's
unconventional just because somebody
else hasn't done it. If you believe in
it's a good idea then you know don't be
afraid to use it. Fast forward I take
the job with the Patriots in 2000.
The first meeting we have in
the spring this is back in the old
Foxboro Stadium so it's kind of a small
room for squeezing the whole team in
there. Here comes yeah the guys first
round draft pick from a prior year walks
into the front of the meeting not into the
back walks into the front and kind of
sits down and I'm already I've already
started the meeting. I'm 3-4 minutes into it
and you know I just look at him like,
"What are you doing?" He said, "Sorry
coach."
"Just get out of here." We're not gonna start this program off
with you walking in whenever you feel
like walking in. I don't care if a guy's a
number one draft choice or not a number
one draft choice. We're just not
going to run a team like this.
If you had to
describe the principles
of your leadership style or approach
what would they be?
Do your job, be attentive.
Pay attention to details and put the
team first. In football to be successful
as an individual player you need your
teammates and the better you connect
with them the better you interact as a
team the more successful you'll be
individually and I'd say we try to do
things to help the team building process.
Like what?
Well, you know, on the field if
one person does something particularly
good then everybody receives the benefit.
So now you're counting on that other
person even though he not might not be
in your side of the ball. You might not
even really like the guy but if he does
the right thing, we all get something,
well you're pulling for him and then off
the field again we do team building
things where we get to know each other.
We throw away the cell phones and
just do things that we're together as a
team and we're experiencing together
whether it be you know going to a movie
or we play games or do trivia
or do something like that it just
kind of brings everybody together to have
fun to take all the outside distractions
out of us.
Speaking of distractions
you're not a big fan of social media?
Yeah that would be put it mildly. I
think I do all I can to fight it. You
know we have rules that you know
prohibit our players from you know
posting things on Insta and Face
and all that we don't and I think it's
important for us to as a team to know
each other know our teammates and our
coaches to interact with them more than
it is to be liked by you know whoever on
chat room. So we try to encourage
the interaction and the personal contact
and experiences and not really pay
attention of what if people are saying
out there who don't even know. Look I
understand not going to eliminate it
don't even care whether people
go on it or our players go on it or not I
don't really care about that. I care
about as a relates to our football team
and as much as I can eliminate it on our
team, I'm gonna try to stamp it out.
Talk about how you think about what the
right relationship is with your with
your subordinates really.
There's a couple elements to it.
One is coaching and just from a pure
coaching standpoint
I try to coach all the players the same.
Don't you have favorites like everyone else?
Honestly I like all
the players that we have I respect all
of our players and if I favor one that's
not favoring 52.
The way I look at it is I give everybody
what they earn.
He tries to make it
harder for us in practice than it is in
the game.
You've had a long and unbelievable partnership with Tom Brady.
What are your thoughts on Tom Brady?
A really special player to coach. He works
very hard he's very smart he's trained
hard he's worked hard on throwing
mechanics he's worked hard on his mental
understanding of the game and process.
He's earned everything that he's
achieved. It wasn't always there, he's not
a great natural athlete. He's a very smart
instinctive football player.
But he may
end up in the greatest of all time.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's not all about talent.
It's about dependability, consistency
and being able to improve again and if
you work hard and you understand your
coachable and you understand what you
need to do, you can improve.
Let's talk about mistakes.
Leadership mistakes, your career mistakes.
Any stick out?
After every game I look
at the mistakes that were made in that
game by me, by the coaching staff, and you
know we need to address those and correct those.
Good players can't overcome bad
coaching it's impossible. On a personal
level, the one thing
that I've definitely learned is you've
got to count on your most dependable
people. I'll put it this way if we're
going to lose I'm going to lose with
that guy or that person's mistake or
coming up short in that area and if it
doesn't work, it doesn't work, but I'm
going down with that person. Might not be
your most talented person that you count
on your most dependable people. There
been times when I put I would say too
much responsibility on people that
weren't dependable and they didn't come
through and so whose fault's that? Mine.
When you're the head coach, you can
only do so many details and I would say
at times I was too detail-oriented in
some of the tasks that I was on and
didn't have enough breadth or give enough
leadership in other areas. I mean,
every team has young players and they
have wives and girlfriends and they had
babies and they have parents that are
sick. All that somewhere or other you
know all runs in together so the more
you can handle those, the more that you
can help take care of those as an
organization as a head coach, then
the smoother the the ship runs on
the football end.
Was there ever a plan B?
What a football hadn't worked out?
So, what I want to do is be a
graduate assistant and go and get a
business degree or an economics degree,
post-graduates.
And maybe become a professor?
No, I think go into business.
Go into business. Does that thought keep
going through your head for a while or
when did you sort of let go of that?
Coach offered me a job in
Detroit so I went to Detroit so I went
from twenty-five dollars a week to ten
thousand dollars a year plus a car
Detroit. That looked pretty good at that
time so I'm like all right I'm in.
I've heard you say that it's not what you
know it's who you know.
So true, so true.
In life it's so much of you know
the opportunities that you get from
people that you know, the opportunities
that those relationships give you as
opposed to you know what's in a book or
you know what you've studied.
You have three children and they are following in
your footsteps two of your boys are
working with the Patriots organization
now. Your daughter is the coach at Holy
Cross, the women's lacrosse coach. How do
you feel about them going into the same
world that you were in?
I've told
them kind of the same thing my dad told
me which is follow your heart
you know if there's something that you
love then and that's your passion when
you're young, do it and let
everything else take care of itself
don't don't do it for you no money or
some other motivation do it because it's
what you want to do.
Bill, this is my dad's jacket he wore as
a physical education instructor at the
Naval Academy and I feel like this is
where it should be in this restaurant
and he's one who served.
Coach, thanks.
I know what Annapolis in the Naval Academy
meant to the Belichicks. We will so
probably display this and we're humbled.
Do you foresee yourself coaching for the
indefinite future? Retirement does
not beckon, apparently?
Yeah again, I'm
kind of short-sighted here so I'm good
you know certainly good here for
this year, good for a while. I like
what I'm doing I enjoy all parts of the
game. The team building, training camp,
game days. It's still the excitement of
Sunday. It really is.
Is the goal to go back and win the Super Bowl again?
Well that's too far
away. The goal right now is to put
a good competitive team together, then
the goal would be to have our team
compete and work the way it needs to
work to have a good Spring, then to have
a good training camp than to be ready
for the start of the season. So, we can
only control what we can control in the
short term: this week our next
opportunity. So that's where we're at.
"Not one, not two, not three, not four. This is
number five. How do y'all feel about
number five?"
Where are all the rings?
In a safe. I'm not a big jewelry person.
You know they're there, right?
Right and
they were earned. You can't buy them in the
store. They were earned, they'll never be
able to take them away. That's a
proud feeling to have. That's an
achievement that was competitively earned
and that ring symbolizes achievement and
accomplishment. So, very proud.