Bill Belichick – Through the Lens
by Paul Hopkins
1/4/2008
 
Last time out I looked at the controversial showman, Terrell Owens. This time, we look at someone just as controversial and polemic, but who is the very anti-thesis of the word 'showman'.
 
Therefore, both of them have something in common despite becoming polar opposites in terms of character. In writing this feature, I decided to start each article off by finding a common thread between the previous object of study and the next. So what do the outlandish and outspoken Owens and quiet, studious and somewhat mysterious Belichick have in common?
 
It's simple really. They're both controversial, and generally reviled by the majority of football fans. The major difference of course is that Owens gives the media all the soundbites and information they want. Belichick is the complete inverse, giving little away. But the end is still the same. The image turns people off these guys.
 
Of course, there is one big difference and that is that Owens, as we discussed last time out, is a wide receiver and we expect that from players like him. But Belichick is a coach. They set the context for their team, and more often than not their teams become reflections of them as people.
 
Belichick was destined for coaching at an early age. His father was an Assistant Coach at the US Naval Academy, and as anyone who knows anything about the Academy will tell you, it's a strict regimented regime there. Not just in terms of football, but in terms of life. It's unsurprising that Belichick seems to display many of the characteristics associated with the Naval Academy; self-restraint, organisation, attention to meticulous detail in his coaching style today with that as an upbringing.
 
Upon leaving Wesleyen University (he played lacrosse with Mike Carlson you know?!) he went straight into coaching. After just a few years, he was appointed to the position of defensive assistant and special teams coach with the New York Giants, the franchise with which he would really hone his craft.
 
In 1985 Bill Parcells promoted Belichick to defensive coordinator. Clearly this had a great effect on what we see today with Bill. Parcells is known for being everyone's favourite grumpy old coach, who isn't afraid to unleash his New York attitude on anyone within earshot, be it a player, journalist, or as Belichick himself found out on the sidelines on many occasions. As many who worked under the Parcells learning tree Belichick has gone onto many things in his career.
 
Whilst there will be many, many things not immediately visible to every one of us that Belichick learnt from Parcells, two of the most obvious are his somewhat grumpy deameanour and portrayal by the media, and of course,the most obvious one – winning. Of course, Belichick is not a Parcells clone – his style of coaching and the way to do things will have been long ingrained in him from an early age. Facets will have been picked up from Parcells but it is clear Belichick is one of a kind.
 
The highlight of Belichick's early career was his defensive masterminding of the Giants 20-19 Super Bowl victory over the Buffalo Bills. By now, his ability and talent was being noticed and as is the norm with promising co-ordinators, he made his move to the Head Coach position – with the Cleveland Browns.
 
Forever remembered as the man who benched Bernie Kosar in Cleveland, Belichick's four years in Cleveland are widely perceived as disastrous. Players regarded him as arrogant, dictatorial and unwilling to listen to anyone. It is clear that the argument often levelled against Belichick; that he considers himself above everyone else, was, in this case, true. Perhaps he wasn't ready for a Head Coaching job, perhaps Cleveland wasn't the best place for him, but it clearly didn't work. Looking back on it now however, he obviously learnt from the experience.
 
With tail firmly between his legs, Bill went back to the Parcells learning tree, firstly at New England and then again with Parcells at the New York Jets. When Parcells retired (heard that one before?!) we had the first unsavoury incident which turned people (outside of Cleveland) off Bill Belichick. When Parcells left the Jets, Belichick assumed the position of Head Coach. Just one day – that's right – one day later, he resigned to go to the New England Patriots.
 
Basically, this action is almost impossible to defend. If he was gauging interest from other teams then he had no need to accept the Jets job. It ended up with Belichick looking selfish, self-interested and not averse to underhand tactics. However, despite this, this incident largely passed away after the Jets and the Patriots agreed, with the help of Paul Tagliabue, a compensation package.
 
After an inauspicious 5-11 start, the 2001 season gave us a glimpse into what was to come. Terry Glenn was eventually bombed out of town, and under the guide of back-up 6th round pick Tom Brady, the Patriots rode the wave of national fervour to upset the highly fancied St Louis Rams to win the Super Bowl. With them team ethos and a lack of big stars, in shutting down the 'Greatest Show on Turf', Belichick had finally arrived as a legitimate top tier NFL coach, and as Terry Glenn could testify, one not to be messed with.
 
The next time the New England Patriots went back to the Super Bowl, the season started in the same way with Belichick again showing his ruthless streak. This time, team leader Lawyer Milloy was cut mere days before the start of the season. Again, the team was put ahead of the individual and again, under the on-field leadership of Tom Brady, they went all the way to become NFL Champions, a feat they repeated a year later, with victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.
 
Even at this point, Belichick was not as reviled as he is now, but people were aware of his dour, downtrodden outwards persona, as symbolised best with his grey cut off flannel hooded sweatshirt.
 
It has been the 2007 perfect 16-0 regular season which has led to the severe deterioration of his reputation. Unquestionably a large part of it is simply because he is a repeat winner. There is no underdog tag with the Pats now, as many teams they faced this past season will testify. No one likes a winner, particularly those who seem to seek to annihilate teams at every opportunity, But the image of his team has nose dived in many quarters due to other issues – spygate, the 'going for it' on 4th down when the game is over, the off-hand way he deals with people, the apparent disdain he is seen to hold the League in. It certainly clouds the water and detracts from the achievements of his team.
 
That needs to be remembered however. His players defend him; speak well and even fondly of the man. And why shouldn't they? With all due respect many of the players he has succeeded with have been journeymen until they got to Boston and he has made them winners. That is a rare and truly special skill which demonstrates the talent of the man.
 
Therefore it is beyond question that Belichick is a great coach. To gather the record he has in recent years, often with personnel that we can call, somewhat limited, is really quite remarkable. A great coach always learns, and it is clear that he learnt from his time in Cleveland, which appears now almost impossible to believe occurred, particularly when we look at Belichek's record with the Patriots.
 
It is clear that perceptions of Belichick suffered further from his reaction during the 2007 season to a situation that will probably forever be entwined with the name Bill Belichick – “Spygate”.
 
So much has been said and done about it since the first week of the NFL season, so this article is not going to retread over old ground. If you want detail then there is a wealth of information available through all the usual channels. What we're going to do is look at the coach who was found guilty and since then has had all kinds of mud flung at him, partly jealousy, partly encouraged through his behaviour – but still led his team, and got them focused on 16-0 – which they achieved! Lesser coaches would not have been able to keep their team's focus on the task ahead with so much going on around them.
 
He was found guilty of an offence, was fined a pretty substantial figure (the highest ever for a coach) and admitted he was guilty. I fail to see what more he could have done in that situation. The problem is arguably more that the NFL failed to really deal with this issue on a level that most people expected them to. Roger Goodell spoke of clamping down on misdemeanours, but since then seems to have rather randomly applied his rules, leaving himself open to charges of being inconsistent. His behaviour in this, as perhaps increasingly shown by the recent involvement of Senator Arlen Spector, seems to have contributed to the media circus which existed. Destroying the tapes, and seemingly hoping it goes away (perhaps in fear of opening a can of worms?) has kept this story running and running, when it has been dealt with, and has been dealt with pretty strongly.
 
Rumours persist that there is evidence that illegal video-taping of opponents began as soon as Belichick took charge in 2000, and in particular that there is evidence that he recorded the St Louis Rams' walk through in advance of their Super Bowl match-up. Until these claims are proven in any way, it would be wrong to treat this as more than conjecture and hearsay.
 
Throughout the 2007 season then, what did Belichick do that was actually any different to the style he displayed before? He certainly didn't do himself a lot of credit by claiming that he was not aware of the rule and mis-interpreted it. Again, much like the Jets saga, the dropping of Bernie Kosar, and the leaving of the field before the end of Superbowl XLII, it left people disliking the person. After all, we are constantly reminded of how meticulous this man is, how he lives football, how he studies the rules to see what advantage he can get. So, a matter of weeks after the League re-enforces the rules to teams, we're meant to believe he wasn't aware of what it meant? That is not something anyone is likely to swallow and does him no credit at all. Indeed, it adds to the widespread theory that began in Cleveland and continues to this day that Bill believes himself to be cleverer than everyone else. However, despite this, his regular season was simply perfect. There can be no argument to it.
 
In researching this article and reading through reams and reams of information, views, opinion, statistics, and even footage I've found myself of the opinion that Bill Belichick is not a particularly nasty guy, he's not someone who sets out to rile people and rub them up the wrong way. But aside from possessing one attribute that tends to turn people away from them – winning, he does have a tendency to do singular things that are ill-advised and often leave people (with long memories) with a bad taste in their mouths. The claiming of not knowing the rules is one of those cases, and his career seems to be sprinkled with them every now and then.
 
It's clear that Bill Belichick's image suffers in part from jealousy towards his success and his team's success. He clearly is ill at ease in the media age. He could perhaps do himself some favours by being more open – until then he will stay largely reviled, but even that may not be enough. He does on rare occasions seem to be trying to make jokes with the assembled press corps, but unfortunately for him, it never quite seems to come over as genuine and clearly its not part of his character to anyone beyond his team and colleagues. Rather than trying this approach, perhaps Bill could open up a bit more, and show some of the personality that clearly endears him to his team.
 
Whilst, in the last article, I realised that the depiction of Owens was largely twisted in several ways by the media, this time, Belichick, like Owens seems to try and do it to sustain his image. Whether it is part of some “F you” attitude to the media, or the more likely reason for this writer, that he uses it to create the 'us vs. the World' attitude in the Patriots organisation and to take the attention away from his players and onto him, allowing them to concentrate on one thing – winning.
 
In that, he is rightly seen as a master, someone with a single objective (which he regularly achieves incidentally) who is respected and admired by those around them who actually do matter. Namely his players, his back office and his owner. I'm not sold even his own team's fans matter to him all that much. They simply enjoy the success he provides. If he didn't provide that, I doubt they would hold him in any higher esteem than the rest of us. Ah yes, the rest of us? Why should he care what we think? The guy, in the football sense, is a winner. Maybe we can't respect the man, but respect for the coach is unquestionable.