The Gospel According To Bill Belichick by Owen Clark Thomas Junior & Sidsel Thomas

Author:Owen Clark Thomas Junior & Sidsel Thomas [Junior, Owen Clark Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2017-02-17T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five -Team Comes First

Ten words have driven Patriots coach Bill Belichick since he arrived in New England 17 years ago. And they are 10 words that he leans on whenever he is queried about what's gone into making his team an annual threat to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

"I do what I think is best for the team," he says.

For the better part of those 17 seasons, that approach has worked out well for the Patriots.

It has been said that Coach Belichick 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.

Running back Jonas Gray had a break out performance in 2014 against the Colts, scoring four touchdowns and setting a team record of 201 yards rushing in one game. The next day he overslept, and was in the coach’s dog house for the rest of the season. He was later released from the team.

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 set himself apart Sunday, February 5th, 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 Belichick’s former assistant, Alabama's Nick Saban.

As well as Gregg Popovich of the Spurs and former UCLA coach John Wooden and pretty much every other person who has cemented him or herself on the Mount Rushmore of the profession.

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 benefited from Noll's coaching. "Did I respect him? Of course I did," Bradshaw said last year. "Like him? No, I didn't like him."

Among the 15 blocks on Wooden's famed pyramid of success is "self-control," an attribute that applies to the players as well as the coaches and general managers choosing them.

In a recent talk he gave to a group of coaches, Popovich spoke of the virtually mandatory requirement to resist talented players who are more focused on themselves than the team.

"That's not easy," he said. "You have to follow through, be good to your principles. That person who's going to be good, who has potential, that's going to get you fired."

A lot has been made this year of New England's 2016 decision to part ways with two key cogs in its defense — Chandler Jones in the offseason, then linebacker Jamie Collins, who was (ruthlessly?) traded away to winless Cleveland in October. That defense still allowed the fewest points in the league.

Belichick is hardly the first coach faced with those sorts of choices. In the '70s, Landry spent a season shuffling between Roger Staubach and Craig Morton at quarterback.

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