The Newest Hot Coaching Commodity is Belichick. Steve Belichick
Source – Patriots secondary coach Steve Belichick has been calling defensive plays for weeks, multiple players confirmed to the Herald. Bill Belichick remains ever observant on the sideline, jotting notes and getting a feel for the game. Whenever he deems necessary, the headman will turn from the field and address his defense with an adjustment.
The defense is still his, after all. Everyone will attest. The play calls, though, those are coming from a different headset.
“We’ve started to gel with (Steve Belichick), knowing what he’s going to call and the way he thinks through the game,” Patriots safety Terrence Brooks said. …
“Man, I love that dude. I really do. That’s my guy,” Brooks said. “He’s just a great coach. He understands his players, he goes out there and he wants you to do right. He’s pulling for you. You always come across some coaches who just wanna yell, but he makes you learn, he teaches you things and expects a lot out of his DBs.” …
Linebacker Elandon Roberts has worked with Steve Belichick since coming into the league in 2016, the first year Belichick served as the team’s safeties coach. So when former defensive play-caller Brian Flores left for Miami, at no point has he been worried about the transition.
“(Flores) was my linebackers coach, so once he became the play-caller, it was easy to trust what he was saying. And I’ve been here with Steve the whole way. So it’s easy to trust him,” Roberts said before later adding: on the “Coaching side of it, he gets the highest praise from me.” …
[Jerod] Mayo said Belichick continues to “drop nuggets” of information on Patriots players and coaches in meetings, much like he did in their original film sessions.
“He’s also one of those guys, like his dad, appreciates the history of the game,” Mayo said, “appreciates the X’s and O’s and how the game’s evolved.”
For those of who’ve been listening to people clap at Belichick the Elder for hiring his own son instead of a “professional” safeties coach and claiming it somehow proves he’s not as concerned with putting together the best possible team, this is sweet, sweet music.
I’ll state the obvious. Which is, you’re never going to get the most honest answers ever when you ask an employee “What’s your opinion of the boss’s kid?” I mean, during the reign of Henry VII, there weren’t people going around the castle telling reporters, “Henry VIII? That fat little shit? All he does is sit around stuffing turkey legs into his face and babbling on about the ‘divine right of kings’. Mark my words, that bratty psycho is going to be lopping women’s heads off someday and probably get our whole country kicked out of the Roman Catholic church or my name isn’t the Earl of Salisbury!”
That said, I think any involvement Belichick the Younger has had in this defense speaks for itself.
It doesn’t matter if you’re the guy on the headset making all the calls, the one who runs the practice drills or the kid who runs out after a kickoff to pick up the kicking tee, if your defense is producing numbers like that, you’re doing your job well.
One of the great, unresolved philosophical debates of all time is Nature vs. Nuture. Whether we are products of our Heredity or our Environment. It’s at the core of all social sciences. It factors into our criminal justice system. Guides our political discussions. And was the entire plot of “Trading Places.”
But sometimes, it’s not either/or. Sometimes it’s both. The way Bill Belichick was raised by his father to break down game film of Army’s run game when he was a 7-year-old, he has in turn done with his kids. It’s in encoded in their DNA to see a football offense and identify its weakness. But it’s also a product of their upbringing. Knowledge passed down in a sort of living, oral history. Day after day. Film session after film session. It’s the kind of dynamic that turns mere monarchies into dynasties. Well bred individuals who are taught from birth how to become great leaders so their kingdoms flourish instead of falling apart, “Game of Thrones” style.
Advertisement
One last thought about hiring your own kids over other qualified candidates. My brother-in-law was made partner at a big law firm in DC. And in the hiring process they told him, “We have a policy on nepotism. We’re all for it.” The logic being that if he brought his daughter in for a summer internship or as a clerk or whatever, she is not only going to be on her best behavior, the firm knows they are going to get the very best our of her. Because she wouldn’t want to make her father look bad. As opposed to some outsider with no skin in the game who’s just looking out for themselves.
So if you’re looking for someone who could possibly understand the senior Belichick’s systems, methods and philosophies, it makes perfect sense to hire the guy who’s most genetically similar to him. And who has learned from him since birth. And after the season, it’ll be hilarious to watch the rest of the NFL try to hire Steve away from Bill. Good luck with that.