If you’re a football fan you really should check out the latest edition of Bill Belichick Sound EFX from NFL Films. And yes, I said “football fan” and not just crazy Pats fans like myself.
The media has taken the personality that Coach Belichick presents to them and run with it as if that is how he really is as a coach and person. But the truth is that the front that BB presents to them is not who he is.
While he comes off in press conferences as tight lipped and dull it is to serve a purpose: To keep his team focused on their present task at hand, and to keep the rest of the NFL gaining any kind of advantage.
This is not who Bill Belichick the person is. You know this already if you read David Halberstam’s Education of Coach, and you can see it even more clearly for yourself by watching this Sound EFX program. It drives me nuts when BB cracks a joke in a press conference and suddenly everyone acts like they just witnessed a rare and random feat.
There was a question posed to Tedy Bruschi on a recent ESPN podcast asking if he had ever seen Bill burst out laughing. It’s sad that people think that he’s just a lifeless football robot, as a result they’re really missing out on how impressive and detailed his coaching style is.
The Coach Belichick we see with his players and children here is an affable yet focused football coach. One of the core tenets of Belichick’s coaching philosophy is to be focused on the present moment. Not on the past or future. Only right now, and what one can do to make themselves better. This philosophy extends far from the gridiron and into every facet of our lives, and it’s one that I came to find just before I discovered BB preached it.
In short, what we see in this program is what Bill Belichick is really like. How he coaches, how he parents, and of course that infamous stale personality he presents to the media.
While we those of you who have not seen it patiently await the next airing of the show, or for someone to put it up on the internet, I’ll throw some quick hit comments and observations.
- There were probably about 75% new clips that even I, your faithful Patriots uber blogger, had not seen. One of the clips I have seen countless times is BB talking to Marquis Hill about not biting on a hard snap count when on the goalline. It’s a sad clip given that Hill drowned in the summer of 2007, and it’s even tougher to watch given how he struggles with Belichick’s line of questioning.
- Surprisingly there were a lot of clips of BB with his kids. Watching one of them do their spanish homework across from him at his desk. Later telling the same son the story of how grandfather Steve Belichick got his start with the Detroit Lions, which is an interesting story for us on the outside, nevermind that it was a father telling the story of his father to his son. It was a special moment and I challenge any Pats hater to watch that and tell me their opinion of Belichick isn’t a bit changed.
- There were quite a few technical football clips but one of my favorites was BB telling Mike Vrabel that he thought he had discovered a “tell” on one of the tackles they were about to face. Just a subtle difference in stance he noticed that would tell if the play was going to be a run or a pass. Imagine how much film you have to watch to notice something like that.
- There was another clip of BB talking to Matt Cassel, telling him no one ever lost a game because of an incomplete pass. This got me to thinking about a comment BB made on WEEI this week when asked about potential advantages that Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis could have if the Pats face the Chiefs. BB responded that it’s much more an advantage to know someone’s personnel than it is their schemes. So yeah, BB knows Cassel.
I really hope that all Patriots fans have a chance to see this episode at some point. It will remind you how lucky we are to have such a incomparable head coach whose philosophy transcends sports, yet he still remains a mystery to those not paying attention.
