by John Powers
“One of the biggest things I’ve learned through my coaching career is the evolution of learning and the evolution of technology and the tools that I came into the game with in 1975. I mean, our team wouldn’t even recognize what those things are—a projector and 60-millimeter film and chalk and erasers. We don’t even have that stuff any more. We progressively go on to different types of technology. I’d say the thing I’ve learned is that other people don’t learn the way I learned. I’m not comfortable with some of that technology, but they are and they can learn better with the newer technology than I can because I’m not used to it. But it’s their method of learning. They’ve been using it all their lives.
“So we’ve converted as a coaching staff and as an organization to what’s better for the students than what’s better for the teachers. As teachers we’ve had to adjust, we’ve had to learn, which has been good for us, too—me in particular. A lot of our coaches, I think they’re a lot better at this than I am, that’s for sure. We’ve had to adjust to new methods of technology, teaching, apps, and different things that we’re not familiar with that our players are that will help them. The tablets and those kind of things are certainly convenient. Guys can be getting treatment in the training room and they can be watching their tablet. It’s a lot easier than when I came into the league when you had to take a projector and a roll of film home and watch it. Now everybody has it, they have the access to it. Or before when we had to take our film and put it on VHS—not that any of our players would know what a VHS is. Then they would pop it into their TV and watch it. Of course, you couldn’t rewind it. That’s what we had to work with.
“So we progressively worked through those stages. Now we’re into another stage. It’s been very educational for me. I’ve leaned on a lot of our IT people, like [IT specialist] Dan Famosi has done a tremendous job in coordinating all of this. But also our coaches who have used it with other teams or other organizations they’ve been in or it’s been brought to their attention that this is how another team is doing it. Then one of our coaches or scouts or whoever it is will go and find out how somebody else is doing it and see how we can apply it to us. But Dan has been the guy for us that’s just taken all that stuff to the level that we’re at. Just daily handling all the moron coaches like me that can’t turn it on or can’t get from one view to another, to our players and just the compatibility and accessibility of all the information.”
SEEING THINGS
“If the TV’s busted some people can walk in there and fix it. I look at it, all I see is wires. TV, VCR, Sirius radio, whatever it is. It all looks the same to me. It’s just a bunch of wires and if it doesn’t work, if I hit the button and it doesn’t turn on, that’s it. There’re other people that come in there and boom, boom, boom, everything works. The computer works, the TV works, the VHS works, everything, perfect. Some people have a capacity to see things. Some people have trouble with math, some people have trouble with the English language. I have trouble with both of them. There’re all different strengths and weaknesses. You coach players, some guys see things, they see everything. Some guys, they see nothing.”
THE FUNDAMENTALS
“I’m sure we have enough technological equipment in here to put the whole team on the moon. In the end it comes down to blocking and tackling and running and throwing and catching and kicking and solid fundamentals and all that. You could put the iPad on the super-duper wizard computer and whatever you want. You could throw all that crap on there and I’m sure you could get some statistical analysis that would provide 28 theses for MIT. In the end you have to go out there and play football. I wouldn’t lose too much sight of that. Same thing in baseball. [Former manager] Tony La Russa and I, we’ve talked about that a lot, too. You have to throw the ball, you have to hit it, you have to catch it, you have to field it, you have to run the bases. You could go out there and talk about some guy’s batting average when the count is 2-1 at night. I mean, sooner or later you have to go out there and play.”
Belichick as he appears in your living room. (photo by Yoon Byun)
MORE STUFF
“The more stuff there is, the more stuff there is that can go wrong. But when it works, it’s great. Great line from Curley in the Stooges. He gets in the car and says, ‘Hey, what’s wrong with this car? I don’t know, it seems fine. The clock is working.’”
CHALLENGING PLAYS
“The easiest challenge is when you look at the play on the screen and it’s obvious to you that the play was called incorrectly. That’s no problem. The harder one is when you see the play with your own eyes and you say, ‘I don’t think that’s the way it should have been called,’ but can you find another picture of it that confirms what you actually saw? That’s the question. And then there are the plays that maybe you think you have a 25 percent chance of being right on. ‘Maybe we could get this. I doubt it.’ But it’s such a big play in the game and you maybe don’t need your timeouts. It’s the end of the first half or something and your timeouts aren’t critical at that point, then maybe you take that lesser percentage chance and say, ‘Okay, we didn’t see the play, we didn’t get a real good look at it but we think it’s close. Let’s take a shot at it.’ Was his arm going forward? Was the ball out? Was it a fumble? Was it an incomplete pass? That kind of thing. It doesn’t get replayed up there but it’s a big play in the game, then maybe you just take a shot at it and say, ‘I hope it comes out in our favor.’”
TRICK PLAYS
“One of the worst ones that I ever ran was in ’79 against the Rams when I was the special teams coach on the Giants. We went out to play L.A. in the Coliseum and we didn’t have a real good team. It was Phil Simms’ rookie year and Dave Jennings was one of our best players, All-Pro punter. I mean, he was great and he could throw. He was a very athletic guy, so we had several fake punts that we hit. And unfortunately we were punting a lot, so that gave us more opportunities than we needed. Brian Kelley was a fullback, so we snapped the ball to Kelley and he ran a sweep. Once he was about to get tackled he stopped, turned, and lateraled it back to Jennings on the other side of the field.
“The play didn’t work very well. It wasn’t very well executed and when Jennings caught the ball he thought he had a chance to get the first down but he really didn’t. But he thought he did, so he ran for the sticks there on the sideline and then about three guys hit him about four yards short of the first down, knocked him out of bounds. I mean, he got knocked over by the cheerleaders. His helmet was on sideways, he’s looking out through the ear hole. The ball is out there on the track somewhere and [head coach] Ray Perkins looks over at me with that look of ‘What are we doing? This is our best player.’ He [Jennings] looked like he got run over by two Mack trucks. So we go all the way over to the other side of the field and get him off the track and put him back together again. He got killed. And then Ray said—which I would have done the same thing but I wouldn’t have done it as nicely as he did—‘Look, we’re not running any more fakes like that again. Just forget that.’ He didn’t put it quite that way, but you get the idea.”
11. Hoodie on Holidays
HALLOWEEN
Bill Belichick: “Got your Halloween costume ready?”
Friday Warriors: “Any plans for a costume?”
BB: “Yeah. I’ll be a ghost. Got your candy ready? What are we giving out this year?”
FW: “Pez.”
BB: “Pez? With the dispenser? Good.”
FW: “Do you have a favorite type of candy?”
BB: “Yeah, all of them. Remember when you were a kid and you went back to the house that had good candy twice? And then they threw you out, like, ‘Hey, you’ve been here. Get out of here.’ Or you hope that everybody didn’t show up at your house and there was some left over. Those were the days.”
FW: “What was your best Halloween costume?”
BB: “I kind of lucked into it. It was John Kenned
y. It was easy. You dress up and you put on the mask. But it was during the Cuban missile crisis, as it turned out. I think I won the prize there. Everybody was really impressed that the president was able to break away from the Cuban missile crisis to attend a Halloween party—a school Halloween party…. What could be a better holiday than costumes and candy? How can you go wrong? Whoever came up with that—that was brilliant.”
FW: “What’s your favorite Halloween candy?”
BB: “Whatever is in the bag. I like them all, whatever you drop in there.”
FW:“No costume?”
BB: “No, no.”
FW: “No pirate?”
BB: “This is it. I’m in it.”
Belichick and longtime girlfriend Linda Holliday enjoying a Celtics game in 2009. (photo by Barry Chin)
CHRISTMAS
Bill Belichick: “How are we doing here? Christmas shopping done? Started? Yeah, I’m with you. We’re on the same schedule…. Did you get your Christmas shopping done? I just finished up mine this morning. You’ve still got some time.”
Friday Warriors: “What did you get me?”
BB: “It’s in the mail.”
Bill Belichick: “Good morning. How are we looking today? Got everything that you asked Santa for?”
Friday Warriors: “How about you?”
BB: “Yeah, no complaints, no complaints.”
12. Bill in Brief
As voluble as Bill Belichick can be during his Friday press conferences, he can revert to his laconic “We’re on to Cincinnati” mode, particularly when the topic is his Hall of Fame quarterback. And while all questions produce answers, some can be one sentence long.
Q: “I know what the answer to this question is, but I have to ask it.”
A: “So why are we going to ask it, then?”
Q: “Do you expect Tom Brady to play this weekend?”
A: “We’ll list Tom on the injury report like we always do, like everybody else. Is that the answer you were hoping for?”
Q: “Not hoping for, but expecting.”
A: “Okay, good. I don’t want to disappoint you.”
Q: “What are your thoughts on Tom Brady rejoining the team?”
A: “He never left.”
Q: “Do you anticipate Tom Brady will practice today?”
A: “We’ll list his status at the end of practice.”
Q: “What was he able to do yesterday?
A: “Play quarterback. The usual thing.”
Q: “Did he practice?”
A: “He did just the way we listed him. That’s what we do after every practice.”
Belichick pointing westward before the divisional playoff at San Diego on January 14, 2007. (photo by Jim Davis)
Q: “He wasn’t injured during the week, though? Because he was listed as non-injury on Wednesday.”
A: “I think we covered that. I think we’ve already talked about that.”
Q: “It was a planned day off? It wasn’t that he was hurt during practice, right?”
A: “I think we’ve covered that.”
Q: “Will he be able to play in the game?”
A: “It’s all been covered.”
Q: “Now that Brady is dealing with this injury do you have any regrets about trading Jimmy Garoppolo?”
A: “We’re getting ready for Jacksonville.”
Q: “Does it look like Brady’s playing status might be a game-time decision?”
A: “Today’s Friday.”
Q: “Why do you prefer the running back-by-committee approach?”
A: “I prefer scoring and winning. That’s my preference.”
Q: “Have you ever thought about how much more entertaining it would be for us if you had a style more like Rex Ryan’s?”
A: “You’re not the first guy to mention that.”
Q: “Do you run out of the room when they’re on TV talking about how great you are?”
A: “I don’t see a lot of that.”
Q: “Will you request anything from Giants Stadium when it is torn down?”
A: “No, I don’t think so. They will still be digging through looking for Jimmy Hoffa’s body.”
Q: “You mentioned a clean slate. Can you give your rationale for the redecorating and taking all the pictures down?”
A: “The walls needed painting.”
Q: “Daylight savings a few weeks ago. Did you get your clock all figured out?”
A: “Yeah, still working on that, yeah.”
Q: “For those of us who weren’t there last night, can you update us on why Vince Wilfork didn’t play?”
A: “We just didn’t put him in. That’s why.”
Q: “Because?”
A: “Because there were other players who played.”
Q: “How has Jonathan Fanene done?”
A: “He’s been here one day.”
Q: “We’re just trying to follow up and be thorough.”
A: “That’s one thing about you guys. You can be thorough, especially on certain subjects, absolutely. I’m not being critical. I’m just stating the facts.”
Q: “How much did you play yourself and what were your limitations?”
A: “Pretty much everything. Size, speed, athletic ability.”
The coach in silhouette before the Super Bowl date with the Falcons. (photo by Jim Davis)
Q: “Did you happen to notice the ‘Cheaters Look Up’ banner yesterday and what was your reaction to it?”
A: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Q: “Have you heard about that plane?”
A: “What plane?”
Acknowledgments
To Janice Page, whose enthusiasm for the project and diligence throughout the process were invaluable.
To Kim Chapin, who found dozens of Globe photos displaying a startling variety of expressions from a man reputed to have fewer than two.
To Jesse Jordan, whose deft editorial skills kept everything on track and on time.
I owe sincere thanks.
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by The Boston Globe
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Triumph Books LLC, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Powers, John, 1948- author.
Title: Fridays with Bill : inside the football mind of Bill Belichick / John Powers.
Description: Chicago, Illinois : Triumph Books LLC, [2018]
Identifiers: LCCN 2018023881 | ISBN 9781629376295
Subjects: LCSH: Belichick, Bill—Quotations. | Football coaches—
United States—Quotations. | Coaching (Athletics)—Philosophy.
Classification: LCC GV959 .P68 2018 | DDC 796.332092 [B]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018023881
This book is available in quantity at special discounts for your group or organization. For further information, contact:
Triumph Books LLC
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
(312) 337-0747
www.triumphbooks.com
Printed in U.S.A.
ISBN: 978-1-62937-629-5
eISBN: 978-1-64125-085-6
Design by Meghan Grammer
Bill Belichick’s observations throughout the text were taken directly from his Friday press conferences. They were condensed for purposes of space and clarity. The photographs are provided courtesy of The Boston Globe.
p; John Powers, Fridays with Bill
