Bill Belichick
William Stephen Belichick is an American football coach who is the head coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. Regarded as one of the greatest head coaches of all time, he holds numerous coaching records, including the record of most Super Bowl wins as a head coach, all with the New England Patriots, along with two more during his time as the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants, for a record eight total Super Bowl victories as coach and coordinator. A renowned American football historian, Belichick is often referred to as a "student of the game" with a deep knowledge of the intricacies of each player position. During his tenure with the Patriots, Belichick was a central figure as the head coach and de facto general manager during the team's dynasty from 2001 to 2019.
Belichick is a descendant of Bill Parcells' coaching tree. He began his coaching career in 1975 as an assistant for the Baltimore Colts and became the defensive coordinator for New York Giants head coach Parcells by 1985. Parcells and Belichick won two Super Bowls together before Belichick left to become the head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 1991. He remained in Cleveland for five seasons but was fired following the team's 1995 season. Belichick rejoined Parcells, first in New England, where the team lost Super Bowl XXXI, and later with the New York Jets. After being named head coach of the Jets, Belichick resigned after only one day on the job to accept the head coaching job for the Patriots on January 27, 2000. In 24 seasons under Belichick, the Patriots won 17 AFC East division titles, made 13 appearances in the AFC Championship Game, and appeared in nine Super Bowls, with a record six wins. Overall, Belichick has won eight Super Bowl titles and finished as runner-up four times from his combined time as an assistant and head coach.
At the time Belichick left the Patriots, he was the NFL's longest-tenured active head coach. Belichick has the most playoff coaching wins all-time with 31 and ranks third in regular season coaching wins in the NFL with 302. He is also in second place for combined regular season and postseason wins, and also second place for most regular season coaching wins with one franchise. Belichick is one of only three head coaches who have won six NFL titles. He was named the AP NFL Coach of the Year for the 2003, 2007, and 2010 seasons. Belichick has also been selected to the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team, NFL 2010s All-Decade Team, and the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Early life and education
Belichick was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 16, 1952, the son of Jeannette and Steve Belichick.Belichick was named after College Football Hall of Fame coach Bill Edwards, who was his godfather. He is of Croatian ancestry; his paternal grandparents, Marija Barković and Ivan Biličić, emigrated from Draganić in 1897 and settled in Monessen, Pennsylvania, having changed their names to Mary and John Belichick at the suggestion of immigration officers.
Belichick was raised in Annapolis, Maryland, where his father was an assistant football coach at the United States Naval Academy. Belichick has said his father is one of his most important football mentors, and Belichick often studied football with him. He reportedly learned to break down game films at a young age by watching his father and the Navy staff do their jobs. Belichick graduated from Annapolis High School in 1970, where he was a classmate of Sally Brice-O'Hara, who would later become the Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard. While there, Belichick played football and lacrosse, with the latter being his favorite sport. Belichick enrolled at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, for a postgraduate year, with the intention of improving his grades and test scores to be admitted into a quality college. The school honored Belichick 40 years later by inducting him into its Athletics Hall of Honor in 2011.
Belichick attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he played center and tight end. In addition to being a member of the football team, Belichick played lacrosse and squash, serving as the captain of the lacrosse team during his senior season. A member of Chi Psi fraternity, Belichick earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1975. Eventually, he was part of the inaugural induction class into the university's Athletics Hall of Fame in spring 2008.
Coaching career
Early coaching positions
After graduating, Belichick took a $25-per-week job as an assistant to Baltimore Colts head coach Ted Marchibroda in 1975. In 1976, Belichick joined the Detroit Lions as their assistant special teams coach before adding tight ends and wide receivers to his coaching duties in 1977. Belichick was dismissed along with head coach Tommy Hudspeth and the rest of the coaching staff on January 9, 1978. He spent the 1978 season with the Denver Broncos as their assistant special teams coach and defensive assistant while also serving as director of films.New York Giants (1979–1990)
In 1979, Belichick began a 12-year stint with the New York Giants alongside head coach Ray Perkins as a defensive assistant and special teams coach. Belichick added linebackers coaching to his duties in 1980 and was named defensive coordinator in 1985 under head coach Bill Parcells, who had replaced Perkins in 1983. The Giants won Super Bowl XXI and Super Bowl XXV following the 1986 and 1990 seasons. Belichick's defensive game plan from the New York Giants' 20–19 upset of the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV has been placed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.Cleveland Browns (1991–1995)
From 1991 until 1995, Belichick was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. During his tenure in Cleveland, Belichick compiled a 36–44 record, leading the team to the playoffs in 1994, his only winning year with the team. Coincidentally, Belichick's lone playoff victory during his Browns tenure was achieved against the New England Patriots, who were coached by former Giants head coach Bill Parcells, in the Wild Card Round during that postseason. In Belichick's final season in Cleveland, the Browns finished 5–11 despite starting 3–1. One of his most controversial moves was cutting quarterback Bernie Kosar midway through the 1993 season. Kosar was signed by the Dallas Cowboys two days later and won a Super Bowl with the Cowboys in Super Bowl XXVIII as a backup. In November 1995, in the middle of the ongoing football season, Browns owner Art Modell had announced he would move his franchise to Baltimore after the season. After first being given assurances that he would coach the new team that would later become the Baltimore Ravens, Belichick was instead fired on February 14, 1996, a week after the shift was officially announced.In the 2013 episode of A Football Life on the Cleveland Browns relocation controversy, many sports journalists who had covered the Browns at the time said that in retrospect, Belichick had laid the groundwork and set up the infrastructure for the Ravens' success in the ensuing decades, including their win in Super Bowl XXXV, by giving recently retired tight end Ozzie Newsome his first front-office job, and had also planned on drafting Ray Lewis in the 1996 NFL draft if Belichick and the team had stayed in Cleveland. Those who had covered the Browns went on to state that if the original Browns had stayed in Cleveland, Belichick would have seen his work through. For his part, Belichick stated that he was able to learn from some mistakes he had made with the Browns while largely sticking to his blueprint from Cleveland when resurrecting the Patriots, such as factoring in off-the-field issues that can affect performance. Among those interviewed, the consensus was that Belichick's failure in Cleveland had more to do with Modell's financial struggles that eventually led the NFL to force the sale of the Ravens to Steve Bisciotti than Belichick's own doing.
New England Patriots (1996)
After his dismissal by the Cleveland Browns, Belichick served under Parcells again as assistant head coach and defensive backs coach with the New England Patriots for the 1996 season. The Patriots finished with an 11–5 record and won the AFC Championship over the Jacksonville Jaguars, but they lost to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXI amid rumors of Parcells's impending defection.New York Jets (1997–1999)
Belichick had two stints as the head coach of the New York Jets without ever coaching a game.In February 1997, Belichick, who had been an assistant coach under Bill Parcells with the New York Giants and New England Patriots, was named the Jets' interim head coach while the Jets and Patriots continued to negotiate compensation to release Parcells from his contract with the Patriots and allow Parcells to coach the Jets. Six days later, the Patriots and Jets reached an agreement that allowed Parcells to coach the Jets, and Belichick became the team's assistant head coach and defensive coordinator.
When Parcells stepped down as head coach after the 1999 season, he had already arranged with team management to have Belichick succeed him. However, Belichick was the Jets' head coach for only one day. On January 4, 2000, when Belichick was introduced as head coach to the media—the day after his hiring was publicized—he turned it into a surprise resignation announcement. Before taking the podium, Belichick scrawled a resignation note on a napkin that read, in its entirety, "I resign as HC of the NYJ." He then delivered a half-hour speech explaining his resignation to the assembled press corps.
Soon after this bizarre turn of events, Belichick was introduced as the Patriots' 12th full-time head coach, succeeding the recently fired Pete Carroll. The Patriots had inquired to the Jets about permission to interview him for their vacant spot at head coach just before Parcells stepping down. Parcells and the Jets claimed that Belichick was still under contract to the Jets, and demanded compensation from the Patriots. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue agreed, and the Patriots gave the Jets a first-round draft pick in 2000 in exchange for the right to hire Belichick.