Bill Belichick’s legacy has come into question a lot since Tom Brady left New England and won a Super Bowl in Tampa Bay a few years ago. Perhaps having the greatest quarterback of all time made the coach more special than he was, many have begun to speculate.
On top of that, outsiders and media have loudly wondered whether Belichick’s secretive, restrictive “Patriot Way” is wearing thin now that the championship luster has worn off.
But one former Patriot who was around for the beginning of the Patriots’ first dynasty — WEEI’s own Christian Fauria — gave an interesting insight on the “1st and Foxborough” podcast into what exactly makes Belichick the greatest coach in NFL history.
Sure, he’s great at game-planning, said Fauria, a tight end who played four years with New England: “He knows the game, and he's able to teach it and explain it not just to one position or one personality but to every position and every personality because everybody learns differently.”
He’s been able to take mediocre players and turn them into contributors on championship teams, take good players and turn them into stars and turn a sixth-round pick into the league’s greatest player, proving himself as a talent evaluator and strategist that can find the best places for certain players to succeed.
But Fauria says Belichick’s ability to communicate with his players and gain their respect might be his greatest strength, which might not be something you’d guess if you just read his postgame comments.
“I also think he's really good at motivating his players, knowing what to say, knowing what buttons to press. Everything he says has a reason. I used to hate when coaches would, either after practice or on a Wednesday before the week starts, just ramble on about nothing. It was such a waste of time. It was so aggravating. They never said anything — not all of my coaches but some of them — they would never say anything that made any damn sense. So with Bill, I always liked the fact that his team meeting or post-practice talk always had a purpose, and then he backed it up with examples,” Fauria explained.
“But he wasn't just talking out of his ass. That, to me, is something as an older player, you can expose these coaches in a second. They don't make any sense, their hearts not in it, they don't believe in it. So with Bill, it was really encouraging knowing that he knew what the hell he was talking about and had the ability to explain it, not just throw some random cliche out there. … I think all of those are attributes of a good coach. I don't need to like you — I mean I love Bill as a coach, but in the end like I don't need to like you as a coach. But I want to make damn sure you know what the hell you're doing. He had everything, and he still does.”
There are certainly some who would debate whether or not Belichick has lost some his fastball (or a few marbles) with his strange off-season decision to let Matt Patricia and Joe Judge have major roles in running his offense or not investing more talent-wise in second-year quarterback Mac Jones.
Plus, it can be grating to hear “I don’t know” and various other non-answers to questions to which Belichick assuredly does know the answer, especially regarding what he plans to do at quarterback once Mac Jones is back healthy from his ankle injury.
But as Fauria suggests, Belichick doesn’t do anything without a reason. Sometimes it just takes a while to figure out what his purpose is.
More often than not, his teams always find a way to compete week in and week out, even when they’re not Super Bowl contenders, and his guiding hand remains the biggest reason for that.
