JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It wasn't so long ago that Bill Belichick didn't qualify as a genius. His Cleveland Browns were 6-10, then 7-9, again 7-9. There was a wild-card playoff berth 10 years ago, but Belichick wasn't welcomed back after a 5-11 season in 1995. His résumé, unlike that of Bill Walsh or Joe Gibbs or Bill Parcells, shows a trip back to the ranks of assistant coaches, first with the Patriots and then the Jets.
It is remarkable that the stumble in Cleveland sent Belichick soaring to prominence as probably the best coach in pro football rather than into free fall, that he could see so clearly that he had to make changes, that there were elements of the profession he had to do differently.
Bryan Cox, who played for Belichick when he was an assistant coach and a head coach, is one of the many people who have had a front-row seat for the evolution of the coach who has brought the Patriots to the Super Bowl for the third time in four seasons. "Bill had an issue not just with communication," Cox said, "but with presentation. He was all football and nothing else from what I saw. When he was an assistant with the Jets in 1998, every word out of his mouth was football. At the end of the season, after we had lost to the Broncos in John Elway's last game in Denver, I remember very clearly Bill saying to me, 'Thank you for coming. You made a difference in our team.' That was it. That's what he said. That was the extent of the pleasantries.' "
It wasn't that Belichick didn't like Cox; he brought him to the Patriots three years later. Cox, like a lot of players, saw a changing Belichick, one they say was much more communicative, much more reliant on his assistants. "The man evolved," Cox said. "He was more personable. He'd find you, ask you how your family was doing. I really believe he got better as his children grew older and he had to communicate more with them. Our quarterbacks coach passed away one year, and Bill took over the duties as quarterback coach. He had to communicate with those guys. I think there are things that forced him to be better in an area that was important to the players. He got better. He improved. Isn't that what we hope for in people? Bill did that. You knew the man could coach. He also became a total person."
That's the story you often hear, that or something like it, from guys who played for Belichick in Cleveland in the early 1990s and the Jets in the late 1990s. "He evolved," they say. We don't know how much of that assessment Belichick agrees with because he's not prone to great public self-examination, particularly not during Super Bowl week. Asked Tuesday about the big difference between then and now, Belichick half-jokingly answered, "One would be my record," and there is a huge difference between going 36-44 (1-1 in the playoffs) with the Browns and 52-28 (8-0 in the playoffs) with the Patriots.
But Belichick isn't one of those coaches who believes a record is a complete reflection of a coach. "I think the two changes that would be most notable," he said, "would be delegating things to other people in the organization. I am a detail-oriented person and sometimes that is not good. It's better to let somebody else worry about the things they can do and let me worry about the things that only a head coach can do. [And] off the field there are a lot of things that can affect your football team. It's not all about technique and play-calling, although that is certainly a significant part of it. Sometimes there are things off the field that can affect how your team functions and I have tried to be a little more cognizant of those."
There's certainly another side of Belichick, one that isn't wearing a sweatshirt. "You are missing the guy," assistant Charlie Weis said, "who slept on my wife's couch in our one-bedroom condo so he could be closer to the beach. You are missing the guy who went on tour with Bon Jovi over to Europe even though he can't sing or dance very well. This guy's got more personality than any one of you knows. He's just not going to let you see it."
Jimmy Johnson, whose Cowboys won back-to-back Super Bowls, recalled a trip Belichick made to visit Johnson. They fished, threw back a few cold ones, Johnson said, and then Belichick turned the conversation to the college draft. Specifically, Belichick wanted to pick Johnson's brain on how the Cowboys used extra choices one year. "He knew more about my draft than I did," Johnson said. "He was so well-prepared to have this conversation. It impressed me how well he knew my drafts in Dallas. The guy covers all the bases. Look, I know he has great assistants in Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel. But as good as they are, you know he's grooming somebody now. He's so great at coaching his coaches."
There's a long list of things football folks think Belichick does as well as anyone. Belichick and Scott Pioli, who is in charge of player personnel, want a certain kind of player. "Some guys they have don't measure up [physically]," Johnson said, "but they know how to play. And some talented guys aren't as smart as their guys."
Belichick doesn't disagree. "You've got to reach a point, which is hard to reach and I had trouble with it, but I'm comfortable with it now, where you look at a player and say, 'You know, this guy is really a good football player and is going to play a long time in the NFL, but he just doesn't fit our system. He's going to be perfect somewhere else, but he's just not what we need.' "
Johnson reflected on the job Belichick has done in leading a team to two Super Bowl victories in three years and a 32-5 record over the past two seasons. "I know it's easy to get caught up in the moment," Johnson said. "But I think what he has done, with salary-cap restrictions and free agency, might be the best coaching job in the history of the NFL. I know he has great players. You have to. But teams that have been able to do it consistently always have great coaches. And he is."
