Every Team Should Have the Fortune of a Belichick

[CloakNNNdagger]

I believe that O'brien will carry more than just a little piece of Belichick with him to the Texans. Looking forward to very positive dynamic changes.

Rob Ninkovich: Belichick is great, just don’t ask dumb questions

From 2006 to 2008, Rob Ninkovich bounced around the league for three seasons but didn’t play much and was never a starter. Then, in 2009, Patriots coach Bill Belichick saw something in Ninkovich, signed him during training camp, put him on the regular-season roster and eventually made him a starter. Ninkovich has now started 57 consecutive games.

So it’s no surprise that Ninkovich thinks he owes a lot of his NFL success to Belichick, and that Ninkovich strongly disagrees with anyone who thinks Belichick is a jerk.

“The perception of Bill, they don’t really see Bill outside of his interviews,” Ninkovich said on SiriusXM NFL Radio, via Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com. “He’s a funny guy, he has a great sense of humor and he’s the best football coach ever for a reason. He knows what he’s talking about. He knows how to get the best and the most out of each individual person. So the way he speaks, you definitely listen to the things that he says. You try to write down and absorb as much as you can. He has a ton of knowledge of the game. Walking around the locker room, walking around the facility, he’ll talk to you. He’s the best football coach I’ve been around. There is a definitely difference in the perception of what he is from the media versus what he really is. He’s always available if you need to speak to him. That’s another thing he always says, ‘just come to me’ and he’ll tell you it like it is. He won’t sugarcoat anything for you. That’s what you want — honest answers. As a football player, that’s a great thing, to be able to go to your head coach and be able to ask him a question and have him give you a straight-up answer.”

So why does Belichick so often come across as surly in his public appearances? Ninkovich says that’s mostly a result of the types of questions he’s answering in interviews and at press conferences.

“A lot of people just see an interview, some media guy asking him a dumb question and he likes to give it back to those guys especially,” Ninkovich said.

Belichick may not enjoy talking to reporters, but he enjoys talking football with football players. And Ninkovich is one of many players to say that, despite the coach’s gruff public demeanor, he enjoys playing for Belichick.

 

[Double Barrel]

You could clearly see Belichick's real personality on that two-episode "A Football Life". He is nothing like the dour demeanor he has at press conferences.

I enjoy just listening to Belichick on football strategy and history. The guy is a walking encyclopedia in that regard.

 

[santo]

I remember when he also came out in the Cleveland Browns documentary where he built the coaching staff and scouts. The thing that stood out to me was that he built that Browns team to go to the Super Bowl, but the news about them leaving to Baltimore deflated them, so they ended up with a losing season and he was fired after that.

I felt bad for the Browns after seeing that because they ended up winning the Super Bowl after they left Cleveland.

 

[Double Barrel]

I remember when he also came out in the Cleveland Browns documentary where he built the coaching staff and scouts. The thing that stood out to me was that he built that Browns team to go to the Super Bowl, but the news about them leaving to Baltimore deflated them, so they ended up with a losing season and he was fired after that.

I felt bad for the Browns after seeing that because they ended up winning the Super Bowl after they left Cleveland.

That was another great episode. I saw it again last weekend, and amazing that 9 members of his staff went on to be NFL or NCAA head coaches or general managers.

Heck, it could easily be argued that the success of the Ravens was seeded by Belichick. He's the one that took Ozzie Newsome under his wing and taught him how to evaluate talent and run a team.

 

[Playoffs]

Belichick is a great football guy, very professorial. I just have a hard time matching up the guy in "A Football Life" with someone who'd break the rules. His old man was Navy, for crying our loud. I don't get it.

O'Brien has the mind, the professorial demeanor... but where he's different is he'll blow his top where Belichick holds it in.

You read about players talking about most teams as "graduate school" for football, but going to the Patriots was like getting your PhD in the game. That's what I want for the Texans. Give every offensive player a "doctorate in defenses" and that'll make them better players. Teach them everything, globally all the way down to the minutia of technique.

Then throw in the history of the game, the art of war, mastering your opponents with your mind. If they can't or won't learn, kick them to the curb.

 

[badboy]

Hard for me to see past the cheating and hope that is not something our new coach would do.