William Stephen Belichickborn April 16, 1952) is an American football coach. Widely regarded as one of the greatest head coaches of all timehe holds numerous coaching records, including the record of most Super Bowl wins (six) 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 the record of eight combined 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 Under his tenure with the Patriots, he was a central figure as the head coach as well as the chief executive during the franchise’s dynasty from 2001 to 2019.
Bill Belichick Facts
- Born: April 16, 1952 (No. 71)
- Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Hing: School: Annapolis
- (Annapolis, Maryland)
- College: Wesleyan
- Career History: Baltimore Colts (1975)
Bill Belichick Early life and education
Belichick was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 16, 1952 the son of Jeannette (née Munn) and Steve Belichick.
He 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.Bill reportedly learned to break down game films at a young age by watching his father and the Navy staff do their jobs.He graduated in 1970 from Annapolis High School, where he was a classmate of Sally Brice-O’Hara, who would later become the Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard. While there he played football and lacrosse, with the latter being his favorite sport.He 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 him 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, he played lacrosse and squash, serving as the captain of the lacrosse team during his senior season. A member of Chi Psi fraternity,he 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
Bill Belichick Coaching career
After graduating, Belichick took a $25-per-week job as an assistant to Baltimore Colts head coach Ted Marchibroda in 1975. In 1976, he joined the Detroit Lions as their assistant special teams coach before adding tight ends and wide receivers to his coaching duties in 1977He 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, which also serving as director of films.
Bill Belichick 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 New York 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, he 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, he was introduced as the Patriots’ 12th full-time head coach, succeeding the recently fired Pete CarrollThe Patriots had inquired to the Jets about permission to interview him for their vacant spot at head coach just prior to 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.
Bill Belichick New England Patriots (2000–2023)
Soon after hiring Belichick, owner Robert Kraft gave him near-complete control over the team’s football operations, making him the de facto general manager as well. Until 2009, Belichick split many of the duties normally held by a general manager on other clubs with player personnel director Scott Pioli, though Belichick had the final say on football matters. Pioli left for the Kansas City Chiefs after the 2008 season.
Bill Belichick Starting Brady over Bledsoe, “Patriot Way”, first three Super Bowl wins: 2001–2004
In 2001, the Patriots went 11–5 in the regular season, and in the playoffs defeated the Oakland Raiders (in the “Tuck Rule Game”) and Pittsburgh Steelers on the way to the Super Bowl.In Super Bowl XXXVI, Belichick’s defense held the St. Louis Rams’ offense, which had averaged 31 points during the season, to 17 points, and the Patriots won on a last-second field goal by Adam Vinatieri. The win was the first Super Bowl championship in Patriots history.
The following season (2002)—the first in Gillette Stadium—the Patriots went 9–7 and missed the playoffs.New England finished with the same record as the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins, but the Jets won the AFC East title as a result of the third tiebreaker (record among common opponents).
The Patriots’ 2003 season started with a 31–0 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 1, a few days after they released team defensive captain Lawyer Milloy.[60][61] However, they dominated through the remainder of the season to finish 14–2, setting a new franchise record for wins in a season.n the final week of the regular season, the Patriots avenged their loss to the Bills by the same 31–0 score. They defeated the Tennessee Titans in the divisional round of the playoffs. Playing against the Indianapolis Colts and Co-MVP Peyton Manning in the AFC Championship Game (Steve McNair of the Titans was also Co-MVP), the Patriots recorded four interceptions, and advanced to Super Bow where they defeated the Carolina Panthers 32–29 on a late Adam Vinatieri field goal. Belichick was awarded the NFL Coach of the Year Award
In 2004, the Patriots once again finished with a 14–2 record, and they defeated the Indianapolis Colts in the divisional round of the playoffs.They opened the season at 6–0, which combined with the 15 straight wins to end the previous season, gave New England 21 consecutive victories to break the record for most wins in a row formerly held by the Miami Dolphins with 18 straight victories in the 1972 and 1973 seasons. They defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship Game. In Super Bowl XXXIX, the Patriots beat the Philadelphia Eagles and became only the second team to win three Super Bowls in four years.[68][69] Belichick is the only coach to accomplish the feat as the Dallas Cowboys had two head coaches in the stretch they won three of four from 1992 to 1995.