others on bill belichick

Ernie Accorsi
"I hired him in 1991 when I was with the Cleveland Browns. I learned that sometimes he's harsh, but he's never phony. He's very direct. … I remember when I was in college and John F. Kennedy was running for president. I thought, 'This guy has been preparing his whole life.' That's exactly how I felt about Bill. He's a brilliant football man – and not just defense, which many people don't know. I think he ranks with the greatest of all time, with George Halas, Paul Brown, Tom Landry, Chuck Noll, Vince Lombardi and Bill Walsh."
CBS Sports, Mar. 2008

"People who say Belichick doesn't have [humility] don't know him."
Plain Dealer, Nov. 2007

"He's a perfect example of what we've let slip away in the image of a coach – the job is a teaching job. … Bill certainly has a great deal of self-confidence, but he's got the humility to know that he can always learn from somebody that's successful. To me, the smarter you are, the more you want to learn."
New York Times, Nov. 2005

"When Kennedy was running for president and you heard him speak for the first time, you thought, 'This guy has been preparing to be president his whole life.' When I sat down with Bill for the first time and he started speaking, you just had the feeling that he had been preparing to be a head coach his whole life. I think he clearly is the best coach in the NFL."
New York Times, Feb. 2005

Jeannette Belichick
"I'm proud of Bill because I think he's a fine person. I really mean that."
New York Daily News, Jan. 2007

"Bill was only 9 or 10 years old and he'd be breaking down film. Steve would go over it and tell him this could've been better or that could've been better. But usually there was very little room for criticism. He understood football at a very young age, even his father was surprised."
"Bill was not a wonderful athlete. He was a great help to the coach, telling the others what to do. But he was slow, like his mother. … He knew where he was supposed to be, but it was hard for him to get there."
"He's basically a very, very good person. I'm more proud of that than the fact he's famous. I'm so glad he's successful, but when they say, 'Are you proud of him?' I'm proud that he's such a good person.'"
Baltimore Sun, Jan. 2007

Steve Belichick
"He wanted to be with me, and I wanted to be with him. He was probably 5 or 6 years old when he started to get interested. The three of us drove down to William & Mary to scout a spring game because we were going to play them in the next year, and that's when I remember him showing his first interest. I'd take him to games with me when I could. He was always interested in what I was doing. He was never a bother."
"I always gave the scouting report to the players Monday night at the Fieldhouse. He'd sit in the back, watch me diagram the plays. When Roger [Staubach] was playing, I'd take him over to practice, and he'd catch passes from Roger, and then he'd go over and watch Tom Lynch long snap and he'd catch them, too. I never made an effort to push him into it. He just liked being around the players. Then as he got a little older, he'd get up in his room at night and he'd draw plays."
Washington Post, Jan. 2005

"I used to take him out on the golf course with me when he was 4 years old. Bill would chip and putt with me. To be honest, I think that's why he is so good at that today. Golf is probably one of the sports he played the best. He always had touch around the greens."
"He wasn't a real good athlete because he couldn't run. But he was smart. He always had a good knack for understanding the sport he was playing. And he loved competing. He loved it."
"He's a great person and a great family man. That's what I'm most proud of. He cares deeply about his family. Sure, he's had a lot of success as a coach, but that's not everything."
Eagle Tribune, Jan. 2004

"When he graduated from high school, he had a 700 test score in math and 500 in verbal and he comes to me and says he wants to go to prep school. With scores like that, why, I asked? He said that I told some kids a long time ago that they have to get all the preparation they can get to be successful. And that's pretty much Bill: He's always going to be prepared and work his tail off."
New York Times, Sept. 2002

"No, I'm not proud of him for this. Don't get me wrong. We're happy to be here. But if he was the coach in the Super Bowl and he was an ass, he'd still be an ass. He's not. I'm proud of Bill because he's a good, thoughtful person and a wonderful son."
Boston Herald, Jan. 2002

Jon Bon Jovi
"I met [Belichick and Bill Parcells] in the mid-'80s when they were with the Giants and they allowed me to be the mascot for years so we've stayed close. Whatever team he's gone to, Cleveland, the Jets, New England, I've kept in touch. … [B]ut Belichick is a real buddy of mine, we've been friends for 20 years. I'm still pissed at him for not coming out here on the road and hanging with us, but we're going to get together next week in New York."
Sports Illustrated, Apr. 2008

"It's a classic 'Don't judge a book by its cover.' Bill is very serious when he's at work. But when he goes home, he's a different guy, and the Bill I know is a great fan of music. It gives him great joy."
"He can't dance, but everybody's got one shortcoming."
AP, Sept. 2004

"The guy has as much fun as he can without falling down. He's so self-deprecating. I'll congratulate him on a good job, and he'll say, 'Yeah, right, it's no big deal,' and I'm like, 'Christ, Bill, take a bow once in a while.'"
TIME, Feb. 2004

"Have you ever seen him wear his bling-bling? Really. Have you ever seen him wear any of his Super Bowl rings?…You see all these old coaches wearing their rings. They could have won them in the 1970s and they're still wearing them. I work with Jaws [Ron Jaworski] and he wears his NFC Championship ring like it's his wedding band. And he won that thing 23 years ago! You're more likely to see Bill's boys wearing his ring than him."
Boston Globe, Jan. 2004

Tom Brady
"You walk out of the meeting all ticked off at him and say, 'Why is he riding me when we're 2-0?' The expectations are extremely high for him. … He's very consistent. He's always disappointed, I guess."
Buffalo News, Feb. 2008

"We've lost quite a few guys over the years. The thing about football is that guys come and go and coaches have come and left. I think that the foundation of the team and what Coach Belichick stresses has remained the same."
Press Conference, Dec. 2007

"[H]e's very consistent in the way he approaches each week. He's able to break down teams and understands what gets you beat, and he also understands the way you need to play the game in order for you to play your best. I think there are some coaches that say, 'All right, we need to stop the run, the pass, the draw, the screen, the trap,' and give you 25 things. So you're going out there saying, 'What the hell am I going to stop?' He breaks it down to a couple things and usually… I've been playing for him for eight years and he's never wrong. Usually, we come in Monday morning and look at the evaluations and if we do the things that he really talked about, usually we come out ahead. He's a great leader and he's a great coach to play for. We all believe in him and we trust him. He always says that he makes decisions based on the best interest of the team. He truly means that."
Press Conference, Oct. 2007

"We're all lucky to play for him. He's the best coach probably in the history of the NFL, and that says a lot. But it's fun for us to come in and sit on that side, looking up at him and knowing what he's all about. He doesn't sit here and give away a lot of information and talk about injuries and everything that everyone probably wants to know, but that's for us. That's for the players. And he protects us because he wants us to have the best advantage every single week that we take the field. And if you want the information, you figure it out. But he's not going to offer it up, because we scour what they're saying and what they're talking about and all of the press clips. He reads those to us. We understand the psyche of the opponent. … He says, 'This is what we have to do to win.' We respect that. It's not rah-rah and show movies and stuff like that. He comes in and says, 'This is what we need to do to win, and if you do it, we're going to win and if you don't we're going to lose.' He just gets straight to the point. You don't waste our time and we don't waste his. There's not enough time in the day to waste, especially when you're trying to play in this league."
Press Conference, Sept. 2007

"He is always pretty consistent with the way he thinks and the way he reacts to the team and the way he coaches. I think that is a great thing from a player's perspective because he is so consistent, he's never up and down, he's just always kind of the same… There's no coach I'd rather play for. I hope that never happens."
Press conference, Jan. 2007

"The thing about coach Belichick is you can bounce stuff off him. First of all, he loves talking football. So if you want to try something, he is always willing to listen. I think that's important."
"He seems to see things happening before they happen."
"He loves coaching football. I love playing football."
Eagle-Tribune, Sept. 2004

"From the first week, you realized that you really start to understand the game when he comes in and starts talking about defenses. And if I were to show you some of the sheets that he brings in, oh god, it's incredible. I made the comment that sometimes I think he knows what their defense is doing more so than their defensive players know what they're doing. And to have him come in each day to break down film with us, to understand why teams are playing certain coverages, certain schemes each week, you go into a game realizing, hey, there's nothing this defense can do to surprise us because we've seen it all. If they do have a changeup here in the first quarter, coach is going to see it, and he's going give (it) to us, and we're going to be prepared for the rest of the game. It's just phenomenal."
Pro Football Weekly, Jul. 2002

Deion Branch
"With Coach Belichick and Scott Pioli at the helm, what's going on may look crazy now, but in the end, those guys know exactly what they're doing."
Boston Herald, Apr. 2006

"You'd like to play for him. I would wish that on anybody to get the opportunity to play for a coach like him."
Reporter-Herald, Jan. 2006

Chad Brown
"When I came here, I was curious. How do they do it? Now I have a much better understanding. It's Scott Pioli bringing in guys who love and respect the game. There's a certain guy they're looking for. It's Bill Belichick and the attention to detail and how he sees the game. It's great players, as well. They've got a great thing going here. It's great to be a part of it."
MetroWest Daily News, Aug. 2007

"I don't think he likes to waste words. He just tries to speak the truth."
Denver Post, Nov. 2005

Jim Brown
"He's been unbelievable. He's thorough, so when he buys into you, he knows your character. If you look at this team he has now – they're calling it the greatest team of all time and all that. If you're going to build an all-star team, how many of the Patriots would be on your first team? I guarantee you it wouldn't be more than two or three. The bottom line is that he knows how to use personnel. He buys into the person."
New York Times, Jan. 2008

"Bill's one of the people in America who has saved lives. He's donated money. He's helped us get contracts. He's been to prisons and schools with me. I don't know a more honorable person."
ESPN The Magazine, Jan. 2008

"I like guys like Bill Belichick, Bill Russell and Bobby Knight. They're all rebels who do things their way."
Mercury News, Dec. 2005

"I have friends I speak to for 20 years who don't understand me. Bill understood in five minutes."
Providence Journal, Jan. 2005

"Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots has contributed more to the work I surround myself with than any black athlete in modern times – financially, intellectually, every way. He's been in the prisons with me. He's met gang members in my home; he's met gang members in Cleveland. He's put up money. He's opened up areas of education for us very quietly and very strongly."
Sports Illustrated, Apr. 2002

Tedy Bruschi
"You should hear him in the meetings. He'll say something kind of quietly, and it may take a second to get it, but then you burst out laughing."
CBS Sports, Jan. 2008

"The best thing I can say about coach Belichick is he's a solid football coach. He's not a comedian. I'd rather have a football coach who knew what he was doing and could manage a team and make the tough decisions rather than a guy who is going to make me laugh or give you sound bites. … He's made the decisions when he's had to, and in clutch situations, and to his credit they've proven to be the right ones."
Indianapolis Star, Feb. 2002

Terrell Buckley
"He's smart enough and been a coach long enough to realize if something isn't working, you tweak it. He tweaked it. I guess you really had to know what he was like before having all the control and all the input his way. The great coaches listen to their players but keep control. That's when you have something special. It makes players around here excited."
New York Times, Sept. 2002

"[With Belichick] it's not a dictatorship where the coach is, 'This is how we're going to run it.' Last week in Pittsburgh, something wasn't working, so we're talking about it on the sideline. They're asking us what we think – 'Yeah, no, maybe,' but because we discussed it, everybody was of one accord when we went back on the field. That's much better than, 'We're going to run this regardless.'"
Boston Globe, Feb. 2002

Vic Carucci
"Belichick's knowledge of offensive football is, in fact, every bit as extensive as his knowledge of the defensive side of the game."
NFL.com, May 2005

"Bill Belichick is the most indispensable member of the Patriots, period. That includes Tom Brady and any other viable player candidate such as Adam Vinatieri, Tedy Bruschi, Corey Dillon, Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour or Troy Brown. Every bit of the success that Brady and his teammates have enjoyed starts with Belichick, who not only is the greatest coach in the game today but one of the greatest – if not THE greatest – in NFL history. The Patriots' structure, strategy and philosophical approach follow his brilliantly crafted blueprint. Take it away and there are no Super Bowl victories or history-making winning streak or current 8-1 record that has set the stage for another Super Bowl run."
NFL.com, Nov. 2004

Matt Chatham
"I just think Bill is one of the most focused human beings on the planet. I just don't think he allows any kind of outside distraction. … I just think at this time of day, he doesn't care about his dry cleaning, he doesn't care about his friends, he doesn't care about anything but football and whatever agenda he has with the Patriots. That's just how he is and how he's always going to be. It doesn't always come off very friendly and it rubs people the wrong way a lot of times, but you've got to respect him because he is consistent."
Boston Globe, Sept. 2006

[After tackling a nude streaker during Super Bowl XXXVIII] "Was I surprised? Hell no. I play for Bill Belichick. You don't think we watched film on that guy all week? I'd seen everything there is to see."
Sports Illustrated, Feb. 2004

Lenny Clarke
"The thing with Bill, I just love Bill Belichick. He's one of my dear friends. It was just sick the way everyone was piling on that guy, the winningest coach in the history of the world. I just love the guy. … Bill and I have fun with each other, because football's a subject we never really talk about. It was a mission of love. I love that guy."
Boston Herald, Sept. 2007

"The more he worked, the more I worked on my script. I was never so well prepared. I went in and nailed the show that day. It's usually, 'Thank you very much. We'll call you.' And I owe it to Bill Belichick. He's a stickler."
Boston Globe, Mar. 2007

Bill Cowher
"When they've won, they've done it with humility and they've done it with class."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mar. 2006

"The great thing Belichick does is he figures it out. Somehow, he figures it out."
SI.com, Jan. 2005

"I have great respect for…how Bill has approached the game, how their football players, and him particularly throughout their success, have stayed very grounded and very focused. … I know I've grown watching Bill handle the success he's handled. A lot of times you can measure people by how they handle adversity, but I think a lot of it can be said by how they handle success. … They have a great way of keeping things in perspective."
Press conference, Jan. 2005

"Not everybody does show emotion; obviously, I do. It doesn't mean he doesn't love what he's doing and I know he loves what he's doing. He's being himself. That is probably the thing I respect the most about the guy. He's done it his way, being the type of person he is. He's a good person and I respect good people."
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Jan. 2002

Bryan Cox
"This is business to him. He's becoming more personable, yes, but football is his life. There's nothing wrong with that. Look where we are."
Indianapolis Star, Feb. 2002

"He has a 24-hour poker face. That's his personality. He's loosened up a little bit and jokes a little more, but it's still, 'I'm here for business.' That's why we're in New Orleans."
USA TODAY, Feb. 2002

Romeo Crennel
"Bill and I are good friends. We worked together for a long time and I still consider him a friend. I think he considers me a friend. We don't talk every day. Occasionally we might call and say hi, see how you're doing and give each other encouragement, but we have a good relationship."
Conference call with New England, Oct. 2007

"Bill has never been a guy that you can say, 'This is what he's going to do,' or you can put him in this box. He's always been versatile, he changes, he adapts to whatever is going on. That's the same way it is with his game plans."
Boston Globe, Mar. 2007

"Bill is a very thorough football-oriented guy. He knows football. He knows offense, he knows defense, he knows special teams, because he has coached all of those positions. He's willing to put in the time, the work, the study, the effort that it has to have to get it done. I think that's one of the reasons that our team is a thorough team, because that's his nature. … He's open-minded. He's flexible."
Press conference, Nov. 2004

Tom Curran
"There's no shortage of opinions when it comes to Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. Many are poorly informed."
NBCSports.com, Dec. 2007

"Bill Belichick, who'll go down as one of the greatest coaches in NFL history said that his biggest regret in his first job with the Browns was failing to delegate more. In New England, Belichick has been a master delegator. And he spends more time during practices walking along the outskirts of drills, spinning his whistle around one finger than he does micromanaging."
NBCSports.com, Aug. 2007

Kevin Faulk
"I wish I had enough time to explain it to you. All in all, Coach Belichick, he's just a guy that wants to win. And if you're one of those guys that believes in the same things he believes in – tough guys who are mentally strong and smart – you're gonna be here."
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Dec. 2007

"When my mom was sick, I was going to be down there. Coach Belichick, being the coach that he is, he was like 'However much time you need to be down there with your family, or whatever you need, I grant you that.' That just goes to show how much class the organization has."
Patriots.com, Sept. 2004

Kirk Ferentz
"I don't know that he ever acts differently in general about anything. I could tell from being his assistant that he always appreciated and respected what we did. But you could never tell the weather outside based on his actions. We went through some interesting times in Cleveland, and you'd never know it from being around Bill. It never affected his coaching, outlook or approach. I have great respect for what he does and admiration for how he does it."
Boston Herald, Sept. 2007

"I've never been around a better listener than Bill. That's unusual with head coaches. He's very inquisitive. And he never asked a dumb question. He was totally misunderstood in Cleveland. Lots of people thought he was arrogant. He was anything but that. If you love football, you love working for him. There's no nonsense, no silly work."
MetroWest Daily News, Jan. 2007

"In terms of personality…I heard the word arrogant used at times. Bill Belichick is probably the least arrogant person I have ever met. He is anything but that. He won't go out of his way to have a conversation, necessarily, and a lot of that is because he is thinking about his next move. You may walk down the hall and he walks right by you but it's because he is thinking of something else. I thought he was extremely easy to communicate with. But he's not the kind of guy who is going to come up and say, 'Hey, you are doing a great job.' That's not his style of operation. You are supposed to do your job. But I always thought he was tremendously easy to communicate with – very honest, very direct and very open. What else can you ask for? But I wouldn't describe him as chatty. He is not just going to talk with people to talk. That's not his personality."
Patriots Football Weekly, Jul. 2004

David Halberstam
"He doesn't do the things that people want. He almost deliberately doesn't do the things that would make his life easier. He doesn't know how to play to popularity; it's alien to him. He doesn't care how things might play out; he does what he thinks is right."
Baltimore Sun, Jan. 2007

"He's not into self-celebration. He's into meeting the challenge, to being the best, to pushing himself, following his desires to  the ultimate ability. And that's where the satisfaction comes, from being the best. Going into the toughest arena and triumphing. There's a quiet satisfaction."
Radio interview, Nov. 2005

"What a curious, complicated man, a hard man to reach and to understand."
The Education of A Coach, Nov. 2005

Rodney Harrison
"You guys will never get the real Belichick. … He's a cool guy. I have no problem with him. He's always treated me fairly and was always respectful to me. I have a great deal of respect for him. But it's not for you all to like him or for him to like you, because it's all about the guys in this locker room, with all due respect. It's about the coaches and the players in this locker room putting something together and not worrying about what the outside people think."
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Dec. 2007

"He's the Coach of the Year to us. To me, he's the best coach I've ever played for. He's the best coach that ever coached the game, but that's to me. Whether he gets the award or not, who cares? He doesn't care. It's all about winning games. You can get Coach of the Year, but if you lose in the first round of the playoffs, what difference does it make? We don't care about that. Individual awards are what they are – individual. We love team awards."
Boston Globe, Nov. 2007

"He's the best coach in the National Football League and he's the best coach that I've ever had. He's a Hall of Fame coach. One thing he knows is football. He knows about football players and I have a lot of respect for him."
Standard-Times, Aug. 2007

"Ninety percent of these coaches blow smoke up your butt. They lie; they deceive you. Marty Schottenheimer is a flat liar. You can see why he doesn't have success. He doesn't treat guys with respect. If you're a veteran player, he gets rid of you. Bill brings you in, gives you a chance. Not only that, he gives you input. … [When asked for a sketch of the typical Patriot he responds] You're a vet. You're not a high-priced guy. Your number-one priority isn't making money; it's winning ball games. He's not afraid to take veteran players – people who have been cast out, who they say can't play anymore – and bring them into the system."
GQ, Jan. 2005

Pat Hill
"What we've done here [at Fresno State] is a lot of what was learned under Bill. It's about finding the right guys, not the 'best' guys. How they fit your team, your locker room, your personality and mindset. Bill always had a great knowledge of that."
Boston Herald, Sept. 2007

"I wouldn't trade the four years with him in Cleveland for anything."
MetroWest Daily News, Jan. 2007

"I don't think he considers himself a genius. … His job is to win football games. His job is not to be a GQ model. Bill is Bill. He's not going to change. He'll stay the course whether it's wearing that sweatshirt on the sideline, the way he handles the media, the way he handles players or the way he prepares his team for a game. He has a plan, he has a vision and he's able to stay the course. In this day and age, that's hard to do."
Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 2005

"Bill likes everything broken down by hand to really study it. And there is nobody that understands the personnel in that league better than Belichick, I don't think. There is no way. … In terms of Bill's personality, he's very consistent and with him there is an or-else factor. A lot of coaches there is always, 'If you do that again I am going to send you to your room.' Then after 15 times saying that the guy is still there. He was very consistent in the way that he handled the players and I think you have to be. He was very good at understanding the situation, but he was very fair and consistent in how he handled it. That's really important in the locker room. We had a good time. I liked personnel and people who like personnel get along with Bill."
Patriots Football Weekly, Jul. 2004

Michael Holley
"The sad part is, this guy can be as charming as anyone. He can talk about sports, music, politics. But when it's football, it's different. I guarantee you none of his friends recognize the Bill Belichick they see in press conferences."
ESPN The Magazine, Jan. 2008

"Even the guy who hates his guts will tell you he's a great coach. He's not interested in being buddies with them, and they're not interested in being buddies with him. All they expect from him is, 'Give us a chance to win.' I don't think people would say Bill Belichick is a great man. He's a great coach. He's an interesting man."
Boston Globe, Mar. 2007

"The essence of Belichick is that he is a problem solver."

"Belichick's 'genius' – a term he does not like applied to himself – is no more than an ability to easily sift through distractions and nonsense and identify the central point. He can even do all of that and come to the conclusion that a central point does not exist. He takes large things and makes them small, which is a strength. Sometimes he believes that large issues, called crises on most teams, can be or should be broken down in the same way with no fallout."

"Belichick had made bold and controversial decisions before, without being wrong. He chose Vinny Testaverde over Bernie Kosar in Cleveland, a move that one of his friends equated to 'beheading the Browns' mascot.' He chose the Patriots over the Jets, escaped the shadow of Parcells, and became known as a great coach away from 'home.' He chose Brady over Bledsoe and watched Brady become a Super Bowl MVP."
Patriot Reign, Sept. 2004

Larry Izzo
"Bill doesn't let us buy into the stuff that can weaken you. We've won before with guys out. There are no excuses here. You win or you lose."
Boston Globe, Oct. 2005

"I don't know a coach in the league who has the support of his players more than Bill and we went out and showed that today."
Providence Journal, Sept. 2003

"You don't want your head coach to be your buddy. You don't want your head coach to go out and have a couple of beers with you. You want a guy to be your boss. You don't have to be friends with your boss. He's a personable guy. He's focused. Sometimes I think people mistake his being focused for a lack of personality. But he's a guy that just goes about his business and doesn't worry too much about what's going on around him."
Palm Beach Post, Feb. 2002

Jimmy Johnson
"I think Scott Pioli and Bill are very, very intelligent and know what they're doing. The times we had conversations [Belichick] had done his homework. He knew exactly what he wanted to ask. He does a great job of covering all the bases, whether it's X's and O's football, or it's salary cap or drafting players or trading for players. It's a model franchise."
Boston Herald, Feb. 2007

"He's a first-class individual and a great football coach."
Boston Herald, Feb. 2007

Pepper Johnson
"Did you ever see the Clint Eastwood movie, 'Heartbreak Ridge'? Every day his men come out, and they always have the wrong shirt on. That's how I feel every day when I go to practice with Belichick. I never have exactly what he wants. Whether it's my script [of plays] or whatever. I can never get it completely right. I've known him for 22 years, and I've been working with him for 17. … You need to be firm in this business. You can't have your coaches relax. Relax for what? It's not a comfortable game."
Buffalo News, Feb. 2008

"Bill is just a plain old, simple, defensive X's and O's type of guy. Why even really just say defense? Just a football type of guy. It's all the other stuff. All the outside things that come along with the job, that doesn't tickle his fancy that much. But when it comes down to football, blocking and tackling, the basics of it, that's Bill Belichick. That's what so many guys like about him is that he doesn't take the roundabout way to get things done. It's cut and (dried). This is what we need done. This is how you see the ball game. And so this is what we're going to do one way or another. That's his emphasis and that's what we do."
Pro Football Weekly, Jul. 2002

Ted Johnson
"He said he had the most confidence in this team. I think that was huge for us to hear from our leader, from our coach. I don't think I've ever heard him say that. … He just has it, whatever it is. He just finds a way."
NFL.com, Jan. 2005

"He's still got bad taste in clothes."
Indianapolis Star, Feb. 2002

Pat Kirwan
"Bill Belichick is an NFL historian in many ways. He's not afraid to tear a page out of a book his Dad found in a used book store for a dollar, and he remembers how the great coaches of the past built championship teams. The late great George Allen would be proud of the personnel work Bill did this spring."
NFL.com, Jul. 2007

"Bill Belichick lost both of his coordinators and so many starters to injury that most coaches in his situation would have folded up the tent and gone home for the year. He might be completing one of his best coaching jobs of his career."
NFL.com, Dec. 2005

Robert Kraft
"One of the reasons I like him as a coach and human being is that he is never boastful and self-important. He's not a phony, and to me, at this stage of my life, that's important. I'll say this: I've never known him to lie to me. He might not tell me something, but he's never told me a lie. … I'm not saying he's always forthcoming."
"I think Bill's main focus after football matters are his children, and I have a great deal of respect for that."
Boston Globe, Mar. 2007

"Bill Belichick and his staff have done a great job. In many ways, the coaching job this year was his most outstanding. He's not about ego and the sidebar privileges that come with being the head coach. He represents the face of our team and family with values that we feel are important. Trust in this business is very important. When the tough times come in this business, the arrows start flying, and you have to stick together. We have the utmost trust in Bill Belichick."
Boston Globe, Jan. 2006

"[The players] said he was always right."
Sporting News, Oct. 2005

"You need to understand value in today's NFL, and he does."
Patriot Reign, Sept. 2004

"I think, sometimes, people get lost in the lipstick and powder and don't look at the substance. … In '96, when we went from 6-10 (in 1995) to the Super Bowl, the defense carried it, and a lot of that was the secondary, where he spent a lot of time. I got a chance to interact with (Belichick) and see him. … My whole life is going with what I thought was right. I've learned that, if everyone can see what you see, if it's apparent to everyone, it's easy. Most good things don't happen easy. I understand what other people felt was lacking in their view, personality-wise. I saw something different that worked for me."
San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 2004

"People were calling me dumb and calling for me to fire him. But I believed in him. The reason I brought him here is because I thought he had a system which was bigger than any one player and this year's been the pinnacle of how that works."
Washington Post, Nov. 2003

"When I hired Bill, we gave up the No. 1 pick to Parcells, and people thought I was insane. … The start here was tough, but he has shown what can happen when you stick together. The N.F.L. is a quality-management industry. Bill is cool, calm and analytical and develops a sense of team of people who bond together and make it happen."
New York Times, Nov. 2003

"People sent me tapes of his press conferences from Cleveland. Some of my friends said I was making a big mistake. I listened, but I went with my instincts, even during the rough start, because I knew that Bill Belichick was a coach of substance if not style, a coach who is not lipstick and powder but one who runs a disciplined, tough team. That's what I think wins, and he proved us all right. We have what you could call a marriage that I want to last a long time."
New York Times, Sept. 2002

"The best deal I ever made was getting this guy."
Associated Press, Feb. 2002

Tony La Russa
"Bill has one of the greatest minds of anyone I've ever known."
ESPN Insider Blog, Mar. 2008

Tony said he admired that Belichick is "a coach, a great coach, not an entertainer."
CBS Sports, Mar. 2008

"Bill only shows one side to the media. But with his friends, he's warm and personable. He has a sense of humor. We've had great conversations. And if you're a friend, he's there for you. He's a caring person."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 2008

"I met him in person the first time this year in the spring. I was introduced to him by Buzz Bissinger [who wrote 'Three Nights in August' with La Russa]. They were in high school together. Met him over the phone, had nice conversations. He was so down-to-earth. This is a Super Bowl champion. I was interested in what he was doing. He was very forthcoming and he would ask questions about our sport and he said, 'I'd like to visit.' … He came to spring training. He wanted to know, you know, 'How you guys do this, you guys do that?' Just comparing. We went to dinner twice. It was just a great experience."
Boston Globe, Oct. 2006

Ty Law
"Myself and Coach Belichick, we talked through it, got through it, and we carry on. We're fine, to the point that I was almost a Patriot again last year. When all is said and done, I'll always be a Patriot at heart. When I retire, I envision it being as a Patriot."
Boston Globe, Sept. 2007

"He isn't all that uptight as you guys might think he is. He's actually pretty cool sometimes."
WEEI, Mar. 2005

"He's hands-down the best coach in the league, whether I like what he's doing or not. If you had asked me [the same question] at the beginning of the year, I'd say, 'Hell, no. How can you cut Lawyer Milloy?' But he changed my mind. He's done an outstanding job. In my opinion, he's Coach of the Year. He can get rid of me, I don't care. He's still the best coach in the league."
Football Digest, Spring 2004

"He's the type of guy who can mix with any crowd. He has to work with so many different personalities as a football coach, you have to be able to adapt. So it doesn't surprise me that one week it's Bon Jovi and the next week it's Charles Barkley. It could even be the king of England or Muhammad Ali."
USA TODAY, Feb. 2002