Armen Keteyian: As many people know, Steve Belichick, Bill's father, passed away
peacefully last Saturday night at the age of 86. A scout and assistant coach
at the Naval Academy for 33 years, he was considered one of the finest
football minds of his or any other generation. Recently, I had a chance to
spend time with both Steve and Bill in their homes – a father and son bound
by family, football, and books.
Steve Belichick: This is Amos
Alonzo Stagg, 1893. [He hands Armen the book] Now, he made great contributions to the game of
football.
Armen: Scientific and Practical
Treatise. 'With happy memories and best wishes to my friend Steve Belichick,
Paul E. Brown.' How many do you have here, Steve, do you think?
Steve: I think I have around 500, total.
Not all of them are here – some of them are upstairs, some of them are in
boxes. I started collecting them in the late '50s and the early '60s.
I would go scout and some of the towns had great bookstores. Used books. I
would bring them home and they'd be sitting on the table and he would pick
it up and look at it.
Bill Belichick: Yes, Gomer Jones or
Oklahoma Defensive Football or whatever. Maybe it would be something that
would spark that interest, or maybe you're just kind of standing there and
some book kind of catches your eye.
Armen: You have your own library. How
did that evolve? Is that an extension of what your father had given
you?
Bill: Yes, I'd say pretty much. When I
would go traveling with my dad, or when we would travel as a family, we
would usually go and stop by used book stores or Salvation Army or something
like that and check out the older books. He was always
shopping for a bargain. If they were over a buck then we'd pretty much write
them off.
Armen: This one, wow. You coughed up
some money for that one. Twenty-five [cents].
Steve: Bill bought that some
place.
Armen: Did he?
Steve: Yes. Because I'd never pay 25
[cents].
Bill: Sometimes I'd pick
up, you know, for a quarter or fifty cents, I'd pick up one. Or he'd have a
double and say hey, I've got this book but for a quarter, look, it's in
great shape, we'll grab another one.
Kicking The American Football by LeRoy Mills is probably the premiere book on punting and punting
techniques. It talks about accuracy and coffin corner kicking and all that.
Steve: That is a great
book. He says when you finish punting the ball you should be in position to
punt another ball.
Armen: Do you have a
favorite book that you remember?
Bill: Well, I've got to go
with my dad's.
Armen: Yes.
Bill: Football Scouting
Methods. I'd have to go with that.
Armen: Quite a little story
about how that one was written, too, with your mom and dad.
Bill: Yes.
[Laughter]
Jeannette Belichick: Well,
I typed it. And if I came across something I didn't understand, or anything
that I thought had any possible contradiction with something he said two
chapters ago, I brought it to his attention and he fixed it. That's it.
Armen: How did that work
out, pretty good?
Steve: Well, at first it
really ticked me off.
Jeannette: [Laughter]
Steve: She said, 'I don't
understand this.' And I said, 'I don't give a damn if you understand it or
not.'
Jeannette: [Laughter]
Steve: And she would say to
me, 'If I understand it, some high school coach in Ohio will understand it.'
Bill: Her motto was, 'If I
can understand it, I'll type it and somebody else can get it. If I don't
understand it, then we've got to rewrite it.'
Armen: The marriage
survived the experience.
Steve: Oh, yes.
[Laughter]
Armen: Is there a Bill
Belichick football book left in you before all is said and done?
Bill: Maybe.
Armen: Steve, I want to ask
you – stories of Bill coming, obviously with you, to the Naval Academy at
a very early age.
Steve: He enjoyed being
there, and he never bothered me. I started giving him basic things that
he could do [like] draw the formations – down, distance and the hash mark. And
then hey, let him draw the play – the tight end did this, the tackle did
that, the guard did that. He would draw it, and it was much neater than
I ever did it.
Bill: When I started
breaking down film, when I started that, a lot of the little things
became important to me. It was kind of always instilled in me that it was important to write neatly [and] to do things kind of the right way – the way
they were supposed to be done.
Steve: [on the field during
pre-game warmups at Super Bowl XXXIX, February 6, 2005] I
saw my first football game in 1924. That's a long time ago.
Armen: Bill, I realize it's
kind of impossible to do, but if you could distill down your dad's influence
in your life.
Bill: Boy ... where do you
start?
Armen: Yes.
Bill: I'd say number one,
work ethic. Just watching him do his job. I think his work ethic and
attention to detail. I think he aspired for greatness with the team but was
never caught up in being the head coach or the boss. [He] was very team-oriented.
Armen: Like father, like
son?
Bill: A little bit. I think some of those lessons
[rubbed] off in terms of teamwork and leadership and playing your role. And
understanding that football is truly a team game.
 Armen: In the very near
future what might be called The Belichick Collection, some 800 volumes
strong, will have a brand new home. A while back Steve and Bill decided they
wanted to donate their collection to the beloved Naval Academy. It will be
housed there, in the not-too-distant future, outside the football offices in
these bright alcoves for any and all to enjoy. And one last thing, Greg.
Reportedly this collection will rank third in the country behind the Pro
Football Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress.
Transcribed by the webmaster.
Photo: Ricketts Hall,
the Naval Academy – Renovated and expanded in 1995, with a
new and larger football locker room, a modern physical
training facility, an up-to-date 12,000 square foot weight
room and office areas for the Naval Academy Athletic
Association. |
