NFL Films Narrator: Brian is a typical 15-year old football
fan. His dad makes him do his homework before he can watch his favorite team
play.
Bill Belichick: [to Brian] What are
you working on there?
Brian Belichick: Spanish. Translating
sentences.
Bill: [Smiling] I wish I could help
you with that...but you know that's not my thing.
Narrator: Bill Belichick's oldest son Stephen also has
academics on his mind.
Bill: Hi Stephen.
Stephen Belichick: What's up?
Bill: How are you doing? [They hug]
Stephen: Good. How are you?
Bill: Good. How were the SATs?
Stephen: They suck.
[Laughter]
Narrator: Belichick knows what it's like to grow up in a
coach's shadow. His father Steve coached at
the Naval Academy for 33 years.
Bill: I learned an awful lot about
teamwork, being around some great leaders and seeing my dad do his thing with
other coaches who were very impressionable on me at that point in my life.
Hopefully Brian and Stephen and Amanda have the same opportunity.
Narrator: If there's one subject Belichick knows, it's
history. And when it comes to the Detroit Lions, his family has plenty of
it.
Bill: [to Brian] Do you know the
Lions' history? Grandpa's first job with the Lions?
Brian: Equipment manager?
Bill: Equipment manager.
Brian: I knew that.
Bill: Do you know who the head coach
was?
Brian: No.
Bill: The head coach was Bill
Edwards. He was my godfather.
Brian: Oh, really?
Bill: About a third of the way
through the season, he thought my dad was better than the fullback they had,
so he brought him in to play. Took him out of the equipment room and put him
onto the field to play fullback.
Narrator: [Film footage of a 1941 Detroit Lions game] Steve
Belichick, number 30, scored three touchdowns for the 1941 Lions. In 1976,
his son Bill, at age 24, began a two-year stint in Detroit as an assistant
coach.
Bill: Tight ends the first year and
receivers the second year. That's where I get my offensive background from.
Narrator: [Film footage of the Dec. 3, 2006 Patriots-Lions
game at Gillette Stadium] The warm memories soon faded. The Lions jumped out
to an early lead and a gentle father was replace by a grumpy coach.
Bill: [To the coaches on the sideline during the
game] You can't get any more open than that. [To the players on the bench]
The only running play they have is the draw. Okay? That's the only running
play they have. So sit on those damned tackles on the draw, okay?
Stephen: People think that he's
tough. I don't know where they would get that from.
[Laughter]
Official: [to Bill during the game]
We have to have you backup. I know you don't like the call, but we have to
have you back to the 30 [yard line].
Bill: Yeah.
Official: Coach, no, here. Now.
Bill: I just want to see the
measurement, okay? Time's out. Time's out!
Amanda Belichick: He's not an angry,
mean person [Laughter]. And he's a great father, so I don't see that tough,
hard attitude.
Narrator: While the three Belichick boys spent Sunday on the
sideline, daughter Amanda sat in the stands.
Amanda: It's hard, because they get
to experience a lot of things that I don't, and I don't understand a
lot of it. But I also get to experience things that they don't get to
experience.
Bill: [hugging Amanda] It was a lot
of fun having you down on the field at Super
Bowl XXXVI.
Amanda: [Laughing] That was a good
one. Yeah.
Narrator: [Film footage of Super Bowl XXXVI sideline
celebrating] Amanda celebrated a big moment in her dad's career.
[Film footage of Brian on the sideline during the Dec. 3, 2006
Patriots-Lions game at Gillette Stadium] These days, Brian shares in the
little ones by charting play-calls.
Bill: It's good to have somebody else
charting those plays, writing down what we had actually called, so that when
we refer back to it we know exactly what the call was going into the
huddle.
Brian: [Backup QB Matt Cassel tells
Brian on the sideline what the play was] They know the play so well that
they're just like [says the name of a play] and then I don't really
understand them that well so I ask them again. [Brian clarifies things with
Matt]
Narrator: Dad calls them.
Bill: [On the sideline during the
game] Hey, if they...if it looks like they're going to bring four now, then
we'll think about screening it. [After the snap] Screen him.
[Game announcer: Brady takes the shotgun snap, protection's there, it's a
screen, left to Kevin Faulk, 40, 35, 30, left side, 25. Game announcer 2:
Nice call by the offense.]
Narrator: Corey Dillon scored two of his three touchdowns in
the fourth quarter, putting the Patriots on top.
Brian: [On the sideline during the
game] Yeah, Corey. Yeah, Corey. [To Stephen] That was huge. Huge.
Narrator: New England's defense forced three Lions' turnovers
in the final minutes, sealing a comeback victory.
Brian: [To Bill] Can't keep having
these close ones.
Bill: [Waving to the stands] Amanda
up there?
* * *
Bill: It's really special. It's kind
of what you live for and what you work for. To
see Amanda and Brian and Stephen after the game and being able to hug them
and know that you won and know it was a good day.
I know what that feeling's like, I've been a coach's son. It's a lot better
when you can win a big game, when everybody's upbeat. It's great when I can
share it with them. |
