I loved coaching special teams

Upon arriving in Indianapolis for the Super Bowl earlier in the week, Belichick cracked wise about Hoosier hospitality.Cheap burberry - designer bags, shoes, accessories, clothing outlet 2012.

“I never had too much hospitality here until I went for it on fourth and 2,” Belichick said of a costly decision in a 35-34 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in 2008.

“Since then, I’ve been greeted in a lot more friendly manner than I have in the past.”

OK, so it wasn’t Jerry Seinfeld. Or Chris Rock. But that frowning, dour, monosyllabic Belichick of old? He’s been downright chatty, lively and even nostalgic as he tries to join Pittsburgh’s Chuck Noll as the only coaches in NFL history to win four Super Bowls when the Patriots face the New York Giants on Sunday in Super Bowl XLVI.

“We wonder about that all the time,” Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker said of Belichick’s sudden humorous side. “I don’t know if it’s a lady in his life or what the deal is.

“He definitely is smiling more than he used to. But trust me, he’s just as hard on us as he has been since day one … he’s on all the time.”

Belichick, 59, is the gold standard by which coaches have been measured in this decade. This is the club’s fifth Super Bowl appearance in the last 11 years, and the only one Belichick lost came after the Patriots went 16-0 in the 2007 regular season but fell to the Giants 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII.

Only three players — quarterback Tom Brady, left tackle Matt Light and running back Kevin Faulk — remain from the 2001 team. Only four others — defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, guard Logan Mankins, kicker Stephen Gostkowski and Welker — remain from the 2007 team.

The constant is Belichick. Assistant coaches come and go as well. Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel left after the third title in 2004. But Belichick has sustained success.

“He’s a normal guy,” said Crennel, now the Chiefs’ head coach and the Patriots defensive coordinator for the 2001, ’03 and ’04 Super Bowl champions. “But he’s serious about football. You get him in the offseason away from football, and he smiles and he laughs, and you wouldn’t believe it was Bill Belichick.”

One of Crennel’s fondest memories of working for Belichick came after the third Super Bowl victory. Crennel would be leaving to become the head coach at Cleveland, Charlie Weis was headed for Notre Dame, and Belichick embraced them in a group hug as the game ended.

“It was one of those moments you wouldn’t necessarily expect from Bill Belichick,” Crennel said, “but there it was. It shows the person he is.”Burberry women coats, cheap burberry windbreaker, women woolen overcoat outlet.

The two greatest influences in Belichick’s life and career were his father, Steve, who played fullback for the Detroit Lions in 1941 and spent 33 years as an assistant coach at the Naval Academy; and former NFL coach Bill Parcells, for whom Bill Belichick worked as an assistant for 10 years with the Giants, Jets and Patriots.

“Football was my life as a kid from when I first remember; 4 , 5, 6 years old through the rest of my life,” Belichick said. “My father had a huge impact on my childhood, my love for the game and my involvement in the game as a coach, even though I played poorly. It was still a good experience to play, but coaching, really, has always been the love.

“Being around the Naval Academy, that is a unique atmosphere, particularly as it relates to football, but the teamwork that comes with that, and the commitment that those players and teams have, I saw at a young age. … That shaped me to a large degree, as has all my coaching experiences and certainly those years with Parcells. He reinforced a lot of things as well.”

Belichick’s first head-coaching job was a rocky experience. Hired by the Cleveland Browns in 1991, he battled with the news media and angered fans by benching popular quarterback Bernie Kosar, the face of the franchise. The Browns went 6-10, 7-9 and 7-9 in his first three seasons but made the playoffs with an 11-5 record in 1995 and won a first-round playoff game.

When Belichick and his players were undermined by the Browns’ decision to move to Baltimore for the 1995 season, the Browns went 5-11. Belichick was let go and joined Parcells as an assistant coach at New England in 1997.

Three years later, Patriots owner Bob Kraft was looking for a head coach, and he was told by those in football, and even by television network executives who sent him tapes of Belichick’s boring news conferences, not to hire the grumpy Belichick.

Kraft didn’t listen. And he never regretted it, even after the Patriots went 5-11 in 2000 and started 1-3 in 2001.

“I’ve learned in life that I don’t sit in judgment of other people,” Kraft said. “I know what’s right for me. He was right for me. Bill has evolved and grown, and I think he’ll go down as the greatest coach in the history of the NFL, because he’s really competing in the era of the salary cap. A lot of great coaches had difficulty understanding how to balance the economics of the game and the budgets. His product knowledge is so great.”

So is his work ethic.

“The guy loves to work. He loves to win, and he works as hard as anybody,” said guard Brian Waters, who joined the Patriots this season after spending 11 years with the Chiefs. “There’s not been a time I’ve been in the building or arrived at the building or left the building that he isn’t there. Anybody who puts that much into game planning and coaching, it’s not surprising this team has been successful.”Moncler mens jackets, cheap moncler jackets for men, 70% off.

The most critical decision of Belichick’s career came late in the 2001 season. Veteran quarterback Drew Bledsoe, then the face of the Patriots’ franchise, had suffered a serious abdominal injury in the second game of the season and was replaced by a second-year man named Tom Brady, who was a sixth-round draft pick in 2000 and had thrown all of three passes his rookie season.

The Patriots were 5-5, including 5-3 with Brady as a starter, when Bledsoe was ready to return. But Belichick stuck with Brady, and the Patriots won the final six games of the regular season, two playoff games and upset two-touchdown favorite St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI.

A star was born at quarterback. A legend was in the making in a hooded sweatshirt.

“That was a tough decision, and that’s one of the things Bill has always done,” Crennel said. “He’s always been able to make those tough decisions, and they genuinely work out. He’s had to let guys go who were good players … we cut (safety) Lawyer Milloy, our captain, during the week of the (2003) opener … we got killed that first game, but we came back and pulled it together and turned it around. He’s always been able to make those tough decisions when he’s had to, and that’s why he is where he is right now.”

Brady and Belichick have the best head coach/starting quarterback winning percentage since the 1970 merger — 124-35 (.780) in the regular season plus they are 16-5 in the playoffs.

“He’s very consistent as a coach,” Brady said. “He expects and demands that we’re always at our best, and I’d say that he coaches me the same way that he coached me the day that I got here. There really is no separate treatment for different players. The rookies are expected to perform and act the same as the veteran guys.

“He’s very tough. He says to us from time to time … he understands that it’s a demanding place to play and that it’s really not meant for everybody. He appreciates all of the players’ willingness to commit themselves to a goal that is really greater than the individual. I think that’s why we’re sitting here today.”

Belichick never envisioned being in position to win a fourth Super Bowl, surpassing the likes of Hall of Famers Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs and tying Noll. In fact, only eight other NFL head coaches have won three or more league championships since the league began postseason play in 1933. All are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Belichick “never for a second” thought he’d be coaching a fifth Super Bowl in just more than a decade.

“Wherever I was, I was consumed,” Belichick said. “Whether I was working for (Baltimore’s) Ted Marchibroda, breaking down film getting ready for the playoff game with the Steelers in 1975, in Detroit coaching the tight ends in 1976-77, Denver in 1978 getting ready for the playoffs out there … coming to the Giants with coach (Ray) Perkins … I loved coaching special teams.

“Then Bill (Parcells) came in … I loved coaching the Giants’ defense. … I really just try to live in the moment, whatever that is. Right now, it’s here, and I’m happy to be here, believe me. I never really thought too much about where it was going to go. I’d say again, learning from my dad. You do your job, moncler jackets take care of your business and hopefully good things will happen, and you’ll get other opportunities.