No coach in sports demands more of his players and staff than Bill Belichick, but one of the reasons he is so respected is that he holds himself to the same standard.
In 2008, Belichick apparently proved that after his team fell four points shy of completing the NFL’s first ever 19-0 season.
In a fantastic oral history of Belichick that was published by David Fleming of ESPN the Magazine, former Patriots fullback Heath Evans said Belichick delivered a “heartfelt apology” to his team after their 17-14 loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.
“I never had greater admiration for a man besides my father than I had for Bill after the Super Bowl XLII loss. To the 53 men in that locker room and the coaching staff, he delivered a heartfelt apology,” Evans recalled. “He felt like he had really let us down. Despite 18-1 being the most bitter pill I think you can swallow in sports, when I walked out of that Super Bowl locker room that night I still left with kind of a shining moment in my mind about Bill Belichick, how a man that everybody swears is so arrogant and so self-centered is really the exact opposite.”
For all the negative things that are said about Belichick and the way he deals with the media, we hardly ever hear guys who played for him talking badly about the future Hall of Famer. Plenty of players have come and gone from New England since Belichick took over, and there’s a reason hardly a fraction of them have had a negative thing to say about their former coach.
Believe it or not, Belichick also has a fun-loving side. Jon Bon Jovi is one of his closest friends, and The Hoodie once followed The Rolling Stones around Europe.
“He traveled with the Rolling Stones for a few weeks through Europe one summer,” former Browns defensive coordinator Rick Venturi told Fleming. “Bon Jovi used to come to Cleveland and catch passes in practice. He had a suite in Cleveland and we all went to Pink Floyd together as a group. I didn’t see him with his lighter out, but it wouldn’t surprise me if I did.”
Bon Jovi is often spotted at Patriots practice in Foxboro, and apparently the rock and roll legend is the only person who can take Belichick’s focus off the team — even for just a brief moment.
“Bill knew what was going on with everything at every moment. Unless Bon Jovi was there. Then he couldn’t care less what was going on,” former Patriots linebacker Roosevelt Colvin joked.
Fleming’s entire piece is worth reading, as it gives an array of perspectives into how arguably the greatest coach in NFL history operates. Shockingly enough, he’s more than just a guy who goes off on reporters like he did over a recent injury question.
