Bill Belichick

Bill Belichick is known as an American football coach in the NFL. He is current the head coach of the New England Patriots. He is famous for winning multiple Super Bowl championships and he has almost complete authority over his team’s football operations and general manager duties.

Background

Bill Belichick full name is William Stephen Bill Belichick. Bill Belichick’s mother is Jeannette and his father is Steve. Bill’s grandparents come from Croatia. His family name was Billicic and he changed it when he was about to marry on a suggestion from the immigration center.

His father, Steve was a college football scout for a long period of time. Bill grew up in Maryland where his father was the assistant football coach of the United States Naval Academy. His father coached the US Naval Academy for 34 years.

Bill learned most of what he knows about the game of football from his father. He says his father was his greatest mentor. Bill reportedly learned to break down game films at a young age by watching his father and the Navy staff do their jobs.

He played the sports of football and squash in high school. He became the captain of his Lacrosse team in his senior year. After his graduation, he got a job for 25 dollars each week as the assistant to the head coach of the Baltimore Colts. .

Career

Bill started his coaching career in the year 1975. Belichick took a $25 per-week job as an assistant to Baltimore Colts head coach, Ted Marchibroda in 1975. In 1976, he joined the Detroit Lions as their assistant special teams coach before adding tight ends and wide receivers to his coaching duties in 1977. He spent the 1978 season with the Denver Broncos as their assistant special team’s coach and defensive assistant.

It would take a decade until he found success in 1985 when he became a defensive coordinator for the New York Giants. The head coach at the time was lender coach, Bill Parcels. They won the Super Bowl two times together. He worked with the team for five seasons but he got fired in the year 1995. Belichick then rejoined Parcells, first in New England where the team lost Super Bowl XXXI, and later with the New York Jets.

He was named the head coach of Jets in 2000 but he resigned after a day so that he could become the head coach of New England Patriots. During his time with Patriots, they reached to Super Bowl six times and they won 4 times while they lost two times. Bill was given the title of AP NFL Coach of the Year in the 2003, 2007 and 2010 seasons. Bill is the longest active head coach in NFL.

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His teams won Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIX, and LI and lost Super Bowls XLII and XLVI. Belichick's appearance in Super Bowl LI broke the tie of six Super Bowls as a head coach that was shared with Don Shula, as well as being a record tenth participation in a Super Bowl in any capacity, overtaking the tie of nine that he shared with Dan Reeves. This also tied him with Neal Dahlen for the most Super Bowl wins in any capacity with seven. In addition, the appearance in Super Bowl LI was the Patriots' ninth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, which is the most of any team.

Life Advice

In an interview with CNBC, Bill shared some of the secret principles that have guided his life. He thinks that the best way to build your team is with trustworthy and hardworking people instead of flashes in the pan, "There have been times when I've put too much responsibility on people. They might have been the most talented, or the people you hoped would do the right or best thing, and they didn't come through. You have to go with the person who you have the most confidence in, the most consistent. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but I'm going down with that person."

He feels that it is very important to care about personal lives of your circle and to help them when possible. You need them at their best and have to put an effort to help them, "There are a lot of things that affect what happens on the field that occur off the field. Players have wives and girlfriends. And they have babies. And they have personal situations. They have parents that are sick. All of it runs in together. The more you and the organization can help take care of personal situations, the smoother the ship runs on the football end."

When it comes to career success, Bill feels that the only way is to follow your true passion, "If there is something that's your passion when you're young, do it. Let everything else take care of itself. Don't pick a career for money or some other reason. Do what you love, because it will never feel like work."

One pupil of his that he likes to show off as a hard worker is his legendary quarterback, Tom Brady, “Tom is not a great natural athlete, not even close. But nobody's worked harder than Tom. He's trained hard. He's worked hard on his throwing mechanics, on his mental understanding of the game. He's earned everything he's achieved. Success is not all about talent. It's about dependability, consistency, being coachable and understanding what you need to do to improve."

Personal Life

Bill Belichick’s wife was Debby Clarke but they got a divorce in 2006. However, it is speculated that they were separated ever since 2004. Bill was accused of having a secret relationship with a receptionist of the Giants of that time named Sharon Shenocca. This helped in causing the divorce between Bill and Debby. Bill was seen many times with Linda Holliday in Arizona but there is no evidence that she was his girlfriend.

Together with Debby Clarke, he has three children named Brain, Stephen and Amanda. Amanda graduated at Wesleyan University and she played Lacrosse at the university like her father. Stephen attended Rutgers University on a football and lacrosse scholarship. Brain goes to Trinity College and plays Lacrosse there.

Bill Belichick’s net worth is 35 million dollars while his salary with New England Patriots is 7.5 million per year.

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