Getty ImagesOne of Bill Belichick’s long-time assistants is leaving his post.
Patriots special teams coach Scott O’Brien has retired from coaching, the club said Tuesday. He will remain with New England in an undisclosed capacity.
Assistant special teams coach Joe Judge will replace O’Brien.
O’Brien had spent the last six seasons with the Patriots. He was also special teams coach under Belichick in Cleveland from 1991-1995, then oversaw special-teams units in Baltimore (1996-1998), Carolina (1999-2004) and Denver (2007-2008). He was also the Dolphins’ coordinator of football operations/assistant to the head coach in 2005 and 2006.
In a club-issued statement, Patriots coach Bill Belichick paid O’Brien extraordinary praise.
“I have never worked with a coach better than Scott O’Brien,” Belichick said Tuesday. “Scott is second to none at preparation, strategy, teaching, techniques, fundamentals, scouting and virtually any other aspect of team-building, game planning or player development that exists in football. I thank Scott for making me a better coach, finding and developing countless players and being such a tremendous asset at both organizations we worked together.
“Scott O’Brien is undoubtedly one of the finest coaches of his generation and he deserves having his final game be a Super Bowl championship. While we will miss his contributions in coaching, we look forward to continuing to work with him in other capacities.”
Good for him. Long time football guy retires after a championship season. Good on ya, Scott! Nice way to go into retirement. They’ll probably just throw me out some day with a gold watch and a fresh footprint on my butt.
Congrats Scott. Enjoy your retirement (and your shiny new ring).
He’s special team has always been good. Slater is one of my favorite players in the NFL.. I wonder how you become a coach in the NFL?
Scott was also in charge of the ball boys.
Bill Bellichick comes off as Emporer Palpitine in most cases when discussing “football things”, but there are rare instances where he displays some remarkable candor and (for lack of a better word) eloquence.
Other instances I recall is his press conference regarding the PSI in footballs, and his comments on the retirement of Teddy Bruschi.
O’Brien showing Dante Scarnecchia how it’s done.
Repeat! Repeat! Repeat!
(ok I’m selfish!)
Nice story, PFT. O’Brien has been a great coach.
Interesting how many high quality people have a mutual admiration with Belichick. Nice reminder who eloquently Belichick speaks when the person and moment call for it.
How is it that a guy that is so admired by those that have worked with him is under attack by people in the media or that work for other teams?
Second season in a row the Pats have lost a VERY good assistant after losing Scar last year. Well deserved retirement though.
The Pats special teams have always been a strong point, and O’Brien is one of the main reasons why. They will definitely miss him in that spot. He’ll be hard to replace.
This just reminded me. Scar better be getting an honorary ring as well. He deserves one for sure.
I remember how sad I was to see scarnecchia retire after last year. Man and I was thinking how my h our o line would regress without him but they held up most of the year minus the first 5 games or so. Still tough losing good coaches even if they are just assistants.
iamapatsfan says: Feb 3, 2015 7:42 PM
This just reminded me. Scar better be getting an honorary ring as well. He deserves one for sure.
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Scar got his rings, I would be more upset if a long serving corner piece like him left the year before the team finally broke through.
But the Pats broke through 14 years back and have been hanging close to the top ever since.
Are the Patriots going to have a “Scott O’Brien Month”?
I want to retire after shoveling the New England snow for the last few days too. Good for you Coach, will see you at the parade tomorrow! #BostonStrong
“He will remain with New England in an undisclosed capacity.” PSI and Ball Conditioning Coordinator.
tigerlilac, the reason the media hate Belichick is that he doesn’t do their job for them. If he was an amiable mess like Rex Ryan spouting easily usable quotes he could have multiple losing seasons in a row and the media would depict him as utterly blameless for his own failures. Bill Belichick quite consciously does nothing for the usual stupid media member asking a pointless question. So they depict him in the worst possible light.
The thing is, most patriot fans understand what’s going on and laugh at the exasperation of dumb media drones who don’t understand why Belichick’s not filling up their notebooks for them when they ask him “How did that make you feel to win a fourth Super Bowl?”
Over the past 2 years Bill has lost Pepper Johnson, Dante Scarneccia (sp?) and now Obrien..
I wonder why….
bradyisyourdaddy says:
Feb 3, 2015 8:54 PM
Over the past 2 years Bill has lost Pepper Johnson, Dante Scarneccia (sp?) and now Obrien..
I wonder why….
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Scarneccia and Obrien are old so they should probably retire and enjoy the rest of their lives. Whereas Pepper Johnson wants to be a coach or defensive coordinator for himself and he’s not going to be able to do that with the Patriots. That’s why those three left.
It was pretty public that Johnson wasn’t pleased at being passed over for DC job by Matt Patricia.
Scar was 20 years older than he looked and he looked 65.
OB got his ring coaching and now is going to be a Patriot in their operations department.
Your welcome.
quincyjwagstaff says:
Feb 3, 2015 8:45 PM
tigerlilac, the reason the media hate Belichick is that he doesn’t do their job for them…..
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Adding to your fine post, I think a lot of Bill’s disdain for the media goes back to his employ with Art Modell and the Browns. Modell loved the media and among many things, was known have lavish buffet tables set up for them in the team’s locker room. One of Bills first changes was to do away with that and restrict their access to the locker room. Modell still favored the media over his head coach – must have been a tough 4 years or so there.
Another point about Bill is his strong belief in the brotherhood of all football coaches. I have never heard or read of Bill saying anything questionable about another coach. The media Sunday night and Monday kept trying to get him to say anything the least bit negative about the ‘hawks play call that led to the INT (yeah Malcom) but he wouldn’t. Perhaps some of Parcels same beliefs influenced this as he also would never speak ill of another coach. Parcels also had a disdain towards poor sports writers and would let them have it when asked a stupid question; especially if it regarded another team’s coach. If anyone saw his post game interview while he was the Pats’ HC in regards to a question about Jets HC, who was then Pete Carrol, the berating that questioner got was classic. After finishing, he went to answer another question from another reporter and after a few sentences, stopped, and started blasting out that prior questioner again.
thefox61 = troll
Patriots, 1 superbowl win since Sunday! Yeaaahhhhh!!!
Scotty O will be missed
Their special teams were fantastic this year.
aljack88, lighten up (pun intended). I never said anything about deflating. BTW, great game by the Patriots. Beat my Seahawks fair and square.
Good luck Scotty. Next man up!
Would love to see him “un-retire” in Green Bay…
thefox61 says:
Feb 3, 2015 10:28 PM
aljack88, lighten up (pun intended). I never said anything about deflating. BTW, great game by the Patriots. Beat my Seahawks fair and square.
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Meh I thought it was a decent joke (wish more of the stuff about deflate gate stuff was original.)
igerlilac says:
Feb 3, 2015 7:31 PM
Nice story, PFT. O’Brien has been a great coach.
Interesting how many high quality people have a mutual admiration with Belichick. Nice reminder who eloquently Belichick speaks when the person and moment call for it.
How is it that a guy that is so admired by those that have worked with him is under attack by people in the media or that work for other teams?
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the media hates him because he doesn’t give them mindless drivel to twist and contort into heresy and cobschwabble.
Weak coaches of other teams (ravens colts for example) hate him because he is the best. All coaches push the envelope and try different things, BB does this so well, he is so prepared, he had his team so well prepared that he must be cheating. BB also never takes his foot off the gas, he will drive that score right onto another scoreboard if time would allow it. weak coaches despise this.
They say offensive minded coaches are problem creators and defensive coaches are solvers. BB will solve your problem then create 2 different ones for you. He is both, the creator, and the destroyer.
I GUESS WE KNOW WHO DEFLATED THE FOOTBALLS!
GOODELL, DROP THE HAMMER DOWN ON THE DEFLATERIOTS, OR WE WILL KNOW YOUR IN CAHOOTS WITH KRAFT!
bencoates57 says:
Feb 3, 2015 7:25 PM
O’Brien showing Dante Scarnecchia how it’s done.
Scarnecchia has continued to do some spring scouting for the Pats, working out college o-linemen, so I would not be surprised if he gets a ring for this season. I believe that Stork and Fleming were both drafted on the recommendation of Scarnecchia. Stork is clearly a keeper and Fleming is very promising.
BB will solve your problem then create 2 different ones for you. He is both, the creator, and the destroyer.
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All hail BB. Alpha and Omega of football coaches.
To me not as surprising as Dick LeBeau leaving the Steelers and not retiring but going to the Titans. The man is 77 years old. I thought he’d die coaching Steeler defenders.