I’ve watched a lot of NFL Films over the years. A Football Life: Bill Belichick is as compelling as anything they’ve produced.
MDS already did a great job highlighting some of the best parts of Part I of the documentary, airing at 9 p.m. ET on NFL Network.
You see every side of Belichick: relaxed, profane, emotional, miserable, incisive, and even exuberant. Not exactly “Dr. Doom” as Bill Parcells once referred to Belichick.
One big takeaway I took from the show: Belichick is always coaching, whether it’s with his son, his players, or his fellow coaches. Everything has a purpose and much of it is to develop like-minded thinking between his staff and his players.
Belichick coaches hard. In the ’09 season opener against the Bills, Tom Brady looked antsy in his first regular season game since his ACL surgery.
“Settle down, there buddy. Step into the throw. Okay? You all right?” Belichick asked.
After some back and forth, Belichick says: “Just step into it, Okay?”
It’s clear Belichick takes the losses hard. It’s like the life has been drained from him when the Patriots lose.
“That was some bad football out there fellas,” Belichick said in a whisper at a coaches meeting the following day after loss to the Broncos. “Bad coaching, bad playing, bad everything.
“Offensively, we’ve seen this now twice really. If you just take Moss away on the deep part of the field and get down on Welker, we’re done. We’re done. We can’t run the ball, we can’t throw the ball to anyone else. We’re done. . . . We gotta do a better job than his fellas. This is some bad coaching.”
In the following team meeting, NFL Films gives us a window into Belichick’s coaching philosophy.
“It’s not someday else’s problem. It’s your problem. It’s our problem. And we’re the only ones that can fix it,” Belichick said to his team. “The only thing I can do fellas, and I’m going to do it, is put more pressure on you.”
The team responded, at least for a week. They won 59-0 against Tennessee the following Sunday.
That sequence showcased the incredible highs and lows of the NFL. A Football Life: Bill Belichick delves deep into an NFL season in a way than we simply haven’t seen before.