Revelations About Secret Life of Bill Belichick
DATELINE: HUMOR!
New England Patriots guru, man behind the curtain, genius of the gridiron, and top secret operative, Bill Belichick had the wizard’s curtain pulled back for a few seconds in the days before the Patriots meet the New York Football Giants.
Insights and information about Coach Belichick are usually hard to find, yet more than a few nuggets emerged on Friday.
Earliest in the day, on the Dennis and Callahan radio show on WEEI in Boston, guest Tony La Russa gave a fascinating interview, indicating his ties to Bill Belichick. They are apparently close friends.
La Russa, freshly retired from his gig as World Series championship team manager, noted that he, Bill Parcells, and John “Hondo” Havlicek were members of a kind of sports breakfast club.
The foursome may not play golf or bridge together, but they get together and enjoy the bonhomie of sexagenarian sports legends.
We can envision them sitting around the restaurant table and swapping tales, telling Norse legends and fables from Mount Olympus about American sports.
The foursome often pass through Florida during seasons and frequently meet up for some historical meetings.
Havlicek was one of the original amazing Boston Celtic stars, and Parcells was the man who brought Belichick to the Giants and later the Patriots. LaRussa came from another sport, but these giants share some kinship as members of an endangered Cyclops generation.
Later in the day, former New England Patriot Chad Eaton, who was with Belichick in Cleveland and New England, gave an interview in which he revealed that he often started fights at practice at the behest of Belichick. This helped to create both bonds and tensions in the locker room, orchestrated by the Patriot Svengali.
The reward was an envelope with cash on Fridays. Belichick gave his standard response when asked about this. He said, “I don’t remember that,” a line he learned while watching the Watergate hearings.
And finally on the freakiest Friday for Belichick this season, he came, as his usually dour self, to his press conference when at the door came the slick, white haired, silver-tongued Fox sports analyst and former Dallas Cowboy coach, Jimmy Johnson.
Like Justin Bieber welcoming a fan to his dressing room after a concert, Belichick lit up and professed how honored he was to have Johnson at his humble news conference. Doom was lifted momentarily.
Those in attendance had never seen the smiling, fan-like visage of Belichick quite like this. Bill Belichick press conferences are as much fun as sitting in the dentist waiting room. Belichick was animated and actually seemed poised to be pleasant.
“Doom,” as he was known in his youth, went off afterward with Johnson, presumably giving the fellow coach some insights that may or may not be shared on Sunday’s pregame show.
In one day fans learned more about the mercurial Belichick than in ten previous seasons of rubbernecking the Patriots’ braintrust.
William Russo's newest book is now out, ready for your tablet, your smartphone, your Kindle or Nook. Read RED SOX 2011: A WHIMSICAL AUTOPSY to find a month-by-month examination of the team, showing all the signs of trouble that most sports media missed. His other sports books are SEX, DRUGS, SPORTS & WHIMSY and RAJON RONDO: SUPERSTAR!
