Bill Belichick: The Ultimate Leader

Bill Belichick is the best football coach of all time. 15 straight winning seasons and 6 super bowl appearances over that time period, he amassed a 180-68 record as the head coach for the New England Patiots. Belichick's ability to win in the postseason (His playoff wins [21] are the most in NFL history) demonstrates that he is gifted in his ability to assemble an elite team, articulate his vision to them, and lead them towards his goals of winning a Super Bowl. Belichick’s six Super bowl appearances are tied for the record for all time with legendary coach Dolphins coach Don Shula. But what sets Belichick apart from other coaches is that he thinks differently then them. He sees things very very differently, and therefore is able to produce a different and substantially better product on the field than other coaches have ever been able to,

Big Bill Belichick is a man with an elite strategy, and also an elite ability to find the right players to execute his strategy. He articulates a vision of a winning football team to his players, and every year leads them with the goal of winning the coveted Lombardi Trophy (that is the trophy awarded to the winner of the Super Bowl, for those who may not know). The influence of Bill Belichick on the Patriots organization over the years has manifested into a full blown culture within the organization which is reffered to as “The Patriot Way.” Belichick has a specific mold and role that he needs his followers to fill, and once he sees potential, he will coach a player into the role that is most useful to him and the entire Patriots nation.

Alongside his duties of coaching a playoff-condender year after year, Belichick also carefully hand selects players whom he believes can help accomplish his mission of winning the Super Bowl every year. He is responsible for the teams roster and personnel, listed in his duties as not only the coach of the Patriots but also the general manager. This means that he is not just the cook in New England, but Bill Belichick is also shopping for his own ingredients. To continue this metaphor, the final productin this case a redicously good football team. . . His careful control over the personnel shows an ability to build a team. He picks team members that he trusts will buy into his vision and give their 100% in assisting Belichick's dream. He has a solid foundational blueprint that is built for success with 217 total career wins (places him 6th on the all time list, behind the likes of Tom Flores.

Belichick enforces this sucess with his personal philosophy that he has developed, a core method of doing things called the Patriot Way. As former Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe described the Patriot Way, it is the concept that “no one player is bigger than the team or organization.” Bledsoe himself was an example of that when he was seemingly the star quarterback of the futre for Belichick for years to come, having just signed a contract thar wa worth a then-record breaking $103 million in 2000. When Bledsoe suffered a chest injury that sidelined him in game 2 of the 2001 season, a second year back-up quarterback named Tom Brady from Michigan was able to step in and do a pretty good job. Suddenly Bledsoe who was the quarterback of the future was no longer useful to the team, and he was traded away in a careful move that embodies and represents the Belchich-Patiot way. Bledsoe in his own words explained the phenomenon, saying of the Patriots that "If they decide that they can live without you and they can find somebody to play the position for less money, you're out the door. It doesn't matter how long you've been there or what you've done for the franchise.” Belichick had shown this when he sent Bledsoe off to division rivals the Buffalo Bills, and immediately afterwards his team was able to bounce back from adversity and come back stronger.

The Patriot Way represents Belichick’s uncanny ability to realize change as well as his ability to prepare for change, which allows the franchise to come back stronger every year after adversity. like when they were able to win three super bowls over the next following four seasons after Bledsoe’s departure. His ability to realize change does not just involve cutting players when they are not needed, but also for adding players when they are needed. Before the 2006 season, the Patriots wide receiving core was very depleted, and so Belichick added wide receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker, who are the two most prolific receivers in New England History. Belichick’s Patriot Way is set up for future success, as the team will add anybody who will help they team win and they will not hesitate to cut anybody who is no longer useful. As it may come across as unsentimental, the fact that the Patriots are only willing to pay for future performance instead of past performance is what keeps their team stocked and able to win championships consistently. "I remember Coach [Belichick] telling me a story," former Patriots player Damien Woody said. "He said [San Francisco's] Bill Walsh once said, 'It's better to get rid of a player a year early rather than a year too late.' That's why they've been able to sustain for so long. They've recognized in their own mind that, 'Now's the time to cut bait and move on with the younger guy.'"

Belichick’s philosophy on team building and player retention may come across as foolish when they let star players walk off of their roster because they do not want to pay them, but nobody can argue the success of the Patriot Way. Drew Bledsoe spoke about the success this concept has brung the Patriots, despite the fact that he was on the losing end of it. "It would be hard to make a case that their business model is costing them much," "While that is awfully painful when you're living it, the Patriots have had success by bringing in younger players and developing them so they're able to reload, as opposed to going through a down cycle like most teams."

When it comes to ethical leadership, Bill Belichick is perceived to havd a more unconventional approach than the rest of the league. As per a clause in the Patriot Way, Belichick feels no ethical obligation to hold on to players if they are no longer of central importance to his football team, and even then he still might cut you (Lawyer Milloy, Damien Woody, Willie McGinest). From this, some have derived that Bill Belichick places heavy importance on winning and being successful at the cost of being ethical. Amid recent allegations that the Patrots have been deflating footballs, even though Belichick has not been announced as having anything to do with releasing the air out of football, it seems hard to believe that the Patriots have a calulated system of gaining a competitive edge and Belichicks brain is not behind it. Belichickian ethics reflect values that are deep-rooted in the NFL's sister sport NASCAR, seemingy embodying principles such as the old NASCAR mantra “If you ain’t cheatin, you ain’t tryin!” Over the years, through his sucess it has been evident that Belichick searches for a competitive edge wherever he can get one. In instances where Belichick's competetive edge seems unethical, he has landed the nick name of “Beli-cheat” to some who persecute the Patriots' ethics due to various allegations of cheating over the years. Stephen Mosher, a professor at Ithaca College who studies sports ethics, said of belichick "Of all the jerks who coach teams in the National Football League, Bill Belichick is about the 'jerkiest,' that I would grant you. Whatever serves his purposes, he's going to do. But I don't think we live in a society that is so naive that professional athletics is anything but entertainment."

Belichick's drama dates back to 8 years ago in 2007 with a scandal referred to as “Spy-Gate” in 2007 that involved members of the Patriots staff who were found to be secretly video taping the practices of a division rival team the New York Jets. To be specific, what was allegedly being video taped was the defensive coordinators hand signals. This information was likely be recorded to be used in the instance where the Patriots are playing the Jets (they play twice a year) and they recognize a familar hand signal that they saw from the practice videos . Belichick and the Patriots received tons of scrutiny for this from those who believed it to be a blatant undermining of the integrity of football, but they also have some die-jard fans who believe that this effort articulates a creative desire to win.

Belichickian ethics were at display once again more recently when it was found in the 2014 AFC Championship game that the New England Patriots were intentionally deflating football’s below the leagues standard levels of inflation. against the Indiannapolis Colts. It was found that quarterback Tom Brady preferred the grip of a football to be slightly under inflated, and so to make his quarterback comfortable, the Patriots would illegally let some air out of the balls before each game. It is believed that this practice gave the Patriots an advantage in throwing, catching, and also ball security for it is easier to grip a football that has less air into it. These allegations against the Patriots make them a "hated" team within the league, and it seems like every sports analyst and their cousin have something to say about the Patriots. Instead of letting it affect the team at all, Belichick shows an excellent ability to guide through conflict by keeping his team in-tact and focused on winning while the rest of the world concerned about what they are doing. Is Belichick unethical for placing winning over the leagues rules? Possibly. But Belichick also uses an extensive knowledge of football to exploits loopholes in the rules in attempts to gain a competitive advantage legally. For example, in a playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens, the Patriots used several unconventional formations that were gechnically within the rules but were clearly designed with intent to deceive and confuse the opponent. To incorporate confusion of an opponent into a game plan seems to be highly intelligent and strategic, but it has been taken across America to some that Belichick and the Patriots act unethically.

Belichick’s entire career has been a result of his superior decision making ability. He is extremely lucrative in the draft when shopping for new players to load onto his roster, (he found his star quarterback Tom Brady in the 6th round of the 2001 NFL draft) and he somehow manages to keep the right people around year after year to win championships. After Drew Bledsoe was hurt and Tom Brady filled in his role remarkably, Belichick made the decision to keep Tom Brady as the starter and send Bledsoe elsewhere. The process of drafting Brady, keeping him on the roster during training camp (there were 4 QB’s on the team and he was considered to be the worst) and then starting him proved to be the best decision making process of his career, as Brady assisted Belichick to 11 AFC East titles and 4 super bowl rings. Belichick’s decision making over personnel seems to be the reason that the patriots seem to always have an all star roster, but he coaches players into super star status with his firm ideals. Late in the 2014 season, the Patriots seemed to have found a new star running back in Jonas Gray. Gray showed poise to be a superstar and carry the Patriots offense when Brady wasn’t throwing the ball. Jonas Gray overslept and missed practice Thursday before a game, and Belichick benched him and Gray did not see another snap for the rest of the season. Instead of allowing a player who was late to play, he added free agent running back Legarrette Blount to the roster to play the running back position, and Blount ended up leading the Patriots to the Super Bowl.

While Bill Belichick makes great decisions regarding who to start and who to cut, his best decision making, however, is on the field. He is an absolute master of the game and calls plays with oracle like anticipation. In November, 2003 the Patriots were trailing the Denver Broncos 24-23 on Monday Night Football with 3:06 left in the fourth quarter. The Patriots were facing 4th and long on the team’s own one yard line, but instead of punting the ball the Patriots made a head scratching call opting to have the long snapper snap the ball into the end zone, resulting in a safety. This move gave up two points to the Broncos but the patriots were able to kick off instead of punt, which gave them better field position. They were able to hold the Broncos, force a punt, and then score the game winning touchdown with 30 seconds left on the clock. That kind of ability to look into the future of a game and predict what might happen as a result of every play gives Belichick the analytical edge over any team that the Patriots play. This past February, Belichicks decision making skills were on display in the Patriots 28-24 Super Bowl victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Many may or may not remember, but in the final minutes of the game, the patriots found themselves in a position to lose. The patriots were at the 5 yard line with a minute left in the game, and if they were to score a touchdown then the Seahawks would have gone up 31-28 with not much time left on the clock. As the play clock was ticking, many thought that Belichick would use a time out to save as many seconds on the clock as possible, so that if Seattle were to score than Tom Brady and the Patriots would have more time for a rebuttal score. Instead of saving time on the clock, Belichick instead chose to let the clock run down because he knew that it would affect Seattle coach Pete Carrol’s decision making. If the Patriots called a time out, then the Seahawks would have had enough time on the clock to run the ball 3 times and score a touch down without fearing that the clock would run out. Belichick not calling a time out put pressure on the Seahawks decision making process, and the Seahawks took much longer to call a play and did not snap it until there was 26 seconds on the clock. If Seattle ran the ball with this play, then they would have to use their final time out and it would be third down with 20 seconds. In this situation, it would be obvious that the Seahawks had to throw the ball and it would be easier to defend. Belichick anticipated this, and figured that the Seahawks would try to catch the patriots off guard and throw the ball on second down to score the game winning touchdown. Belichick must have played this entire scenario out in his head, as when it seemed like an obvious running situation on 2nd down, Belichick was inside the head of Pete Carrol and knew that he would throw. Belichick sent 3 cornerbacks on the field, a formation that is used to stop a pass, instead of 2 cornerbacks and an extra linebacker to stop the run. The third cornerback (Malcom Butler) that he added to the field in anticipation? He intercepted the pass that Belichick knew the Seahawks would win, and found himself the winner of yet another super bowl as a result of his superb decision making skills.

The bedrock of Belichicks coaching career and leading ability is has been his talent to empower others and get players to play at an elevated level above their means and outside of themselves. His ability to discover unheralded players and get unreal production from them is the true manifestation of his leadership. He finds raw, under developed players and turns them into superstars (Malcom Butler is one of many). It is Belichicks attention to detail that develops the young men that he selects with late round draft picks and turns them into productive superstars. It is not just unheralded players that he gets the best from however, as he elevates the level of play for everyone he coaches. Belichick was the coach at the pro-bowl, and on the opening kick off All-star tight end Tony Gonzalez blew off a blocking assignment, as these are seen as menial tasks on special teams for a player who normally only plays offense. After Gonzalez missed the block, he jogged back to the sideline and in his own words; coach Belichick looked at him “Like I was a piece of dirt” and said to him “Why don’t you (bleeping) block somebody Gonzalez?” The tight end was very mad, as he felt that the Pro-Bowl was a reward for having a good season, and here was getting cussed at by the best coach in the league for not blocking on special teams in an exhibition game. Well, the next time Gonzalez was out on special teams, he replayed the words in his head “Why don’t you (bleeping) block somebody Gonzalez?” and he absolutely mashed the defender, erasing him from the play. He walked passed Belichick to wipe the smirk off of his face, and Belichick seemingly ignored him, keeping his eyes on the field. Gonzalez kept walking past, and after he was a couple steps away Belichick said camly “nice block Gonzalez” with a straight face, keeping his eyes on the field. Tony Gonzalez said in this moment, he understood why Belichick was the greatest coach in the league. He had just coached him into blocking on special teams on the Pro-bowl.

References

http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/10254032/new-england-patriots-way-highway

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2015/01/22/sports-ethics-deflategate-bill-belichick-new-england-patriots-indianapolis-colts/22153199/

http://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/everyones-got-a-bill-belichick-story/