Bill Belichick

About Bill Belichick

William Stephen Belichick (born April 16, 1952 in Nashville, Tennessee) is the American football head coach for the New England Patriots of the National Football League. After spending his first 15 seasons in the league as an assistant coach, Belichick got his first head coaching job with the Cleveland Browns in 1991. Of his five seasons coaching Cleveland, only one featured a winning record, and Belichick did not get another head coaching opportunity until 2000 with the Patriots. Since then, Belichick has coached the Patriots to four Super Bowls; three victories in Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII, and XXXIX and a loss in Super Bowl XLII. He was named the AP NFL Coach of the Year twice, for the 2003 and 2007 seasons. During the 2007 season, the NFL penalized Belichick for his involvement in the illegal videotaping of opponents' defensive signals, referred to in the press as Spygate. During the same season, the Patriots went 16–0 in the regular season but failed to become the first team since the 1972 Miami Dolphins to go undefeated following their Super Bowl XLII loss to the New York Giants.

Belichick was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and raised in Annapolis, where his father Steve Belichick, a former Detroit Lions player and ethnic Croat, was an assistant football coach at the United States Naval Academy. After graduating from Annapolis High School he attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts for a postgraduate year. Belichick subsequently attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where he played center/tight end. In addition to being a member of the football team, he also played lacrosse and squash, serving as the captain of the lacrosse team during his senior season. He is a member of Chi Psi fraternity and graduated in 1975 with a degree in economics.

After graduating, he took a $25-per-week job as an assistant to Baltimore Colts head coach Ted Marchibroda in 1975. In 1976, Belichick joined the Detroit Lions as their assistant special teams coach before adding tight ends and wide receivers to his coaching duties in 1978. He then spent one year in 1978 with the Denver Broncos as their assistant special teams coach and defensive assistant. Belichick then began his 12-year stint with the New York Giants and head coach Ray Perkins in 1979 as a defensive assistant and special teams coach. He added linebackers coaching to his duties in 1980 and was named defensive coordinator in 1985 under head coach Bill Parcells, who had replaced Perkins in 1983. The Giants won Super Bowls following the 1986 and 1990 seasons. His defensive game plan from the New York Giants' 20-19 upset of the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV is now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as is his defensive game plan from the Patriots' 20-17 win over the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.