Steve Belichick Following In Father's Footsteps On Patriots' Sideline
BOSTON (CBS) -- For Steve Belichick, the son of one the NFL's greatest head coaches, there was no Plan B when it came to finding a career.
Now in his fifth year with the Patriots, the 29-year-old is following in the footsteps of his father Bill and grandfather Steve, both of whom have made their stamp on the game of football -- Bill in the NFL and the elder Steve with a long and successful career at Navy. There was no doubt in his mind from when he was just 4 years old that the sidelines were the place for him, and now he's living out that dream.
Steve Belichick hopes to one day be a head coach, but for now, is learning the ropes of the NFL as New England's safeties coach. It's a promotion he earned after spending the last four years as a coaching assistant on the New England staff.
"It means everything to me. I've been around football my whole life so to have the support of the rest of the coaches and everyone behind me to step up to a bigger role in this organization, I'm excited about it," Belichick told the New England media on Monday. "[The last four years have] been hard but a lot of fun. Learning a bunch of stuff from a lot of smart people in this building; coaches, players, everybody. It's been hard trying to learn everything and to do stuff the right way, but it's been awesome. I wouldn't want to do anything different."
With such deep family roots in the game of football, Steve's passion for the game started early. It was after his first football play at the age of four that he knew a career in the game was for him, and he's been working hard to make it come true ever since. He credits the elder Steve Belichick for teaching him how to long-snap, and said he wouldn't have played in college (he walked on at Rutgers as a long snapper) if it weren't for his grandfather's tutelage.
For the last four years, Belichick spent countless hours in both the film room and on the field. He did whatever he was told to do, soaking up as much information he could from anyone that was offering it.
"If it was throw interceptions to our defensive players to make them feel good, that's what I'd do. I'm here to win," he said.
Now his job is to work with New England's safeties, a group that includes his college teammate Devin McCourty. It might be odd to think of Steve Belichick, a walk-on at Rutgers, coaching an All-Pro NFL safety like McCourty, but it's a relationship that goes both ways.
"We're all in the group together when we go into the safety room. I'm helping them, they're helping me," he said. "I need feedback too; if I'm doing something wrong I expect them to tell me and if they do something wrong I'm going to tell them. We're all in this together; we're a team, a group."
Though he's got a pair of blueprints to reference when it comes to having a successful career in football, the young Belichick wants to make a name for himself with his own style. He certainly sounds a lot like his dad, given he has their same deadpanned demeanor (he joked that his long-term goal was to still have a job at the end of the day), and even he admits that it's probably not a bad idea to emulate as much Bill as he can.
That includes his father's famous fashion on the sidelines.
"If my neck is cold I'll put the hood up," he said of Belichick's famous hoodies. "It's a good piece of clothing. I think everyone should have a hooded sweatshirt in their closet."
Steve still refers to Bill as "Dad" when they're at work, and he's not afraid to say it.
"It's been cool. I love my dad, he is my role model and idol. I want to be just like him and I have since I knew what an idol was," he said. "It's rewarding for me to be able to see him more and learn from him more, because I was away from him in high school and college.
"He's the best that has ever done it," he said of his father. "He is my standard."
