Bill Belichick is a complicated man, perceived as the ultimate winner by some, and by others as the type who’d sell their own mother to win. He’s been the mastermind behind three Super Bowl titles with the Patriots, and before that was the defensive coordinator for two Giants title runs. He was also the villain in SpyGate, and the man who unabashedly wears hoodies for all occasions. David Halberstam’s wonderful book, The Education of a Coach, peeled back some of the layers on the multifaceted Belichick, and a new NFL Films series promises to do the same. The two-part series, which airs Thursday Sept. 15, at 9 p.m. ET and Thursday, Sept. 22 at 10 p.m. ET, is the product of a yearlong project set in 2009, when Belichick agreed to let NFL Films put a microphone on him around the clock. We get a full portrait of the coach as he fishes off Nantucket in the preseason, goes through training camp, returns to Giant Stadium before it gets demolished, and handles coaching decisions including the infamous LateGate, when Randy Moss and others showed up late to practice during a storm storm.
“Bill Belichick doesn’t only make history – he studies it; he understands his place in it; and he appreciates our desire to capture it,” said NFL Films President Steve Sabol. “Like Vince Lombardi’s Packers in 1967, Belichick and the Patriots gave us access to his football life and what we created is a portrait of the coach, the father, the taskmaster – and most importantly – the man.”
Here’s the trailer on NFL.com.
For those who say Belichick is a bloodless automaton, he does get choked up when discussing the destruction of Giants Stadium. So never let it be said he doesn’t have feelings towards public buildings.