11/13 quote

In the book, War Room, by Michael Holley, is about Bill Belichick and his successful career as an NFL head coach. I am learning what it takes to be an NFL head coach, and the different strategies coaches take to coach their team well. One quote that stood out to me was,

"Bill had dramatically reduced the media's access , so in turn he wasn't going to get any slack from the press" (Holley 9).



I liked this quote because it gave the reader a look into Belichicks mind, and how he went about coaching. He is a no slack kind of guy, and he doesn't tolerate distractions off the field. He is always 100% focused on the task at hand, and he attacks everything the same way, whether it is a preseason game or the Superbowl. One of his main goals as a coach is to make his team as focused as he is. He doesn't want them thinking about anything other than the task at hand that week, and the media is a perfect example. Players all across the league make bold statements in interviews and such to get a rise out of other players, and this takes away from their focus on the game. Cutting off all their media access is a way he did this, and it helped the players to keep their minds at the task at hand, and not be distracted by what other players or the media was saying about them.

This quote connects to me because I am a die hard Patriots fan, and Belichick is the head coach. Being a fan my whole life, I have seen Belichicks antics in play multiple times, from being rude at interviews to not cracking a smile until the tea won the super bowl. Week after week I see the patriots not participate in any media interactions except the mandatory post game interviews. From the start of his career to the end, he has stood by this rule of not entertaining the media. It is a distraction and he does not tolerate any of it. He is only focused on one thing all the time, and that is winning. This is just one aspect that makes him one of the greatest coaches of all time.