Belichick learned early from father

Struthers native Steve Belichick was a long-time assistant football coach at Navy.
HOUSTON (AP) -- They are expected to know the plays. When your father and grandfather are both football coaches, that's just the way it is.
Three fingers is an "out" pattern. But when the quarterback flashes three fingers, that means "out-and-up." Bill Belichick's sons know this, even though they are just teenagers playing touch football with friends.
"It is great when we do it against other kids that kind of don't know the plays. In touch football, we never lose. We never lose," the New England Patriots coach said. "We are not playing for the Super Bowl out there. We are just having fun."
A rare smile comes to his face as he says this. So you can only imagine Belichick's emotions when it isn't touch football with his kids, when it really is for the Super Bowl, like it will be today when New England plays the Carolina Panthers for the NFL championship.
"He's football, man. He's hardcore football," Patriots offensive lineman Damien Woody said. "It doesn't surprise me one bit that he's designing plays for his kids. It doesn't surprise me one bit."
Helped his father
The son of a Detroit Lions fullback and 33-year Navy assistant coach, Steve Belichick, a native of Struthers, Bill Belichick went into the family business early on.
Bill began breaking down game film as a kid to help out his dad, who was chief scout for Navy.
Steve now is 83 years old and lives in Annapolis, Md., home of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Bill was a three-time letterman in football and captain of the Wesleyan lacrosse team, but when he graduated there was no doubt about his best route to the NFL.
Belichick was 23 when he was hired as the lowest assistant to Baltimore Colts coach Ted Marchibroda, getting $25 a week ("before taxes," Belichick noted). There were only eight coaches on the staff in 1975, half as many as the Patriots have these days.
"I was getting paid nothing because I wasn't worth anything," Belichick said. "But they had a small staff. Even though I was the low man on the totem pole -- by a lot -- there were still things that he needed done. So [Marchibroda] would say, 'Billy, take care of this' or 'take care of that.' ... We didn't really know where it was going."
Advanced
Belichick gradually took on more responsibility, learning on the job. Even the car rides between practice and the motel where the coaches stayed were cherished experiences that enabled Belichick to pick Marchibroda's brain for an extra hour or so each day.
Soon he was running the scout teams, trying to mimic the upcoming opponents so the Colts could prepare.
"He was like a sponge," Marchibroda recalled. "He was one of those guys who, you gave him an assignment and you didn't see him until the assignment was completed, and it was really thorough. He locked himself into a room and didn't come out until he was done.
"You knew that he was going to be successful. There's no magic; it's work. He had the work ethic and the passion for it."
Talk to Belichick's teachers, his players, his colleagues, his opponents, and what you'll hear are stories about a man who is fanatical about preparation, creative in his strategy and obsessive on keeping everyone's focus on the game.
It is sometimes his undoing.
Browns improved
In his first head coaching job, the Cleveland Browns showed improvement for four years and went 11-5 in 1994 before things fell apart the next season when the team's impending move to Baltimore became public. A football coach, not a spin doctor, Belichick was ill-equipped to deal with the fallout and was fired after falling to 5-11.
He went to New England as an assistant and prospered -- going to the Super Bowl, in a losing effort this time, after the '96 season.
Belichick's record in New England doesn't need any makeup.
After going 5-11 in 2000, his first year with the Patriots, Belichick was socked with a series of crises.
Quarterbacks coach Dick Rehbein died of heart failure in the following training camp.
Wide receiver Terry Glenn missed most of the season because of injuries and suspensions.
The Patriots lost their first two games, and quarterback Drew Bledsoe was knocked out of the second one with a life-threatening injury.
That year, like this year, Belichick outworked every problem that arose. His attempt to suspend the malcontent Glenn for the 2001 season was overturned by an arbitrator, but it showed that no player was more important than the team (a lesson this year's squad learned when Belichick released safety Lawyer Milloy five days before the opener).
The Patriots won the first Super Bowl title in franchise history.
Last season's 9-7 record was followed by a 14-2 mark, and Belichick won the coach of the year award. By the time a 14-game winning streak landed the Patriots in the Super Bowl for the second time in three years, any players who might have still questioned his program were solidly on board.