Belichick has established himself one of NFL's best

He'll be trying for his fourth Super Bowl ring, the second as a head coach.
FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) -- You don't hear him called "Little Bill" much anymore, and "Tuna Helper" is a nickname that has gone the way of the T-formation.
With a chance to win his fourth Super Bowl ring -- his second as a head coach -- Bill Belichick has established himself as one of the NFL's top coaches, perhaps even surpassing former mentor Bill Parcells.
"I don't think you can argue with all the things he's done," Patriots cornerback Ty Law said this month, at the end of a season that started with the release of safety Lawyer Milloy and a 31-0 loss but ended with an NFL-best 14-2 record.
"He can get rid of me. I don't care," Law said. "He's still the best coach of the year."
AP Coach of Year
Law's opinion was backed up when Belichick was honored as the AP Coach of the Year -- beating out, among others, Parcells and his rebuilding job that brought the Dallas Cowboys back to the playoffs. But the famously focused coach has no use for personal awards when his real goal is still ahead.
That would be the Super Bowl trophy. It's the Patriots' second trip to the title game in four years since Belichick took over as head coach, and a chance for a fourth title for the coaching lifer who won two rings as an assistant to Parcells with the New York Giants.
Nine days after that second championship, in 1991, Belichick left Parcells behind to coach the Cleveland Browns; he was the youngest coach in the league at the time, and it showed. These days, Belichick can laugh at the thought of the coach who tried to do everything by himself.
"Well, I would like to think I learned a little bit over the last few years," he smirked. "Maybe just a little bit."
Struggled in Cleveland
Belichick had a 36-44 record over five years in Cleveland before he was left behind when the team moved to Baltimore. Parcells, who was in the process of rebuilding New England, took Belichick back as an assistant and together they took the Patriots to the 1997 Super Bowl.
After a loss to the Green Bay Packers, the two Bills fled together to the Jets, and two years later they had New York in the conference title game. But when Parcells stepped down from the job and handed it off to what seemed to be his heir apparent, Belichick defected to New England.
And that, by all accounts, was the end of their longtime friendship.
Both Bills deny that there is a rift between them. But last week when asked about the colleagues who have influenced his management style, Belichick mentioned 11 former coaching colleagues by name and never got to the man who helped him win two Super Bowl rings.
Coming out of shell
When Belichick coached New England to its 2002 Super Bowl victory, it was widely noted that he had won more titles without the man called the "Tuna" than Parcells had won without Belichick. And though Belichick will probably never have the easygoing camera charm that Parcells does, even there he is coming out of his shell.
"As the years have gone by, he's more comfortable. He's letting his hair down a little bit more with the team," offensive lineman Damien Woody said. "He's a business as usual guy, but he jokes around with the guys in the meetings or at practice so he has his lighter side to him."
But it's when Belichick sequesters himself in his office with game tapes searching for his opponents' weaknesses that he really excels.
"I've known Bill Belichick for a long time, and his staff, and it's going to take our very, very best," Panthers coach John Fox said. "I'm sure we'll be the underdogs going into the game and it's going to take a great, great effort on our part."