Belichick book has moments

Ask a diehard Browns fan to name his or her least favorite coach over the past 15 years and chances are the answer will begin with a "B."
For some, it might be Butch Davis, the Browns coach from 2001-04 who led the expansion team to a playoff berth in their fourth season but wasn't tough enough to stick it out through a turbulent 2004 season.
For others, it might be Bill Cowher, the Steelers coach whose teams who have dominated the Browns since 1992. Cowher's Super Bowl XL victory most likely will earn him a bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Over the past 14 seasons, Cowher's teams have been to the postseason 10 times, played host to the AFC Championship on five occasions, played in the Super Bowl twice and captured the NFL crown once.
During the same time period, the Browns have been to the playoffs twice (1994 and 2002 seasons) and were eliminated both times by Cowher's Steelers.
Belichick best betamong disliked coaches
But for most Browns backers, the granddaddy of dislike is and shall always be Bill Belichick, the Cleveland coach from 1991-95 who was fired when Art Modell moved the franchise to Baltimore.
Belichick will never be forgiven by northeast Ohio fans for being the coach who cut quarterback Bernie Kosar in the middle of the 1993 season, a campaign in which the Browns still had hopes of qualifying for the playoffs.
Belichick survived his Cleveland adventure rather nicely, reuniting with Bill Parcells (another future Hall of Fame coach) as defensive coordinator for the Patriots and Jets.
In the season that gave birth to the Baltimore Ravens (and when Cleveland fans learned the Browns would be reborn in 1999 as an expansion team), Parcells' Patriots played the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXI, losing 35-21 in the Louisiana Superdome.
Belichick was there.
Parcells and Belichick then moved on to the Jets. In 2000, Patriots owner Robert Kraft hired "Monotone Bill" as head coach. Over the next five seasons, the Patriots won three Super Bowls, ensuring Belichick's place in Canton's football museum.
The last championship came about 19 months ago after the Pats defeated the Steelers, 41-27, in the AFC Championship Game at Heinz Field, then edged the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-21, in Super Bowl XXXIX.
Valley plays a rolein coach's life
Remember when the Patriots players doused Belichick with a Gatorade bath to celebrate and Belichick's father, Steve, was caught up in the spray? That's where the Mahoning Valley plays a small role in the Belichick saga.
As many area football fans know, Steve Belichick grew up in Struthers and is a member of the Struthers High Athletic Hall of Fame.
David Halberstam, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting in Vietnam 40 years ago and the author of many non-fiction best sellers over the year, has chronicled the Belichick family's journey in football with his recent release, "The Education of a Coach."
For years, Halberstam (author of "The Best and the Brightest," "The Powers That Be" and "October 1964") and Bill Belichick have been neighbors on Nantucket Island.
In spring 2005, Belichick (an intensely private man who regards the media as a necessary evil in the world of NFL secrecy) agreed to sit down with Halberstam to share his memories and opinions of his 28-year NFL career.
Should area Browns fans rush to the library to read Belichick's life story? Maybe not.
Dig on Youngstowndoesn't read well
The chapters explaining how Steve Belichick was able to embrace football as a way out of a rugged life in the Mahoning Valley's steel mills are fascinating. But when Halberstam refers to Youngstown as one of the most neglected cities in America, it hurts.
The chapter about Belichick's Browns years and the demise of Boardman's Kosar is a page-turner. But Browns fans to this day don't want to hear that the quarterback who guided them to three AFC Championship Games in four seasons was washed up in his ninth season.
"The Education of a Coach" is not a perfect book, far from it. Halberstam neglects to mention that when Kosar was released, third-string quarterback Todd Philcox became the starter (Vinny Testaverde was out with an injury).
In recounting the 2004 season when the Steelers were 15-1, Halberstam suggests a late-season loss by the Patriots cost them home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs. As long as Pittsburgh had one loss, the only defeat that hurt the Patriots that season was their 34-20 thumping in Pittsburgh on Oct. 31.
Not that it mattered -- the Patriots proved they were the NFL's best franchise of this decade by ousting the Steelers and Eagles.
Should Browns fans care? Probably not, but insight into the crumbling of a once-proud franchise is available and Amazon's used book service is a way to acquire it at a discount.
XTom Williams is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write to him at williams@vindy.com