Bill Belichicks Dad dies saturday nite>>

He never told the Pats before yesterdays game his Dad died,how many coaches do you know who wouldn't even allow a leak of this before the game or use it as a motivating tool....No wonder Bill is the best..RIP Steve you raised a great son.

It's always nice to know that a father got to see his son's success in life. I'm glad his father got to see his son do so well. tulsa

He never told the Pats before yesterdays game his Dad died,how many coaches do you know who wouldn't even allow a leak of this before the game or use it as a motivating tool

Click to expand...

This is the first I've heard of it. He is an amazing coach, 1st ballot hall of famer.

By the way....doesn't he look like a son of a gun!!? Wow...he looks ready to throw some blows sitting for portrait! LOL! tulsa

All I can say is 'wow!' Not sure I could even GO to work a few hours after my father died, never mind not tell anyone about it.

very sad news...


***

wow LONG TIME NO SEE xpanda!...HOPE ALL IS WELL

Dante said:

wow LONG TIME NO SEE xpanda!...HOPE ALL IS WELL

Click to expand...

HELLOOOO booper-doo! How are ya???

Belichick stays strong: Tackles dad’s death head-on
By Michael Felger/ Patriots Beat
Monday, November 21, 2005 - Updated: 08:08 AM EST

FOXBORO – Bill Belichick didn’t want to be the one to say it. He didn’t want to be the first one to utter the words.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> So at the end of the third quarter, with the Patriots leading the Saints by two touchdowns yesterday at Gillette Stadium, a call was made by the team to FOX. Then, and only then, did the public come to know what Belichick learned late the night before at the Pats’ team hotel.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Steve Belichick, the father and mentor of the three-time Super Bowl-winning coach, died Saturday night in his Annapolis, Md., home from heart failure just hours after talking to his son on the phone. He was 86.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Incredibly, Belichick’s players didn’t find out until after the Pats had finished off the Saints, 24-17. That’s when owner Robert Kraft presented Belichick with a game ball and Belichick told his players that he had coached with “a heavy heart.”Belichick then said a few words to the media (no questions) and was whisked away to a local airport, where Kraft’s private jet was waiting to take him back to Annapolis and his mother, Jeannette.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> The fact that Belichick kept the news from his players until after the game was what we’ve all come to expect from the ultra-disciplined, ultra-dedicated coach.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> But it didn’t make it any less remarkable.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> “Our jaws just dropped when he told us,” punter Josh Miller said. “It was a shock. No one had any idea. We were floored.”
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Added Tom Brady: “I just can’t imagine, as a person, not to allow that out, to hold that in like he did. . . . It would be tough.”
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Over the last few years, Belichick made a point of having his father around the team more. Steve Belichick would attend practices and meetings, and he was always quick with a suggestion and available for advice. He was with his son when they received a Gatorade shower on the field at the end of last February’s Super Bowl in Jacksonville.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> It was a moment that brought the relationship full-circle from Belichick’s childhood at the Naval Academy, where Steve was an assistant coach for 33 years. Belichick first started attending practice with his father at the age of 6. By 9, the son was breaking down film and going on scouting trips.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> It was a relationship detailed in David Halberstam’s recent book, “The Education of a Coach.”
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> “They were uncommonly close,” Halberstam said from his New York home last night. “Bill emulated him by going into coaching, and that is the highest form of love and admiration you can have. I know Bill got resonance from having Steve around, and I know Steve gloried in the success of his son. It made (Steve) more avuncular, it made him more fun. It enriched his life tremendously at the end.”
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Halberstam said that Steve Belichick passed away while watching USC play Fresno State, which is coached by Belichick disciple Pat Hill. Earlier in the day, the elder Belichick had attended the Navy-Temple game.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Bill Belichick must have questioned whether he should work yesterday, but there’s no question what his father would have wanted. Football coaches coach.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> It’s the Belichick way.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> “Yesterday, he did what he enjoyed doing,” Bill Belichick said in his remarks to the media. “He went and watched Navy play, watched them win. Some of his former players were there. He had dinner and I spoke with him after the game. And like he normally does Saturday night, (he sat) around watching college football, and his heart just stopped beating. So I’m sure that’s the way he would have wanted it to end.”
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Belichick then paused and offered a small smile.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> “He went peacefully,” he said, “which is unusual for him.”
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Indeed, while a stroke suffered by the elder Belichick prevented him from driving and fishing with his son in recent years, he never lost his acerbic wit. That aspect of his personality was remembered fondly yesterday.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> “He was fun, he was crusty, he was smart, he was honest and direct – he was an absolute joy to be around,” Halberstam said. “He got nervous when people started throwing around the genius label. He felt the ‘g-word’ was a hand grenade. He used to say, ‘Genius! He walks up and down football fields, for goodness sake!’ ”
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Brady remembered that Steve Belichick was one of those who gave him grief for the bright yellow jeep he drove as a rookie.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> “He used to give me crap for it, he sure did,” Brady said. “But I always had a great relationship with him. You know, he would always be in my ear. And he had a great perspective.”
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Bill Belichick will be in Annapolis for much of the week. Longtime assistant Dante Scarnecchia will run the show in Foxboro until he returns. You can be sure that the way Belichick handled himself yesterday will be a topic of conversation in his absence.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> “I just felt for Bill, it was something I could relate to,” said Bruschi, who lost his own father in 2001. “So I just went up to him and offered my condolences. For him to stick around like he did shows the dedication he has to us.”
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=8><SPACER height="8" width="8" type="block"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

i will never forget that look on his face after that gatorade shower. he didnt look to pleased.

rest in peace.

just finished the bellechick book. A great book about how much influence his dad had on him. Though he was highley respected in the coaching world his dad never wanted to be a head coach.

Read the Halberstam book--unbelievable guy. I used to see the guy at Annapolis all the time and had no idea. Easy to see why Bill is successful. RIP.

R I P
STEVE