Belichick on Leadership
The following is an excerpt from Coach Bill Belichick’s press conference on January 3rd. A reporter asked about how Cam Newton’s leadership influenced younger players on the team. Belichick responded with what is best described as his treatise on leadership. It’s not just about the starting quarterback. This is what he had to say about this year’s team:
“Some of them have been here for over a decade, and they approach every meeting and every installation and every walkthrough like they’re rookies. Like they’re undrafted rookie players. They’re attentive, trying to get it right, and if something happens then they ask a coach a question as if, you know, after 13 years or 10 years or however many years it’s been, five years, it doesn't matter. That they have so much of a thirst to get those situations right so that they'll be prepared so that if they come up in the game, they will do the right thing. As a rookie would or first-year player would who doesn't know.
Some of the questions are more advanced and so forth, but we have so many players on our team that approach the game that way. I couldn’t just single out one person. I mean, again, obviously our captains, but there’s a whole group of players that aren’t captains, that have that same work ethic, same day-to-day consistency to excel. And part of excelling is improving, and they want to do everything right. They want to, you know, physically be prepared, mentally be prepared, study film, work with their teammates so the communication is done properly and efficiently on the field when we have to make a change or an adjustment on the field. All those things.
So, yeah, I mean honestly it's an inspiration to all of us, you know, coaches as well. But, you know, any player who hasn't been around that, who hasn’t experienced that, and doesn't have those kind of work habits, again, urge to get it right, commitment to winning, and what you have to do to win in this league. Yeah, of course they can all learn from that. We can all learn from that. We can all learn from it.
That’s what real good professional NFL players do, is they make that kind of commitment on a daily basis, you know, throughout the entire season. They don't take days off. They don't miss opportunities to prepare and study and be ready to step out on the field and do their very best. They don't have those up-and-down, you know, type of periods, and so, absolutely. Anybody that watches those players in their room, or on their side of the ball, or you know just in general. Absolutely, those are great leadership examples.
They don’t even have to say anything. Leadership comes from doing your job and putting the team first when you do it. That's what leadership is really about. It's not about always standing up and giving a team speech. Going in there and doing your job is leadership, and your commitment to doing it for the team is leadership. That's kind of how I measure it, and we have a lot of that. We have a lot of great leadership on this team.”