5 things we learned from Coach K’s interview with Bill Belichick
Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Duke men’s basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski are two of the most decorated leaders in their respective sports.
In the latest edition of Krzyzewski’s weekly SiriusXM show, “Basketball and Beyond with Coach K,” the legendary pair sat down to talk about Super Bowl LI, Tom Brady, and all things Patriots.
Here’s what we learned from their conversation:
One of Tom Brady’s best qualities is his ability to set up a ‘fair fight.’
“The biggest thing Tom does for us is to try to keep us out of those bad plays where we have 5, 10 percent chance of really being successful,” Belichick told Krzyzewski. “He sees that what we’ve got called just isn’t what we want to be in.”
“He’ll be able to get out of those and get us something that, like I said, gives us more of a fair fight,” Belichick continued. “That’s a big job of the quarterback in our league is to not just manage the game in terms of getting the ball out of bounds and the clock and stuff like that, but also managing the game in terms of giving the offense the chance to run plays that are competitive.”
He thought the Patriots ‘played like champions’ in the last 20 minutes of Super Bowl LI.
“Our guys played like champions in the last 20 minutes, and we really were able to have a lot of things go right, which they needed to pretty much fall the way they did, or we would have been in trouble. So it was a great year and a great victory for our team,” Belichick said.
He enjoys the offseason just as much as the playoffs.
“I really enjoy the different phases of the season,” Belichick said. “Right now, we’re in a team building phase with free agency, and then next month is the draft, and then all the players will be in, and we’ll start. As you know, you can’t pick up where you left off last year, you’ve got to start all over again, so the kind of starting all over again process has really already begun for us.”
At 64 years old, working with ‘young people’ keeps him, well, young — and he tries to take the ‘whole social media thing’ head on.
“I enjoy working with young people, that certainly keeps me young, even though the gap’s widening,” he said. “And I do my best to absolutely take on the whole social media thing, you know, head on, on a collision course. But other than that, being with young people certainly keeps you young, and that’s been important for me. I’m sure you feel the same way.”
Life is not all about football for the five-time Super Bowl champ.
“I just try to maintain a balance with it. Football is very important to me. I put a lot into it, but there are times during our year when you step back and refresh a little bit. Going out to Pebble Beach for a couple of days was good for me, not that I played great golf or anything, but just to be in that environment. In the summer before we go to training camp, just relaxing and spending time with family, getting refreshed, taking the pressure off for a little while.”
Listen to the full interview on SoundCloud.
