Bill Belichick Points To 'The Art Of War' When Asked About His Game-Planning Process
FOXBORO (CBS) -- Friday mornings with Bill Belichick are special. The Patriots head coach is usually in a pretty jovial mood and willing to open up on just about anything when chatting with reporters at the end of a given week.
Whether that means he expounds on the intricacies of special teams or takes a trip down memory lane, "Friday Morning Bill" is a treat for football fans. This Friday was no different.
As the Patriots prepare to host the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, Belichick was asked about his opponent-specific approach to game-planning. His process is always evolving, but Belichick took Friday's question as an opportunity to turn to Chinese general Sun Tzu, who authored The Art Of War, and "other great generals."
"You exploit your strengths and attack weaknesses. That's about as fundamental as it gets," Belichick said during his Friday Zoom session. "If there is something that you do well, you try to do it. If there is something that your opponent is weak at, you want to try to attack it. If you can match those up, that's a good way of attack.
"Sometimes it's not as easy to get to the weaknesses as you would like, because they do things to try to make it difficult for you to expose them in areas they are maybe not as strong. Whether that is schematically or personnel, both are components there," he continued. "It's the same thing with a strength. If you keep doing the same thing all the time it makes it easier for them to stop it. If you can, find a way to use your strengths without them really knowing exactly what you're doing with some disguise or distraction to it.
"Fundamentally, that's what you try to do. To be sound, to play to you're strengths and attack your opponent's weaknesses," Belichick concluded. "That is a much longer, detailed conversation. But at the heart if it, that's where it starts for us every week. What do we need to stop, what can we do, and build it from there."
Belichick is busy rounding his 5-4 Patriots into form, so he won't be writing any books about his football career anytime soon. But hopefully sometime shortly after he retires, we'll be treated to The Art Of Football from New England's Hall of Fame coach.
Tune in to Sunday's Patriots-Browns game on WBZ-TV -- the flagship station of the New England Patriots. Coverage begins at 11:30am with Patriots GameDay, kickoff is set for 1pm, and after the game switch to Patriots 5th Quarter for full reaction and analysis!