Bill Belichick Sits Down With Man Who Gave Him First Coaching Job
BOSTON (CBS) – Bill Belichick isn't always gruff.
A new NFL Films feature shows the softer side of the Patriots head coach.
In the feature, Belichick sits down with Rick Forzano, the man who gave him his first coaching job in the NFL.
Forzano was the head coach of the Detroit Lions from 1974-76, and knew the Belichick family from his time coaching at the Naval Academy.
In 1976, Forzano hired the 23-year-old "Billy" Belichick for a $10,000 salary that Belichick admits was much more enticing than the $25 per week gig he had the previous season as a special assistant with the Colts.
Seventeen years earlier in 1959, Forzano had gone to Navy as an assistant coach and lived with the Belichick family while he got settled.
When the now-Patriots head coach was just 10 years old, Forzano put Belichick in the film room and had him break down footage.
Belichick also credits much of his coaching success to the time he spent around his father, Forzano and the rest of the Navy coaching staff.
"I got to hear a lot of those conversations, and that's where I learned a lot," Belichick says in the NFL Films feature.