Todd Porter: How Belichick vaulted to greatness
Back when Bill Belichick plodded the Browns sidelines and snorted through news conferences, he was doing something that couldn't be seen by the naked eye. Not even by a microscope.
Belichick was developing himself and other top-shelf football coaches, scouts and general managers. Yes, the 1991-95 Cleveland Browns were the equivalent to an NFL test tube laboratory.
How else to explain that Belichick went from coaching the junkyard to the front yard of the Pro Football Hall of Fame - first ballot at that? Belichick and his New England Patriots are pursuing the perfect dream and will catch it with a win over the Giants in Super Bowl XLII.
If New England catches 19-0 and leaves the 1972 Dolphins in perfection's dust, Belichick arguably will be viewed as the greatest coach in NFL history.
Don't laugh.
It will be his fourth Super Bowl in seven years, one fewer title than Vince Lombardi won in seven years. The same as Chuck Noll in six years and Bill Walsh in nine.
This from a guy who went 37-45 as the Browns head coach?
During a recent visit to Stark County, a fan with a blunt question and a matter-of-fact tone asked Browns General Manager Phil Savage this pointed question:
"Why was Bill Belichick a dud in Cleveland and now the greatest coach in the NFL?"
Savage, a low-level assistant coach and later a scout on Belichick's Cleveland staffs, smiled.
"If you go back and read the coaching staffs and the scouts, it was an amazing group as it turned out," Savage said. "At the time, we were all first-timers in the NFL. We didn't know the left hand from the right hand."
They were all here
Nick Saban and Kirk Ferentz were on that staff. Al Groh, Mike Lombardi, Scott Pioli and Eric Mangini watched and learned from mistakes. Ernie Adams, Belichick's right-hand man in New England, was there.
"A lot of us have figured out and learned from those first four or five years we were in the NFL, and we adjusted, made changes and became better at what we did," Savage said. "I think Bill changed some things he was doing once he got to New England."
Some things?
"You learn something every game you coach, every practice, every year," Belichick said. "Certainly the five years in Cleveland taught me a lot about managing a team. I took those experiences and tried to improve them through the years, both how to handle the team more off the field and probably delegate more responsibility than I did in Cleveland."
Adams has been next to Belichick's side since the '70s. Art Modell once offered $10,000 if anyone could tell him what the man did. No one could.
Even today, Patriot players don't know. Adams' title is director of football research. In his book, "The Education of a Coach," author David Halberstam called him Belichick's Belichick.
Adams warned Belichick about Modell before coming to Cleveland based on what Adams read of Modell in Paul Brown's book.
Happenstance, genius and Adams got Belichick to this point - the cusp of greatness.
"The NFL is defined by the coach and his quarterback," Savage said. "As it turned out for them, they had Drew Bledsoe, and he took a shot on the sideline in the rib cage. A sixth-rounder named Tom Brady ran out there, and the rest is history."
Playing his strengths
Belichick is among the greatest coaches in NFL history because he knows what he knows, and it's vast.
"I do think Bill is the best coach in the NFL," Savage said. "I know he's the most technically knowledgeable on offense, on defense and on special teams.
"When he was the head coach here, one of our real weaknesses was our player personnel department. We did a thorough job, but we had some mistakes in there."
Ed King. James Jones. "Touchdown" Tommy Vardell. Patrick Rowe. Bill Johnson. Yes, they had colossal mistakes.
"That's how I ended up in scouting," Savage said. "Bill came to me and said, 'The one thing I was missing before I was a head coach, I had no real scouting experience.' He said it had been hard to make that adjustment and figure out player personnel."
The message to Savage was: You help the Browns more as a scout than as an entry level coach.
"I did it for a year and never looked back," said Savage, considered among the best talent evaluators in the league.
Pioli broke into the league as a scout in Cleveland and now is New England's de facto general manager. Talent is the lifeblood of an NFL franchise. Get the right talent and build a dynasty in a league designed to tear them down. That makes Belichick's run more impressive than those of Lombardi, Walsh and Noll.
This, Savage said, is what the Browns are trying to establish. Savage just rewarded Head Coach Romeo Crennel with a two-year extension, added to the two he already had left.
That'll go a long way toward developing loyalty and trust.
"I know Scott Pioli and Bill are very close," Savage said. "Scott will always watch Bill's back. That's their greatest strength: The coach and the personnel director ... are on the same page. That permeates all the way down in the organization. That is what we're trying to get with Romeo and myself. ... Bill has that now in New England, more than he ever had in Cleveland."
Reach Repository sports writer Todd Porter at (330) 580-8340 or e-mail todd.porter@cantonrep.com