It can’t be easy following in the family footsteps when your father is the most successful coach in the NFL’s Super Bowl era.
Steve Belichick admits as much as he gains more responsibility with the New England Patriots as a member of the defensive coaching staff under his father, six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Belichick.
��It’s hard living in the shadow, but I just try to be myself,” Steve Belichick told Patriots Wire. “I can’t control what you think. I can’t control what anybody else thinks or whose shadow I’m living in or why I got this job. I just try and go about my business. It’s hard to ignore sometimes.
“I think I’m just doing myself a disservice if I start thinking about that stuff. I just try and do my thing. I know that that’s going to be coming. It’s going to be coming my whole life. I can’t really run from it.”
The Pats still haven’t named a defensive coordinator since current Rutgers coach Greg Schiano abruptly resigned in March 2019 without coaching a game, barely one month after he’d been hired.
The 33-year-old Steve Belichick, a former lacrosse player and long-snapper at Rutgers, has been a member of New England’s coaching staff since 2012 and officially was listed as the Pats’ secondary/safety coach last season. His father has declined to answer whether Steve will be promoted to a coordinator position after helping the defense allow the fewest points and yards in the NFL in 2019.
“There are many father/son coaching combinations in the NFL and any challenges are far outweighed by the rewards of working together on a daily basis,” Bill Belichick told Patriots Wire in an email. “I am so proud of Steve as a coach and as a man. He has a lifetime of knowledge about football and the NFL and has used his experiences to teach the lessons he has learned. Steve has been a tremendous help to me in evaluating and making decisions for our team.”
Steve Belichick’s younger brother Brian also is listed as a coaching assistant for the Patriots. Giants head coach Joe Judge worked closely with Steve Belichick as the Patriots’ former special teams coordinator.
“I think it’s tougher for Steve in a lot of ways, because he’s always got to prove that he’s earned it,” Judge said in the report. “Over time, if you can’t demonstrate that you belong in that building, you’re the sore thumb sticking out. And he’s showed time and time again that he’s prepared, he’s very good with the players, he’s got the great, global view of the game and he does a good job schematically.
“You have to demonstrate value in front of everyone all the time. That’s the thing about that building — and our profession in general — there’s no hiding.”