The Patriots don’t have an official defensive coordinator. They haven’t since Matt Patricia left to take the Lions’ head coaching job. Brian Flores took over that role in 2018, only to be hired away by the Dolphins last winter.
Stephen Belichick really is his father’s son, right down to the hobo good looks
Sounds just like him, too.
Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
That’s left three men in charge of the team’s defense. One is former New England linebacker Jerod Mayo, who has been instrumental in rebuilding a smothering unit from his role as, fittingly, inside linebackers coach. The other two are head coach Bill Belichick and this younger clone of Bill Belichick.
Monotone voice when cornered by reporters? Check. Vague non-answers to softball questions? Check. Straight-up leaving when he hears a question he doesn’t want to answer? Check. A personal brand that says “I don’t give a shit about anything but football, including haircuts?” Super check.
Yep, that’s a Belichick all right.
Stephen Belichick, the man who may have watched game tape instead of cartoons like a child living in Roald Dahl’s post-Super Bowl XXV fever dream, has been on the Patriots’ sideline since 2012. He’s been the team’s safeties coach since 2016. He’s one of the brains behind the league’s top-ranked scoring defense, so he’s clearly well-suited for the job.
His haircut, by the way, is the result of donating his blonde locks to a worthy cause:
He’s still got a ways to go before he’s head coach material, but if his dad retires in the future (instead of coaching through the heat death of the universe, as the prophecy foretold), Robert Kraft can keep his team’s rich tradition of occasionally informative, often combative, and typically boring press conferences alive by promoting the younger Belichick to his dad’s old job.
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