Former NFL coach Bill Belichick is second in all-time victories, and he holds a record six Super Bowl wins as head of the New England Patriots. He discusses with "CBS Mornings" co-host Tony Dokoupil his father's advice about a coaching career; his take on the talents of quarterback Tom Brady; and his new book, "The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football."
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00:00After winning more Super Bowls than any coach in NFL history, Bill Belichick is both documenting his stellar football career and launching its newest chapter. He's talking with Tony DeCoppel.
00:15Coach, thank you for doing this.
00:17You're probably thinking the same thing I was when I sat down with Bill Belichick.
00:23What's going on with this sweatshirt?
00:24Well, you can see I've worn this one for a while.
00:27Do you remember how you got the cut here?
00:29No.
00:30Tattered, and yes, often sleeveless, Belichick's signature look is part of his singular focus.
00:38As he writes in a new book, he's motivated not by style or fame, but by the obvious.
00:45The Patriots in the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history.
00:49So why, before the career is over, would you write a book called The Art of Winning? You're still out there practicing the art.
00:56Well, I never had really had a good chance to do that before.
00:59So I tried to capture some of the ups and downs and the preparation and the dealing with star players and the big moments.
01:06You wanted to give back to football, you're right, some of what football has given to you.
01:10Yeah, absolutely.
01:11It's given him a whole lot over a 50-year career.
01:14And the Patriots are Super Bowl champions!
01:18Second all-time in NFL victories.
01:21The New England Patriots have won the Super Bowl for the third time in four years.
01:28Including a record six Super Bowl titles as head coach of the New England Patriots.
01:34What does that feel like in the shower of confetti?
01:37It feels like a lifetime achievement.
01:39It feels like you've worked your whole life to get to that point.
01:43And honestly, when you win one, you try to savor the moment.
01:46Because in the back of your mind, you're kind of thinking, I don't know if I'll ever be here again.
01:51But on this recent trip back to his old high school in Annapolis, Maryland.
01:56A lot of good memories here and remember some of the things that you learned.
01:59Of course, you thought you knew it all then.
02:01The now 73-year-old former NFL coach wasn't interested in gloating about his many achievements.
02:08Where did this title come from?
02:10The publisher, a couple other advisors on the book.
02:13That was really their choice.
02:14My choice would have been how I did my job or lessons from my life in football.
02:19The result is not a tell-all, but what you might call a tell-some.
02:25You write about not cheerleading on the sideline, but also you're against the inspirational locker room speech at halftime.
02:32Coach, have you not seen the movies?
02:35I've seen them.
02:36Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm not against them.
02:38I would just say I've seen very few that were really worthy of, you know, a strong mention or change the direction of the team or the game.
02:48There have been very few.
02:49Most of it really is strategic.
02:50What are they doing?
02:51What do we need to adjust to that?
02:53That's really what football is.
02:54Identifying a problem, figuring a solution, and then executing that, you know, that plan to make it work.
03:00Football is everything for Belichick.
03:03His father, Steve, a beloved assistant at Navy for more than three decades, made sure of that.
03:10I was an only child.
03:11You know, I followed my dad around.
03:13If he had been a fireman, I'd probably have been a fireman.
03:16He was a football coach, and so I hung around him and I did whatever he did.
03:20But what did you love about that?
03:21Because plenty of sons run in the other direction.
03:24Yeah, well, I think a big part of it was the respect and adoration that they had for him.
03:33It seemed very rewarding.
03:35When young Billy went looking for a coaching job of his own, though, Dad had some advice.
03:41You're never going to make any money coaching.
03:43You need to go to business school.
03:45You need to get a job.
03:46He discouraged you.
03:48He was being real.
03:49But the National Football League soon realized there was something special about this coach's kid.
03:55And by the year 2000, Patriots owner Robert Kraft hired Belichick to turn the team into a dynasty,
04:04which he did, finding perhaps the best quarterback of all time with the 199th pick of the 2000 draft.
04:14What did you see in Tom Brady that everybody else missed?
04:18Because he wasn't the fastest.
04:19He wasn't the strongest.
04:20He didn't blow you away with his athleticism.
04:22Well, two things, really.
04:23He was accurate, and he was a very good decision maker.
04:26He got better every single day.
04:28As he got better, you got better.
04:30Did you build off of each other?
04:32Absolutely, yeah.
04:33One area where they are clearly different is with the media.
04:37Brady seems at ease in the spotlight.
04:40People have a lot of questions.
04:42Belichick does not.
04:43You heard what Robert just said.
04:44It's already been addressed.
04:46Maybe you ought to go back and look at your notes.
04:47Well, I understand they have a tough job.
04:49On the other side of that, as a coach, you know, you have a job to do, too.
04:53There's times where I could have been more accommodating.
04:55I admit that.
04:56You just got to turn the page and move forward as much as they want to dig deeper and deeper into the grave
05:01and see what more is down there.
05:03At some point, you just got to, you know, look ahead and move on.
05:06It's also been a momentous year for Belichick.
05:09He was named head coach of the University of North Carolina, the result of a messy split from Robert Kraft and the Patriots in early 2024.
05:20He's got a cold, so I'm not going to kiss him.
05:23I have to ask about Robert Kraft because 24 years together, six Super Bowls.
05:29Unless I'm wrong, he's not in this book.
05:32How come?
05:33He's not.
05:34Well, again, it's about my life lessons in football, and it's really more about the ones that I experienced directly.
05:40He's not even in the acknowledgment section.
05:43Correct.
05:45Do you feel like you were treated with dignity and respect when you were let go by Robert Kraft?
05:56Yeah, well, it was a mutual decision for us to part ways.
06:01He said fired.
06:04It was a mutual decision.
06:06The other change for Belichick is 24-year-old Jordan Hudson, his creative muse, as he writes in his book.
06:17Jordan was a constant presence during our interview.
06:20You have Jordan right over there.
06:23Everybody in the world seems to be following this relationship.
06:26They've got an opinion about your private life.
06:28It's got nothing to do with them, but they're invested in it.
06:31How do you deal with that?
06:33I've never been too worried about what everybody else thinks.
06:36Just try to do what I feel like is best for me and what's right.
06:39How did you guys meet?
06:41Not talking about this.
06:42No?
06:43No.
06:44It's a topic neither one of them is comfortable commenting on, though Hudson has recently posted about it on Instagram.
06:52You joined InstaFace, as you put it. I love that.
06:55There's some great pictures of you in Jordan where you're a fisherman and she's a mermaid.
06:59It's charming. It's a different side of you.
07:02What's the reaction been like?
07:05What's it been like?
07:06To have these different sort of photos.
07:08There's another one where you're doing, I know you're not into meditation or yoga or Pilates.
07:13You're balancing Jordan on your feet and she's doing kind of the Titanic pose.
07:19Yeah, so I'm on some of those social media platforms, but I honestly don't follow him.
07:29What he does follow isn't clicks or views, but touchdowns and above all, wins.
07:37You do seem like you're having a lot more fun these days than you were in other chapters of your life, let's say.
07:42I enjoy football. I enjoy the whole process of it.
07:45It's hard to win and it's hard to beat other good coaches, good teams.
07:50I appreciate the grind. I appreciate the competition, but coaching is fun.
07:55And honestly, I feel like I haven't worked a day in my life.
07:57a lot of times.
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