Bill Belichick: 8x Super Bowl Champion on Winning, Leadership, and Discipline

27:55But yeah, you look at all those things after 24 hours, win or lose or draw. You take your lessons and you decide how you're going to incorporate any of those things into this week's preparation and practice, what we're going to do differently or maybe do more of or do less of, whatever it is, and then you're done with that and you move on to your opponent and spend the next five days, six days, whatever it is, of just digging in on that opponent and what they do. Talk to me about the relationship between the best talent in the world and you're playing in the NFL, you're coaching in the NFL, and confidence.

28:35Well, again, it's all relative, Shane. I mean, as good as the players are in the NFL, the guys on the other side of the ball are pretty good too. And, you know, I'd say every team, generally speaking, every team has about, you know, five or six players that are elite, have elite payments, elite contracts. And then you might have some younger players in their first through fourth year, you know, two or three, four, whatever those that are elite players that just haven't hit those top contracts yet. but they don't necessarily match up in the same position. You might have a tackle, I might have a guard, you might have a linebacker, I might have a corner and so forth.

29:19So the way those elite players match up is very specific from game to game and how you want to match them, your matches against theirs, and how you want to deal with that is, you know, that's a big part of it. I think the confidence thing is really interesting. I think what really separates the great players is their ability to do it even when the bullseye's on their back every week, like it was with Tom Brady, like it was with Lawrence Taylor, like it is with Patrick Mahomes, like it is with players like that, Lamar Jackson and so forth. Every week the teams are geared towards stopping those players and game planning against them or putting their best guy on them or however they're going to handle them.

30:03And for those players to continue to be productive in spite of the game plan attention they get is what truly makes those players, you know, great and elite. And I think that, you know, when we had Kobe Bryant come in and talk to our team, I think it was around 2018, 19, somewhere in there. And, you know, Kobe talked a lot about evolving, you know, and he said, you know, look, when I was 22, 23, you know, I could just get the ball and drive by anybody and score. He said, I can't do that anymore. I still score, but I found different ways to score. Moving without the ball, jump shots, and, you know, being better in pick situations and all those kind of things that, you know, he said, I found ways to evolve my game because I just couldn't do the things I used to be able to do as well.

31:01But there are other things I found that I can actually do better. And I thought that was a great message for all of us to hear that as we, you know, as we go through our careers, do the things that are working, do the things that you can do well, but also evolve, continue to learn, continue to, you know, find ways to be productive that are maybe a little out of your comfort zone or are not, you know, habitual for you now. But if you can become good at them, they can be great, you know, great tools for you. Are there any other people that you brought to speak from sort of different sports that sort of had a different message that resonated with you or the team and just stands out in your mind?

31:45Oh, yeah, we had a lot of them. Yeah, we had a lot of them. And it was great because, you know, just the guys, you know, they hear a lot of football stories, but it's good to hear all the ones. One of the ones I thought was particularly entertaining, a couple of them, one was Paul Asiante. They won like 14 national championships in a row. They won like 160-some games in a row, matches in a row. I mean, at the Patriots, we were favored in almost every game. You know, not every game, but most every game for quite a while. And so, you know, I brought Coach Asiante and I said, you know, here's a guy that's won like 13 straight national championships.

32:23They won 160-some matches in a row. I mean, he talked about being favored now. Like, they're favored. And, like, let's listen to what that's really like. And he was great. He talked about it doesn't matter whether you are or aren't or how many you have or haven't won. Every day is an opportunity. You make the most out of each day, and you just get better each day. And you don't worry about what you've done in the past. You look at today's opportunity and make the most out of it. It was great. So one of our players sticks his hand up and says, hey, coach, I have a question. What's squash? I thought it was a vegetable.

33:00Jimmy Johnson, you know, we were going into the playoffs, and Jimmy came up, and he was doing a story on somebody, and I said, hey, would you mind talking to the team? I said, sure. So he said, yeah, let me tell you a little playoff story here. You know, when I was in Dallas, we were getting ready for the playoffs, and we were in a special teams meeting. I'm standing in the back and I see one of our players back there kind of dozing off and not paying attention. And he said he wasn't a starter, but he played in special teams. And he said it just really annoyed me. And so I went over, I flipped on the lights, turned the lights on at the meeting.

33:34And I went over to him. I said, that's it. You fall asleep in this meeting. We don't want you. This is your primary job. You take your playbook and go see the job manager. You're done. You're cut. and everybody like, whoa, you know, that woke everybody up and it was right before the playoffs. So, you know, any questions? Yeah, coach, what would you have done if that had been Troy Aikman? Jimmy said, well, I wouldn't have turned on the lights. I probably would have gone over to him and nudged him and said, hey, Troy, pay attention. And the message was, if you have a lot of pelts on the wall, you might have a little more slack if you don't have a lot of pelts on the wall you don't have any room you don't have any room you can't live on what you've done because you haven't done enough you better know where you are and until if you're Troy Eggman and Tom Brady but he goes those guys would never do that anyway but you might be able to survive that but if you don't have that kind of resume you haven't had that kind of production for this team team so nobody wants that you're replaceable they'll find somebody else who will stay awake in the meetings and who will be more attentive and uh it's pretty funny i'd just nudge them and say hey pay attention did you treat everybody the same i remember one story and maybe it's just uh sort of the press doing the press thing but where you sent uh jarell revis home from practice because he was like two minutes late or something oh we had a few of those yeah we had a few of those and honestly those are tough ones you know Shane because when you send a player home it hurts the team it doesn't just hurt the player it hurts the team because you know you need the timing and the communication and the teamwork out there but I try to treat them all the same but I do think Jimmy Johnson I believe that and Coach Parcells you know same thing yeah that did the same thing.

35:34There were, um, certain players got a little more grace than others based on, um, you know, what they had done for us. And, and they, I would say kind of earned that. So, um, I tried not to do that, but there were times when, you know, when I did, but I tried to treat everybody the same, even though they're not all the same. Um, but you certainly want everybody to feel that, you know, we're all team members and it's not, um, you know, we don't have a, an elite society here. We have different ranks and certain players can do some things and other players couldn't. So I try to make it as consistent as possible, but at the same time, I think you have to be flexible in a professional football environment for some latitude and maybe for some, it's called exceptions to your rules.

36:22You sent one player home from the Super Bowl for having somebody in his hotel room. Was that a hard decision or was that a, how did you make that? Was that team first and you violated the rules? You're out or? You know, I made it very clear before we went down there that, you know, it was a business trip. And, yeah, we had a great year and we were all celebrating the Super Bowl and what we had accomplished to get there. But here are the rules and you don't have to break the rules. Go to the other person's room if you want to be with them. But our floors are secure. and at the Super Bowl in particular, there's a good reason for that, you know, with Super Bowl tickets and guys with valuables and stuff like that.

37:06If it's not one of our players on the floor, I don't know whether that person is a friend of our players or an intruder. There's really no way to know. And no matter, you know, I mean, unless I knew the person for some reason, but you know what I mean? You just don't know who that person is. So our policy was players only on the floor. Period. That's it. And so, you know, it was unfortunate because I wasn't trying to say, hey, you can't have guests or you can't, you know, be with your friends or your companions or anything. That wasn't it. It's just don't do it on that floor. Do it somewhere else.

37:43I don't care. And and again, I was trying to protect the players by not having people on our floor that we didn't know that could roam in and out of rooms or could, you know. And if you don't remove those people, then you end up with potentially somebody leaves their room, then that person walks in, then you have a big mess on your hands. So that was our policy, not just in that game, but everywhere. But unfortunately, because that game was, you know, we were there for five days, I just felt like it was a blatant violation of our rule. I want to come back to confidence for a sec. One of the follow-ups I meant to ask, was there ever a moment where you had your confidence shaken?

38:23and how did you handle that? Oh, plenty of times. I mean, honestly, Shane, there were times when, you know, I wasn't sure if we were going to win another game the entire year, you know, and we ended up winning a lot of them, you know, but sometimes you just see problems and maybe you want to fix them, but you just don't have the resources to fix them where you've tried a couple different things and it still isn't really the way you want it and you can see in the future some real problems coming up with your opponents and some matchups and whatever the case might be. And you're like, I mean, I don't know.

39:06Like, I mean, I'm trying to fix this, but I just don't feel very confident that we actually are going to be able to handle it the way we need to. And ultimately, you know, in most cases, it wasn't maybe as bad as what I thought it might be. I was expecting the worst, and that usually didn't happen, so that's a good thing. But, yeah, I don't know if that's a lack of confidence or I don't know what the exact word is, but, yeah, you definitely have those apprehensions. And certainly opening day is a difficult day because you don't know very much about your team, you don't know very much about your opponent's team.

39:47And unless you have a really veteran team, you don't know exactly how the team is going to react in certain situations, particularly tough and critical competitive situations. So, you know, even though you have a good team, how are they going to react when, you know, you're really in a, in a really a tight ball game. And that's, that's something that you don't know until you've been in a few. Unless you've been in a few with those guys and it's the same guys. When you first started in the NFL, you worked for nothing. You worked part-time for nothing and then you switched to full-time for nothing.

40:25And one of the things that you said was, I did anything and everything. And I think of this as like a taste for saltwater. You do the hard things, but you were snapping the football, but you were like, oh, the benefit was I got to listen to coach talk to the QB. And walk me through like how that's changed today and what people miss when they hyper specialize. Well, I think one thing that I see with some of our younger staff members, coach, and things like that is they're very concerned about their title. You know, can I be the, can I get this title? Can I get that title? And the coaches of, you know, can I be the run game coordinator?

41:01Can I be the blitz coordinator? Can I be the zone coverage coordinator? Can I be the, I mean, it's like, what are those titles for? Like, they don't impress me. I know what your job is. I mean, do you need that title to, you know, validate what you're doing? Or is it for somebody else? And I'm not really interested in helping somebody else. I mean, we all know what we do here. I mean, honestly, I was a general manager for almost 30 years of my NFL career, and I never had a general manager title. That was never important to me. I doesn't care about what the title is. You just, you do the job that you have to do.

41:38so I see that but for me when I look back at it retrospectively Shane the big thing was I was so low on the totem pole that I did all the jobs at the very bottom of the organization I shot film I lined the fields I moved equipment out there I ran off xerox copies I you know made notebooks, I sharpened pencils, I did all those things. And as you move up in the organization, it really helped me because I understood how everything functioned, you know, at the, you know, at the, at the level of, you know, making things work, you know, deliveries and, you know, mail and stuff like that. I mean, all those things that needed to happen.

42:28I understood kind of the process of it, how it worked and what was hard about those jobs and what wasn't hard about those jobs. And, and as I, you know, gained more responsibility in the organization, I was always able to show appreciation for the people that were doing those. Like, Hey, I know this is really hard or Hey, I know this is a tough week. I could sense what you're going through. And I think that built some, you know, camaraderie and trust there, but also it helped me understand how everything worked. And there were multiple times when people will come to me and say, Oh coach, we can't do this.

42:57You know, we can't do this. We can't do that. And I said, wait a minute, I've done that job before. We can do that. Here's how you do it. Here's, this is how you make this work. And so I felt very confident about all the aspects of the organization, how they fit together and, you know, scouting and coaching and, like I said, equipment and video and security and travel and all those things, because I was a part of those in one form or another at different points in my career. So I think, you know, for a lot of people, you know, when I talk about we need to start at the bottom and you really need to understand how the organization works, there's a lot of I want to skip those steps.

43:36There's I want to, you know, I just want to jump up and coach the linebackers or the tight ends or whatever it is. And that's OK, but it would really help you to understand what happens in the entire organization. And if you want to really move up and become a coordinator and a head coach, those will be very valuable for you because you'll understand, you know, the different intersections of various departments and how the organization works and where the conflicts are. You know, and sometimes you just, you know, kind of two people doing the same thing or nobody doing one thing and you miss that intersection somehow.

44:17And that's just part of it. But, you know, how do you avoid those and how do you make that more efficient? So I really try to encourage the younger people, you know, to do those jobs and embrace them. Don't, how quickly can I get done with this so I can go do something else? you know, embrace the job and embrace the process and, you know, understand it because it's going to help you in the long run. And the other thing is, you know, as I mentioned a couple of times in the book with, you know, Josh McDaniels and Nick Casario and Brian Dable, if somebody has one of those jobs and they're really good at it and they say, well, I want to move you, you know, I want to move to more responsibility.

44:57And I said, well, I want you to move to more responsibility too. But first you've got to train somebody to do your job because what you're doing is really valuable. And that's when Brian Dable hired Josh McDaniels to replace him. And that's when Josh McDaniels hired Nick Asario to replace him. And so, but it forced those guys to make sure that the person that was replacing them was not only good, but they trained them to do the things the way they needed to be done. And that really heightened our efficiency, but also enabled them to move up to responsibility, move up in responsibility. And so that really worked out well, I was, you know, I thought that that was, for me, that was a good way to handle it because those guys were very invested in making sure their replacement did a good job because they knew they were going back to do that job if that person, if their replacement failed.

45:48A lot of people, when you ask them to do sort of the unglorious tasks, they just look at you and say, that's not my job. Yeah. Yeah. It's not my job or I'll get to it, you know, tomorrow, or I'll get to it next week or whatever. And those are, you know, I mean, I don't like to have those type of people, you know, around. Sometimes it's inevitable and you have to put something off. I mean, I get that. But the quicker you get it done, the quicker you can move on to something else and be more productive. And, you know, the more you procrastinate it, then, you know, it just slows everything down. So there's got to be a priority system.

46:29I mean, I'm fully aware of that, But, you know, but people that want to put stuff off and kind of hope that it won't need to get done on, they didn't do very well in our organization. One thing you mentioned that stands out to me, I think of this like stepping stones where people have a job, but they see it as a stepping stone to the next job. Right. So they're never fully present in the job that they're doing because they're always looking ahead. And those people don't actually tend to do very well at the next level. Absolutely. And like I said, then they miss some of the things that they really need to understand at the level that they're at.

47:03And again, that's just part of do your job. You know, that's just part of it is, is everybody has an important job to do. And if you're trying to do somebody else's, then you're probably not doing yours well enough. And, you know, be patient and, you know, your, your opportunities will come as long as, you know, you show that you can handle the responsibilities that you currently have. But you're right. A lot of times there's a big rush to move ahead and that a lot of times also brings sloppy work, incomplete work. And honestly, just a feeling that I'm not really confident promoting that person because, you know, they're more interested in what they are going to be doing than what we need to do right now.

47:46How would you define discipline? Discipline is doing the right thing over and over again, doing it every time. It's just continuing to do it every time. In the National Football League, the players are very skilled and talented. And I would say, you know, all of them can do something. They can all go out there and produce, you know, plays at a very high level. The discipline is what really separates the players, is their consistency and their discipline to do it over and over again. so you can count and depend on them, you know, at a very high rate. Are there any stories in your mind that stand out about discipline or consistency involving players you've coached?

48:33Well, I mean, I told the story of Edelman, you know, catching balls before the Super Bowl, tennis balls and stuff like that. I mean, those kind of things that, you know, that players do, they have a routine and, you know, if a guy's played eight, nine, ten, whatever years. If they skip a day in the routine, I mean, is it going to be the end? Probably not, but they're just so disciplined and so consistent to just continue to do it and maybe even do just a little tiny bit more to make sure that they're prepared for the game, especially the big games, that that's just who they are. So, I mean, I really respect that, But, you know, it's a little bit like the shopping cart, you know.

49:20When nobody's looking, are you going to take the shopping cart back and put it in the, you know, where it belongs or just leave it there in the middle of the parking lot? And it's the same thing with a really disciplined player and teammate. Is he going to be disciplined to, you know, go in and get treatment after practice, you know, even though it's two days before Christmas or, you know, whatever it is? where is he just disciplined to not let something get in the way of his productive routine? And that's, you know, the guys that do that, I would say, for the most part, have had very long and productive careers.

50:00And the guys that haven't have careers that go to a certain point with talent, but they don't have the same kind of longevity and consistency of a player like Matt Slater or Devin McCourty or Tom Brady or guys like that, that people keep saying you just keep waiting for those guys to drop off. whether they're a year older, they're a year older, they're a year older, but you don't see the drop-off because their routine and their discipline is so consistent that they're able to sustain that level of performance far longer than really what the expectations in some cases are. Do you believe you can motivate people, and if so, how?

50:42I think you can definitely motivate them, and it depends on the person. I think there are different types of motivation. You know, we could, there were times where I think you could really, you know, motivate a player by just, you know, flat out challenging them based on something that, you know, somebody else said or intimated or something that might have happened in the past. I think you can, you know, motivate people by, you know, especially, you know, sometimes maybe a more selfish type of player. You could motivate by, you know, making him see what the reward is for himself as opposed to the team.

51:21An example I like to use, Shane, is if you have a receiver and you want the receiver to come in and block on a running play and come in and block a safety, which is a hard job. You know, some receivers don't really want to do that. They're really not too excited about that. They want to catch passes. But if you say, well, look, if you come in and block this guy, and we need you to block him as a team, we need you to block him. You come in and block this guy, then the next time we come in and you'll do the same thing but fake it, and we'll be able to throw you a pass when the defense comes up to solve the play.

51:53Well, the player's not coming in to block him because you asked him to block him, and we really need you to block him. Julian Edelman would do that, but not everybody would necessarily do that. but when they understand, okay, if I come in and do it this time, that opens up an opportunity for me the next time, then they might do it, right? And so now I get what I want. He gets what he wants. There's some management and motivation in there, but in the end, both parties are able to accomplish their goals. I get the team goal. The player gets the individual goal. He sacrifices for the team, but for the other reasons.

52:36So, again, I think there are different methods of doing that. It really depends on, you know, how the player is wired and maybe what circumstances, you know, you can use. Certainly when you've lost to a team previously, that's a pretty good motivator for most of these guys because, you know, you take those losses personally. And since we lost as a team, that is everybody. It's not, you know, one guy got a pass caught on them or one guy got tackled. I mean, it's a full team loss, so a lot of times you can generate a lot of energy towards your opponent by referencing that loss or situation that might have happened in a previous encounter.

53:20As a leader, how did you know when to be hard on players and when to sort of back off? And I'm thinking, you know, when a player makes a critical mistake in a game and they know they've made a mistake, What's your role in that moment? Well, again, I think it depends on the mistake. You know, if it's sometimes, you know, something that kind of unexpectedly happens and maybe the player made a bad decision or maybe he did something that, you know, he's caught that pass 100 times and he's dropped it once and this is the one time. You know, some of those are a little easier to handle. I'd say the ones where, you know, you've told the player 10 times, this is what you need to do when this happens.

54:01and then they don't do it, I'd say the reaction is a little bit different in that situation. You know, how many times do you have to be told? And you know what, maybe you just don't want to do it. We'll put somebody else in there to do it. As I can see that, you know, you're not, you know, you just don't care enough to follow your assignment. So, you know, it kind of depends on those. I think one of the biggest things in football is correcting mistakes. And we all make a lot of them. But during the game, when time is of the essence and you don't have much time, you need to figure out what went wrong pretty quickly and fix it.

54:36So let's say defensively we came off the field and we'd given up a 20-yard run and maybe a 15-yard pass and another third down conversion. And you say, okay, all right, what are the issues on these plays? Well, let's say the 15-yard run would be if one person knows that they messed the play up, and just says, hey, it's my fault. I messed it up. Like, that was, we were in good shape. I was right there. I shouldn't have made the tackle. I just missed the tackle. I'll make that play the next time. Well, great. That clears it up for everybody. We all know we're going to do the same thing we did the last time, and this time I know that, you know, my teammate's going to make the tackle versus, you know, kind of a blame game where I was here.

55:20I don't know. I should have been there. Should I do this? And should I do that? And was I too deep and this and that? And then it's, you know, what's the issue? How do we fix it? Right. And so if you know you did something wrong, just own it. All right. Admit it. And, and let's move on. Sometimes it's not that simple. Sometimes you kind of have to figure out, well, I did what I thought I was supposed to do. You do what you were supposed to do. He did what he was supposed to do. We still had a problem. Okay. Now that needs to be fixed. And so, but again, identifying mistakes and fixing them quickly is really the name of the game.

55:54And as a coach, you know, when I would say, look, that play was a bad call. I shouldn't have called that defense against that personnel group or against that formation. That's my fault. It's all me. I'm not going to do that again. Forget about that play. It's not going to come up again because I won't call it again in that situation. OK, well, then. All right. Well, let's stop worrying about that play. Let's worry about something else. So owning up to those mistakes and making the corrections is key. if you don't know what it is exactly, then that's when you have to figure it out pretty quickly, whether those are players or coaches or some combination.

56:32Because if you don't, you're just going to keep dealing with the same issue over and over again, and none of us want that. When I say the words on to Cincinnati, what does that mean to you? On to Cincinnati, well, it first of all means it was a long night in Kansas City. you know we got we got totally beaten in that game out coached outplayed out everything they were just a far superior team than we were and as a head coach you have to look at that and say you know I didn't have our team you know where they should have been and we didn't play well we didn't do anything well and it starts with me um but that game's in the books it's over and there's nothing we can do about it.

57:15We can't get it back. So we just have to move on to Cincinnati and make sure that we don't perform next week like we did last week. You know, don't let one game become two bad games. Don't let it become three bad games. Don't let it become a habit. Change the things that we need to change. So we played Cincinnati the following week, and, you know, our players did a great job of putting the Kansas City game behind us and focusing on what we needed to improve on and do better and get ready for Cincinnati, who was a very good football team as well at that time. And so we were able to do that, and it became one of those catchphrases.

58:02But really the idea of it was move on, and let's start getting ready for next week. kind of similar to the situation we had in 2001 shame where we buried the ball you know we we lost to Miami we we didn't play very well obviously didn't coach very well and we came back and you know we just took the team out there I got a shovel I dug a hole I took the ball you know we put it in the ground put the dirt on the ball we stomped on it we spit on it we kicked it. We, you know, took our frustrations out, but that was the funeral. Game's over. It's done. We lost, buried the ball, buried our feelings, move on.

58:45I'm not saying that was, you know, this great thing, but visually it, it's sort of the point of it was put the game out of your mind. It's over. We've had the funeral. Life goes on. I've heard you say we're building a team, not collecting talent. What's the difference? The difference is it's so it fits together so that the team is functionally as efficient as it can be. Not just a bunch of guys wearing the same uniform with different numbers, but a group of people who function well together, you know, as a team. And when you think about football, Shane, football is a team of teams, right? You have the offense, you have the defense, you have a hands team, you have a punt return team, you have a nickel defense, you have a dime defense, you have a goal line offense, and so forth.

59:37You have all these teams, and they all come together to form one championship team. And so, you know, the idea is whichever team you're on, you need to be the very best team that you can be in that situation. If it's a hands team, if it's a punt return team, whatever it is, like that is critical to our success. And you have your responsibilities on that team. I have my responsibilities on some different teams. But ultimately, we all come together. And those shared responsibilities and those shared teams so that we can operate together functionally as a team are really what we're trying to accomplish.

1:00:16So it's not just getting a bunch of guys who, you know, can do, have good skills and can run fast and jump high or whatever. I mean, that helps, of course, but they have to be able to operate as a team and as a team of teams. And, you know, a lot of that is a mentality, is a willingness to communicate and work with and efficiently cooperate with your teammates so that collectively we can accomplish our goals when our unit's out on the field. So how has coaching changed in the past five years? You know, outside of rules changes and things like that, you know, there are some trends. And, you know, I think as, look, when you're on defense, you have to react to the offense, right?

1:01:01If the offense has three tight ends on the field, you're not going to be playing the same defense that you have when they have three receivers on the field. So defensively, a lot of what you have to deal with, now you can say, look, we're going to play the same thing and make them adjust to us. But, I mean, there are certain matchups that just become, you know, difficult to sustain that philosophy. So, again, what I'd say is it's important to defensively be able to adapt to what the offense is doing because ultimately you don't control who they put on the field. You just have to stop them. And, you know, offensively, you know, you take the talent that you have and try to make the most of it.

1:01:40So I would say in college football, which is where we get our resources from in the NFL, you know, some of that's a function of what's available. You know, what's coming out, what they're teaching in college, what type of players they're developing, because that's really what you have to choose from. So I do think there are some trends, but fundamentally, it really comes down to, you know, having good solid fundamentals and doing the little things right that will enable you to win your one-on-one matchups. And I'd say I don't think those have changed too dramatically over the years. On the way out of the building, you had a sign that read, ignore the noise, manage expectations, speak for yourself, and don't believe the fuel or hype.

1:02:25Can you walk me through those? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, speak for yourself is, you know, pretty obvious. You know, if you have any comments to make, just make them, you know, personally, you know, don't say things like, well, Shane's looking really good this year. I mean, he should probably have 15 sacks the way he's rushing the passer, you know, and start making expectations and predictions for other people, things like that. But ignore the noise. I mean, there's so much airtime that's filled, whether it's on the radio, on the Internet, on TV, of people talking about football. All right.

1:03:04And players and matchups and everything. And again, with all due respect, and look, I've been part of that, too, so I understand. But, you know, with all due respect, the people that talk about it haven't been in our building. They haven't watched us practice. They haven't watched us prepare for the game. They don't know what our matchups are. They don't know what, you know, they don't know what our game plan is. So with all due respect, what they say as it relates to us, it doesn't matter. If other fans want to listen to them, I mean, that's great. But, you know, when they say, well, you know, Shane Parrish has got to shut down Belichick or they're going to lose.

1:03:41That's, you know, it's just hot air. So ignore the noise. is just ignore what other people who aren't really don't know what they're talking about are saying and focus on what the people in our building in this room are saying, what your teammates are saying, how they can, how you can communicate with them, how you can anticipate a play and help them react to it and that kind of thing. You know, don't feel the hype, you know, when things are going good. I mean, people can't wait to, you know, you're 3-0 and they're selling Super Bowl tickets and they're already talking about, you know, repeats and all this stuff.

1:04:19And our thing was don't add into that. If other people say it, we can't control that. Once we say it, now we have to own it, you know. And so Belichick says, you know, we should be in the AFC championship game and we've only played four games. Well, then everybody else has to react to that. Shane, what did you think about what Belichick said? Tom, what do you think about what Belichick said? Gronk, what do you think about? You know, it just creates a distraction. So fueling the hype or believing the hype that four games into the season, we're talking about an AFC championship game is ridiculous.

1:04:58It's just way too premature. So, you know, don't deal with that one. What was the last one? Ignore the noise. Don't fuel the hype. Speak for yourself. Manage expectations. Manage expectations, right. And so, like, what are realistic expectations? This week, it's to beat the team we're playing. Like, our focus is on beating Buffalo this week. That's who we play. That's where we're at. You know, in terms of winning the division, you know, which is eight weeks away from now, don't talk about winning the division. Like, that's not an expectation. We can't achieve that right now, even if we wanted to.

1:05:33It's only the fourth game of the year. Now, if this was the game to win the division, then okay. Let's talk about winning the division. But until we get to that point, you know, Well, manage the expectations. The expectations are to have a good day today, have a good week, and to win this game. Those are our weekly, you know, expectations. You know, not where we're going to be in January, who we're going to play in the playoffs, or, again, managing expectations of, like, oh, this guy should go out and, you know, he should have 2 ,000 yards receiving. Why don't you just worry about what you're going to do and, you know, So stop talking about what other people, what your expectations are for them.

1:06:13That's speaking for yourself, but that's also managing expectations. Or a player saying, well, I expect to go to the Pro Bowl. Well, is that your goal to go to the Pro Bowl or is our goal to win a championship? And let's go back here for a minute. What are our expectations? Let's think about what's first thing first. Put the team first. And that's team, teammates, self. That was the whole progression of trying to put the priorities in order for each of us. I want to end. I usually end with one question about success, but I actually want to change that a little bit here and flip that around. And I want to talk about the Atlanta Super Bowl.

1:06:52You're down 28 to 3. And the thing that astounded me as a fan who's watched a lot of football and a lot of games was that nobody was sort of like hanging their head. But, you know, you look at Brady on the sideline, you're down 25 points, and he still had confidence. Yeah, you know, Shane, it's funny. Sometimes you play a game and you feel like you have control of the game, but you don't have control of the score. And that was that game. I felt like we had pretty good control of the game, but we didn't have control of the score at all. There are other games where you have control of the score and you don't have control of the game.

1:07:31You know, maybe you're ahead by 10 points, but, you know, they fumbled, they threw an interception, you got a lucky break, and you're ahead, but you really haven't been able to move the ball, you really haven't been able to stop them. They've just fumbled it away a couple times, and you kind of maybe got a lucky play to, you know, get your points. And so you feel like you don't have control of the game, but you're ahead on the scoreboard. And what you really want, of course, is to have control of the game and control of the score. But in that game, we had a real confidence at halftime when it was 21-3 that, you know, we'd given up a touchdown on a third and goal from the 12.

1:08:11We gave up a pick six. We fumbled going in. You know, we missed some opportunities to, you know, maybe be tied or could have even been ahead in the game at halftime, 10-7 or maybe 10-10, something like that. And so, yeah, the score was bad, but we felt like we had control of the game. Well, then they go out and score and make it 28-3, and now I'm thinking, you know, we might have control of the game. 25 points is a lot to make up, and there's a lot of things that have to go right. So two two-point conversions and a strip sack and two kickoffs where we tackled them inside the 15-yard line so they couldn't get in the field goal range, and another sack and another holding penalty, and literally everything went right for us in the last 20 minutes of the game.

1:09:02There was no lack of confidence because we actually felt like we had control of the game. We were moving the ball. We were playing good defense. But we just had a couple of bad plays in there that skewed us and skewed the score. But once that kind of settled down, you know, we were okay. And then once we kind of got rolling again, we had some plays that we needed to make, and we made them, you know, on both sides of the ball, and in the kicking game on those kickoffs. So everything had to go right, and it did, and we were very fortunate in that one. I really appreciate you taking the time today, Coach Belichick, and thank you for writing The Art of Winning.

1:09:40I loved reading it. It was a great read. thanks Shane I appreciate it thanks for the opportunity to be on uh it was a pleasure enjoyed speaking with you and um I look forward to catching up down the road you know I just would be remiss if I didn't you know say how much uh you know Michael Lombardi has contributed to to my career and indirectly to this book I mean a lot of the things that that we talk about and I talk about here are things that I share with Mike or that Mike helped me do and um you know it's Great to be able to work with Mike, you know, at North Carolina. But he's a great motivator, very well organized, very efficient, and, you know, is an excellent partner to, you know, to build a program down there.

1:10:22So I really appreciate all of not only Mike's help but his guidance and, you know, the daily coach and the, you know, the motivation that he puts out on a daily basis is something that, you know, we all look forward to and enjoy at Carolina. I'm looking forward to getting down there and watching again. I look forward to having you, Shane. Thanks for listening and learning with us. Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter at fs.blog.com. The Farnham Street website is also where you can get more info on our membership program, which includes access to episode transcripts, my repository, ad-free episodes, and more.

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