Bill Belichick Picks Bengals Founder Paul Brown as Top Coach He'd Want to Work With

A famous running back gave Belichick insight into Brown's coaching process.

Author:
Russ Heltman
Publish date:
Jun 26, 2023 11:50 AM EDT

In this story:

CINCINNATI — New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is the greatest coach in NFL history with few comparable peers, but there's one he wanted to work for above all others: Bengals founder Paul Brown.

Belichick discussed his affinity for the pioneering coach/owner with The 33rd Team.

"Paul Brown at the top of the list," Belichick said. "I was able to spend some time around Coach Brown, both at Cleveland when I was really young, and then at Cincinnati, you know, when I was a teenager, and we went to their summer camps and stuff, but I would've loved to have done that."

The winningest Super Bowl coach in league history got those early experiences around Brown, but always yearned for more.

"Coach Brown also was so innovated in so many other ways," Belichick continued. "Whether it was the play calling, whether it was plays like the screen and draw plays that evidently, he kind of stumbled into, but that was kind of the creative way that he worked was to see things and figure out how it would disrupt the defense. I know Coach (Tom) Landry was like that too. But yeah, I think that Coach Brown was just disciplined you know, fundamentals.

"And really where I learned a lot about Paul Brown was (Hall of Fame running back) Jim Brown. And when I'd talk with Jim, we'd have a lot of conversations, you know, Jim would refer to Paul Brown. Very frequently this is the way Paul did it, or Paul did it a little bit different or, you know, here's why Paul did it this way. Here's why Paul did it that way. And it really gave me a lot of insight from a player's perspective, you know, into the way that Paul coached the team."

Brown was one of the most innovative coaches to ever enter the sport, introducing practices like grading individuals on game film and calling in plays from the sideline using substituted players.

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