CHANDLER, Ariz. — The only assistant coach on the New England Patriots’ staff who isn’t allowed to speak to the media is listed broadly as a “coaching assistant.”
Head coach Bill Belichick’s son, Steve, usually is seen at Patriots practice working with special teams or defense. It’s unknown what exactly he does on staff, but he’s well-respected, especially among players he went to school with at Rutgers University.
Steve played lacrosse at Rutgers before spending his final year in college as a backup long snapper on the football team. He’s worked with the Patriots since graduating, and his father is happy to have him with the team.
“You know, it’s great,” Bill Belichick said Thursday at the team’s hotel as it prepares for Super Bowl XLIX. “It’s great. Stephen was pretty much away for six years with prep school and college lacrosse and then a year of football with Rutgers. So it’s great to have him back, see him on a daily basis and be able to work with him, but also have our father-son relationship, kind of, not as part of the working environment, but the fact that we work together gives us a little more opportunity to do kind of things like that. So it’s great. It’s great.”
One of the Patriots captains believes the younger Belichick could follow in his father’s footsteps.
“It’s going to be interesting because of the background he comes from,” defensive tackle Vince Wilfork said Thursday. “He comes from a coaching background and just to sit down and talk to him, look at him and watch film and how he breaks it down, you see a lot of similarities from his father. The dedication that he has, the preparation, being committed to getting the right calls, a good game plan, just the knowledge of the game itself.
“So I think he is going to be a good coach in the future. He has definitely helped us a lot this year. He is definitely going from being in the NFL for two years, you kind of see him getting his own identity. That’s good.”
Thumbnail photo via Elise Amendola/Associated Press
