The New York Times-20080129-Connections That Go Far Beyond Wins

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Connections That Go Far Beyond Wins

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If Bill Belichick can be judged by the company he keeps, then his relationships with Jim Brown, the legendary football player, and Bill Russell, the epitome of winning, provide an intriguing insight into a man few outsiders know.

The tie that binds them is an initiative that Brown began two decades ago when he founded his Amer-I-can Foundation, which works with gangs and youth throughout the United States to end violence by boosting self esteem, providing jobs and promoting self-worth and personal responsibility.

Belichick was an early and enthusiastic Amer-I-can supporter. It's fitting that as New England goes for its fourth Super Bowl championship, Jim Brown will be in Arizona celebrating the 20th anniversary of his foundation and starting a related Peacemakers initiative that Belichick and Russell have also joined along with the former heavyweight champion George Foreman.

He's been unbelievable, Brown said recently of Belichick, who is one Sunday win away from becoming perhaps the greatest pro football coach of all time. He's thorough, so when he buys into you, he knows your character. If you look at this team he has now --they're calling it the greatest team of all time and all that. If you're going to build an all-star team, how many of the Patriots would be on your first team? I guarantee you it wouldn't be more than two or three. The bottom line is that he knows how to use personnel. He buys into the person.

Brown was a consultant to Belichick long before he became known as a football genius, when Belichick was the Cleveland Browns' head coach and they shared the sadness and uncertainty of upheaval.

The Browns finished 5-11 in 1995, Belichick's last season. That Nov. 6, the Browns' owner, Art Modell, announced he was moving the team to Baltimore after the season. What was so funny is that when Modell took the team away, Bill didn't even know it and I didn't know it, Brown recalled. We were standing on the sidelines -- he was bewildered, I was bewildered. Bill said, 'Well, I wonder what he's going to do with me?' I told Bill, 'I don't think we're going to be dealing with him much more; I think this is a whole new move.' And it was.

Belichick was dismissed as head coach in February 1996.

The enduring connection between Brown and Belichick has been Belichick's commitment to Amer-I-can. Belichick became a supporter, making donations and meeting with gang members.

He has been face to face with my gangsters in L.A. and in Cleveland, Brown said. Belichick is the only person that you would know who has been in my home with these guys. He has been in the hotel room in Cleveland with them; not only that, he's been to the graduation; not only that, he got us our first contract in Rhode Island. And not only that, when he fined his players one year, he gave all the fine money to the foundation.

Belichick didn't give a speech or a pep talk. He was there to lend his support and credibility and allow the gang members to meet him, Brown said. What happens is that when someone like that comes into my living room and sits down with them, it makes them feel that they have support. They read about this guy and all that, they never expect him to come and sit down with us and be a regular guy.

Russell joined Brown's Peacemakers initiative, a program to combat violence aimed at middle school and high school students, but his relationship with Belichick began after the 2001 season when New England won its first Super Bowl. Belichick wanted Russell to talk to the Patriots about the keys to achieving and sustaining success.

Russell led the Boston Celtics to eight consecutive N.B.A. championships and played on 11 title-winning teams. While at the University of San Francisco, Russell led his team to 55 consecutive victories and back-to-back N.C.A.A. championships.

Belichick invited me to come speak to the Patriots and I did, Russell recalled last week. What Russell said surprised the team and Belichick. He spoke about compassion.

Shortly after that talk, Russell attended a Red Sox game in Boston and met Tedy Bruschi, the Patriots' veteran linebacker.

Russell recalled Bruschi's comments virtually word for word: He said, 'The one thing you said that you emphasized and I took it as part of my way of life is that you told the New England Patriots, who had just won a Super Bowl, to be kind to each other.' He said, 'You don't know what impact that had: You're telling this world champion football team -- as violent as this sport is -- to be kind to each other.'

Russell and Belichick share the single-minded, one-game-at-a-time approach to winning. We won 55 straight games, Russell said. We never concerned ourselves -- at least I never concerned myself -- about any game but the next one and the game we're playing tonight.

If you were to go over to Coach Belichick or all his key players, they really are not concerned with going undefeated; they're concerned about winning the championship. What you have to guard against when you're in a situation like this is letting outside forces determine what your agenda is.

That's the quality Belichick shares with Brown and Russell: a steel-encased refusal to be defined. That perhaps is the root of the prickly relationship each man has had with the news media.

I asked Brown how Belichick had changed from his vulnerable days in Cleveland to his current guru stature with New England?

He could always coach, Brown said, laughing as he gave his answer. The thing that has changed most about him is that he's a little more amiable to the press. He used to be cold-blooded back then.

Belichick, Russell and Brown.

If the New England head coach can be judged by the company he has kept, he's in fast and like-minded company for the ages.