Just When You Think You've Heard Every Great Belichick Story, Jedd Fisch Comes Up With a Doozy About When He Quit NE to Take the Arizona Job

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If you'd forgotten that U. of Arizona coach Jedd Fisch used to coach quarterbacks in New England, you're in good company. His only time on Bill Belichick's staff was 2020. Which is to Patriots fans the equivalent of the last year of Game of Thrones. Or Community's infamous "Gas Leak Season," S4. Or, since it came right in the wake of Tom Brady leaving, I suppose the perfect comparison is The Office after Michael Scott moved to Colorado to be with Holly. Something best forgotten, aside from whatever lessons may be learned so they're not repeated. 

Besides, Fisch left before he could leave any sort of a lasting impression. On a coaching staff where everyone gets job offers from NFL teams and college programs desperate to recreate Belichick's impossible success, they all become candidates for head jobs eventually. Including Fisch, even though he was barely ever there. When you can't transplant one of Belichick's major organs in hopes it will transform you into a winner, you settle for a lock of his magnificent hair. 

But three years later, Fisch has made his mark. In the form of this incredible story about Belichick's reaction to him saying he'd been offered the Arizona job:

"That's great." Calls the most important former Wildcats he's ever worked with, Tedy Bruschi and Rob Gronkowski, and asks them to help out with the transition and help see to it the new guy is accepted. The very next morning, he begins a full day private clinic on what a guy needs to be a head coach. Just opens the vault and shares every secret. The training room. The weight room. Staffing. Roster management. The whole package.

No animosity. No, "You're screwing me over here." No telling security to hand him a box to clear the shit out of his office and see him out. Just a total laser focus on what the best there's ever been can do to pass along his knowledge and help a brother out. Amazing.

Think about your own experiences when it comes to this? Never mind switching jobs; I think I've had more careers than anyone I've ever known. And I think that every time I've ever given my notice, my boss' reaction was about how this was going to affect them. What they had coming up that they were going to need help with. How long they could get me to stay. To ask why I was leaving and sometimes even suggest I was making a huge mistake. From the 50 cents-over-minimum wage after school job I had to leaving WEEI to come back to Barstool full time. And everyone in between. 

What Fisch's story illustrates is the perfect way to regard your employees. Be happy for their success. Encourage them to move on to better opportunities. Help them to the extent you can. As a result, the people who are still there will clock that and realize that if they work hard, pay attention, learn everything they can, show aptitude, and perform, they'll get their shot eventually too. That's how you motivate your workers. That's how you get the best out of them. And it's how you the boss benefit. 

 I mean, unless you're Eric Mangini.

New York Daily News Archive. Getty Images.

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Fredo can fuck all the way off. Now and forever. But with everyone else, Belichick is the best boss a worker could ever have.