Kevin Faulk Says It Took Bill Belichick 3 Years To Say Hello To Him In the Hallway
Nola – Kevin Faulk played 13 seasons in the NFL, all with the New England Patriots, under perhaps the most successful coach in NFL history, Bill Belichick. That got Charles Alexander, who played seven years for the Cincinnati Bengals, to thinking.”Bill Belichick seems like a weird guy,” Alexander said to Faulk. “Your thoughts about Bill Belichick? What’s the inside scoop?”
Faulk went off on a tangent on the NFL icon who coached the Patriots to four Super Bowl titles and two other appearances. He also won two Super Bowls as the New York Giants defensive coordinator.
“You’re right about weird,” Faulk said with a laugh. “We all know as a player you want to try and figure your head coach out to make your stay there better. For about 3-4 years it was like, ‘Who is this guy?’ We’re the Louisiana guys, when we walk in the halls we’re going to tell each other good morning. ‘Good morning, how’re you doing?’ Well, you walk in the hallway and say, ‘Good morning, Coach.’ Nothing being said, he walks right by.
“OK, so 2-3 years pass by,” Faulk said. “He’s walking and I’m still saying good morning. ‘Good morning, coach.’
“‘Good morning, Kevin.’ . . . Whoa, stop, stop, stop. ‘Stop, coach.’
“‘What’s going on, Kevin?’
“‘Coach, you realize we’ve been walking in this same hall for however many years and this is the first time you said good morning?’
“‘Ah, my bad, Kevin.’ And he walks away.
“But when it comes to football, man, he’s one of the greatest minds ever. Attention to detail, he has you watching so much film, there is so much muscle memory that you have after you do so much situational work on the field, people would ask, ‘How are y’all so prepared for the situation that comes in the game?’ Well, we did that already. We did that in practice.
“There was more pressure in practice than when we got to the game. It was second nature when we’d come into the game. Sometimes, we would go over a situation in a meeting room, he would create that situation in practice somehow, and that actual situation would happen in a game. It happened a bunch of times.
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“You’d sit back after the game and if you were a student of the game, you paid attention to it, you were like ‘How did he know it? How did it happen that way?’ It’s study of the game. You go back and ask him about football from the 1950 something when he was with his daddy. He lights up. He starts glowing, telling you every little detail about that moment, that play. It’s amazing to know how much football he has in that mind.”
“I remember when I was leaving to move back home, I went to him to ask what he thought about me becoming a coach,” Faulk said. “He told me, ‘You’ve been a coach already over here, coaching up the younger guys, and you didn’t even know it. You were preparing yourself for that as long as you’re been here.’
“He pays attention to every little detail. He knows who you are as a person before you even step on the field. When they are recruiting a guy they know about that person first, before they bring him in.”
I think Bill Belichick is my favorite Boston sports figure of all time. More than Brady. More than Papi. More than Bird. More than Nomar. I just love the guy more with every story I hear about him. I think he’s my #1. Just fucking love him. Everytime I think I can’t love a guy more I hear a story like this. He is truly a beautiful mind.