Former Patriots star tells incredible Bill Belichick story

Former New England Patriots head coach turned media personality Bill Belichick is widely regarded as one of the brightest football minds in the history of the NFL. But according to his former player Devin McCourty, Belichick’s excellence as a head coach goes far further than just the X’s and O’s.

Belichick has already received praise for his football knowledge from Eli Manning , who he joins on the weekly ManningCast alternate stream of Monday Night Football.

But according to McCourty, Belichick’s knowledge of factors outside of football, including the wind patterns at Gillette Stadium, played a factor in his coaching success.

During a Tuesday appearance on This Is Football hosted by Kevin Clark, McCourty was asked to offer one thing that Belichick taught him about football that viewers “wouldn’t think about in a million years”.

McCourty responded by telling a story of Belichick teaching him during his rookie year about the wind patterns at Gillette Stadium making it so passes didn’t travel as far in certain parts of the field, which directly led to a Patriots’ interception just a day later.

“There are so many. But I think this is one of the most unique stories. This is my rookie year. We’re playing the Jets on a Monday night so we’re doing a nighttime walkthrough Sunday night before the game.

“He grabs all the corners and he grabs me, and says ‘Hey, when we’re running down this sideline, the way the wind pattern is in our stadium going towards the open end, the wind whirls like this. So the ball is going to look like it’s going further than it is. But it’s gonna hit that wind and it’s just gonna drop. So when you are running on this side, make sure you turn around and get your head back.’

“I remember sitting there like ‘Really, dude? The wind pattern?’ And sure enough, I get a go-ball on that side against Braylon Edwards. I turn and then I look back at him and then I remember what Bill said. I turn my head back and the ball drops right in my lap, get an interception. After that, there was nothing that guy could tell me where I would be like ‘Nope.’ I believed in everything, I was drinking the Kool-Aid after that.”

With nearly three decades of head coaching experience in the NFL, it’s perhaps not all that much of a surprise to hear that Belichick has learned some tricks like this throughout his career.

With that kind of attention to detail, it sure seems like the eight-time Super Bowl champion will be successful in whatever he chooses to do in the future. Whether that’s staying in an analyst role or potentially returning to coaching for the 2025-26 NFL season.

[ Kevin Clark on X ]

The post Devin McCourty explains how Bill Belichick’s knowledge of wind patterns factored into coaching excellence appeared first on Awful Announcing .