FOXBORO -- Bill Belichick was in mid-season form at Wednesday's press conference, but before things got going in earnest he took some time to discuss one of his favorite topics: football history.
Belichick will serve as an analyst during the league's six-part series unveiling the game's top-100 players and top-10 coaches in league history as part of the league's centennial celebration this year. NFL Media's Rich Eisen will host the program and NBC's Cris Collinsworth will serve as a co-analyst. NFL Films, with whom Belichick has worked many times before, is heading things up.
Eisen detailed Belichick's involvement in the project during The Rich Eisen Show on Monday, saying that there were times when it was difficult to move the show along because the often-terse head coach was so engrossed in the discussion.
Belichick is of course ideally suited for his role in helping to select and presenting these lists. He coached those who will be included. He coached against those who will be included. His career in New England is into its 20th season, but his NFL career stretches over more than four decades. And even prior to his start in pro football, he had an up-close look at the Navy program where his father coached, and one of the league's all-time greats — Roger Staubach — played.
Belichick's understanding of who helped make the league what it was in the 1970s, 80s, 90s and over his team's reign since 2001 — not to mention his enthusiasm for studying the game's past prior to his involvement — will allow Belichick to wax poetic about anyone honored. That he was chosen to take part in the process, though, was an honor for him, he said Wednesday.
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"I'd just say it was a great honor for me to be a part of the selection process and be a part of the show," Belichick said of the program, which was taped in May. "There are obviously thousands of great NFL players and coaches, legends, involved in the game. Many of whom I've watched or observed or studied throughout my entire life. So, it was a tremendous process.
"Very difficult in terms of the selection, but it was, again, a great honor to be a part of it and to go down and be at NFL Films and see that operation was extremely impressive. They do a great job of preserving the history of the game."
Belichick has taken part in NFL Films projects that have featured his championship teams and players, like Willie McGinest and Rodney Harrison. He was featured back in 2009 when NFL Films cameras tracked his every move for a behind-the-scenes look at that season in Foxboro. As gatekeepers of sorts for the game's history, Belichick clearly has the utmost respect for NFL Films and the people who work there.
"It's extremely well run, professional," he said. "They have great resources and I think they've done a tremendous job in their presentation of the game. Kenny Rodgers, the Sabol family, the entire NFL Films group.
"Just being on set with Cris and Rich was a great honor, a great thrill, and many of the other legends that were there with us, so that was something I've never been a part of and was very insightful and certainly gave me a greater appreciation for this great game and what the National Football League has accomplished and the individuals that have written the stories over the last 100 years. It was a great experience for me."
It was surely a personal thrill as well, as there's no doubt he'll find his way into the program as arguably the greatest coach in league history. Not that he's dwelling on it.
"Moving back to the present here," Belichick said to transition from the top-100 project to the start of his latest training camp. "We'll get underway today and, like I said, take it one day at a time and see how it goes."
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