The Super Bowl is upon us, and John Canzano of the Oregonian wonderfully cut through the Deflategate clutter with a nice story of his unlikely and brief relationship with Bill Belichick. If you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to do so. It's not what you're expecting.
In getting to know the man behind the hoodie, Canzano spoke with Pat Hill, who you probably know as Fresno State's head coach for a decade and a half. Before that time, though, Hill coached the offensive line and tight ends for the Cleveland Browns under Belichick. How he got that job is a teaching moment in an of itself.
From the article...
Belichick liked Fina's fundamentals so much he hired his coach on the spot.
After Cleveland, Hill spent a year with the Baltimore Ravens before getting the Fresno State job, where he went 112-80 with 11 bowl trips. Does Hill get the Fresno State job without that encounter? Who knows. But we know for a fact he wouldn't have broken into the NFL without the teaching job he did at Arizona.
Coaches love to remind players to always be on their best because they never know who's watching, that every moment, every encounter is a job interview, to always be ready because they'll never know when their time will come. In fact, we wrote about this at the AFCA graduate assistant forum earlier this month.
But this anecdote goes to show that piece of wisdom is equally true for coaches. Always be at your best, because you never know when a future three-time (and counting) Super Bowl champion head coach is waiting with a job offer.