Belichick’s Brain – A Personality Analysis
As I write this post, Bill Belichick is preparing for his 12th Super Bowl. He’s been called the greatest coach in the history of American Football. His success is unprecedented in the modern era.
This obviously wasn’t achieved in isolation. As with any team or business, there are many people involved. In the case of the New England Patriots, it’s a perfect storm of a great owner, coach and quarterback who form a whole that’s greater than the sum of it’s parts.
The mastermind behind the operation though is Bill Belichick. In my opinion, he is the most irreplaceable person in the organization.
He’s created the structure that makes everything work. He’s created a culture and a system that doesn’t depend on individuals. Its a model of consistency and logic. If it was written as an algorithm, the code would be glorious.
So what is it about how his mind works that sets him apart from other coaches?
Belichick’s Personality Type
For this post I’m going to assume you have a very minimal understanding of personality type, but even if you’ve never heard of Myers-Briggs it should still be readable and interesting. I’ve done my best to keep the esoteric jargon to a minimum and to explain and provide links for reference. If you click on one of the text links it will open in another window so you won’t lose your spot on the page.
OK, let’s dive in.
To start with, Belichick’s personality type is not commonly found in football. In fact, people of his type (ISTJ) rarely become famous in any field. The stereotypical ISTJ is the loyal family person and the dutiful worker who does what needs to be done, often without much glory.
Part of the reason why ISTJs’ often fit this stereotype has to do with how they processes sensory input.
About half of all people have a direct relationship with their senses. This is the portion of us who like to drive fast and listen to Van Halen at full blast.
The other half of us process sensory input by cataloging it. This segment layers sensory experiences in their memory and looks for consistency and reliability.
Which category do you think Belichick falls into?
Which category do you think most football players fall into?
As you probably guessed, Bill Belichick falls into the latter category. An orientation to consistency and tradition is a defining characteristic of Sensor-Judgers (aka – “Citizens” – These are people with an S and a J in their Myers-Briggs type – ex ISFJ).
Sensor-Judgers use their memory and experience to understand context and structure. This is something that Coach Belichick does extraordinarily well.
As for my second question: as you may have guessed, almost all players fall in the first category. Bodily intelligence and quick reaction time are the wheelhouse of Sensor-Perceiver types (aka “Catalysts” – all types with an S and a P in their 4 letter Myers-Briggs type code).
Sensor-Perceivers are ready for action. They tend to be physically faster and stronger than their Sensor-Judger counterparts. They’re built for the moment, and in professional sports, there’s no substitute for that.
Why Other’s Can’t Emulate Him
Since the sport attracts a disproportionate percentage of Sensor-Perceivers, it’s not surprising that a high percentage of NFL head coaches are Sensor-Perceivers. Many successful coaches fall into this category, however, none of them are equipped to coach in the same style as Belichick.
This goes a long way towards explaining why his protégés haven’t experienced the kind of success one might expect. They’ve learned from someone they’re not equipped to emulate.
The types best equipped (ISTJ and ESTJ – ex. Tom Coughlin) to follow his model are difficult to find in the NFL.
One of the differences between Belichick’s personality and that of most other coaches is a natural inclination towards long-term thinking. Unlike Sensor-Perceiver coaches such as Rex Ryan and Pete Carroll, Belichick isn’t tempted to ride waves of sensation and emotion. He sticks to a well thought out, carefully considered, long-term plan.
Of course for someone who’s mental process is based on memory and experience, it helps that he was born into a football family. His father, Steve Belichick, was a coach for the United States Navy team and began teaching him at an early age. This gave him a head start in creating the extraordinarily deep catalog of references he relies on.
His Second Superpower
There’s one more element of his personality I want to point out that plays a very important role in his success. It’s the way that he applies logic.
As is the case with all types who have a ‘T‘ and a ‘J‘ in their 4 letter type code, Belichick uses results-oriented thinking to evaluate information. Other types may be more inclined to base their decisions on emotions or accuracy logic. Not Belichick. His mind is always on the desired outcome and what it will take to achieve it.
He has a long, rich memory and a well developed, unflinching, effectiveness-oriented logical process. This is the combination that explains how Belichick’s mind fundamentally works and why he’s so damn good.
His memory is his primary superpower. You can see this come out from time to time in press conferences.
His default press conference mode is unwelcoming to put it mildly. In his mind, nothing he says is going to help his team win and he’s standing in front of a bunch of people who are trying to get him to say more than he thinks he should. But… if you ask him about a player he coached decades ago or anything to do with the history of the game then he changes his tune. He goes into a flow state. He can’t help himself. This is a clear sign that he’s entering his wheelhouse.
His effectiveness thinking is his auxiliary superpower. He always aims to do, as he often says, “what’s best for the team.” This is no joke. He means it. It doesn’t matter how anyone feels about it. He’s going to do what he believes is in the best interest of the team, long-term.
Another product of this logical process is that his brain constantly scans for weaknesses in structural integrity. He’s likely to notice these weaknesses in his team before others do and he’ll often be quick to notice and exploit them in other teams as well.
Signs of True Genius
When you see him doing things like taking a safety by intentionally snapping the ball through the uprights, or calling strange plays with ineligible receivers or having a quarterback execute the first drop-kick in 65 years, it might appear like he’s using a creative process to call plays, similar to how Elon Musk would approach engineering problems.
He’s not though.
He’s using a very fundamental approach. He knows the rules, he knows the history and he knows the probabilities. He doesn’t start by thinking in an unorthodox manner. His memory and experience are so deep that he arrives at these unusual places the long way.
And that, to me, is remarkable.
