It’s not really a secret that coaches in the NFL often get their positions based on who they are related to instead of what they know, but it’s not often that someone speaks so openly about the obvious nepotism as longtime New England Patriots safety Devin McCourty did this week.
During an appearance on Chris Long’s Green Light podcast, Devin McCourty revealed that in 2016, Bill Belichick made his son Steve Belichick the team’s safeties coach even though he admits he had no idea what he was doing.
“The one thing that I’ve loved about Steve is his honesty,” McCourty said according to Zack Cox of NESN.com. “I remember Steve takes over [after] Pat Graham left, [Brian Flores] is moving to linebackers coach, and Steve said Bill tells him two weeks before the offseason program starts that he’s going to be the safeties coach.
Pretty wild Steve Belichick story from Devin McCourty on @greenlight. Said Bill Belichick told Steve just before spring workouts in '15 that he'd be coaching safeties.
"(Steve) walks in and goes, 'Yo I'm going to be honest with y'all. I don't know what the F I'm doing right now" pic.twitter.com/nq8DeGQzXO
— Zack Cox (@zm_cox) March 22, 2023
“Now he’s walking in the room, it’s me, Pat Chung, Duron Harmon, Nate Ebner. We’ve got all these veterans — I’m older than Steve, Pat’s older than Steve, he played with Duron [at Rutgers] and he’s probably the same age as Nate — and he walks in and goes, ‘Yo, I’m going to be honest with y’all. I don’t know what the eff I’m doing right now. My dad told me two weeks ago that I was even going to have this job.’ And now I’m just sitting here like, ‘I don’t know, what’s next?’ And that first year, we all just worked together.
“So now when I look at him, I think his growth has come because of the honesty, not coming in saying, ‘My dad is Bill Belichick. I was born to coach. I’m going to do this.’ No, he came in and was like, I’m going to learn from some veterans that l’ve got in this room, take advantage of that opportunity that I get, and I’m going to grow as a coach.”
McCourty obviously didn’t intend for this to be a negative story, but the NFL world was certainly not happy about it.
Nothing like a nepotism story to get you all warm and fuzzy.
— Aaron Quinn (@AaronQuinn716) March 23, 2023
a heartwarming story of nepotism that is a prime example of the coaching disparity in the league 🥰 https://t.co/gEhlpA3hei
— Michael Realman (@trichesfaucons) March 23, 2023
https://twitter.com/RayTheGrouch/status/1638673170550108165?s=20
The NFL desperately needs a nepotism rule. https://t.co/SJISBk9oab
— Wolfe Tone Loc (@Chigurh_Crash) March 23, 2023
Change Steve Belichick to Matt Patricia and we might know how Patricia became offensive coordinator. That would also explain the results. 😄 https://t.co/uA5T8Tb98B
— NE Arena (@NE_Arena) March 23, 2023
Nepotism is a huge problem in NFL coaching circles. If Steve Belichick wasn't Bill's son would he ever in a million years get an NFL coaching job for a position he knew nothing about? https://t.co/VECOj1YY8Z
— Tony Sommer (@Tony_Sommer) March 23, 2023
It’s clear that nepotism is a serious problem in the NFL and the league needs to do something about it.
[Zack Cox]
