The New England Patriots have a new safeties coach with a familiar last name.

While human cloning may not have been perfected just yet, the Patriots have a very Bill Belichick-sounding assistant coach filling the role on the staff. That is because it is Belichick’s son, Steve Belichick. He already sounds exactly like his dad too.

Getting a chance to meet the media for the first time on Tuesday, the younger Belichick answered a number of questions the way you would expect his Super Bowl-winning father has time and time again.

The Boston Globe outlined some of the exchanges with Steve Belichick. I dare you to read these and tell me he is not a chip off the old block;

“Did you have to apply for a job with your dad?” he was asked.

“Those types of decisions that happen in here, we’ll leave that to us,” he said.

“Do you like to wear hoodies?”

“A good piece of clothing,” he said. “Everyone should have a hooded sweatshirt in their closet.”

“Do you envision yourself becoming a head coach one day?”

“I just hope to be here by the end of the day,” he said.

And no one has to remind Steve Belichick to have a team-first attitude. It’s ingrained.

“I’ve just always liked to be on a team,” he said. “The camaraderie of being on a team, having to put your personal success on the back burner for the betterment of the team, all to get to one goal.”

Need more proof Steve is just like his old man? He showed up for this media availability wearing a sweatshirt. Of course he did.

The younger Belichick was destined to join his dad’s staff sooner or later though.He was a ballboy for the Patriots when he was 13-years-old. He played football at Rutgers with his father’s friend Greg Schiano (now a defensive coordinator at Ohio State). He was hired by the Patriots to be a defensive assistant in 2013 and has put in many hours learning how things operate under his father’s leadership. Now he is taking the next step in that progression. Maybe having his dad be the head coach has its perks, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

“He certainly has a lot of advantages that a lot of young coaches don’t have,” Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said. “He’s just a great young coach, and I think that’s the way we all look at it — a guy that’s trying to work his way up the coaching ranks. We always have that mentality around here, that we’re trying to develop our own, and certainly he’s doing a great job of that.”

And who knows. If Bill needs to skip out on something, Steve can always fill in and deliver the same message in that signature Belichick style.

[FTW, Boston Globe]

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.