NEW ORLEANS (Feb. 1, 2002) -- Following is the transcript of an exclusive interview with New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick for SuperBowl.com Live:
Is putting together a game plan against perhaps the most explosive offense that anyone has ever seen in the Super Bowl the greatest challenge of your coaching career??
Belichick: It's a big challenge. Through my career, I've faced a lot of great coaches, a lot of great players, and great offensive systems. But certainly you've got to put the Rams right up there with them. Mike Martz does a tremendous job. They've got great players, they have a good system, and they really execute well. They are efficient and precise in their execution. It's going to take a real good team effort to stop them. There's not any one guy or one thing you can load up on. They have too many weapons.
Can you scheme against them or do they have too much talent to do so successfully?
Belichick: I think you've got to try to take certain things away. And that's the key to any defense, to be able to stop some things and know that you're going to force them to hopefully go where they don't want to go.
How tough was the decision was it to go back to Tom Brady at quarterback and not stick with Drew Bledsoe? You seemed to take your time thinking about it.
Belichick: It didn't take a lot of time. It just took Tom going out on the practice field and showing us that he was going to be able to quarterback and manage the game at the level we expected him to do it at. He's done it all year and we wanted to make sure that's what it was going to be on Sunday, and we're confident that's where he's at.
You've coached the Super Bowl three times as an assistant. Now, as a head coach, what's the biggest difference?
Belichick: One of the biggest differences is just being involved in some of the logistics and the planning with the players, the coaches, the families. Moving stuff down here, getting set up. Practice. Scheduling. Those kinds of things. When you're an assistant coach, that's not really where your focus is. It's on coaching the area of the team you're responsible for. So those are the things that have all been different.
