PITTSBURGH – He stood on the podium in the center of a hushed Heinz Field and pulled a blue sweatshirt over his head that read CHAMPIONS. Only two years ago, he walked out on the Jets and away from the shadow of Bill Parcells and they called him Belichicken.
They are calling him Belichamp today, and they are calling the Patriots, 24-17 winners, Belichamps.
He isn’t Little Bill anymore.
He is Super Bill.
Bill Belichick is going to the Super Bowl.
As h.c. of the n.e.p.
And it is merely ironic that in his most dire moment of need, after Tom Brady had been knocked out by Lee Flowers in the second quarter with a lower leg injury, that it was Parcells’ quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, who helped save the Patriots’ day.
Because this day, this moment at the top of the AFC mountain, belonged to Belichick.
He built this. He chopped off the dead wood, brought in ex-Jet players and ex-Jet and Giant coaches, gave them impeccable game plans every week, steered them through tragedy and adversity and controversy and, most importantly, got them to believe.
If you didn’t think this was his finest hour, you should have seen the joy on his face as he carried his 10-year-old son Brian off the field.
In the coaches room adjacent to the jubilant visiting locker room, I asked Belichick what that meant to him.
“It was a proud moment,” he said. “As a coach, your family puts up with a lot of not being home for dinners and missed vacations and all that kind of thing, so it’s nice if you can share a special moment with them, especially in a game like this.”
Belichick was asked how he got this team to believe. “They just believe in themselves,” he said.
I reminded him of the Belichicken headline in The Post.
“I could understand how people had their different point of view on the whole situation. I did what I had to do. I felt like it was the right thing to do, I really do. I know it didn’t come out that way in the end after everything was said and done, but I wouldn’t do it any differently.”
Are you out of the giant shadow of Parcells?
“I never really worried about that,” Belichick said.
Brian Belichick, seated on a bench, was asked if his dad was a good coach. “He’s an awesome coach,” the boy said.
The awesome coach turned the new Kordell Stewart back into the old Kordell Stewart (24-42, 255 yards, 3 INTs). Bledsoe (10-21, 102 yards) came in cold and threw an 11-yard TD pass to David Patten to make it 14-3 and played error-free the rest of the way. Special teams scored two touchdowns – a 55-yard punt return by the magnificent Troy Brown (8-121 receiving) and another when Brown scooped up a blocked punt by Brandon Mitchell and lateralled to Antwan Harris for the 49-yard score that made it 21-3. The defense would not let Jerome Bettis (9-8) run and spied Stewart, daring him to beat them with his arm. “We made Bettis run east and west instead of north and south,” Roman Phifer said. And Stewart (two interceptions in the last three minutes) was wild high in the clutch.
On the podium, Kraft was talking about Belichick when he said, “I think I got a steal for a first-round pick.” A few minutes later, a teary-eyed Bledsoe embraced his father Mac and handed him the game ball and they began walking off Heinz Field together. “Son,” Mac Bledsoe said, “I think that’s your proudest moment.” And what did Drew say to him? “We have a phrase in our family, ‘Bledsoes against the world,’ ” the father said. “He said, ‘That one was for us, dad.’ “
Charlie Weis, the ex-Jet offensive coordinator, was asked about escaping The Parcells shadow. “Let me tell you something,” he said. “This isn’t about getting out of the shadow of Bill Parcells. He’s one of the great coaches in the history of the game, OK? But I feel happy for Bill Belichick because of the scrutiny he came under after he had left Cleveland . . . and obviously he showed that he was definitely worth the money, worth the picks, that New England paid for him to come here.”
A look at how Pats’ two leading men performed in 24-17 win vs. Steelers yesterday:
COMP./ATT./COMP. %/YDS/TD/INT
Bledsoe/10 21 47.6% 102 1 0
Brady12 8 66.7 115 00
