Bill Belichick says he wanted to work for Bengals founder Paul Brown

Six-time Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is among those that any assistant coach would dream of working for. When asked by the 33rd team, who he would have loved to work for, the legendary head coach picked Bengals founder and first head coach Paul Brown.

“Put Paul Brown at the top of the list. I would have loved to have done that,” Belichick said.

“I think he really took the West Coast offense, and it was so far ahead of its time with the West Coast principles that Bill Walsh took and turned it into the West Coast offense. But, you know, Coach Brown also was so innovative in so many other ways, whether it was the play-calling, whether it was the cab squad, the screen and draw plays that evidently he kind of stumbled into. But that was kind of the creative way that he worked was to see things and figure out how it would disrupt the defense. I know Coach (Tom) Landry was like that, too.”

Brown served as head coach, general manager, and part owner of the Cleveland Browns from 1946-62 and led the team to pre-Super Bowl era NFL championships in 1950, 1954 and 1955. He coached NFL legend Jim Brown in Cleveland from 1957-62.

He founded the Bengals and served as the team’s head coach from 1968-75, which included leading the franchise into the NFL after the 1970 NFL/AFL merger.

Brown was also known as the sport’s most innovative coaches, as he was the man to begin grading individuals based on film, among many other wrinkles he brought to the coaching landscape.