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Coach Who Gave Bill Belichick His First NFL Coaching Job Dies at 90

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Longtime NFL, college and high school football coach Rick Forzano died Thursday at the age of 90.

Forzano coached at all levels from 1951 to 1976, but he is best known for his tenure as head coach of the Detroit Lions, when he gave Bill Belichick his first coaching position in the NFL.

Forzano and Belichick’s father, Steve, were colleagues and worked together on Navy’s football staff from 1959 to 1963 and again from 1969 to 1972.

The Belichicks even had Forzano live with them briefly in 1959 when Bill was 7 years old. Forzano even had the young Belichick help him break down film.

Years later, when Forzano was with the Lions, he hired Belichick in 1976 as the team’s assistant special teams coach. That came after he spent one year as a special assistant with the Baltimore Colts.

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The two men would spend just a couple of months together as Forzano resigned early in that 1976 season. But Belichick stayed with the Lions and would be promoted to wide receivers and tight ends coach the following year.

The Lions released a statement on Forzano’s death courtesy of team owner and chairman Martha Firestone Ford.

“Rick was a wonderful man and we are truly saddened by the news of his passing,” Ford said. “On behalf of me, my family and the Lions organization, I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to the entire Forzano family. Our thoughts are with his wife Betty, daughters Stacey and Kristie and his son, Rick Jr.”

Belichick has always been extremely grateful to Forzano for giving him his first coaching job in the NFL, as he told NFL Films in 2017.

“Rick gave me a great opportunity here, because when I was with the Colts I didn’t have a position to coach, I didn’t really have a group of players that I was responsible for,” the New England Patriots coach said.

“When I came here, Rick gave me the opportunity with the tight ends,” he said. “The opportunity to coach a position, that’s a big step for any coach, and that was an opportunity that Rick gave me that I probably wasn’t ready for, but I certainly appreciated the opportunity for it.”



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Forzano praised Belichick for getting NFL players to buy into him despite being older than he was at the time (24).

“He’s coaching guys that, he’s younger than they are,” Forzano said in 2017 about Belichick. “But they just accepted him.”

Outside of the Lions and Navy, Forzano was the head coach for Connecticut from 1964 to 1965. He also spent time as the offensive backfields coach for the Cincinnati Bengals and St. Louis Cardinals during the 1960s.

Forzano was one of the few people to coach at the NFL, NCAA and high school levels. Overall, his head coaching record was 42-74-2.

After retiring from coaching in 1976, Forzano was a color commentator for ABC and NBC. He also started Rick Forzano Associates in Detroit, which serves as a manufacturer’s sales representative for the automotive industry.

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Ross Kelly has been a sportswriter since 2009.
Ross Kelly has been a sportswriter since 2009 and previously worked for ESPN, CBS and STATS Inc. A native of Louisiana, Ross now resides in Houston.
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