NFL coaches often about how much they respect the coach they’re facing in the upcoming game. But Texans coach Bill O’Brien has proven with his paycheck how much he respects Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
As O’Brien prepares to face New England this week, he detailed how he took a job working for Belichick in 2007. At the time, he was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Duke, and all Belichick was offering him was a quality-control job for significantly less money than Duke was paying him. As a coach with a wife and two young kids, that wasn’t an easy decision, and one his wife had a hard time understanding.
“We had Jack and Michael had just been born,” O’Brien said. “For that college coaching deal there, I was making a decent salary. Didn’t quite make that same salary in New England. She didn’t quite have the divorce papers written up then. That came later for other reasons. My suitcase wasn’t out on the porch, but I don’t think she was real thrilled about the ol’ salary.”
It worked out well for O’Brien. After one year Belichick promoted him to wide receivers coach, after two years to quarterbacks coach and after four years to offensive coordinator. From there he became head coach at Penn State and then of the Texans.
“It was a great opportunity,” O’Brien said. “It wasn’t necessarily that I was saying, ‘I gotta get to the NFL.’ It was more about at that time having a chance in my career to work for a great football coach and a great organization.”
And now O’Brien will coach against that organization.
