Tony Romo Loves Bill Belichick’s Outside-the-Box Thinking

NFL analyst Tony Romo has lyrical about New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick in a recent interview.

Speaking on 105.3 The Fan, Tony Romo said that he still learns from Belichick whenever he speaks to him. For an ex-pro turned analyst, that is high praise indeed – higher than the standard praise the Pats coach gets. 

What about Bill Belichick impresses Tony Romo so much? Is it his 6 out of 9 Super Bowl victories? His three AP NFL Coach of the Years? His league record 31 postseason victories?

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What Romo loves most is Belichick’s tactical flexibility and adaptability. Belichick isn’t afraid to give teams different problems to deal with. 

“When I am around him I learn,” Romo said.

“That is really a joy when you can really learn something more about football with people around. When you have people who can teach you the game after you have been studying it for 15-20 years, that is a joy. I have honestly learned every time I am around him. He’s really, really special.”

“Bill Belichick, he’s not going to go into a game feeling like we don’t have answers, and when I say that, everyone says he’s going to take away what you do best, they think he’s going to double team the opponent’s best player,” Romo said. “I’m like, ‘No, you have to understand, he’s taking away the inside run while he’s taking away the inside receivers — Antonio Brown or someone.’ It’s like, they know he’s going to take away Antonio Brown, but he takes away multiple things and he does it differently the next time he plays you from different looks.”

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“He genuinely is not scared to go outside the box. And I find in the NFL very few teams vary from what they do. So what he does then is he drafts people that he believes can adapt from week-to-week.

“What he did in the Super Bowl was really one of the great — him and Brian Flores — one of the greatest defensive performances I have ever seen in football,” Romo said. “And really in the AFC title game. He went to Kansas City and in that first half, Kansas City couldn’t do anything. These two offenses, you saw what happened when these two teams played (each other). These two are great offensive units with very good systems, but what he did was really, really impressive.”