Bill Belichick is a tough guy. But there is a soft side to the New England Patriots coaching legend, as Seth Wickersham reveals in his new book.

Munich – The great riddle Bill Belichick: How soft is the core of the New England Patriots coaching legend?

The hard shell, the gnarled sides of the 69-year-old are well known, the challenging school for players, with which he has made the Patriots the most successful team of the past 20 years, also.

But it seems there is also a side to Belichick that cares for his coaching staff in a special way.

“Green Balls” from the coach

As ESPN journalist Seth Wickersham writes in his new book about the New England Patriots (“It’s Better To Be Feared”), Belichick paid colleagues out of his own pocket. He gave them bonuses for special performances – “green balls”, as it is apparently called at the Patriots.

“Belichick rewarded coaches who earned little out of his own pocket,” Wickersham writes. “During the season, he handed out so-called ‘green balls,’ bundles of money that could be thousands of dollars thick. After the season, he’d write a personal cheque – sometimes as much as six figures – to employees who had performed above average.”

The downside: the days in Foxboro are not infrequently very long. Yet Belichick leads by example, being in the office at 4:30 in the morning and sometimes not going home until midnight. In between, he gathers the coaches and goes into minute analysis with them. Wickersham describes the atmosphere as “calm, lifeless and focused”.

Or, as the Patriots’ infamous mantra also goes, “Do Your Job!”

“Green balls” or not, despite the hard work, Belichick is also notorious for often underpaying coaches, according to Wickersham. So apparently there were nicknames for coaches: “PHDs” for “poor, hungry, and driven” and “20/20s,” young coaches who work 20 hours a day for $20,000 a year.

Springboard and loyalty

The good: Working for the Patriots has often proven to be a stepping stone to higher coaching jobs with other teams. And, Wickersham says: Belichick is loyal, he has rarely fired coaches. Wickersham reveals that “once you’ve been in, you’ve usually been in”.

And could hope for “green balls” after all.