Bill Belichick: Why Patriots Head Coach Is Worth Every Penny

Forbes magazine released its annual report on the highest-paid coaches in North American sports, and fittingly NFL head coaches dominate the list—after all, despite the lockout, the sport is the most profitable of all the Big Four.

Therefore it should be little surprise that the man with more Super Bowl titles than any of his contemporaries, Bill Belichick, is atop the chart.

Now Belichick is far from perfect, even if you look beyond Spygate and squandering the 19-0 dream season in 2007. He's not exactly a great schmoozer with the press and has made some questionable in-game decisions over the last few years (remember going for it on 4th-and-2 against the Colts a few years back?). More to the point, he hasn't won a Super Bowl in six years and lost his last two playoff appearances.

But Belichick deserves to be the highest-paid coach in sports and for reasons beyond simple wins and losses.

Since 2001, Belichick's Patriots have only missed the playoffs twice and posted winning records each of those 10 years. That kind of prolonged excellence automatically puts him in the conversation.

Still, it's his role as de facto general manager that has him so invaluable.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the coach/GM was trendy (Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren, Bill Parcells, etc.), but somewhere along the line, owners decided that two pairs of eyes was better than one and having a system of checks and balances between coach and GM was a better plan of action.

While Scott Pioli deserves some of the credit for building the great Pats teams of the last decade, Belichick is in charge right now...how much so in years past is unclear, but you can bet that he rarely lost any player personnel arguments.

Regardless, since 2009, when Pioli left for Kansas City, the Patriots have made master stroke after master stroke rearranging their roster.

We all know about the hoarding of draft picks and how well that's worked out. In addition to sending Richard Seymour to Oakland for a first-rounder, they unloaded an unproductive, unhappy Randy Moss (essentially) for Ryan Mallett. The deal with the Saints on day one of the 2011 draft was brilliant as well: In 2012, they will again have two first-rounders and two second-rounders.

But with Belichick at the helm, they've also made countless excellent decisions when they actually spent rather than traded draft picks: Devin McCourty had an outstanding rookie season, as did their pair of later-round tight ends, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.

When it comes to finding key spare parts, Belichick's eye for talent has also been better than any in the game. Somehow he turned Alge Crumpler, a premier pass-catching tight end in Atlanta, into a wonderful blocker. Belichick's staff pulled Danny Woodhead off the street from the Jets and turned him into a versatile scatback. Oh, and then there's BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who became something of a feature back overnight.

Certainly Belichick has been blessed with an owner who gives him free reign and wants nothing more than to win. As well, whether or not Belichick made Tom Brady or Tom Brady made Belichick is a debate that is as unsolvable as "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

But great head coaches are as much great decision-makers and planners as anything. Time and time again, Belichick has made inspired personnel decisions, be it via trade, draft selection or free agent.

Belichick's former boss Bill Parcells once famously said, "If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries."

To carry out that analogy a bit further, Belichick has cooked up one of the greatest feasts in NFL history.