San Francisco wide receivers coach Wes Welker spent six seasons playing for Bill Belichick in New England. The two didn’t always see eye to eye, and now that Welker is coaching, he thinks about how his own approach is different than Belichick’s.
Asked on WEEI if leaving New England was a relief because Belichick could be so hard on players, Welker allowed that there was some truth to that, as it can be hard to have fun with a coach who’s so demanding.
“Maybe a little bit,” he said. “I was still upset about it. I did want to be there, but there was part of me — I just like enjoying the game. I like having fun, all those things.”
Welker said that having fun is important to him, as a player and as a coach.
“I feel like you’re playing your best ball when you’re having fun and enjoying [yourself],” Welker said. “I think there were some times where I didn’t really feel that. . . . Coach Belichick is hard on guys and tries to get the most out of him that he can.”
Although Welker isn’t claiming to speak for Tom Brady, his comments do speak to the widespread impression that Brady was ready to play for a coach other than Belichick.
“The way he goes about it is there are no superstars,” Welker said of Belichick. “Everybody has their role on that team. Everybody is going to get called out. There’s no preferential treatment and a lot of time calls out the star players a lot of time just to set the tone with the whole team. Like, ‘OK, he’s talking to Tom like that, well obviously he can talk to me like that.’ Tom has such a great way about him of being able to take it even though it makes him mad and everything like that. He takes it and he keeps on going to work and improving and improving on his craft and everything else. Everybody else just has to fall in line.”
No one can argue with Belichick’s success, but Welker is among the players who didn’t always agree with Belichick’s methods.