NEW ORLEANS (Feb. 3, 2002) -- One didn't have to wait for the kickoff of Super Bowl XXXVI to learn just how successful Bill Belichick was at turning 53 players into a single, unified force.

It was, in fact, apparent at the first glimpse the Louisiana Superdome throng and the worldwide audience had of New England as the Patriots strode onto the field before the national anthem. Something was missing.

	Bill Belichick was all smiles on Super Sunday.

That something was the pregame introductions. The St. Louis Rams held true to professional decorum, unveiling the starters on their offense one by one. The Patriots, on the other hand, bypassed the normal way of doing things, declining the traditional introductions that cater to individualism and in years past have often entailed posturing, preening and gyration.

For the Patriots, it was simple -- jump together in the inflatable tunnel that stretched onto the field, bouncing enough to shake the city's shaky, sub-sea-level foundation, then run on the field as one. Pro Bowlers and bench-warmers, stars and scout-squad pluggers -- each group was indistinguishable from the other as the team ran onto the field.

"The players wanted to do it that way; they wanted to come out as a team," Belichick said. "We've been doing it since October."

Belichick may have passed off the credit. But the fact that his team thought of this college-style method, this one-for-all, all-for-one mentality, underscores the success he had during the 2001 season.

He didn't have to resort to any speeches exhorting his players to work together and sacrifice for the greater good of the unit at large. He and his coaches had long ago taught these Patriots about the value of functioning as a team. That, more than any other reason, is why the Patriots claimed their first league championship at the close of their 42nd season of existence with a 20-17 victory over the Rams.

"That's the reason we won," Belichick said. "Because we played the game as a team."

It was in that type of environment where a starter-turned-backup can still be a leader. After all, it was deposed starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe who helped lead the Patriots through their pregame calisthenics.

That team-first mentality also created an environment where the MVP award would be won by a quarterback who only threw for 145 yards, who began the season known far more for his college exploits than anything he'd done in the NFL.

On the surface, Tom Brady's evening was one of the most unspectacular MVP efforts in Super Bowl history. However, it was also emblematic of the team's performance as a whole, one that allowed an otherwise unheralded group to become the third consecutive team to rise from a .500 or worse finish to the world championship.

The only negative? That it took so many so long to realize what kind of special and perfect recipe Belichick had cooked up amid the forest-covered hills of Southeastern Massachusetts. After all, it wasn't until December that the Patriots finally gained control of their own division.

Yet the unassuming Belichick couldn't possibly have cared less. Never one to look beyond the next game, he admitted that when Brady took the reins as starter after the Patriots' 0-2 start, the idea of playing in the Super Bowl this year, with this team, hadn't even crossed his mind.

"We weren't thinking Super Bowl," Belichick said. "We were thinking, 'Let's win a game.' "

They won the next week against the Indianapolis Colts and promptly did so 13 more times. All along, Belichick maintained an even keel, focusing less on the fact that there was a new starter at the offense's keynote position and more on molding a smoothly functioning machine.

His ability to lock in on that task saw its genesis in the single-mindedness he developed as a young assistant with the Baltimore Colts a quarter-century ago, when he learned how to concentrate on the matters of the moment, and not on any grandiose goals.

"At that point, the only thing I was worried about was breaking down film," he said with a smile that was part post-Super Bowl glee, and part fond recollection. "Trying to do my little job and stay out of the way."

It served him well. When others might have panicked at having to turn to a man who'd never started a professional game at quarterback, he focused on the moment at hand, because he knew the focus of a head coach's job -- to turn individuals into a team.

And because Belichick did that successfully, he's now the head coach of a world champion team.