It couldn't be more fitting that Bill Belichick met the man who has long been described as his “consigliere” while working for the New York Jets. Belichick, then the Jets defensive coordinator, met Berj Najarian, who was in the Jets PR department at that time, and made an immediate connection. Belichick took Najarian with him to New England, where they remained tethered for over two decades, not too dissimilar to Don Corleone and Tom Hagen.
Now, with Bill Belichick taking at least one year off from coaching after failing to be hired for any of the openings around the NFL this offseason, Najarian looks poised to join the staff of Bill O'Brien, a longtime assistant to Belichick in New England, at Boston College, according to a tweet from Pete Thamel of ESPN.
(To continue with the comparisons to The Godfather, this would make Bill O'Brien either Michael Corleone or Santino “Sonny” Corleone. We'll have to wait and see if O'Brien ends up legitimizing the Boston College football program, or if he gets gunned down at a toll booth before we determine which of Vito Corleone's sons make for the better comparison.)
The expectation is Najarian will become the chief of staff for Boston College's football program under new O'Brien. Perhaps the job description won't be too different than what Najarian was expected to do the the director of football/head coach administration. So, what is it exactly that Najarian did for Belichick?
“Najarian handles the logistics of Belichick's workday,” Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote in 2019. “He decides who sits where on the team plane. He selects the music for practice. He doles out speaking gigs to assistant coaches if the Patriots are approached by corporations. He combs through all media coverage of the Patriots (an overwhelming tonnage of digital, ink, and radio/TV noise) and decides what Bill needs to see and hear. He seeks out reporters who he believes have been unfair to his boss or the Patriot Way.”
Or, in Belichick's own words: “He does a lot. There’s football, non-football. Scheduling. Just a lot of things I need to be aware of and logistical things that need to be taken care of. Some things we talk about and some things he just knows what he needs to do. Berj gets along with people great. He has great relationships with almost everybody. I think everybody likes him and he’s good to work with. He’s smart. He’s very dedicated and team-oriented and unselfish. He’ll do what’s best for the team and he’ll work with anybody and is able to be productive with them.”
The change from life in the NFL to life in the NIL/Transfer Portal era of college football will likely present many challenges for Berj Najarian, but any good consigliere is able to adapt to whatever situation presents itself. I'm not necessarily confident in the coaching abilities of Bill O'Brien, so I can't say I necessarily foresee a great deal of success coming the way of the Boston College football program. But from everything we've heard about his new right-hand man, the operation will be run as smoothly as possible.
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