Christine Brennan

USA TODAY Sports

HOUSTON — Bill Belichick and I barely know one another. I’ve covered Super Bowls his teams have been in and asked him a question or two over the years, but that’s about it.

Except that for more than three decades, we have been pen pals.

Belichick started it. In the mid-1980s, I wrote a story for The Washington Post about Belichick’s father, Steve, a longtime assistant coach at the Naval Academy. For the story, I interviewed Bill, who was then a New York Giants assistant coach, and when we hung up, I thought that was the end of it.

But a couple of weeks later, a letter arrived in my mailbox at the Post. It was handwritten, and it was from Bill Belichick, and it was lovely. Over several paragraphs, he thanked me profusely for the story I wrote about his dad.

It was so nice, I sent him a note back, thanking him for thanking me.

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Move ahead to the early-1990s. Belichick was in the midst of an unspectacular run as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, where he benched, then cut, popular local boy-turned-star quarterback Bernie Kosar.

I had a bit of history with Kosar myself. I covered him for The Miami Herald during the University of Miami’s magical run to the national championship in 1983. We were getting along fine for most of that season until Kosar got angry about a story I wrote and said he wouldn’t be speaking with me anymore. There’s nothing particularly new about a player getting mad at a journalist. I figured this would go on for a few games, perhaps even the rest of the season.

It lasted a little longer than that: 21 years, to be exact.

Word got around the NFL that I wasn’t Bernie’s favorite journalist, so another letter arrived at The Post.

It was from Belichick.

“Don’t worry,” he wrote. “Bernie doesn’t like me either.”

On Wednesday afternoon, I caught up with Belichick after his afternoon press conference at the Super Bowl to talk about the letters he sent to me. I described both of them, which I have saved in a box. He smiled when I mentioned they were handwritten.

“I don’t do much typing,” he said.

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But he winced when I mentioned that I wanted to write about the note he sent to me about Kosar.

“Please put Bernie in a positive light,” Belichick said. “Obviously it was a difficult situation we went through. It was hard for all of us but we’ve matured and grown past it. I have nothing but positive things to say about Bernie and I’m so glad we have returned to the great relationship we had in ‘91 and ‘92. I have all the respect in the world for him.”

I do too. In 2004, I ran into Kosar at a charity event in Washington. Instead of walking away from me, as he had in the past, he stopped.

“I have to apologize," he said. "I’ve acted like a jerk for all these years. I should have told you this sooner, but I was just too immature. I’m really sorry for the way I treated you.”

I immediately accepted his apology and we spent the next 30 minutes catching up on the past two decades.

I told Belichick about this, that all was well with Kosar for me too, which pleased him. I then thanked him for those two memorable letters early on in my career.

He smiled.

“You’ll get another one."

Follow columnist Christine Brennan on Twitter @cbrennansports.