What Bill Belichick and Steve Jobs Have in Common

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Football season is rapidly approaching, and my love affair with the New England Patriots is reigniting. It's also abundantly clear that I have an affinity for Apple (AAPL) and the late Steve Jobs. So when I came across Patriots head coach Bill Belichick talking about technology, I had to dive for the first down.

What do Belichick and the former CEO of Apple have in common? Aside from adoration of fans, vast wealth and legendary status, more than you think.

As training camp wears on, Belichick was asked about a new technology, known as the "digital coach-to-quarterback system." Belichick, 60, showed his "love" for technology.

"Like most other things in technology, when it works, it's great," Belichick said.

He then went on to to say that he and technology are running plays from a different playbook most of the time: "I'm really pretty bad at that, when it comes to technology, I'm probably the worst. The on-off switches, that's challenging for me, or when you have the three remotes -- one to turn it on, another to change the whatever, another for something else...just to get the right remote to get it on. I'm not the person to ask."

What's this have to do with Jobs?

When talking about the oft-rumored Apple television, Jobs talked about how to make technology simpler. "It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine," Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson. "I finally cracked it."

The problem with televisions is the endless amount of remotes you need. One for the cable box, one for the tv, one for the sound system. Perhaps Jobs had comments like Belichick's in mind when he thought of his simple user interface.

Now it's up to Apple to "do its job" by "thinking different."

Interested in more on Apple? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock.

Follow TheStreet Tech on your wireless devices.

--Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York

>Contact by Email.

Follow @Commodity_Bull