Full disclaimer before I get into this one. I’m a lifelong New England Patriots fan and I’m not hiding that in this piece. It’s an emotional day today. Thursday we got an announcement that while it was long anticipated and rumored, still felt surreal to see it finally announced and in writing. The New England Patriots and Head Coach Bill Belichick mutually agreed to part ways after an unbelievable 24 year partnership nobody could have envisioned. Belichick will depart Foxboro leaving behind a legacy of greatness and the greatest dynasty the NFL has ever seen; these accomplishments include Six Super Bowl Championships, Nine Super Bowl appearances, 17 division titles, 31 playoff wins and 266 Regular season wins. Despite leaving Foxboro, it is widely anticipated Belichick will be patrolling the sidelines for another NFL team next year, and rest assured there’s a lot of NFL coaches and executives sweating right now and praying Belichick doesn’t end up in their division.
The making of a dynasty
Belichick arrived in Foxboro on January 27, 2000 as the head coach. Belichick’s tenure in New England started under Wild circumstances, 23 days beforehand, Belichick was introduced as head coach of the New York Jets but after Bill Parcells resignation as head coach of the Patriots, Patriots owner Robert Kraft made a play to pursue his former defensive coordinator Belichick to take the reigns from Parcells. Parcells had an arrangement with the team for Belichick to succeed him and Kraft was not going to be denied his guy. The Patriots traded a first round pick to the Jets as compensation after Belichick’s resignation and the rest was history. After a 5-11 first year in New England and an 0-2 start in year two the pressure was on, but everything changed when second year quarterback Tom Brady stepped in to replace the injured Drew Bledsoe. The Patriots would finish the regular season 11-5 and rattle off two playoff wins vs the Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers to make it to the Super Bowl against the St. Louis Rams and “The Greatest Show on Turf.” The Patriots entered the Super Bowl 14 point underdogs vs the Rams and had a QB controversy to deal with as Brady was rolling but the injured Bledsoe was cleared to return, Belichick would roll with Brady and that wouldn’t change for 20 years. The Patriots would go on to defeat the Rams 20-17 and win the first of Belichick’s six rings in New England. The Patriots would then go on to win two more Super Bowl’s in 2003 and 2004 and establish the beginning of a new dynasty.
More winning, records broken and controversy along the way.
From 2005-2013 the Patriots had some great seasons along the way but fell short of a championship during this era of Belichick’s tenure. This included a 2007 season where Brady and Wide Receiver Randy Moss broke almost every individual passing record there was to break and the Patriots shattered offensive records left and right on the way to a perfect 16-0 regular season and steamrolled their way into the Super Bowl against the New York Giants. The Patriots would go on to fall short in the Super Bowl vs the Giants in a 17-14 loss and failed to complete the perfect season in a loss that haunts Patriots fans to this day. One of Belichick’s finest coaching jobs came in the 2008 season when Bernard Pollard who is a dick made a dirty play on Brady and tore Brady’s ACL in the first quarter of week one in the 2008 season. Backup Matt Cassel came in and took his first NFL snaps and the Patriots would go on to an 11-5 season and fall just short of the playoffs. This season demonstrated Belichick’s resilience to be able to lose the best quarterback in the world and still have a fantastic season despite those circumstances. This is also the year spygate first came up which frankly, I’m not even going to give the time of day. I’m not going to disrespect Bill Belichick’s legacy by diving into a bunch of unfounded here-say but more bring it up to give Bill credit for resilience as all this was the story of the league all year he was unphased and did not allow this nonsense to distract his team. The Patriots would suffer some heartbreaking playoff losses during this time period despite great seasons. 2011 a divisional round loss to the Jets as the one seed, 2012 another Super Bowl loss to the Giants and 2013, a resilient team that was talent depleted on offense but fought to the AFC Championship where they would fall to an incredible Denver Broncos team led by Peyton Manning.
The dynasty part 2
The Patriots began the 2014 season 2-2 and after a 41-14 Monday Night Football loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead stadium, many questions were raised about the futures of Brady and Belichick. Many smart people who get paid to say nonsense on TV like Trent Dilfer declared the dynasty dead and said the Patriots weren’t good anymore. Belichick had an iconic press conference after this game where he responded to every question with “we’re on to Cincinnati.” The next week the Patriots would win 43-17 and they would go on to finish the season 12-4 and roll into the playoffs. The Patriots picked up a hard fought win vs the Ravens and a 45-7 beatdown of the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship game to head to the Super Bowl and take on the reigning champion Seattle Seahawks. The Patriots came into this game facing manufactured distractions because the whiny bitch organizations of Baltimore and Indianapolis decided to cry that that they lost and rather than accept defeat gracefully, they accused the Patriots of cheating with deflated footballs. The media of course went nuclear and ran with this story which once again turned out to be a manufactured crock of shit with 0 actual evidence presented at any point proving the Patriots engaged in any wrongdoing. The Patriots would fight back from a 10 point fourth quarter deficit vs Seattle to win 28-24 on one of the most iconic plays in the history of the NFL intercepting Seattle QB Russell Wilson on the 1 yard line to secure a fourth Lombardi Trophy. People often talk about this play and give the Patriots no credit and rather just talk about what many thought was a bad playcall by Seattle to throw the football. This play to me represented Belichick’s genius and was one of his finest moments as in the “Do Your Job” documentary footage showed that Patriots had practiced defending this exact scenario in practice that week. Rookie corner Malcom Butler had allowed a touchdown on this play in practice and Belichick and the Patriots staff set Butler up to learn how to undercut this route and make a play if the scenario came up. Sure enough it did, the Patriots recognized it immediately, Butler made the play and secured a 4th Lombardi for Belichick. The Patriots would lose the AFC Championship to the Broncos in heartbreaking fashion in 2015 but in 2016 would have an absolutely dominant 14-2 season that culminated in a 5th Lombardi for Belichick and the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history erasing a 28-3 deficit vs the Atlanta Falcons. The Patriots would lose the Super Bowl 41-33 vs the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017 but would return in 2018 after winning the AFC Championship on the road vs NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, they stifled a lethal Los Angeles Rams offense to score a 13-3 win and 6th Lombardi Trophy for Belichick in what would ultimately be he and Brady’s final together in New England.
Tom Brady’s departure and a disappointing end
QB Tom Brady departed the Patriots after 2019 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Belichick for the first time in 20 years was in the market for a QB. Belichick signed former NFL MVP Cam Newton for the 2020 season but things didn’t work out as the Patriots finished the season 7-9. The Patriots drafted Alabama QB Mac Jones in first round of the 2021 draft and Jones had an impressive rookie season and led the Patriots to a 10-7 record and playoff appearance where they would ultimately get throttled by the rival Buffalo Bills. Prior to 2022 Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels departed New England to become the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders and Belichick who made a career of being loyal to his people and keeping a small circle ultimately made one of the more questionable decisions of his career handing the reigns of the offense over to former defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and former special teams coordinator Joe Judge. The Patriots would finish the year 8-9 and Jones showed a steep decline at QB from his rookie season. Ultimately many understood this year would be a defining year for Belichick and if things went poorly this could be the end. The Patriots entered the year with optimism as Belichick brought back an old friend and an assistant he was very successful with when he hired Bill O’Brien as offensive coordinator. The Patriots roster was shaky though and Belichick’s once revered GM exploits seemed like they may not be the same. Ultimately Jones played about as bad as you could play, the Patriots couldn’t protect him, they had no receivers that could get open and what we got was an absolutely unwatchable offense which led to a 4-13 record. The Patriots still finished the year with a top 10 defense showing Belichick’s ability to still coach but ultimately it was on him to pay the price for the teams lack of performance because being that this was the roster he assembled, there’s simply nobody else to point the finger at the end of the day
A legacy of winning and what’s next for both sides
We went over all of Bill Belichick’s accomplishments at the start of this piece. Belichick will always be a hero to everybody in New England and Patriots fans all around the world. It is widely expected that Belichick will land another NFL coaching job for the 2024 season with the Atlanta Falcons currently being a widely rumored option. I will always love Coach Belichick and I couldn’t even begin to truly express my gratitude to him for how amazing he’s made it to be a fan of the Patriots. Belichick always had a hard shell and was not an emotional person, but if you ever read anything from or listen to guys who have played for Belichick you’d know that behind that hard shell is a man who is loved by his players and colleagues and respected by everybody in the NFL who knows what he’s accomplished. One of my favorite clips demonstrating this is this one from Julian Edelman after the Patriots Super Bowl 49 where an emotional Edelman says “I’d do anything for you coach” and it shows the love player who play for Belichick have for him. As for my beloved Patriots, replacing Bill Belichick is an impossible task that will be met with a lot of unrealistic expectations especially from a Boston media market that lives to cause problems and stir shit. The Patriots will have to hire a GM and a coach this time likely rather than hiring one guy to do it all like Belichick. I can’t speak for the GM as that’s such a wide ranging position that it’s really hard to predict what direction Robert Kraft will go to hire that position but Kraft being somebody who likes to stick with people he knows and doesn’t stray too far out of the box I’ll predict Patriots Director of Scouting Eliot Wolf takes those reigns. As for the head coaching job I think it comes down to two men. Current Patriots assistant Jerod Mayo has been long linked to the job and been loyal to New England despite interest elsewhere and recently fired former Tennessee Titans Head Coach Mike Vrabel who’s a former Patriots player figures to be another prime candidate, I would not be surprised with either guy. One thing is for certain, Bill Belichick is a first ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer. He’s the greatest coach to ever live and one day he will return to the Patriots and get the heroes honor he deserves from a place that will revere him forever.
