Six-time NFL champion head coach Bill Belichick has agreed to part ways with the New England Patriots, bringing an end to his 24-year tenure as the architect of the most decorated dynasty of the league’s Super Bowl era, the Associated Press and US outlets have reported.
Key points:
- Bill Belichick led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl victories as head coach
- US media is reporting he has agreed to part ways with the team after 24 years
- Belichick ended the most recent season as his worst on record
A news conference is planned for later in the day, in which Belichick and team owner Robert Kraft will address the decision.
The 71-year-old Belichick became just the third coach in NFL history to reach 300 career regular season wins earlier this season, joining Hall of Famers Don Shula and George Halas.
With a 333-178 overall record including play-off victories, Belichick trails only Shula (347 wins) for the all-time record.
But the Patriots ended this season 4-13, Belichick’s worst record in 29 seasons as an NFL head coach.
With his cut-off hoodies and ever-present scowl, Belichick teamed up with quarterback Tom Brady to lead the Patriots to six Super Bowl victories, nine AFC titles and 17 division championships in 19 years.
It’s not immediately clear who will replace him.
The six Super Bowl wins tie Belichick with pre-merger mentors Halas and Curly Lambeau for the most NFL championships.
Belichick also won two rings as Bill Parcells’ defensive coordinator with the New York Giants, before becoming head coach of the original Cleveland Browns.
But the Patriots have stumbled to a 29-38 record since Brady departed following the 2019 season, and missed the play-offs in three of those four seasons.
Beginning in 2001 when Brady became the starting quarterback, the Patriots missed the play-offs only once — in 2008, when Brady was injured.
Belichick’s subsequent solutions at quarterback haven’t panned out.
Brady’s initial replacement, Cam Newton, didn’t resemble the player who won the 2015 MVP award and was cut after a 7-9 finish in 2020.
Meanwhile, Brady won his seventh Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that same season.
Potential long-term replacement Mac Jones, a 2021 first-round draft choice, was a Pro Bowl selection as a rookie and led New England to the play-offs.
But he regressed in his second year, when Belichick put longtime defensive assistant Matt Patricia in charge of the offence. Jones didn’t fare much better this season when Bill O’Brien returned as offensive coordinator.
Belichick, who also served as the de facto general manager with final say on personnel decisions, was celebrated for his ingenuity managing the salary cap during the run of Super Bowl success.
It included getting stars like Brady and others to accept cap-friendly contracts or adjust their deals to accommodate the signing of other players.
But that acclaim has waned in the years since Brady left, as a run of draft picks and high-priced free agents didn’t live up to expectations.
Now it won’t be Belichick making the decisions for the Patriots on or off the field.
The only child of a World War II veteran who spent three decades as a Navy assistant coach, Belichick is a football historian with an encyclopedic knowledge of strategy from the sport’s early days to current NFL trends.
His players said his attention to detail never left them unprepared.
Belichick has been a master of the NFL rule book, unearthing loopholes in clock operations and offensive line formations that — though entirely legal — cemented his reputation as a mad genius.
But his legacy in New England also includes two major cheating investigations — and other, minor ones — that cost the team draft picks and more than $US1 million in fines.
Opponents accused the Patriots of everything from hacking their headsets to cutting corners on injury reports.
And the focus on football that was long viewed as a harmless quirk also led him into more troubling areas.
His friendship with former President Donald Trump, which Belichick insisted was not political, landed the coach on the list to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom in the waning days of the administration.
But after the outcry against the US Capitol siege, Belichick announced “the decision has been made not to move forward” with accepting the medal.
AP
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