By Tiffany Williams –
Bill Belichick on Thursday entered the open market for the first time in 24 years.
ESPN.com first reported that the Patriots and Bill Belichick will part ways Thursday morning, and later during the day, the news became real when Belichick and Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft came to the podium at Gillette Stadium together to make the announcement.
“It’s a very emotional day for the organization, and the end of an era, like I said, that will be hard to be replicated, I think at least in my lifetime, if ever,” said Kraft. “And, I know you all made the effort to be here, so I’d like to do whatever we can talking about Bill [Belichick] and the time he’s spent here. The future – I know there’ll be a lot of questions about the future, and we’ll have a chance to cover that in the next few days – but, I’m not sure today is the time to do it.”
2023 was Belichick’s worst statistical season with just four wins, 13 losses, a .235 winning percentage.
The iconic head coach of the Patriots and 71-year-old who won six Super Bowls with New England, missed the playoffs for the third time in four seasons, and since the halfway mark of the 2023 season, Belichick was rumored to be out the door as Patriots Head Coach and General Manager.
“Robert and I, after a series of discussions, have mutually agreed to part ways. For me, this is a day of gratitude and celebration,” Belichick said. “I’ll start with Robert and his family. Great. So much thanks for the opportunity to be the head coach here for 24 years. It’s an amazing opportunity, received tremendous support. We had a vision of building a championship football team here. That’s exceeded my wildest dreams and expectations, the amount of success that we were able to achieve together through a lot of hard work and the contributions of so many people. I’m very proud of that, and I’ll always have those great memories. I’ll carry those with me for the rest of my life.”
Belichick owns a 266-121 overall record with the Patriots and has another 31 playoff victories. But the man who is widely regarded as one of the best coaches of all time, has enjoyed little success without Tom Brady in New England.
“Thanks to the assistant coaches. I’ve had so many great coaches here. They’ve made my job so much easier. It’s a long list, but the amount of work, preparation and diligence that they do, every one of them – I say this about the players, and the coaches, regardless of how long they were here, how many years they were here, how many years they coached, what their position was – it was a great team effort and everybody put everything they had into it,” said Belichick. “That’s why we were successful. The coaches, the support staff, it’s an amazing staff here that’s supported me in every way. All the scouting and all of the football support people – from equipment and training, security, video, operations and so forth, right down the line, dining room – it’s all first class. It’s all extremely good. Special thanks to Berj and Nancy. They’ve been here since day one and made my life a lot easier. Or, I’ve made theirs a lot harder, however you look at it.”
Belichick first joined the Patriots as an assistant head coach and defensive backs coach in 1996 under Bill Parcells, and then served as the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator under Parcells again with the Jets for the next three seasons.
Following Parcells departure as Jets coach after the 1999 season, Belichick took his place. But after only one day as the Jets’ next head coach, Belichick wrote a resignation note on a napkin that said, “I resign as HC of the NYJ,” and then proceeded to announce his resignation to the media.
The following day, it was announced that Belichick was hired by the Patriots as their next head coach to replace Pete Carroll.
“A great deal of thanks and appreciation to the players. Players win games in the NFL, and I’ve been very, very fortunate to coach some of the greatest players that have ever played, said Belichick. “Some of the greatest players that have ever played for the Patriots, some of them are in the Hall of Fame, and many more are going. Again, regardless of how long the players were or weren’t here, what their role was, or how many games they played, or even if they didn’t win championships, I respect the way the players come to work here on a daily basis. All of them, and I have coached well over 1,000. Their ability to work, prepare, train in the weight room, train their bodies, rehearse over and over again, and do things right to be successful to win. I have so much respect for all the players, and certainly we’ve had many that have been here for a long time and had great contributions.”
Belichick initially served as defensive coordinator with the Giants from 1985-90, winning two Super Bowls with the team before an unsuccessful four-year tenure as the Browns’ head coach.
“To the media, I don’t know that anybody’s gotten more coverage than I have, or we have, over the past 24 years. I give you guys a lot of respect for what you do,” Belichick said. “You’re our voice to the fans. Even though we don’t always see eye-to-eye all of the time – most of the time, but not all of the time – I do respect what you do. And finally, to the fans. The fans here are amazing. I have so many memories of the fans – the send-offs, the parades, the Sundays, whatever the situations are. The letters of support, seeing the fans away from here, at a gas station, at a grocery store, or wherever you bump into them – our Patriot fans here, not just in New England, but they extend nationally and even internationally as I’ve traveled. It’s amazing how far the arm reaches. We saw that this year in Germany. So appreciative of the fans for all the support they’ve given me, my family and this football team. It’s with so many fond memories and thoughts that I think about the Patriots. I will always be a Patriot. I look forward to coming back here. But, at this time, we’re going to move on. I look forward, am excited for the future. But, I am always very appreciative of the opportunity here, the support here, and Robert, what you’ve done for me.”
“Like a good marriage, a successful head coach/owner relationship requires a lot of hard work. and I’m very proud that our partnership lasted for 24 years. I don’t think in the NFL, there’s been any other partnership that lasted longer and has been as productive as ours,” said Kraft. “I trusted my instincts to bring Bill back to New England in 2000 after immediately regretting not hiring him after working with him together in 1996. When I did hire him, I was still making the transition from the fan who bought season tickets in 71′, sitting on the metal benches in the old Foxboro Stadium with my boys, to try to become an experienced owner. Bill has taught me a lot over those years, and we had high expectations for what we could achieve together. I think we were the only ones who had those expectations, and I think it’s safe to say we exceeded them – thanks to you [Bill Belichick]. It’s hard to put into words, really, when I think back to sitting on those metal benches, that we would have an opportunity to go to 10 Super Bowls together and bring six Lombardi trophies home to Massachusetts.”Well, the last three years have been pretty tough, I know for our dedicated fans and myself. In life, I just learned things happen, and our family is the custodian of this asset – the New England Patriots – and we know how important it is to the psyche of the community. And, what’s gone on here the last three, four years isn’t what we want, so we have a responsibility to do what we can to fix it to the best of our ability.”
When asked why he felt it was the right decision to let Belichick go, Kraft said, “Well, the last three years have been pretty tough, I know for our dedicated fans and myself. In life, I just learned things happen, and our family is the custodian of this asset – the New England Patriots – and we know how important it is to the psyche of the community. And, what’s gone on here the last three, four years isn’t what we want, so we have a responsibility to do what we can to fix it to the best of our ability.”
With Belichick still under contract through the 2024 season, Kraft was asked if he had considered trading Belichick or trying to recoup some compensation for Belichick, and Kraft said, “Yeah, that’s an interesting question. I’m fortunate in our family, our businesses are all private, and so we try to create a culture and develop an environment where people want to stay and stay long-term. And, I guess if you look at this as a transaction, he is so valuable. In how we could extract something, I didn’t think that was right. I didn’t think it was right for Tom Brady, who gave us 20 years, and I don’t think it’s right for Bill. But, I think each of them earned the right to be in a position where they should do what’s right for them, given what they have done for this franchise. So, some people might criticize me for not extracting as much value, and I understand that, but we just try to do what we think is right for the proper values and ability to operate and try to get people who want to come and feel that we’re going to treat them fairly.”
When asked what was the biggest thing he had learned from Belichick in the 24 plus years that he has known him, Kraft said, “Yeah, I’m not sure I can say one thing. The thing that always amazed me with him, and I get exposed to a lot of people, is he’s the only person I’ve met with the football intellect and the knowledge. I think part of that went back to his dad and the training he got, but also how he absorbed it as a little kid, watching film with his dad. But what I saw in ’96, when he got fired by the Browns and Bill Parcell said, ‘You should go out and meet him, he’s going to go to Miami, and we should get him here,’ because he had worked with him at the Giants and said how good he was. And, I remember I went out in ’96 and spoke with him at the Combine, and he agreed to come join us. Then I saw the impact he had in that season coaching the secondary and how he could relate to the players, what was that? Twenty-seven or twenty-eight years ago, and how he knew how to give information, complicated, that they could relate to. And remember, we went to the Super Bowl that year, but we won the last seven games, we were mainly defensive oriented. I thought to myself, here’s a guy who can relate to the players at that level, but also has the football intellect and understands the economics of the game, because most coaches coming into the mid-90s and late-90s didn’t know how to put value, coming into a salary cap where you had the parity of budgets. He had the greatest ability to relate the two things. Now I think a lot of his contemporaries, younger contemporaries, have caught up with some of that. But, I don’t think there’s anyone like him that has the composite of knowledge. So, that always impressed me. And then he can pull something out of the air and quote, 30 years ago, some play and some game. For those of us that have some short-term memory lapses, that really impressed me.”
When asked what he was looking for in next head coach of the Patriots, Kraft said, “We’re looking for someone who can help us get back to the playoffs and win. Believe me, after my family, this is really one of the two most important assets in my life. I am very upset when we don’t win games. It carries the whole week. So, I promise you I’ll be focused to do the best I can do to make sure we’re putting ourselves in the best long-term position to win for many years.”
Belichick, the 14th head coach of the Patriots is the only head coach in NFL history with six Super Bowl titles and joins Hall of Fame coaches George Halas and Culy Lambeau as the only NFL coaches with six championships since the league began postseason play in 1933.
Belichick has the second-most wins overall with 333 total victories and led the Patriots to a winning record for 19 consecutive seasons between 2001 and 2019. He has notched 31 postseason wins in his career, the most by a head coach in NFL history. His 44 postseason appearances are also a record among all head coaches. In addition, he was the head coach in 511 games, second only to the 526 by Don Shula.
Belichick began his coaching career in 1975 as a special assistant to then-Baltimore head coach Ted Marchibroda. A year later, he joined the Detroit Lions as an assistant special teams coach and then instructed Lions’ tight ends and receivers. In 1978, he joined the Denver Broncos as assistant special teams coach and assistant to defensive coordinator Joel Collier.
In 1979, Belichick moved to the New York Giants, where he served as a defensive assistant and special teams coach on Ray Perkins’ staff. He drew added responsibility for instructing the Giants’ linebackers from 1981-82. In 1983, he began coordinating the defense and continued instructing what would become one of the most dominant linebacker units of all time. In 1985, he was officially appointed as the team’s defensive coordinator, a position he held for six seasons, including the 1986 Super Bowl season. In 1990, the N.Y. Giants won their second NFL title in four years.