After 24 years of being the Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots have decided to part ways.
In his near quarter century tenure as Patriots head coach, Belichick won six Super Bowls, nine conference championships, 17 division titles, and had 31 playoff wins, all of which are records in the NFL. Belichick was also a three-time National Football League (NFL) coach of the year, and he has the second most wins of all time at 333.
“Bill is one of the greatest coaches of all time, definitely the greatest in my lifetime,” said senior Paul Donnelly.
All of these accomplishments led to many successful moments for Belichick, the Patriots, and fans. One example of his successful coaching occurred in mid October of 2019, the 6-0 Patriots intentionally took multiple penalties prior to punting the football away to the New York Jets. In doing so, the Patriots took advantage of a loophole in the NFL rules, as the Jets elected to decline both penalties allowing nearly a minute to run off the game clock to allow the Patriots to secure the victory.
“When he took the false starts to run time off against the Jets, he knew exactly what he was doing. He hates the Jets and the little laugh he gave on the sideline says it all. Classic Belichick. Finding a loophole, exploiting it, and rubbing it in the Jets face,” said math teacher Michael Kachinski.
In New England, Belichick not only won championships for the New England Patriots, but he created and instilled a culture that changed New England and the NFL forever.
Belichick’s approach to his players created a focused environment that allowed players that were willing to work hard to succeed.
“Belichick’s ‘Do Your Job’ approach is great. It shows that every player on the team has a specific role. No matter what position you are on the team or even when you are not playing in that day’s game, every person needs to do their job in order for the team to succeed,” said senior Nathaniel Cantalupo.
Belichick’s mentality and approach trickled down to the players that he brought in and how the team managed the salaries of the players.
“Belichick had a knack for finding undervalued players and getting them on team-friendly deals. Quarterback Tom Brady could have made more money playing for other teams. He stayed here, restructured deals, and probably took less money to be a competitor,” said Kachinski.
This method of taking less for the betterment of the team was popularized by Belichick and has been taken up by many organizations in other sports.
“New Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shoei Otani deferred money like Brady did to be on a contending team for a long time. A lot of that stems from Belichick’s way of doing business,” said Kachinski.
As for what is next for Bill Belichick, he is only 15 wins shy of breaking the all-time head coaching wins record of 347 wins, meaning that he will likely look to go to a team who is ready to win many games right away.
“I think he should finish his career on a high note, I would hate to see him go out weakly. He should find himself a program that is good enough that he can go into and win games” said Donnelly.
After Belichick’s coaching days are over, he is sure to be honored by the Patriots.
“Belichick should be placed in the Patriots hall of fame. He won the Patriots more super bowls than any other coach has won for their franchise. Belichick should be honored similarly to Brady, with a ceremony in Gillette to honor him,” said senior Patriots fan Jack Eaton.
Although the future for Belichick is still up in the air, his time in New England will be remembered for the Super Bowls he won, the culture he created, and the memories he made for fans far and wide.