True greatness is just not captured with a championship.
It is repeated, stoked and strengthened till it turns into behavior. Title after title, triumph after triumph. No NFL crew made a behavior out of greatness fairly just like the Belichick-era Patriots.
Over his 24 years, the Patriots gained six Super Bowls and cast dozens extra recollections for a era of followers. Belichick helped redefined a area, its sports activities id and creativeness. The Patriots turned the Patriots due to him.
In reflecting on Belichick’s tenure, listed below are the 24 moments that outlined his time in New England and constructed the best teaching run in NFL historical past.
1. The commerce
Robert Kraft acquires Belichick in Jan. 2000 commerce that sends a first-round decide to the Jets and includes just a few pick-swaps. Belichick assumes full management over the Patriots’ soccer operations and begins remaking the franchise.
2. Drafting Tom Brady
Belichick selects Tom Brady within the sixth spherical of the 2000 NFL Draft. Brady turns into the 199th general decide, probably the most consequential choice in draft historical past.
3. Picking Brady over Bledsoe
At 5-5, Belichick sticks with Brady after beginning quarterback Drew Bledsoe returns to well being in Nov. 2001. Belichick’s determination briefly divides the fan base, earlier than the Patriots rally behind Brady and clinch the No. 2 seed within the AFC playoff image.
4. The Snow Bowl
The fourth-quarter comeback. The tuck rule. The game-tying discipline aim and game-winning kick. Belichick and the Patriots shut Foxboro Stadium with a 16-13 win over the Raiders in one of the crucial memorable playoff video games each performed.
5. Super Bowl XXXVI
The Patriots win their first title as 14-point underdogs in an all-time basic that furthers Belichick’s status as a defensive mastermind. After Belichick’s protection held The Greatest Show on Turf to 17 factors, Brady leads the offense down on a game-winning drive that ends with one other Adam Vinatieri discipline aim.
6. Super Bowl XXXVIII
Talk of a dynasty begins to stir, as Belichick coaches the league’s No. 1 protection in 2003; a unit backboned by latest draft picks (Richard Seymour, Ty Warren and Eugene Wilson) and key free-agent signings (Rodney Harrison, Ted Washington and Tyrone Poole). Brady leads one other game-winning drive to clinch the Patriots’ second championship.
7. 21-game win streak
More historical past. The Patriots win 21 consecutive video games, a streak that bridges the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Their closing win is a 13-7 wrestling match within the Gillette Stadium mud towards the Jets.
8. Beating the Colts — once more
No beginning cornerbacks towards a record-setting offense led by the NFL’s MVP? No drawback. Belichick thwarts Peyton Manning within the playoffs for a second time throughout a snowy, 20-3 win within the divisional spherical.
What’s subsequent for Patriots, Bill Belichick after cut up?
9. Super Bowl XXXIX
Patriots 24, Eagles 21. “Yes, it’s a dynasty.” — longtime Patriots radio voice Gil Santos
10. Peyton strikes again
After upsetting the top-seeded Chargers within the divisional spherical, the 2006 Patriots stake a 21-3 lead at halftime of the AFC Championship Game at Indianapolis. But this time, Manning overcomes one other elite Belichick protection, proving himself a worthy rival — and maybe the one rival — of the Belichick-era Patriots.
11. Spygate
Ex-Patriots assistant Eric Mangini, then the Jets head coach, stories Belichick to the NFL for illegally taping opponents’ play alerts after a Pats-Jets season opener in 2007. The Patriots are docked a first-round decide, and Belichick is fined a most $500,000 as punishment. Both the coach’s and crew’s legacies are tarnished consequently.
12. 16-0
The Patriots unleash their season-long Spygate frustration on the league, dominating their 2007 schedule from begin to end — save for a pair late-season shut calls — and finish their march with a 38-35 highway win over the Giants.
13. Super Bowl XLII
The most painful loss Belichick, Brady and the Krafts ever suffered comes by the hands of the identical Giants who handed them an ideal common season. This marks the Patriots’ first Super Bowl defeat beneath Belichick.
14. Coaching Cassel
After Tom Brady tore his ACL within the 2008 season opener, Belichick coaches backup quarterback Matt Cassel and the Patriots to an 11-5 document; an underrated feather in his cap.
15. Super Bowl XLVI
Another Super Bowl loss to the Giants is outlined by a spectacular, fourth-quarter catch and leaves Belichick 0-2 towards his former crew on the sport’s largest stage.
16. Rallying towards the Ravens
Belichick’s fingerprints are throughout arguably one of the best recreation in Gillette Stadium historical past, from Julian Edelman’s double-pass landing, formational trickery and a game-sealing interception on the finish. The Patriots overcome two 14-point deficits to beat Baltimore within the 2014 divisional-round playoffs.
17. Deflategate
Belichick drops the newest Patriots’ newest scandal — for allegedly deflating footballs — in Brady’s lap throughout a press convention after the 2014 AFC Championship Game. That reportedly creates friction between the 2, earlier than the Patriots forfeit one other first-round decide and Brady serves a suspension.
18. Super Bowl XLIX
In the ultimate seconds of among the best Super Bowls ever, Belichick declines to name timeout and sows confusion on Seattle’s sideline, resulting in an notorious play-call close to the aim line that enables Malcolm Butler to make a game-saving interception.
19. Super Bowl LI
Brady turns into the face of the biggest comeback in Super Bowl historical past, as he and Belichick cement their legacies as the best of all time by overcoming a 28-3 deficit towards the Falcons in Feb. 2017.
20. Benching Butler
The Patriots permit 41 factors in a Super Bowl loss to the Eagles, however all anybody needs to know is: the place was Butler? To today, Belichick has by no means absolutely defined his determination to bench the veteran cornerback.
21. Super Bowl LIII
From an all-time shoot-out to the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever, Belichick’s protection pulls off a historic defensive efficiency, holding the Tenth-highest scoring offense in league historical past to a few factors and fewer than 300 whole yards throughout a 13-3 win over the Rams.
22. Saying goodbye to Brady
In March 2020, Brady’s contract expires, a mutual determination months within the making. All eyes flip to Belichick for the way he’ll exchange the best quarterback of all time.
23. The Mac Jones period
After the Cam Newton experiment fizzled in 2020, Belichick launches the ultimate chapter of his Patriots tenure by drafting Alabama quarterback Mac Jones in April 2021. Jones begins his profession by main a playoff crew, however regresses beneath Belichick’s new lead offensive coaches — Matt Patrica and Joe Judge — in 2022 after which utterly breaks throughout a dysfunctional 2023 season that finishes with a 4-13 document.
24. The finish
Belichick calls it a day of gratitude and celebration, as he and Kraft announce a mutual parting of how Thursday at Gillette Stadium. For the primary time in additional than 20 years, the Patriots want a brand new head coach.
Source: www.bostonherald.com