Seventy-one going on 72: it’s a ripe time for Bill to hang up his cleats or rather his headphones. If he leaves now, he will move out as the most successful head coach of all time, leading his team, the New England Patriots, to six Super Bowl wins. The team has the most SB wins in the league’s history, along with the Pittsburgh Steelers. And all of them were won with old Bill at the helm. But after Tom Brady left the team, so did the wins. It would have been the perfect time for Belichick to ride off into the sunset with a distinguished career.
But Bill Belichick is stubborn. He plans to hold on to see his own and his team’s fall. Amidst all this gloom and doom, Colin Cowherd chips in with his two cents on the entire Belichick saga. And he does not have many positive things to say.
Time to sack Bill Belichick?
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“I would get rid of Belichick and hire Ben Johnson,” Cowherd told his viewers on the podcast The Herd. Jason McIntyre is understandably stunned. He cannot believe why Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions, should succeed someone as great as Bill Belichick. He gave Belichick the title, “The most successful coach in the history of the sport.” Colin countered by saying that the Patriots are in a four-year drought. And as if asking for Belichick’s sacking was not enough, he called him a “defensive tone-deaf coach, past his prime.” Oof. Strong words.
Instead of advocating for the removal of Patriots QB Mac Jones, who Jason thinks cannot be saved, he asks for the coach’s removal. To back his opinion, he cites the example of Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa. There was no market for Tua under the Dolphins’ former head coach, Brian Flores. He said that a coach can make all the difference. Mike McDaniel came and “saved” Tua. And look at Tua now. He’s one of the strongest contenders for the title of Super Bowl MVP. So, will things be bleak for Belichick and Co. going forward?
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The fall of football’s greatest coach
Before Brady, Belichick was a Cleveland Browns ex-coach looking for work after a dull 36-44 record. After Brady, the two rose to the top of the league as the NFL’s most successful head coach-QB duo. But that seems like a long time ago. After Week 6 of the 2023 season, the Patriots are down 1-5. With their upcoming games against formidable enemies such as the Bills and the Dolphins, the tally will likely sink further.
“If they finish last in that division, don’t turn things around and don’t make it to the playoffs, there’s going to be a mutual parting, I believe, between the Patriots and Bill Belichick when the season is over,” Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio speculated earlier in the week. Combine the on-field miscues and play calls with the mess Belichick has been making of the annual Drafts, and you have a recipe for disaster. Is it a forgone conclusion, or will the Patriots make a surprising comeback? We don’t want to say, but we already know the answer.
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