24 memories from the Belichick era

After a woeful 2023 season, the Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick parted ways Thursday, ending the most successful coaching run in NFL history.

Though the recent history has been, well, bad, it's a safe bet to say that Belichick's time in New England will be held in the same esteem as Red Auerbach's run with the Celtics among local sports fans. One day.

To mark his 24 years in New England, here are 24 things that we'll remember from the Belichick era.

In 2000, Belichick grabbed a Sharpie and a napkin and created one of the great Sliding Doors moments of NFL history.

He had just been named as head coach of the New York Jets, following in the footsteps of legendary coach and long-time mentor Bill Parcells, but he wasn't happy. Using his rough materials, he scribbled out a note, saying he resigned as "HC of the NYJ." Then he held press conference explaining his decision in a scene as awkward as an episode of The Office.

Weeks and a traded first-round draft pick later, he was gripping Patriots owner Robert Kraft's hand and smiling during a far more convivial press conference. The Patriots had a new coach.

Once ensconced in Foxborough as both head coach and head of player personnel, Belichick got to work on the NFL draft. With the Patriots' first pick, he selected not Tom Brady.

He didn't take Brady with his second pick, either.

It wasn't until the sixth round of the draft that Belichick selected Brady, forming the most dominant coach-quarterback duo in league history. It's just that no one knew it at the time.

Belichick's hunch on Brady paid off a year later. The undersized Brady had quickly worked his way up the depth chart, and when future Patriots hall of fame quarterback Drew Bledsoe was badly injured following a hit by New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis, the understudy took to the stage. More surprisingly, Brady stayed in the starter's role even after Bledsoe was back and ready to play.

From the players breaking tradition and running onto the field as a team, to U2's emotional halftime performance, to the game-winning kick, Super Bowl XXXVI was the game that ended a decades-long drought of championships for pro sports fans in New England. The Patriots beat the high-powered offense of the St. Louis Rams, AKA "The Greatest Show on Turf."

The game also featured Gil Santos' iconic "It's good! It's good!" call on local radio.

That final drive and winning kick wasn't a sure thing; it wasn't even considered a smart thing by former coach John Madden, who called the game as a play-by-play analyst and lamented Belichick's decision to risk the win rather than play for the tie and overtime.

Belichick wasn't afraid to let players go, even fan favorites, if he thought he wasn't getting the right value for them. In 2003, he released All-Pro Safety Lawyer Molloy less than a week before the beginning of the regular season, shocking fans and teams around the league. But the Patriots defense was just as strong without him, and the team went on to win the Super Bowl that year.

That tendency to walk away from players at or past their prime was often cited as part of Belichick's genius when it worked. But when it didn't, like when he allowed Brady to leave, people called it something else.

You don't usually win football games by giving the other team free points and control of the ball. But Belichick did just that against the fearsome Denver Broncos in 2003. Down a point late in the fourth quarter, and pinned back against his own goal line, Belichick asked his long snapper to fire the ball through the back of the end zone for a safety, giving away two extra points and control of the ball. His defense then held the Broncos at bay, giving Brady and company the opportunity to drive and win the game.

Plays like that are what cemented Belichick's reputation among fans and players as a football genius.

The Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVIII with another game-winning kick, defeating the Carolina Panthers in a hum-dinger of a game and proving that Belichick's team was no flash in the pan. But the game is better remembered for its halftime show, when Justin Timberlake ripped off part of Janet Jackson's top at the end of their performance. The ensuing "nipplegate" caused a furor and derailed Jackson's career, even though Timberlake was the one who tore her shirt.

By Super Bowl XXXIX, the Patriots were the undisputed best team in the league. Belichick's squad outplayed a tough Philadelphia Eagles team to secure their claim as a sports dynasty. Rather than ending with thrilling field goal, it was the defense's turn to shine, with a clutch interception to seal the game. (If you were wondering, following the previous year's halftime scandal, the NFL decided to retreat to the safety of Boomer rock and had Paul McCartney perform. It was fine.)

The son of a college coach, Belichick has an affinity for old school football, and every once in a while allowed that to leak into the modern game. In 2006, quarterback Doug Flutie, in the twilight of his career, had been practicing a dropkick. Belichick let Flutie run the play during a game, marking the first time since 1941 that a dropkick was successfully attempted in the NFL.

By 2007, the rest of the football-watching world was pretty sick of the Patriots winning, so when scandal came in 2007, they were ready for it. New York Jets coach Eric Mangini (a former Belichick assistant) accused his former mentor of cheating by recording the Jets' defensive hand signals. Recording on the sidelines during a game is a big NFL no-no, though Belichick defended the action, saying he understood the rule to mean he wasn't allowed to review that footage during the same game.

The league slapped the Belichick with a $500,000 fine for his role in "Spygate." At the time, it was the largest fine ever handed to a coach.

The coach with the sourpuss public persona is unlikely friends with "Tiger Beat" heartthrob and hair metal singer Jon Bon Jovi. The duo have known each other for decades, and have palled around on sidelines dating back to Belichick's time with the Giants. In 2009, the Patriots decided to stop playing "Rock and Roll Part II," the once-ubiquitous sports anthem written by the now-disgraced Gary Glitter. In its place the team started playing Bon Jovi's "This is Our House."

You know you've made it when people write about you in novels. In 2011, George R.R. Martin released "A Dance with Dragons," the fifth book in his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series (also known as the books that became "Game of Thrones," the HBO show). In it, he added a short passage about a minor character named Belicho, who was described as a "patriot" to his city-state who was "eaten by Giants."

Why yes, Martin is a New York Giants fan, why do you ask?

Belichick would go on to win three more Super Bowls. Martin has yet to finish the next book in his series.

"We're on to Cincinnati."

The terse response was repeated several times in just a few minutes. "We're on to Cincinnati," became a meme in the sports world and encapsulated both the coach's distaste for press conferences, which some fans find delightful and others arrogant. The term, along with "Do your job," also became a mantra among the team, expressing a desire to ignore distractions and focus on their play.

By Super Bowl XLIX, it has been a few years since the Pats won the championship. The personnel had changed, and there were questions about whether Belichick could get the team back to the top. Those questions ended at the one-yard line with less than a minute left in the game, when Malcolm Butler intercepted a pass by Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and started the second dynasty under Belichick's reign.

Belichick, self-avowedly leery of data-driven decision-making and technology in general, went ape on a tablet during a Patriots loss in 2016. The NFL had entered into a years-long, multi-million dollar deal with Microsoft to use its Surface devices on the sidelines. With the tablet down for the count, Belichick turned back to the comforts of analog, studying photos of plays during the rest of the game.

The final score was 34-28 but the only score most people remember from Super Bowl LI was 28-3. The Atlanta Falcons had a 25-point lead against Belichick and the Pats late in the third quarter. But about 14 game minutes later, the score was tied and America witnessed its only Super Bowl overtime.

It didn't take long in the extra frame for the Patriots to score, completing this biggest comeback in Super Bowl history.

Each of the five previous Super Bowl wins in the Belichick era were barnburners until the last minutes of the game. Even the Super Bowl losses (two to the Giants, one to the Eagles) were terrific games to watch.

Super Bowl LIII was different. The 13-3 victory over the Los Angeles Rams (they had recently moved the team from St. Louis) was the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in NFL history.

But it was also a classic example of how Belichick would approach his game planning, attacking a team's strength —for the Rams, their innovative, high-powered offense — to win games.

The NFL rulebook is 85 pages long, and it can sometimes seem Belichick has memorized every word. In 2019, the dour one even cracked a smirk as he manufactured multiple ways to kill the clock against the trailing Jets. But he wasn't as amused when the following year, former Pats player-turned-coach Mike Vrabel pulled a similar parliamentarian move against New England.

Simon left Garfunkel. Kim left Kanye. And Tom Brady left Bill Belichick in 2020, finding a new home in Tampa Bay, where he led the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl win. The slowly fraying relationship between player and coach has never been fully vetted by either party, but reporters have tried. That breakup may have loomed large in Kraft's decision to walk away from Belichick after the team's recent on-field performance.

Breakups are hard. Let's look at a cute dog.

In 2020, Belichick launched another meme when he left his dog Nike unattended during the NFL Draft. Nike dutifully took the coach's seat during the livestream from the coach's home, clearly taking over the Patriots selection duties.

While "We're on to Cincinnati" is likely his most famous press conference quote, and one that's emblematic of his laconic post-game interviews, Belichick would sometimes wax rhapsodic if he got the right question. Like he did in 2021, when a reporter asked about the importance of the long snapper position and got a nine-minute soliloquy in reply.

With 333 wins (including playoff victories), Belichick is second all-time behind Miami Dolphins legend Don Shula (347) for winningest coach in NFL history. And no one has matched his 31 playoff game victories.

He's won more Super Bowls (six) than any other coach in league history. That doesn't include the two rings he won as a coordinator with the Giants. He still remains atop the coaching pile when you include league championships before the Super Bowl era, besting ancient legends like Vince Lombari (for whom the Super Bowl trophy is named) and George Halas.

The last thing we'll remember is this week, when Belichick and Kraft decided to consciously uncouple. It wouldn't be surprising to see the coach wind up with another contender team, giving him a chance to finally catch Shula's all-time wins record and get him that elusive seventh ring.