Bill Belichick is 14 wins short of Don Shula’s record for all-time wins, which is 347.
That matters to the conversation of what comes next for Belichick. Belichick is a football historian and even if he’d never admit it, that record would have to be special for him. That’s understandable. Maybe it guides what he does after his incredible time with the New England Patriots ended on Thursday.
If Belichick wants to chase Shula’s record, he’ll have to keep coaching at age 72 next season and presumably do it somewhere he can win right away. And even though indications are he’ll keep coaching, he’ll have options outside of that profession too.
Here are the realistic options for Belichick as he enters his first offseason since 1999 in which he’s not the head coach of the Patriots:
Retirement: This doesn’t seem like a high probability. Though he did say he wouldn’t “be like Marv Levy and coaching in my 70s” back during the 2009 season, he said he regretted saying that. And obviously he did coach into his 70s. Still, at that age perhaps endless weeks preparing for the Jacksonville Jaguars’ third-down defense isn’t so appealing. It just seems like Belichick loves coaching too much to step away yet.
Former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick will draw interest from other teams looking for a new head coach. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
Television: We like to think of Belichick as a grump that says nothing insightful, but that’s usually in a press conference setting in which he doesn’t want to reveal anything about his team. He showed on the “NFL 100 All-Time Team” episodes that he can be an excellent talking head who clearly has endless football insight. He might be great on a pregame set. But, that also seems unlikely because he’s a coaching lifer. So let’s look at the teams that have head-coach openings …
Carolina Panthers: This makes little sense. It’s a long-term rebuild and why would Belichick want to take over…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/with-bill-belichick-out-in-new-england-what-are-the-options-for-his-next-move-185752544.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-01-11 18:57:52
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
