Bill Belichick moves on from New England but says 'I will always be a Patriot'

The second-most surreal news conference of Bill Belichick’s storied and often awkward public speaking career took place on Thursday when he and Patriots owner Robert Kraft stood side by side to announce a very clear mutual parting between arguably the greatest head coach in the history of the NFL and the franchise he built into a dynasty over most of the past quarter-century.

Despite the weeks of rumblings regarding such a monumental change, and a river of public speculation flowing in regard to where Belichick could wind up and who might replace him, the finality of Thursday’s announcement in Foxborough was still jarring. Most of the current active players in the NFL (average age of 26.08 as of the start of the 2023 season) have no living memory of anyone but Belichick leading the New England Patriots. That era has now come to an end.

The oddest Belichick news conference? While Belichick joked that he hadn’t seen as many cameras as were there on Thursday since the Patriots signed Tim Tebow, another wild chapter for him, it undoubtedly would be the most recent time he left an organization. On Jan. 4, 2000, he turned what was supposed to be his introduction as head coach of the Jets into a surprise resignation that set the stage for him to be hired in New England (at the cost of several draft picks) a few months later.

It turned out to be a small price to pay for the Patriots. Kraft rightly called theirs an “unprecedented” collaboration and Belichick said it “has exceeded my wildest dreams.”

In Belichick’s 24 years in New England, most of them also serving as the de facto general manager, he posted a regular-season record of 266-121, had 19 straight seasons with a winning record, earned 17 division titles, appeared in nine Super Bowls, won six world championships and was a three-time NFL Coach of the Year (2003, 2007, 2010). Combined with his tenure as head coach of the Cleveland Browns and his postseason record, Belichick has 333 career victories, trailing only Don Shula’s 347.

If he is to break Shula’s record, it will come from the sideline of another team.

On Thursday, though, Belichick, 71, said simply: “I will always be a Patriot. I look forward to coming back here. But at this time, we’re going to move on.”

The last several years saw a downturn in success, particularly after Tom Brady left in the spring of 2020. Belichick managed just one winning season in the four after Brady departed, appeared in one playoff game and finished with a career-worst 4-13 record in 2023. Several meetings with Kraft in the days since the end of the regular season led to the decision that both sides might benefit from a significant change.

“The last three years have been pretty tough,” Kraft said in a news conference following the initial announcements in which he took questions from reporters (Belichick did not take any questions). “What’s gone on here the last three to four years isn’t what we want. We have a responsibility to fix it to the best of our abilities.”

Belichick, though, focused more on the glory years.

“For me, this is a day of gratitude and celebration,” he said. “I’ll always have those great memories. I’ll carry those with me for the rest of my life.”

Current and former Patriots players took to social media to express their surprise and appreciation for Belichick.

“I’m incredibly grateful to have played for the best coach in the history of the NFL,” Brady wrote on Instagram. “We accomplished some amazing things over a long period of time, many of which will be hard to replicate . . . I could never have been the player I was without you, Coach Belichick.”

Hall of Famer Richard Seymour called Belichick “the greatest football mind to ever live.” Matt Chatham called Belichick “the best ever” and said “we’re all better here for having Bill as a mentor [and] teacher.”

Even LeBron James weighed in. “Coach Belichick is such a legend,” he wrote, adding a salute emoji.

Kraft said of Belichick: “He always gave us the best he had. That’s what was most important to me.”

Belichick’s departure comes amid an avalanche of seismic changes in the sport’s long-term leadership, a day after two other longtime coaches with ties to Belichick — Nick Saban of Alabama, who was a close friend and staffer for him, and Pete Carroll of the Seahawks, who had preceded Belichick in New England — announced they were stepping down.

That Belichick’s final game with the Patriots wound up being a loss to the Jets on Sunday has a touch of irony, considering how he tormented that organization and its fans. Belichick always had a love-hate relationship with New York football. He loved the Giants and his time there, winning two Super Bowls as a defensive coordinator, and he hated the Jets.

Now, though, he will move on to someplace else. There currently are seven other head coach openings in the NFL and there could be more as teams are eliminated from the playoffs beginning this weekend.

“I’m excited for the future,” Belichick said, “but I’ll always be very appreciative of the opportunity here, the support here, and, Robert, what you have done for me.”

The Patriots, too, will have a future, one separate from Belichick. Kraft deflected most questions about that process for a later date, but he did say of whomever becomes his next hire: “We’re looking for someone who can help us get back to the playoffs and win.”

Kraft embraced Belichick at the end of their shared time on the stage together Thursday. He said he would have kissed him but for the cold from which Belichick has been ailing.

“[Today] represents the end of an era, one that hopefully will always be celebrated in this region,” Kraft said. “Coach Belichick will forever be celebrated as a legendary sports icon here in New England and I believe go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot. Why? Because he is the greatest coach of all time.”

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.