I was going to post a "hilariously laughing" gif, but this response actually hits it on the head, and with content.
End of an Era: Bill Belichick and Patriots to part ways
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
- Start date
I was team move on from BB and I'm still stunned and bummed out. I'm not sure off the top of my head how wholesale changes (coach/gm/qb) go but it's going to be rough. I have hope for the future but still feel crappy about all of this.
Yup! I accepted the fact she was a Giants fan (got more challenging over time) and Yankees fan (got easier over time) more readily because she worked at NESN and got me access to the suites on occasion
It's time for a change. I love BB probably as much as you do, but the bad drafts have caught up to him and the offense got to a point of no return in terms of needing major changes. Wish him the best, but it's time.
lol…
I am a former journalist, so for whatever reason these things pop in my head.
I don't think a final decision was made until the last couple of days, it is what makes the most sense in terms of everything that has happened since about November. I don't think Curran knew shit definitively, he probably heard some rumblings and ran with it, there's very little downside in today's media environment to doing so. And I don't think it is an accident that he got scooped with the actual news today.
If McDaniels became the HC this whole board and probably 90% of New England would riot.
Not a fan of the move, but it’s not unexpected either. Would have preferred them finding a way forward for another season. The worst part will be the bullshit narrative that Bill is nothing without Brady will live on in some corners of the idiotverse.
Anyway, an unmatched and probably unmatchable run. If Bill is not a first ballot HoF’er as a coach, they should close the building.
Anyway, an unmatched and probably unmatchable run. If Bill is not a first ballot HoF’er as a coach, they should close the building.
I didn't want him to go just yet, but I'm not surprised those who disagreed feel this way. It's like having your heart cut out of your chest with hacksaw blade regardless. It has unexpectedly brought my own mortality into focus in a way that makes it more real than it was before, if that makes any sense. I'm a legit fucking mess right now
To everything, turn, turn, turn....
We all knew that at some point this would happen, and at most this was just a few years away anyway. I really, really wanted BB to get the total win record with New England. He's OUR head coach, not the coach of the Browns nor the coach of some team that he'll almost certainly be going to for a few years. But I do hope he breaks the record and even wins another Super Bowl.
But now that we are here - a place we all knew was coming sooner rather than later - I want to grieve properly but then be excited about the future, because, IMO, there's a lot to look forward to with this organization.
But now that we are here - a place we all knew was coming sooner rather than later - I want to grieve properly but then be excited about the future, because, IMO, there's a lot to look forward to with this organization.
This just sucks, no other way to state it. Thanks for the greatest ride in all of sports. The pats are suddenly much less interesting.
You do? We might finally put this damn server out of its Town-Hall-less misery if that happens.
Josh McDaniels as HC? Never gonna happen. if you meant Ronald McDonald, then maybe.
I like Atlanta for Belichick. Maybe he's struggled to draft playmakers on offense, but put him on a team with Robinson, Pitts, London and Belichick and (McDaniels?) will definitely figure out how to use them better than Arthur Smith did. Terrible division, gives him a very good chance to break Shula's record. Use the #9 pick or cap space to find a QB, do your thing and put together a scrappy defense with whatever you have left.
This sucks, been a Pats fan from mid 70’s. Thank you Bill for having the balls to keep 4 QBs and to keep Brady in when Drew was ready to come back. I’ll post a memorial later but my thought on the immediate future is this and forgive me if others have already posted this. I think if it comes down to Vrabel, Mayo or Flores I feel that each will do Ok as a coach (although it’s tough to replace BB). My biggest concern is getting a GM who can get the talent evaluation ship fixed and fixed for this draft. We gotta nail this draft and FA market because this team just doesn’t have the talent (especially on offense) to do much better than they did this year without an infusion of young talent and well selected veteran talent
This is really it. Whether or not it was time, we're really just mourning for an era which will never return (for any team). It's not like there will be a new dynasty in like 2027. We're going to have to deal with coaches making dumb mistakes and poor end of game management and all those things we laughed at other teams over.
Agree. We are just one of the 32 now, with no QB.
But I think we were going to be in the wilderness with or without Bill. He’s only got a few years left and 12-4 wasn’t on the table next year. With Bill we were becoming just another team, with a fun defense and a coach to be nostalgic about. Now we are just another team.
I love him. I'll miss him. I wanted the wins record to come as HC of the NEP. I also get their moving on. Drafts have been largely bad for what feels like longer than many of us may realize. Hits here and there, but it's been not great for a long stretch, going back before the domino that particularly set this fallout in motion...
N'Keal Harry.
N'Keal Harry.
I find myself a year younger than Bill, and despite the confidence that I still possess my pedagogical prowess, I am not returning for year 46 in the classroom in September. I have learned that life tends to become more challenging as you age. There's a persistent soreness every morning you wake up. Proper nouns become an ongoing challenge, from "What IS his name?" to "What is that book I read?" The aging process introduces more pills into your routine—this one for the heart, that one for blood pressure, and another for digestion. You find yourself attending more funerals than weddings. The days take on a more melancholic tone, particularly during that "certain slant of light" (as described by Dickinson) in those winter days like today. As you watch a game, you reminisce about watching contests with your grandfather, who has been gone for 55 years, and your Dad, who passed away 38 years ago. People in their forties start addressing you as "sir."
Bill is not exempt from any of these experiences, and perhaps he, too, recognizes that while his wealth of experience is unparalleled, bringing his "A" game every day becomes a challenge. Consider the realms of art, music, or literature. How many great novels, paintings, or songs were created by individuals in their seventies? My heart slightly aches for Bill today, but I also sense the immense pride he must feel for his life's accomplishments. As a Patriots fan since 1963, I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude and love for him and what he has done for the franchise.
Bill is not exempt from any of these experiences, and perhaps he, too, recognizes that while his wealth of experience is unparalleled, bringing his "A" game every day becomes a challenge. Consider the realms of art, music, or literature. How many great novels, paintings, or songs were created by individuals in their seventies? My heart slightly aches for Bill today, but I also sense the immense pride he must feel for his life's accomplishments. As a Patriots fan since 1963, I can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude and love for him and what he has done for the franchise.
Will probably never happen because of Mystique and Aura - least of all while Goodell is still drawing breath - but I always thought they should consider renaming the Lombardi Trophy after the coach who is the GOAT for generations of fans.
Not sure. I assume it will be carried by NFL Network as well as the local Boston channels
I'd be shocked if it isn't on patriots.com
edit: here: https://www.patriots.com/news/robert-kraft-and-bill-belichick-will-address-the-media-at-noon-on-thursday-january-11-2024
edit: here: https://www.patriots.com/news/robert-kraft-and-bill-belichick-will-address-the-media-at-noon-on-thursday-january-11-2024
Almost certainly will be streaming on Patriots dot com and their YouTube channel.
With regard to “being another team”, 49ers fans had to deal with this for a bit. After their amazing run in the 80s and even 90s, from 2003 to 2018 they had a winning season 3 out of those 16 years. It took them that long to get back to so called “winning ways”.
Part of me wonders how long it took their fans to reset expectations. After you (as a fan) have enjoyed so much success it becomes an expectation / eventuality - they’ll figure it out, because they always do.
My guess is it’ll take many more years, maybe 3-5 before we as fans do a full mental adjustment to being “just another team”. What we enjoyed with Brady and Belichick will probably never be repeated. When you look around the league it’s awash with mediocrity and we just lost the last discernible difference between us and them.
This sucks
Part of me wonders how long it took their fans to reset expectations. After you (as a fan) have enjoyed so much success it becomes an expectation / eventuality - they’ll figure it out, because they always do.
My guess is it’ll take many more years, maybe 3-5 before we as fans do a full mental adjustment to being “just another team”. What we enjoyed with Brady and Belichick will probably never be repeated. When you look around the league it’s awash with mediocrity and we just lost the last discernible difference between us and them.
This sucks
Yes, this 2-year stretch has extended the very limits of my will to live.
plus since he wouild be in the nfc south couild go 6-0 in div and have shuila rec by 2026
I am positive that in the press conference, BB will talk glowingly about his time here, and how he's always tried to do what he thought was best for the team, and how it's players that win championships. And Kraft will talk glowingly about BB, calling him the greatest HC of all time, and that he will always be a member of the Patriots' family. That kind of stuff. Nothing but the high road from both parties today is my guess.
I'm hoping Mayo is the guy and with some Draft/FA magic we can be Right Back In It, but man I just cant shake the feeling we got further from competing today than we were yesterday. maybe I'm just setting my expectations low so I'm pleasantly surprised by being just another football team going forward.
It sucks, but it also sucked watching Bill coach a 4-13 team. Not just the losing, but that it was our football genius coach losing. Decline is hard. Watching him get frustrated and fail to come up with the effective answers was hard.
Starting fresh(ish if they go with Mayo) will in some ways be much easier as a fan. No expectations. No history. No serious connection to the dynasty. It's a new era. Being 1 of 32 can still be damn exciting to watch. And nothing that happens from here on will touch upon Bill's legacy, which is now assured.
This is a different kind of melancholy than I felt with TB12. But like that situation, I hope Bill goes out and kills it for a few years. Hopefully in a different division and conference.
Nice straw man. My point is, we're in the wilderness right now, given the team's lack of playmakers and stale offensive path. This is a sad day, but I'm hoping the long road back to greatness can begin with a step in a new direction. The team needs it.
5 years, two playoff games, one a complete and utter blowout and then the 3rd worst record in 2023.
It is the wilderness. Can it get worse? Actually, no, the team had the worst offense in 2023. Is it guaranteed to get better? No, obviously.
But it's been either middling or bad.
Lots of Atl talk, and makes some sense.
But they have no QB and I can’t imagine Bill will coach more than 3 years or so.
Do they have some ready-made plan at quarterback? Trade for Fields? Is that even a lot better?
I can’t imagine he wants to go somewhere he could immediately be stuck in another round of Mac Jones/Bailey Zappe hell.
But they have no QB and I can’t imagine Bill will coach more than 3 years or so.
Do they have some ready-made plan at quarterback? Trade for Fields? Is that even a lot better?
I can’t imagine he wants to go somewhere he could immediately be stuck in another round of Mac Jones/Bailey Zappe hell.
Why change now? I expect BB to issue a statement in 20 minutes, and then deflect all questions he's asked to the statement he's already issued. He will expound on length to one question about when it's best to use a double-team to jam a gunner at the LOS on punts.