Belichick ending badly is history repeating. Fellow greats Halas, Landry and Shula all did, too | Opinion

Bill Belichick has 333 NFL head coaching victories, No. 2 on the all-time list, and six Super Bowl wins — the most ever.

Nobody wants him.

By most measures and reckoning he is the undisputed G.O.A.T., and he is an available free agent looking for a job.

Nobody wants him.

The NFL is winding down an especially active cycle of coaching turnover. A quarter of the teams, eight, will have made new hires.

And nobody wanted Bill Belichick.

As King Sport prepares for its season crescendo with a Chiefs-49ers Super Bowl on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas, the NFL quietly is moving on from its greatest coach, now all but certain to enter the 2024 season without him. It would be his first season not in the league in 50 years, since his first job as an assistant with the Baltimore Colts in 1974.

The once-unfathomable, sudden jettisoning of Belichick to past-tense is a stunning turn of events with historic ramifications.

Because it is now reasonable for the first time to wonder and ask: What if this is it? That he never coaches again? What if the one-year hiatus turns into what is tantamount to a forced retirement?

These are fair questions because the once-unthinkable is now close enough to see:

Belichick may never get the chance to surpass Don Shula’s career record for all-time wins — a mountaintop he once seemed certain to scale, an honor his to own.

Shula, the Miami Dolphins legend who passed away at age 90 in 2020, had 347 victories. Belichick is 15 wins from beating that. Realistically he would need two more seasons, three tops. That was once a given. It is far from that now.

Shula could never have imagined it ending like this for his longtime coaching rival.

Tom Brady left New England to sign with Tampa Bay just weeks before Shula passed away. But who could foresee that Belichick would fizzle post-Brady, going 29-39 with no playoff wins in the four seasons since? Or that Pats owner Robert Kraft would move on from Belichick last month in a “parting of ways” carefully crafted as amicable even as it was clear to all that Kraft wanted the change — that Belichick was being nudged out the door with a velvet glove.

Actually, maybe Shula could have imagined that. Because he lived it. It is how his own coaching career ended.

Same with Tom Landry before him.

And George Halas before that.

It doesn’t always end well, even for top-tier coaches. Now we see history perhaps repeating itself.

It was around this time in 1967 that George Halas, fading at 72, ended his long tenure in Chicago with no efforts made to dissuade him retiring. His teams went 26-27-3 his last four years.

“Papa Bear” would never coach again, his career wins ended at 324, still third all-time.

It was around this time in 1989 when a new Cowboys owner named Jerry Jones abruptly fired Dallas legend Tom Landry to bring in Jimmy Johnson from the Miami Hurricanes. It was a hostile takeover that gut-punched Landry, who was then 64 and, in his mind, not nearly done coaching.

The man in the sideline fedora would never coach again. Landry’s career wins total froze at 270, still the fifth most ever.

It was about this time in 1996 when then-Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga moved on from Shula to lure the very same Jimmy Johnson from Dallas. Miami couched it as Shula retiring, but that wasn’t the case. Shula was then 65 and, he hoped, not done. Over time he came to grips with his fate but could never quite let the resentment go. He called Johnson “Jimmy Who” with a humorless smile the last time we ever spoke.

Shula would never coach again, his wins total in stone at the top of the tablet at 347.

Belichick even amid his post-Brady struggles always seemed sure to surpass that number. Until now.

The disappointing career end that befell Halas, then Landry and then Shula and now perhaps Belichick is closer to the norm than the exception for aging coaches.

The exception is one win from his third Super Bowl ring.

Andy Reid of the Chiefs, who will be 66 next month, is at 283 wins, fourth all-time and now 64 wins from topping Shula for No. 1. Unlike the others, Reid seems near his career apex, and has a superstar quarterback in his prime in 28-year-old Patrick Mahomes. For Reid, the most wins ever might be five or six seasons away should he choose to stave off retirement.

If Belichick does have a lane back into the NFL, it could be Kansas City if Reid elects to retire after the Super Bowl, which ESPN’s Adam Schefter and others have speculated could happen.

Dallas might also be a landing spot in 2025 if Jones elects to move on from Mike McCarthy.

But Reid not continuing on with the best QB in football in his prime seems a long shot. As does McCarthy having a fireable season next year with a roster that just won the NFC East at 12-5 (albeit with a quick playoff exit). Or with the control-freak Jones giving Belichick the power he would demand.

And would any other team want Belichick when eight just said no-thanks?

Only Atlanta had apparent interest. Gave him two interviews, the first on owner Arthur Blank’s yacht off the Virgin Islands. But the Falcons hired Raheem Morris instead — a rebuff that reportedly embarrassed, angered and hurt Belichick.

Seven other teams made hires without ever contacting Belichick, the latest the Washington Commanders on Thursday, after also showing zero interest in the six-time Super Bowl winner.

The reasons are many, and not a surprise. They include:

His age, turning 72 in April; his demand for power and complete institutional control; his sharp downturn and lack of success post-Brady; his disdain for the league-wide trend to the influence and reliance on analytics; and his hard-nosed, old-school approach to player relations out of step with today’s NFL.

As Brady’s father, Tom Sr., told the Boston Globe: “Bill is tough. He runs a military system. It’s a different generation. Bill is a great, great, great coach. But his interpersonal skills are horrible.”

Belichick made the decision to not keep Brady in New England, thinking him too old at 42, and the decision blew up in Belichick’s face. Brady won a Super Bowl in Tampa, and all of Belichick’s mojo and magic seemed to leave with him. He wanted to prove he could win without Brady. And failed. And now hopes for one last shot.

“Ego sometimes gets in the way of things. I think it did with Bill,” said Tom Brady Sr. “Now, he’s in a situation where he’s gotten crucified for the last few years by everybody and a lot of luster has come off his rose.”

Brady Sr. claims Kraft admitted to him he was wrong to listen to Belichick’s evaluation of an aging QB and to let Brady leave.

“He said, ‘I made a mistake.’ I know that it galls [Belichick] that Tommy went elsewhere and won — not that he won, but that he won after Bill said he was done.”

Now it looks as if Belichick might be the one done, the timetable not his, the end portending hurt.

Because the greatest coach ever is available.

And nobody wants him.