I Can’t Be The Only One Who Thinks If Some Team Let Bill Belichick Coach For Them He Might Win Some Games

It actually makes a lot of sense that eight or 10 or a dozen NFL teams that could have convinced themselves that bringing in Bill Belichick would be a worthwhile gamble instead decided to do something else. Indiviually they all must weigh disparate circumstances as the greatest football coach of all time also has some significant baggage and hasn't done much winning at all for several years. He's also notoriously grumpy and cantankerous. Whichever team decides to give him the reins will also have to hand over personnel control and brace for Mr. Hoodie to bring in a rogues gallery of his coaching buddies — none of whom have been particularly successful without his tutelage. Belichick has significant baggage, is 71 years-old, and would command an enormous financial investment. He has, at most, one shot at a second act and if it all goes wrong the franchise who let him take another swing at it will be down bad.

It can make sense and seems kind of stupid at the same time.

No offense to Dave Canales or Brian Callahan. They don't have an obnoxious amount of Super Bowls. They are not proven commodities. They're foibles are lesser known. The Atlanta Falcons are going with Raheem Morris partly because Belichick was seen as a short-term prospect. Yet isn't everyone in the NFL — where Nick Sirianni can come perilously close to losing his job less than a calendar year of almost winning a Super Bowl?

Belichick is not believed to be a serous contender for the Commanders or Seahawks job. Barring a mystery team backing up the Brinks truck he'll have to take a gap year in the booth or the studio or coaching freshman lacrosse or something. He won't get any younger and who knows if he'll be any more attractive to teams that find themselves with openings next year. There's a non-zero chance that it's already over for him and no one knows it yet.

And I guess I'm just standing in front of you like a moron and asking really? No team is willing to say, sure Bill, we'll let you run this operation for four or five years and see what you can do? Every other team would prefer to have some dude named Dave or Jim who no one could pick out of a lineup? Why, that almost suggests that front-office types are afraid of a coach who has more juice and earned respect than they do and that just wouldn't be right now, would it?

Belichick is not a sympathetic figure. No one is going to shed any tears because he can't find a place to exist long enough to break Don Shula's record. But damn, we're underappreciating just how weird this is. The best football coach ever can't find a football team to coach. Maybe ever again?