The China Mail - Bill Belichick: the greatest?

Over the course of a coaching career spanning an incredible 49 years –- 24 of them in New England –- Belichick has set records and benchmarks that may never be beaten in a sport where the average tenure of a head coach is just 3.2 years.

A ferocious workaholic with a gruff, impenetrable exterior, Belichick's relentless pursuit of silverware has seen him amass eight Super Bowl wins -– two as an assistant with the New York Giants in 1986 and 1990 and six with New England -– and 333 total victories, second only to the late Don Shula with 347 wins.

In terms of longevity, no other coach comes close to matching Belichick, who first appeared on the sidelines as an assistant coach with the then-Baltimore Colts in 1975 for the princely sum of $25 a week.

Belichick's achievements in New England alone -– six Super Bowl wins and three more appearances in the championship game -– speak for themselves.

That they were compiled in an era of salary caps and more intense competition, where NFL rules effectively seek to make it hard for one team to dominate, are a minor miracle.

"Is he going to go down as the greatest?" said former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms. "I don't know how you can even argue it."

- Encyclopedic knowledge -

Belichick's coaching philosophy has been based on a simple guiding philosophy -- offenses should seek to exploit an opponent's defensive flaws; defenses should aim to nullify an opposing offense's principal weapon.

It was a principle learned from Belichick's father, Steve, an assistant coach at the US Naval Academy who wrote an acclaimed 1950s book on scouting methods, and built a vast library dedicated to the game that remains housed at the elite college in Maryland.

That kind of encyclopedic knowledge informed Belichick's approach to team-building, allowing him to construct championship-caliber teams season after season, often by picking up free agents or lower draft picks that had been overlooked by the rest of the league.

While a no-nonsense disciplinarian, Belichick also earned a reputation as a master at man-management, tailoring his style to bring the best out of his players.

"The thing about Bill is that he not only knows what kind of players fit his system, he can get in people's heads," Patriots scout Lionel Vital said.

"He's the best in the business at working with personalities. Bill can work with anybody. He'll reach you."

Belichick was, for the most part, able to regenerate the Patriots while remaining consistently competitive, unafraid to jettison players deemed surplus to requirements.

That clear-eyed, unsentimental approach provided Tom Brady with the chance to become the greatest quarterback in NFL history during his two-decade tandem alongside Belichick in New England.

Ignored until the sixth round of the 2000 Draft, Brady joined the Patriots as a lightly regarded prospect offering few hints of the career that would follow.

But impressed by Brady's fierce work ethic and dedication to self-improvement, Belichick had no hesitation in throwing the young quarterback into the fray in 2001.

- Brady split -

When first-choice quarterback Drew Bledsoe was injured, Brady took over and led the Patriots to an 11-3 record as starter before taking the team to an improbable Super Bowl victory.

Brady would later say that Belichick's consistency of approach is what set him apart.

"Whether that's April or whether that's early February, his attitude is the same," Brady said in 2017. "I'm yelled at just like everybody else."

Belichick's unrelenting drive has often seen him cast as a hate figure by rival teams and fans, however.

In 2007, New England were found to be signal-stealing during a game against the New York Jets in a scandal known as 'Spygate' and Belichick was fined $50,000 but escaped suspension.

Belichick's Patriots were also at the center of the 2014 'Deflategate' controversy, in which a league investigation found "it was more probable than not" that the Patriots had deliberately under-inflated balls to benefit Brady during a 45-7 AFC Championship win over Indianapolis.

Yet ultimately, Belichick's golden era in New England began to wane after strains in his relationship with Brady led to the quarterback leaving the franchise in 2020.

Brady had reportedly grown increasingly weary of Belichick's hard-nosed approach.

The veteran quarterback had the last laugh by signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and leading the franchise to a Super Bowl title in 2021 in his first season.

In the four seasons since Brady departed, the Patriots have reached the playoffs only once, and suffered three losing campaigns in the other seasons, culminating in this year's 4-13 record –- the worst season of Belichick's head coaching career.

His reign in New England ended in a whimper on Sunday, losing 17-3 at home to the Jets in the regular-season finale.

To the end, though, Belichick insisted he remained committed to New England.

"I'm under contract and I'm going to do what I always do: Come in every day and work as hard as I can to help the team in any way that I can."

Q.Moore--ThChM