After 24 years and six championships, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots agreed to part ways.
Belichick held a relatively brief press conference Thursday, where he spent the majority of his time thanking players, staffers and fans for their contributions during his lengthy tenure.
"Players win games in the NFL," Belichick said. "I’ve been very, very fortunate to coach some of the greatest players to ever play the game." After Belichick shared his feelings, longtime team owner Robert Kraft stepped up to the microphone and said the parting of ways was amicable.
"Good afternoon everyone. And as Bill mentioned, yesterday we met and mutually agreed to part ways, amicably. Like a good marriage, a successful head coach-owner relationship requires a lot work. I'm really proud our partnership lasted 24 years. I don't think in the NFL there has been any other partnership that lasted longer and has been as productive as ours," Kraft said.
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Neither Belichick nor Kraft took questions, though Kraft admitted that missing the playoffs in three of the past four seasons factored into the split.
"What’s gone on here the last three to four years isn’t what we want. So, we have a responsibility to do what we can to fix it to the best of our ability," Kraft said.
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The 82-year-old Kraft shook hands with the 71-year-old Belichick and later embraced the coach. Kraft reminisced about the early days of Belichick's coaching tenure.
"I trusted my instincts to bring Bill back to New England in 2000 after immediately regretting not hiring him after working with him together in 1996. When I did hire him, I was still making the transition from the fan who bought season tickets in 1971, sitting on the metal benches in the old Foxboro Stadium with my boys, to try to become an experienced owner," Kraft recalled.
Belichick led the Patriots to 10 Super Bowl appearances, winning 31 playoff games and 17 division titles along the way. But the franchise has struggled to reach anywhere near the same level of sustained success since the departure of quarterback Tom Brady.
The Patriots have finished with losing records in three of the past four seasons and have zero playoff wins in that span. New England finished this season with a 4-13 record, which represented Belichick’s lowest win total in his 29 seasons as an NFL head coach. He won five games in 1995 when he was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
Including the playoffs, he ends his Patriots tenure with a 333-178 overall record. He became just the third coach in NFL history to reach 300 career regular-season victories, joining Hall of Famers Don Shula and George Halas. His 333 wins, including the playoffs, trail only Shula's 347.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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