Bill Belichick was a six-time Super Bowl winner with Tom Brady as the Patriots quarterback, but success has been a lot harder to find since Brady’s departure. Charles Krupa/Associated Press
“This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.”
T.S. Eliot wasn’t a Patriots fan, but he might as well have been talking about the final seconds of New England’s 17-3 loss to the Jets on Sunday in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It was the final whimper of an ugly season, a 4-13 slog that was the worst in the Bill Belichick era.
The 2024 season was uncharacteristic for Belichick, but his final postgame press conference of the season wasn’t. He spoke for five minutes, refused to discuss his future with the franchise, and said he still enjoyed coaching.
No one enjoyed watching this team. Get ready for three months of draft talk. All of this while Belichick was getting ready for his own talk with Robert and Jonathan Kraft about the future of the franchise and Belichick’s place in it.
This is where we are after 24 years of mostly great football under Belichick. He took a moribund franchise and turned it into the envy of the most powerful league in America. The Patriots could do very little wrong with the triumvirate of Belichick calling the plays, Tom Brady executing the vision, and Robert Kraft running the operation. New England, long immune from the allure of football, became the most rabid pigskin region in the nation.
It was too good to last forever. Brady, feeling disrespected, went south for warmer weather … and won a Super Bowl. Mac Jones was no Brady, and has regressed in each of his three seasons as the QB1 of the Patriots. Without the greatest quarterback of all time, Belichick’s seemingly inevitable conquest of the all-time NFL wins record sputtered.
It never ends well. Even the best motivational voices get tuned out eventually. Veteran coaches lose touch with young players. Locker rooms that once responded to toughness suddenly crave a softer, more supportive approach.
Twenty years ago Terry Francona ended an 86-year “curse” and led the Red Sox to an unforgettable championship. Three years later he was riding a Duck Boat again. Four years later he was gone.
Bruce Cassidy was fired in 2022 after posting a 245-108-46 record as head coach of the Boston Bruins. He led the Bruins to the playoffs in each of his six seasons at the helm, and got them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2019.
A year after being relieved of his Bruins duties, Cassidy won a Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights. Clearly he could still coach. He just wasn’t the right person for the Bruins.
Without Cassidy, the Bruins set an NHL record for regular-season wins under their new coach, former UMaine Black Bear Jim Montgomery. A shocking first-round loss took the luster off that achievement, yet it was clear the Bruins did respond to a new voice and that General Manager Don Sweeney’s controversial move worked.
Back in 1981, Bill Fitch led the Celtics to their 14th NBA championship. It was Fitch’s second year as head coach of the Celtics, a team that had won just 29 games the year before he arrived.
Fitch was a task-master, and while a young Larry Bird responded to his tactics there were other veterans on the team who wanted a more low-key approach.
Just two years after hanging Banner No. 14, Fitch was gone and the much-quieter K.C. Jones arrived. Over the next five years the Celtics went a staggering 308-102 under Jones and won two more championships, making it to the NBA Finals in his first four seasons at the helm.
Fitch and Jones couldn’t be more different in their coaching styles. Under the two men the Celtics made it to the conference finals eight times in nine years.
Of course, that run also coincided with the arrival of Bird the future Hal of Famer. More than Fitch, more than Jones, it was Bird who ushered in the next Celtics dynasty.
In the end, it’s always the players. The 2024 Patriots didn’t have enough good ones. Rebuilding the roster is far more important than deciding who the next coach will be. And that work won’t begin in earnest for weeks. The work won’t be easy. No matter who is coaching the team come September.
Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.
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