A storm is about to hit New England.
No, we’re not talking about the snow and wind expected at Gillette Stadium for Sunday’s season finale between the Patriots and, appropriately, the hated Jets.
While the fallen snow will be a visually pleasing backdrop, the weather will play second-fiddle storyline to questions surrounding whether this meaningless matchup between two teams jockeying for top-10 draft pick status rather than playoff positioning is Bill Belichick’s final game running Robert Kraft’s football team.
New Englanders are well aware that the winds of a nor’easter are powerful and damaging, but the winds of coaching change for a team that’s seen Belichick atop the football depth chart for 24 seasons are truly stormy.
The results could be both devastating and disastrous for all involved.
Make no mistake, as difficult as it may be for some to accept there are plenty of reasons to believe that this could and even should be Belichick’s final game as the sideline boss in Foxborough.
But that won’t make the decision or the news that could come as early as Black Monday, any less jarring.
Belichick is the greatest coach the Patriots have ever had. Won at a clip with Tom Brady in a way that may not ever be seen again in the NFL. Two-decade runs of success are rare in any sport, let alone the parity-driven world of professional football. That’s especially true at the Lombardi-hoisting level at which Belichick, Brady and the Patriots did it.
Belichick has been as iconic a coach as any in the modern era. His genuinely unique personality, style and philosophies were magnified by the success his teams procured on the field to elevate him beyond simple football coach status.
The Hoodie, with his sleeves ripped off and faced turn dour, changed the game of football through his simple, stoic, consistent and at times off-putting messaging and management.
In so many ways, there will never be another Belichick.
The mold was indeed broken at his birth.
All of that legendary status was earned, well-deserved and will last in the minds of his fans and his critics, among both Patriots and their frustrated foes alike for generations.
You didn’t have to like Belichick or the way he went about his business, but you sure as winning pooh had to respect him.
But, as the cliché goes, all good things must come to an end.
Now, Belichick faces off against the Aaron Rodgers-less Jets – unless his fellow future Hall of Fame bust brethren takes the field for an I-told-you-so snap on Sunday which would be oh so on brand – with many home fans rooting for a loss in the finale of a season in which his team and his coaching record have bottomed out.
If indeed Sunday is Belichick’s final game for the Patriots -- whether he’s fired, traded, retires or simply “parts ways” with Kraft’s organization – it’s going to generate attention across and well beyond the NFL landscape. Belichick leaving New England is not something to simply cross the ESPN scroll on the bottom of our TV screens or pop up in some quickly retreating notification on our iPhones, devices that didn't exist until long after Belichick took over in New England in 2000. It’s nightly news worthy more than it is simple SportsCenter for First Take fodder.
As has happened for, as Belichick put it, “the last 25 years,” history is again unfolding before our eyes.
All the all-time greats, athletes and coaches alike, had final games. We all knew they were coming and yet their finality can still be tough to fathom. Father Time, as they say, remains undefeated. The only one who could beat Brady, Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky and Hulk Hogan with it all on the line.
And now, maybe, the 71-year-old Belichick too.
If Sunday is indeed the end of the run for Belichick in New England, it’s the totality of the run that should be recalled, remembered and rejoiced. Not the final fruitless years and season.
Belichick’s departure from the Patriots should not be celebrated, even if it is actually necessary and in the best interests of the football team.
Rather, Belichick’s exit stage left at Gillette Stadium, blanketed in snow as the curtain potentially closes on his never-before-seen, never-again-matched career should be the focus.
A storm is coming to New England. A potential search for a new GM, a new coach and, in a couple months, a new quarterback.
But for this weekend, this final Sunday of the 2023 football season with all its inglorious faults, it’s not about the future. It’s about watching Belichick go to work one final time in New England.
In many ways, amidst the wind and snow, for Patriot Nation it may be the collective, congratulatory and thankful calm before the storm that feels like it’s already a brewin’.
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