The Coaching Carousel has claimed New England’s Bill Belichick.
According to the NFL Network and ESPN, the Patriots and the coach who led them to six Super Bowl victories will part ways.
The 71-year old recently wrapped up his 24th season as head coach with the team.
In that time he led a once-woeful franchise to 17 division titles, 13 appearances in the AFC Championship Game, nine Super Bowl berths, and six NFL Championships.
Since parting ways with longtime quarterback Tom Brady, Belichick and the Patriots have missed the playoffs in three of the last four years.
He departs with 266 wins at New England.
But this marked his worst season — the Patriots ended up 4-13.
It supplanted the 5-11 mark he managed in his last year in Cleveland in 1995 and again in his first year in New England in 2000. Including the playoffs, he ends his Patriots tenure with a 333-178 overall record.
It’s not immediately clear who Kraft will tap to replace the future Hall of Famer.
According to the AP, Belichick had been grooming offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to replace him before McDaniels left following the 2021 season to become the coach of the Raiders.
He has since been fired by Las Vegas.
Belichick’s two sons, Steve and Brian, are also on the coaching staff.
His legacy in New England includes two major cheating investigations — and other, minor ones — that cost him and the team draft picks and more than $1 million in fines. Opponents accused the Patriots of everything from hacking their headsets to cutting corners on injury reports.
His friendship with former President Donald Trump, which Belichick insisted was not political, landed the coach on the list to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom in the waning days of the administration. After the outcry against the U.S. Capitol siege, Belichick announced “the decision has been made not to move forward.”
See some key moments from Belichick’s career.
WTOP’s Will Vitka and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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