Might Invoice Belichick coach the Jets? It feels unlikely because of 25 years of bitterness

You’ll be able to hear the disgust in Invoice Belichick’s voice when he has to say the title of the NFL staff he took such pleasure in beating.

Within the 2018 ESPN “30 for 30” documentary “The Two Payments,” producers tried to get Belichick and his mentor Invoice Parcells to go into the New York Jets locker room at MetLife Stadium. You understand, for previous instances’ sake contemplating Belichick’s transient tenure as coach there in early 2000, one which ended with a easy message scribbled out on a serviette, that he was resigning as “HC of the NYJ.” He’s a person of few phrases — even when quitting a place he held for under sooner or later.

Belichick and Parcells wanting NOTHING to do with the Jets locker room is the perfect a part of this doc pic.twitter.com/huu6vsVyVe

— Steve Perrault (@Steve_Perrault) February 2, 2018

He left amid turmoil throughout the Jets possession group due to issues with Woody Johnson and the opposite potential proprietor, he mentioned within the documentary, bolting for the head-coaching job with the rival New England Patriots. And thus started what can generously be known as Belichick’s distaste for the Jets, one which has carried on for 25 years and proven no indicators of adjusting anytime quickly.

That’s necessary context to recollect now because the Jets have a head-coaching emptiness after Tuesday’s shock firing of Robert Saleh. New York defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich has been named the interim coach for the remainder of the 2024 season.

In the meantime, having parted methods with the Patriots in January after 266 wins and 6 Tremendous Bowl titles, Belichick awaits — he hopes — his subsequent teaching job, one which’ll get him the 15 remaining wins he must change into the league’s all-time chief in teaching wins, a document he badly desires to assert.

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It may be simple to hyperlink the 72-year-old coach and the Jets within the coming months for apparent causes and the drama it might present. Might you think about? Belichick in New York with roster in win-now mode and a quarterback in Aaron Rodgers he has incessantly praised? In the identical division because the Patriots, no much less, with an opportunity to get again at his previous staff? Broadway would don’t have anything on the theater within the Meadowlands!

However that’s possible little greater than fantasy. Why?

Belichick is without doubt one of the league’s nice grudge-holders. He was shut associates with coach Eric Mangini till he bolted for the Jets and have become the individual largely chargeable for the Spygate scandal.

Belichick grew up in Annapolis, Md., the son of a soccer coach, a pupil of the sport and a purveyor of its historical past. He used to speak about his respect for Don Shula, the legendary NFL coach, whom he grew up watching with the Baltimore Colts. After Spygate, Shula mentioned the controversy “tainted” what the Patriots had constructed. Belichick didn’t like that, so he now desires Shula’s all-time wins document.

Need extra? Belichick additionally helped Wes Welker change into one of many league’s greatest huge receivers between 2007 and 2012. Nonetheless, after a contract dispute went public, Welker left the staff and was basically scrubbed from Patriots historical past. Although Welker is the franchise’s all-time chief in receptions and ranks third in receiving yards, he’s not within the franchise’s Corridor of Fame. There aren’t any photographs of Welker on the partitions of Gillette Stadium, although loads of his teammates seem in photographs from that point. And although he’s now an assistant coach with the Miami Dolphins — which implies two video games a 12 months in opposition to the Patriots — he and Belichick have been by no means noticed catching up earlier than or after video games as many former colleagues do.

However again to the Jets.

They’ve what must be roster. Belichick loves Rodgers, even when the 40-year-old’s play has declined a bit. And large paychecks have a method of serving to folks bury hatchets.

However for this to work, for Belichick to actually take into account the Jets, one of many greatest grudge-holders the NFL has ever seen must let go of bitterness greater than twenty years within the making. And that’s assuming Johnson would even take into account Belichick after their tumultuous previous. The Jets proprietor looks like a proud man. He’s apparently insisting the Jets discuss with him as “Ambassador Johnson” on their web site due to his time as ambassador to the UK from 2017 to 2021.

All of that makes it appear unlikely Belichick and Johnson would hyperlink up, even when it might make for an enchanting match.

What looks like a higher match — with almost as a lot drama — could be the Jets’ pursuing Mike Vrabel, a Patriots Corridor of Fame participant beneath Belichick. After six largely profitable seasons because the coach of the Tennessee Titans, Vrabel was reportedly curious about teaching the Patriots however by no means received a lot as an interview for the job when proprietor Robert Kraft shortly employed Jerod Mayo, who he’d put in writing would succeed Belichick.

After all, there’s much more to the historical past of Belichick and the Jets. The coach as soon as known as resigning from the Jets “one of many biggest moments of my profession.” He took satisfaction in beating them 15 straight instances from 2016 to 2023, an unfathomably lengthy successful streak in a league filled with parity. He smirked on the sideline in 2019 when, throughout one other blowout win over the Jets, he exploited a loophole within the guidelines to empty two minutes off the clock with out working a play whereas the Jets appeared on befuddled.

Even all these years later, Belichick nonetheless appears to be trolling the Jets. Simply two weeks in the past, whereas on his weekly look with ESPN’s Pat McAfee, Belichick was speaking in regards to the Minnesota Vikings and quarterback Sam Darnold, whom the Jets drafted with the No. 3 decide in 2018 however has struggled in his first six seasons within the NFL. “I’ll say this,” Belichick added coyly. “All people has favored Darnold — besides the Jets.”

All of that can do little to sluggish hypothesis about Belichick and the Jets. Any time a training job opens, it’ll most likely yield discussions about whether or not Belichick will likely be a match there.

However this doesn’t seem to be the fitting one for both aspect.