Sunday could be Jets' last chance to beat Bill Belichick
ORCHARD PARK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 31: Head coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots looks on during the first half of a game against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium on December 31, 2023 in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Rich Barnes/Getty Images) Credit: Getty Images/Rich Barnes
Nearly 24 years to the day after the greatest personal grudge in pro football history began with a few letters hastily scribbled on a piece of paper and a bizarre off-the-rails introductory-turned-farewell news conference that took place on Long Island, all the bitterness and resentment and lopsided results of almost a quarter-century of hostilities may be coming to a close.
Might Bill Belichick be facing the Jets for the final time as HC of the NEP?
That such a momentous event should happen not with the fireworks and headlines with which their saga began and continued to roil for most of its existence, but with a relatively mean-nothing meeting between two teams with double-digit losses tucked quietly into a 1 p.m. time slot of the final Sunday of the regular season, fails to represent the significance of what we are about to see.
It is, perhaps, one last chance for each side to stick it to the other.
Nothing would make the Jets happier than to spoil what might be an emotional send-off from the Foxborough crowds for their favorite curmudgeon. Conversely, Belichick undoubtedly wants to prove his continued dominance over the team he disdains more than any other.
This game has the potential to mark not just the end of the season but the end of an era.
Belichick, 71, was 48 years old when he first faced the Jets in New England. He has spent a third of his life with the Patriots. He was the coach when they moved into Gillette Stadium, so no one else has ever sat in his office with his title.
That someone else might do so next season is, at this point, only speculation. On Monday, Belichick batted away a query about his future with New England the same way he’s been swatting at gnatty questions for most of his career.
“Yeah, I’m focused on getting ready for the Jets,” he said. “We haven’t played them in a long time, been all season, so I’m going to work on the Jets here and get ready to go.”
He dodged a follow-up about reflecting on his accomplishments with the Patriots with similar gusto.
“I’ll deal with that some other time,” he said. “Right now, it’s trying to get the team ready for the Jets, finish up the [review of Sunday’s] Buffalo game, continue to coach the team and try to help the players and the team play better.”
He’s on to . . . well, no one really knows.
Another coaching job somewhere else? A cushy broadcasting gig? Right back with the Patriots? As clandestine as his arrival in New England was with its backdoor maneuverings, the process of his departure — imminent or otherwise — is being kept under the same cloak of secrecy.
The only openly discussed and agreed-upon element of it all, it seems, is his distaste for the Jets and theirs for him.
Since spurning the Jets and resigning from the head-coaching job he had contractually inherited with the retirement of Bill Parcells on Jan. 4, 2000, Belichick has tormented his former organization. He has won better than three out of every four of the 48 meetings between the division foes (35-10 in the regular season, 2-1 in the playoffs), not to mention a half-dozen Super Bowls on his way to becoming widely regarded as the greatest coach in NFL history.
Of late, his mastery of the Jets has become even more regular. The Patriots have won 15 straight against them and 23 of the last 25. Tom Brady’s departure from New England may have ended the Patriots’ perpetual championship machinery, but even without the future Hall of Fame quarterback at his disposal, Belichick has won seven straight against the Jets.
The relationship between Belichick and the Jets goes much deeper than just wins and losses, though. It was born in chaos, involves the sinisterness of Spygate, the perceived betrayal by Eric Mangini when he left New England to coach the Jets, the overwhelming and ultimately futile desire of Rex Ryan to stand up to Belichick’s mystical hold over the organization and, now, almost an entire roster of players (and many coaches) who have never beaten the Patriots as members of the Jets.
And now it may be coming down to one final clash. One opportunity to punctuate an age that has been far too one-sided to be called a rivalry, but also far too antagonistic to be dismissed as mere coexistence.
Jets defensive lineman Quinnen Williams, 0-for-6 in career games against the Patriots, said on Monday that Belichick-coached teams are “efficient” and described them as “a team that doesn’t commit mistakes, doesn’t commit penalties. A team that does everything right and basically executes at the highest level.”
It would be nice to not have to face that kind of situation twice a season every season after Sunday, huh? Williams wasn’t looking ahead on that, though. There still is business to take care of. And it comes on Sunday against a four-win Patriots team that has been struggling all year, that has no identity at quarterback, that has injuries to many starters on defense and that has a shaky rookie kicker if the game comes down to that all-important element.
“I want to win,” Williams said. “No matter if he’s in the division or not in the division, I just want to win football games.”
If he or any Jets want to win one against Belichick, though, this may be their best chance in a while. And, they should know, maybe their last.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
