What is next for BB?
- Thread starter tims4wins
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Good for him. He needed an opportunity to work from out of Bill’s shadow and out of the organization his dad ran forever.
Boomer just said on his radio show that an NFL executive told him Arthur Blank offered Bill the job and he turned it down.
I went looking for anything more about Bill turning down the Atlanta job, and didn't find anything, but did find an article that both the Cowboys and Eagles had expressed interest in Belichick, but he wasn't interested. I'm not going to link it, because I'm not familiar with the publication. But has anybody actually heard that from any reliable sourcing?
All I've seen is pure speculation during the runup to the playoffs, nothing authoritative. I'm highly skeptical that the Eagles would be looking to move on from Siriani just one season after making a Super Bowl run, and so any report that the Eagles were interested in Belichick needs to have receipts, IMO. The Dallas angle is slightly more plausible, but still highly unusual for a playoff team to decide to keep their coach after inquiring elsewhere.
I guess it's feasible that someone from their respective front offices could have been doing due diligence and reached out to Bill's agent immediately after BB's firing. As in "Hey, it's probably not likely, but in the event we have an opening in the coming weeks, would Bill be interested?".
In general, it would not surprise me if Bill decided to be quite selective. He's had significant if not full control of personnel these past 24 years, and he probably wants at least some say when the team selects the groceries. Shula's record aside, he doesn't have to coach. And, of course, Team Bill has a lot of incentive to create the media narrative around his selectivity being the reason he's unemployed right now.
It’s very hard to imagine he turned anything down.
Feels like there must be a certain momentum to an NFL front office, and if you wanted to ‘keep the band together’ with your kids and personnel people/lackeys, it’s a lot harder if they were all forced to find new jobs.
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Hard to imagine. That said, he's going to be 72 in April and has done this his entire life. Absent the set up he wanted, he might be perfectly content to sit out a year and/or call it a career.
One takeaway for me in all of this is that NFL organizations with built in systems are are too risk averse to shake it up. I had thought some might be more willing to roll the dice. Especially ones with a history of total mediocrity or even consistent failure. Maybe not a new dynamic, but a disappointing one that showed up as this all played out. Teams are indeed corporations.
I don’t see why it would be hard to imagine him turning down a job. He checks out a few situations, has various discussions about the players and setup, and decides that’s not what he wants to do.
This makes perfect sense to me whether it is 100% true or not. I'm guessing he may have had interest if either of the head coaches had been immediately canned before anyone reached out to him, but who would want to come across as a Doc Rivers?
I don't trust the media narrative on all of this because I think these guys generally just come up with stuff that to them is logical and has at best some tenuous factual basis from sources. Then it gets repeated 1000x and it's the story. That said, Bill could have played the game better. He could have made more public statements/leaks about recognizing the challenges at the end of his NE tenure, being willing to adjust the football operation, personnel management, etc. He may have made these statements privately in interviews, but so much of sports is reacting to public demand. He really could have put an owner like Blank in a public bind if he wanted to. That's not Bill's style and I'm happy he didn't, but if he really wants to work next year, he's going to have to do some legwork. (Or have his agent do it.). Apparently the "I'm Bill Belichick" interview is not going to do it in 2024, like it would have in 2012.
Honestly I think that folks just have a hard time getting their head around gig/contract work. To be unemployed is often a choice, if the job being offered sucks. I've worked with lots of folks who work 6-9 months/year because they only take good gigs. My own kids have turned down contracts in order to find better ones. I have an old friend who retired at 60 because he was bored with the work and his kids were grown. We used to ring his phone off the hook to get him back to run this or that project, and occasionally he'd swoop in to stabilize some shit for a few weeks and jet off. Usually he didn't bother.
If one has a problem with Belichick or believes that he has lost it, one can infer that him sitting this year out is a sign that the music stopped and no chairs were left. That doesn't make it true. The world is a complex place. For a unicorn like Bill, there won't always be a good fit--right ownership, right cap situation, player personnel department isn't morons, roster isn't a complete mess, AND the team was bad enough last year that the owner wants to make a coaching change. There are 31 other jobs. There won't always be one that meets these criteria. Hell, Josh McDaniels turned down Indy because the place was a chaotic shitshow, not just because Kraft put too many zeroes on his check. It happens. Harbaugh needed to bolt from Michigan and still waltzed through interviews like Elvis until the Chargers gave him what he wanted.
If folks are fully engaged in the narrative that time has passed Bill by, then that's fine. But we're oversimplifying what it means to be an NFL coach with clout here.
Heck; Belichick might not really “know how” to function in certain kinds of organizations and at this point could be uninterested in learning what ropes there might be even for a senior person.
And I too wonder who would have to get fired or de facto demoted at some organizations to give him the control he wanted. Like, that could be a lot more than a “shake-up.” Of course, NFL teams love to fire people!
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I see a lot of assumptions that Bill has to coach to catch Shula and that he really wants to....
I don't really buy that. I think Bill would probably like to catch Shula, but he's smart enough to know that his legacy is more than secure (also that someone, likely Reid) will pass him some day anyway.
I think Bill would like to coach because.... that's what he does. He's a football coach, he's been doing it for 60 years and it's unclear he knows how to stop. But Bill also is at a point where he's not going to take a job just to take a job, why would he? He's got plenty of money, he's going to be remembered as arguably the best to ever do it. He'll be looking for a job where he can do what he wants the way he wants to, and if one doesn't come up.... off to the boat for a while.
I don't really buy that. I think Bill would probably like to catch Shula, but he's smart enough to know that his legacy is more than secure (also that someone, likely Reid) will pass him some day anyway.
I think Bill would like to coach because.... that's what he does. He's a football coach, he's been doing it for 60 years and it's unclear he knows how to stop. But Bill also is at a point where he's not going to take a job just to take a job, why would he? He's got plenty of money, he's going to be remembered as arguably the best to ever do it. He'll be looking for a job where he can do what he wants the way he wants to, and if one doesn't come up.... off to the boat for a while.
Obviously we don't know exactly why BB wasn't hired for any of the open HC positions, but, I do wonder if Bill the coach realizes Bill the GM has torpedoed any chance of him having full control over an organization again like he did here in New England.
Or, if the reporting we've seen is true, BB recognized that Mac sucks and tried to trade him, only to be overruled by the owner, and figures that in his next and very likely last job he will not be put into a similar situation again.
It's not hard to imagine at all. Is he desperate for a job? I don't think so. At 72 years old he's well past any normal person's retirement age. He's rich, as rich as he ever needs to be (and then some). He's famous (if he even cares about that sort of thing). And he has already accomplished everything there is to accomplish in his profession. Hot takes aside, no one would seriously dispute that, if he's not THE greatest NFL coach of all time, he's one of the top 3 or 4. What does he have left to prove? Nothing.
Why would he take any job that isn't EXACTLY what he wants it to be? He's the one with all the leverage in any hiring situation.
Sure, I accept all of that.
I should be very specific that I don’t believe he would turn down a job that he interviewed twice for. I’m sure there’s plenty of jobs that wouldn’t consider.
I think it's pretty easy to believe in the sense that he likely told them what his conditions were and they offered him the job if he would relax some of them... and he declined.
If youre the owner of a team that opens up 0-2 or 0-3 and BB is sitting there on the sidelines it’s going to be awfully tempting to make a change. Hard to take over in season but you could see him ending up in a higher talent situation waiting for failures elsewhere. Just as a random example Philly may not have moved on at seasons end but if they come out slow they could choose to move quickly
There is no way BB steps in partway through a season. He is all about preparation from day 1 of the offseason.
Yeah. And it just doesn't really happen in the NFL in general. Unless you're an idiot like Irsay.
Got to say, listening back to Boomers quotes from yesterday that your idea is looking more feasible than I initially considered.
I still don’t think Rich and Arthur pushed an offer across the table to have Bill reject it, but I can see Arthur discussing some theoretical arraignment to BB that he would have found unacceptable (like reporting to Rich or not having control or whatever).
It may not be about wealth or fame or proving himself to anyone else. That BB has accomplished more as a coach than anyone could reasonably hope to accomplish doesn't necessarily satisfy him in the present (and it might not satisfy him in the future). Lots of powerful people work past 72. The two major-party candidates for POTUS are 77 and 81 (barring the unexpected). If BB wants to coach because nothing else moves him, then I could see him settling for a job next year that isn't exactly what he wants it to be, provided he has suitors.
Apparently Carroll's kid is also getting hired at UW.
Pretty wild to think of BB and Pete hanging out at games together in the stands.
Pretty wild to think of BB and Pete hanging out at games together in the stands.
That is a hilarious image. And like good dads they'd be complaining about the fucking head coach who doesn't know his head from his ass and is mis-using their kids. "Hey, Bill, I have an idea buddy! Whaddya say you and I...."
If Blank isn't lying (and I'm not sure why he would be), I'm befuddled as to why BB wasn't hired by someone as a HC.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39492697/belichick-never-asked-player-control
If that's true, then hiring Raheem Morris over Bill Belichick makes even less sense.
Love this. "I just want to make myself very clear: our decision to hire Raheem Morris over Bill Belichick was even less defensible than you were lead to believe".
I’m likely reading too much into this…
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39472013/andy-reid-possible-retirement-today-not-day
The reason I keep coming up with, and I know this is a longshot, is that there is more to Andy Reid’s “Today is not the day ”. I wonder if Bill actually turned down the Falcons job because he has the KC job almost lined up.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39472013/andy-reid-possible-retirement-today-not-day
I would be shocked if Reid retired. I think he has 2-3 years left to ride this wave. And I would say it's an extreme long shot that BB is up for that job. They would look for continuity with Nagy. Maybe bring Bienemy back as OC.
Yeah, even if Reid retired, why would they go to BB? That’s not a franchise in need of a reorg.
I would be completely shocked if Reid retired and they didn't hire Bienemy as HC
Bienemy has interviewed for tons of jobs and not landed anywhere…and he was not effective in Washington as OC (all they did was throw and he damn near got that qb killed)…why is he a shoe in for the kc job? And over bb?!
Yeah and there are also seems to be a bit of friction between him and Reid. Seemed like everyone was ready for a fresh start at the end. Reid was just asked about him coming back, and he said something like "I don't have a spot." I don't know what's next for Bienemy, but I'd be a bit surprised if it's back in KC regardless of what happens with Reid.
People are out of their minds. Seeing monsters under the bed everywhere.
Belichick's situation could be as simple as nobody wanted a 72 year old guy who has just compiled 3 of the worst 4 seasons in his Patriots career in the last 4 years, (probably just a coincidence those 4 years were the post Brady years) including his worst year ever, by far, in 2023.
Seems like this bit of news got lost in all the coaching moves, but Bill O'Brien is going to be HC of BC, 3 weeks after initially accepting a job at tOSU:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/09/sports/boston-college-football-coach-bill-obrien/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/09/sports/boston-college-football-coach-bill-obrien/
I hope that Bill spends a year primarily on Nantucket, working on history projects for NFL Films, and then returns to coaching - in Annapolis.
At this point, given all the money they've made and their discomfort with the "modern" NIL and transfer situations, I'm surprised that several big time college coaches don't end up in d3 programs where they can mostly just....coach football. Same with basketball. (assuming they still enjoy doing that). The service academies are d1, of course, but its still mostly coaching, and a whole lot less of the other stuff.
But do you know what's better than coaching D3 football that nobody cares about? Tens of millions of dollars to coach teams who are on TV every week.
I expect Bill will only take something that is perfect, until then he can take his frenemy's money.
I don't see Bill taking an existing coach's job. I can see him having too much respect for the coaching fraternity and the difficulty in getting and keeping a job, so I can't imagine he'd want to be the reason someone who thought they were OK gets canned. Going after an open job would be another matter I'm sure.