FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — You saw it when Breece Hall dived headfirst into the end-zone snow at the end of a 50-yard touchdown run and Jets teammates dived along with him and here came the snow angels.
You saw it by the smile on co-owner Christopher Johnson’s face as he greeted players entering the locker room after Jets 17, Patriots 3. And then you heard it in a visiting locker room that has known only pain and agony and humiliation, from players who represent a franchise that had lost 15 consecutive games to Bill Belichick … until Sunday, when they sent their tormentor out with a loss in his likely last game as coach of the New England Patriots.
Good Riddance from the New York Jets.
“Now we don’t gotta go into the first Patriots game next year talking about that damn streak,” Tyler Conklin said. “And the fact that it’s probably Bill’s last game I guess makes it a little better. Being a Jet and the streak that they had against us, to beat them when he was still there definitely makes it better than if we woulda beat them when he wasn’t there.”
There was joy etched on second-year safety Tony Adams’ face as he talked about his interception of Bailey Zappe.
“Me and my homeboys, we were on the phone, and it’ll be like, ‘It’ll be crazy if I get a pick on Bill Belichick’s last game. I’ll go down in history!’ ” Adams said.
He was waiting for someone to deliver him the ball.
“That’s gonna stay with me forever. My homeboy [said] to see if he’ll sign it,” Adams said.
Well, good luck with that.
Dynasties die, and the most remarkable one in NFL history given the era, is over, barring a Tuck Rule Hail Mary Miracle 11th-hour agreement with Robert and Jonathan Kraft that no one envisions.
In the last minutes, Belichick wore a mask over his face and all you could see were his eyes. The snow that had been falling on Belichick’s wool cap accompanied him to the postgame handshake with Robert Saleh, to the locker room, where he addressed his Patriots, likely for the last time.
“The Jets way, a great way for us to send him out would be a loss,” Solomon Thomas said.
It is time for him to go … and when Winning Time ends, few would argue that 24 years in one place is way past one’s expiration date at one place.
Especially after hitting what they may as well call Plymouth Rock Bottom.
“Whether you can get a win on him it’s always special,” Saleh said.
C.J. Mosley had never beaten Belichick, with Baltimore and with the Jets until the Evil Empire ended once and for all.
“Is it official now?” Mosley asked.
It will be.
“Happier that we got the win, and that he can’t celebrate it against the Jets,” Mosley said.
You can win six Super Bowl championships and be hailed universally as The GOAT and Black Monday or Black Tuesday or Wednesday will stalk you anyway.
Love him or hate him, New England won’t see the likes of him again. He has been New England’s Lombardi. He has been New England’s Sinatra: he did it his way.
The end of the yellow brick road doesn’t mean it will be easy to follow in the man’s footsteps.
Phil Bengston followed Lombardi. Ray Handley followed Bill Parcells. Ben McAdoo followed Tom Coughlin. Get the picture?
Belichick saw six Jets head coaches come and go, and now it is his turn because they let him shop for the wrong groceries for the dinners he cooked.
The debate will continue to rage over who meant more to the Dynasty, him or Tom Brady. The pro-Brady faction has a leg up because he won that seventh Super Bowl without Belichick and Belichick could not win one without Brady.
I look at it this way: Neither would have hoisted six Lombardi trophies as Patriots without the other.
It is safe to conclude, however, that Belichick underestimated what a 40-something Brady would have meant to his Super Bowl ambitions.
In a hoarse voice, a Belichick who seemed sadder than usual said afterwards: “Not anything that any of us are in any way content with, but it is what it is.”
He volunteered only that he would meet with Kraft sometime this week and still enjoys coaching.
He addressed questions only about the game.
Any different feelings coming off the field?
“Disappointed about the way the game turned out, sure,” he said.
Do you expect to be coaching the team here next year?
“Disappointed in the way the game finished, yeah,” he said.
Is it your preference to come back next season and coach the team?
“Yeah so just finished the game here with the Jets, put everything I had into it. Disappointed in the results,” Belichick said.
Ding Dong, the Wicked Witch of the AFC East is dead.
Source
