No coach has won at the rate of Bill Belichick in the Super Bowl era.
And even when you consider the years before the championship games were named and numbered, the Patriots boss has pulled even with two of the greats — the kind of coaches who have buildings named after them.
With six titles, Belichick joined former Bears coach George Halas and Packers coach Curly Lambeau atop the all-time list.
Halas led the Bears to NFL championships in 1921, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1946, and 1963. Lambeau won it all with the Packers in 1929-31, 1936, 1939, and 1944.
Belichick has won six in the last 18 years.
As you might expect, Belichick was able to draw a line through football history to his own career. He recalled watching Halas’ Bears as a child, when Bears defensive coordinator Chuck Mather was a friend of his father’s.
“It’s incredibly flattering, but really, for me, it’s about what the team accomplishes,” Belichick said, via Steve Hewitt of the Boston Herald. “The most important thing for me is for our team to be able to hold that Lombardi Trophy and say that we were champions. It took everybody. It took the entire team and organization to put forth a superior and supreme effort to achieve that, and that’s really what it’s about. It’s about how all of us came together and kind of pulled our weight so the team could achieve its goals. It’s what we’re able to accomplish as a team that makes me most proud.”
But the building of that team depends largely on the guy who drew the plans and laid the foundation. And whether he wants to accept the praise or not, Belichick deserves it — and probably to have something large named after him some day.