This is not an article about Bill Belichick
You saw the title. This is not an article about Bill Belichick. This is an article about the past 24 years. No matter who you are, if you’ve lived in New England for the past 24 years – or at least a good chunk of them – and you’ve been a New England Patriots fan… Bill Belichick has helped bring you much happiness.
In 2000, when Bill started as coach of the Patriots, I was living on Cape Cod. That year, my wife and I (girlfriend at the time) met our very best lifelong friends. They lived across the street from us in South Yarmouth and every single Sunday we got together and cheered on the Patriots while bonding over beers and video games and sacking each other in the front yard at halftime. We all thought we were Tom Brady, which made picking a QB pretty difficult.
Watching the Patriots as the elite team in the NFL took me through the birth of both of my children. The Patriots kept me feeling like I was home while I took a couple different jobs which took me to Texas and Maryland before coming home again – all the while Bill Belichick led the ship.
Life has changed a ton during Bill’s leadership. Think of all the life events that happened in your life in the past 24 years… and the whole time, Bill was there, the Patriots were winning for the most part, and life was good. Well, at least the fandom part of life was good. I can’t speak for the rest individually for each of you but you get where I’m coming from.
Today when news broke that Bill Belichick was leaving the Patriots I got really really sad and I didn’t really understand why. I mean, we’ve all seen the writing on the wall. We all knew an exit was eventually inevitable and most likely before the start of the next season, but it still stung and left me feeling kind of empty. I now understand why. Bill Belichick has helped give me so many happy moments, he kind of helped give me the best friends of my life, he kept me feeling like I was home when I was living away, and he was a constant during so many important moments of my life. Not to mention the dynasty and those 6 Superbowl Championships.
It was inevitable but it still feels like a messy break-up. Thank you for EVERYTHING throughout the years Bill. Oh, and this article wasn’t about you.
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