So many talented people have come out this week. It's just 1,922 miles from Gillette Stadium to his University of Alabama football office, but for the better part of the last 17 years, his two main residences are two giants of the football industry. It was as if they were sitting across the hallway from each other. We share the same building, same floor, and the same suite.
It's because Bill Belichick and Nick Saban have been friends for years, are the sons of coaching fathers, are talented but unremarkable college players, are relentless and unapologetic in their college work. It goes beyond the fact that they are football experts, bonded by a common history of excellence. He coached soccer teams and won championships multiple times.
There was always something mysterious about the two paths the two men took. Neither of them cared one bit about how they were perceived. That, plus the fact that their teams often rolled everything in their path, made them widely hated in most districts outside of Greater New England and Greater Tuscaloosa. I did.
After a while, even if you didn't root for the Patriots, even if you didn't root for the Crimson Tide, you don't just rejoice when those teams lose, you realize how miserable those losses make Belichick and Saban. I'm sure he was happy about that. They returned to the Football Institute to correct what had befallen the team.
Both of us left painful memories along the way. For Belichick, it started with Bernie Kosar's unceremonious benching early in his tenure in Cleveland and, of course, reached unparalleled heights with his acceptance and subsequent bailout to the Jets on the same day in 2000.
Saban? After denying the rumors multiple times, he left the Dolphins and headed to Alabama. But if you really want to see the hate, find an LSU fan (I was lucky to marry into that die-hard group) and make LSU famous again after 40 years in the wilderness. Ask him what he thinks about Saban doing the same thing he did at Alabama. And for the past 17 years, we've had to watch Saban up close, not just in the same conference, but in the same division, the SEC West.
Again, neither of us cared one bit.
You may hate them in public. But, well, for the better part of 20 years, you personally had to make concessions: Many times you would give your left arm to coach a team you happened to care about. Belichick has gone 266-121 with the Patriots since 2000 (11 of those losses were in his first year), winning six Super Bowls and finishing as runner-up three more times. Saban had an even better record, going 206-29 (seven of them in his first year in 2007), seven national championships and four Final Four appearances in the football playoffs.
When they arrived, they both inherited very little. The Patriots had been to (and lost) two Super Bowls in their history before Belichick came along, but they were largely forgotten and mediocre before Belichick took over. Belichick changed that forever.
And while the University of Alabama was a college gold standard for many years under the management of Bear Bryant, it had fallen into disrepair by the time Saban came along, and from Gene Stallings to Mike DuBose to Dennis Francione to Mike Price. It was either inherited scandal or mediocrity. To Mike Shula. Saban changed that forever.
What we know about the Patriots and Bill Belichick's split
The Patriots and Bill Belichick will reportedly part ways on Thursday after 24 years and six Super Bowl championships.
Rumors about Belichick's future have been circulating all season, as the Patriots finished 4-13 and missed the playoffs for the third time in four seasons. Belichick met with Patriots owner Robert Kraft over the past few days and subsequently reached a mutual decision.
Belichick has a career record of 266-121 with the Patriots, including 31 wins in the playoffs.
The 71-year-old has no plans to retire and needs just 15 more wins to match Don Shula's all-time regular season and playoff wins record by a head coach in NFL history.
Patriots linebackers coach Jerrod Mayo, who had been seen as his successor, took over the job and became New England's next head coach.
And because they were both given absolute control, they could boldly make decisions that could petrify those below them. Belichick was touted as a candidate to join Kosar on the bench, but Vinny Testaverde blossomed under him, leading the Browns old guard to his final playoff appearance in 1994. He was the one who stuck with Tom Brady in 2001, even after Drew Bledsoe fully recovered from MO. Lewis hit.
Saban, of course, had the audacity to change quarterbacks in the 2017 title game against Georgia, substituting Tua Tagovailoa for Jalen Hurts at halftime.
Most of all, they were both very, very good at a very, very hard job, but their departure is the guys that are going to be in the door that they're going to get out of (Jerrod Mayo and Karen DeBoer). Not only that, but it also left a huge hole in the sport itself. .
Maybe they'll come back somewhere else. Perhaps they will recreate what they did. It is unlikely that it will be the same yet. As the giants leave the room, you gradually become aware of their absence as much as their presence.
Wack's Wack
There wasn't much interesting going on with the Jets' season. But when Aaron Rodgers actually said those words with a straight face, “All the bulls who don't care about winning get out of the building,” the words were louder than all three “The Hangover” movies combined. It's ridiculous.
I know it's more fun to be the winner of a one-sided trade. However, the Knicks-Raptors deal, which included RJ Barrett, OG Anunoby, and Immanuel Quickley, looked like a typical deal that would be very helpful to both teams in the early stages.
Will we see another Agbayani in the Mets lineup someday? Benny's son, Bruin Agbayani, 16, is Hawaii's top prospect and is fully committed to South Carolina. “He wants to be the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” his pop reads. “I told him how great New York is. If that happens, it'll make me proud.”
Farewell, Cindy Morgan, as Lacey Underall (below), who taught so many young people my age that there was more to life, and to Caddyshack, than golf. He gave it to me.
hit back vac
Lenny Mossitt: Bill Belichick was a great coach, but he can't hide a 48-59 record without Tom. Brady Or HC without TB = 48-59.
vacuum: The statute of limitations on Belichick's abbreviations becoming uninteresting will likely run until 2099.
Thomas Cooney: Just when I was about to give up on the Mets' 2024 season, something happened! The era of Yaxel Rios begins!!
vacuum: Good to see Mets fans looking so salty in the middle of the season!
@11olv77: Enjoy the playoffs again on TV. The Giants and Jets are in New Jersey anyway.
@Mike Vac: Salty Eagles fans are my favorite Eagles fans.
Elon Semanza: After about half a baseball season (83 games), Joe Douglas' record as a Jets is
The GMs (27-56) were four games better than the '62 Mets (23-60), who played the same amount of games. He's four points behind the worst team in history at the All-Star break. I think he can catch it.
vacuum: Of course, Jets fans own Morton's Salt Factory.
