The tenure of one of sports' most iconic leaders has come to an end.
Patriots and Bill Belichick I'll say goodbye on Thursdayreported ESPN.com.
Rumors have been circulating all season about Belichick's future, as the Patriots finished 4-13 and missed the playoffs for the third time in four seasons.
He has had little success without Tom Brady and is currently out of a job.
Belichick is widely regarded as one of, if not the greatest coach of all time, leading the Patriots for 24 years and famously winning six Super Bowls with the team.
He had a career record of 386 wins and 267 losses with the Patriots.
At 71 years old, Belichick doesn't seem ready to retire and needs 26 more wins to match Don Shula's record for most wins by a head coach in NFL history.
Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo and former Titans coach Mike Vrabel are among the candidates to replace him.
Players with past ties to the Patriots, including Brian Flores and Josh McDaniel, are also expected to be considered, according to NFL Network.
Belichick joined the Patriots in 1996 as the Patriots' assistant head coach and defensive backs coach under Bill Parcells, then served as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator with the Jets again under Parcells for the next three seasons. .
Parcells resigned as Jets coach after the 1999 season and had arranged for Belichick to take his place.
But the day after Belichick was announced as the Jets' next head coach, he held the most famous press conference in NFL history.
At what was supposed to be his inaugural press conference, Belichick wrote a resignation letter on a napkin, saying, “I am resigning as HC of NYJ,'' and began announcing his resignation to the media.
He was then hired by the Patriots to replace Pete Carroll as their next head coach, and the rest was history.
The Patriots were forced to give the Jets a first-round pick as compensation.
Belichick first made his name as the defensive coordinator of a ferocious Giants defense from 1985 to 1990, winning two Super Bowls with the team before his four-year stint as the Browns' head coach ended in failure.
Now he's on the open market.
