The thing is, this all started very promisingly. The Jets already believed they were on the moral high ground here, since it was Bill Belichick who walked out after a day's work as NYJ's HC.
They could have held Belichick's career hostage for a year, but Bill Parcells instead opted to put Belichick in the AFC East in exchange for the Pats' No. 1 pick, and traded that pick to the 49ers. After the transfer, it became Sean Ellis. The Jets will likely make two Pro Bowl appearances.
Best of all was Monday night, September 11, 2000. In front of a national television audience, the Patriots took a 19-7 lead five minutes into the fourth quarter, and it looked like Belichick might get some measure of revenge. Giants Stadium was the first game he coached as head coach of the Patriots against the Jets and his old boss Parcells. From the moment Belichick trotted down the field that night, 77,687 people slandered, slandered, and defamed Belichick.
But he was about to get the last laugh.
Until he wasn't.
Vinny Testaverde found Wayne Chrebet in the end zone twice, the last time a 28-yard strike with 1:55 left in the game, giving the Jets a 20-19 victory and a 2-0 season. I dropped Pats. He went 0-2, dropping Belichick's career record to 30-36.
“Berichok!'' You can still hear the jubilation on the back pages of this newspaper more than 23 years later.
“They're a tough team,” Belichick said quietly after the game. “This is a tough place to play.”
The Jets won the return game later that year in Foxborough, 34-17, and also won their first game of 2001. The Jets' last appearance at the old Foxboro Stadium, a 10-3 rock fight, is best remembered for Mo Lewis nearly knocking out Drew. Bledsoe was forced to send Belichick to his sophomore guy in green tomorrow…well, you know his name.
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 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. 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.
According to ESPN, the Falcons are Belichick's most likely suitor after firing Arthur Smith at the end of the season.
Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo is considering Mike Vrabel, who was fired by the Titans, as the likely replacement for Belichick, and that's a possibility. Other players with past ties to the Patriots could also be considered, including Brian Flores and Josh McDaniel.
Then one Belichick actually said: “We're playing in the same division as them. At some point, we're going to have to figure out a way to beat them.”
he understood it. In the subsequent 47 games between the teams, Belichick and the Patriots won 39 of them. That includes Belichick's final 15-game streak as Pats coach, last Sunday, when the Jets won a pillow fight in the snow 17-3. Belichick and the Pats parted ways on Thursday, leaving Belichick with a final record of 266-121 and a winning percentage of .687 as Pats' coach. That's out of common sense.
He finished with 39 wins and 11 losses against the Jets. That number would be .780. It’s off the charts, off the page, off the hook.
Sean Ellis was a great player.
Unsurprisingly, the Pats won that trade.
Follow The Post's coverage of Bill Belichick leaving the Patriots
There has been some speculation over the years about who deserves more credit in the New England dynasty since Tom Brady left the Pats. And Brady's big run with the Buccaneers resulted in three more playoff berths and a seventh Super Bowl berth.
For the Jets, there's little question. Belichick continued to beat the Jets without Brady. He beat them in 2008 when Matt Cassel was the quarterback. He beat them the last few years along with Mac Jones and Cam Newton. The Jets have had seven coaches since Belichick held his awkward press conference at Hofstra in January 2000. During that time, they won exactly six games in the playoffs.
Pat has won six Lombardi Trophies.
He's a nemesis, a nuisance, a hooded behemoth the Jets never fully understood (let alone replaced) and who stuck with them even when it seemed like it was going to pile up. It was a creeping shadow that I had especially taken pleasure in.
Want to summarize Belichick's feelings on the Jets? Watch the look on his face the moment he's asked about the Jets in ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary, “The Two Bills.” It looks like he's preparing for a colonoscopy.
And if you look at the world through green-tinted glasses, Belichick's two most high-profile failures also happened thanks to the Giants beating him in the Super Bowl several times. You know the old saying, “The greatest trick the devil ever played was to make the world believe he didn’t exist”?
Well, okay. Belichick is not the devil. very.
But in 24 seasons with the Pats, only twice did he trick Jets fans into truly happy at his expense, and that was because they realized they were rooting for the Giants. . Give the devil his due.
