Patriots parting ways with Bill Belichick, who led team to 6 Super Bowl championships: report
Six-time NFL champion Bill Belichick has agreed to part ways as the coach of the New England Patriots on Thursday, bringing an end to his 24-year tenure as the architect of the most decorated dynasty of the league's Super Bowl era, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because it has not yet been announced.
A news conference is planned for later in the day in which team owner Robert Kraft and Belichick will address the decision.
Belichick, 71, became just the third coach in NFL history to reach 300 career regular season wins earlier this season, joining Hall of Famers Don Shula and George Halas. With 333 wins including the playoffs, Belichick trails only Shula (347 wins) for the record for victories by a coach.
But the Patriots ended this season 4-13, Belichick's worst record in 29 seasons as an NFL head coach. It supplanted the 5-11 mark he managed in his last year in Cleveland in 1995 and again in his first year in New England in 2000. Including the playoffs, he ends his Patriots tenure with a 333-178 overall record.
With his cutoff hoodies and ever-present scowl, Belichick teamed with quarterback Tom Brady to lead the Patriots to six Super Bowl victories, nine AFC titles and 17 division championships in 19 years. During a less successful — but also tumultuous — stint with the original Cleveland Browns, Belichick earned 37 of his career victories.
Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick will address the media at noon today. <a href="https://t.co/1WNzwtUsPC">pic.twitter.com/1WNzwtUsPC</a>
It's not immediately clear who Kraft will tap to replace the future Hall of Famer.
Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo won a Super Bowl ring playing under Belichick and has