When news came down yesterday that the Carolina Panthers had hired Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dave Canales as their new head coach and the Falcons had agreed to terms with Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris to take over in Atlanta, that reduced the number of head coaching vacancies in the NFL to two: Washington Commanders and Seattle Seahawks. The hirings of Canales and Morris also reduced the number of head coaching vacancies open to Bill Belichick to a round, fat zero.
While Washington or Seattle could theoretically make a run at the six-time Super Bowl winner, the Commanders just fired 62-year-old Ron Rivera and the Seahawks just parted ways with 72-year-old Pete Carroll, so it’s hard to imagine either franchise rushing to bring in a 71-year-old coach who has qualified for the playoffs just once in the past four seasons and is coming off the worst year (4-13) of his career.
Frankly, it’s difficult to contemplate any team giving Belichick, who interviewed twice with the Falcons but received no other interview requests following 24 seasons with the New England Patriots, a shot given his age, salary demands, need for control and track record of ineffectiveness without Tom Brady. Chasing Don Shula for the most wins in NFL history, Belichick has an overall record of 333-178 (including playoffs) during 29 seasons of coaching the Browns and Patriots, but is just 84-103 without Brady and has won just a single playoff game.
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A look back at an HBO documentary that explores their four-decade allianceNevertheless, NFL insider Adam Schefter, who is certainly tight with the Belichick camp and broke the news of the longtime coach and the Patriots parting ways on ESPN, speculated that there is still a team that may be eyeing Bill’s services: the Kansas City Chiefs.
Ridiculous as it sounds, and it does sound ridiculous, Schefter speculated on Get Up! that Reid, 65, could retire after this season if the Chiefs, who are underdogs to the Ravens this weekend in the AFC Championship Game, win the Super Bowl for the second consecutive season. Why Reid, who is also in the running for Shula’s record and would be on Belichick’s trail for Super Bowls if he wins his third this year, would retire is unclear, but that didn’t prevent Schefter from throwing it out there.
“So if the Chiefs were to win the Super Bowl this year, could that, would that, make him more likely to walk? And if he did walk, at that point in time and you’re the Kansas City Chiefs and Bill Belichick were still sitting out there, would that not be an interesting possibility?” Schefter said. “To go take a run at arguably the greatest coach of all time and to replace one legend with another? Again, we’re having fun. We’re throwing things out there, but it’s interesting to watch if the Chiefs can find a way to win the Super Bowl.”
Amazingly, longtime sports talk host Craig Carton said something similar. “I think Bill Belichick will be the next head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs next year. I think that’s where he goes after Andy Reid retires after this year,” he said on his FS1 show. ProFootballTalk also discussed Belichick replacing Reid in KC.
Ain’t. Gonna. Happen.
Even if Reid does step away to pursue his passion for making State Farm commercials and eating, which ain’t gonna happen, there’s no way that the Chiefs, who are so loose on the field that they’ve literally run around in circles mimicking duck, duck, goose, would want to hire a stickler like Belichick, who will be 72 by the time next season starts. The only way Kansas City would ever even consider Belichick is if Patrick Mahomes wanted him and it seems very unlikely the 29-year-old quarterback would want to be coached by a man who ran the best quarterback of all time out of town only to see him win a Super Bowl elsewhere.
Belichick replacing Reid in Kansas City is a great fantasy. But’s that’s all that it is now or will ever be.
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