Patriots head coach Bill Belichick pushed himself further up the NFL’s leaderboard with Sunday’s win in Cleveland.
The victory was the 324th of Belichick’s head coaching career and it leaves him tied with former Bears head coach George Halas for second place behind Don Shula. During his postgame press conference, Belichick was asked what it means to be tied with Halas and his answer also included mention of another legendary coach.
“George Halas, Paul Brown, I probably shouldn’t make that list,” Belichick said after the game. “They were my idols. Coach Halas was again a friend of my dad’s. My dad knew people on the staff that coached for Coach Halas. He coached Bill Wade at Vanderbilt, so they had a lot of Chicago-Halas connections. When they came to Baltimore, we would go to the locker room after the game, stuff like that. They were always very gracious and generous. They let me hang around and stuff like that. A ton of respect for Coach Halas and the McCaskey family, and what he did for professional football and the way that he – and since we’re here, Paul Brown – and others like that paved the way for us as coaches and paved the way for the National Football League to grow into what it is today. They laid a lot of the building blocks.”
Belichick also took time to make sure attention was paid to the players who have been responsible for executing the game plans that have led to those 324 victories.
“You can’t win games in this league without good players. I’m very fortunate to have coached a lot of great players and have had a lot of great coaches on my staff through the years. A lot of those guys have gone on to have tremendous careers and players obviously – many of them are Patriots Hall of Fame or NFL Hall of Fame, or are going to be. Winning games in this league is about having good players and I’m very fortunate to have a lot of them. I had them in New York. I had them in Cleveland. I have them here.”
Belichick will get his first chance to pass Halas in the late coach’s old stomping grounds. The Patriots will be in Chicago to play the Bears next Monday night.