Bill Belichick admits he was very wrong about desire to coach in his 70s

BOSTON — It’s a quote that’s long been used as the guideline for how long Bill Belichick’s career in coaching would last. It’s also a quote that turned out to be inaccurate.

The quote came from the NFL Network special “A Football Life” featuring Belichick, an episode which chronicled the coach and the Patriots behind the scenes throughout the 2009 season. In that episode, Belichick said, “I won’t be like Marv Levy and coaching in my 70s. You won’t have to worry about that.”

Now 70 years old and still the head coach (and de facto GM) of the New England Patriots, Belichick admitted that he was dead wrong when he made that statement 13 years ago. 

“I wish I hadn’t said that,” Belichick told Dan Shaughnessy in a rarely granted exclusive interview with The Boston Globe. “I was probably thinking of what I would feel like. Now, there’s what I actually feel like, and those are two different things.”

Belichick summed up that 2009 proclamation quite simply: “That was not one of my better statements.”  

That comment is a follow-up from 2019, when Belichick addressed that 2009 quote in a similar fashion. In 2019, when Belichick was 67 years old, he said, “I’m not really sure if that’s an accurate statement today or not.” Now that he’s 70, he knows for certain it was wrong.

As for how long he will stay on the job, Belichick was — naturally — a bit evasive with giving a concrete answer.

“I don’t really think about it. To me, it’s about this year. Worry about next year next year,” Belichick told Shaughnessy. “I don’t really think about next year or five years from now. I’ve got a lot of work to do trying to help the team any way I can and make us a good, competitive team, which I think we are. But we’ve got to prove that.”  

Realistically, it’s probable that Belichick has some general idea of when he might want to step away from the job. Most 70-year-olds do. But the coach is obviously quite keen on not making the same mistake twice.