Suddenly the football world has that easy calm feeling in the air throughout the galaxy. The Fall of the Evil Empire Patriots dynasty has finally come to an end as New England and Head Coach Bill Belichick part ways. It was 24 years, 9 Superbowl appearances, 6 Superbowl titles, and 17 division titles that the Patriots’ reign of terror dictated the NFL and other fan bases all around the football galaxy. I can see Jets, Dolphins, and Bills fans like Ewoks in a celebration beating the drum of those Patriots storm trooper helmets seeing the dynasty come to an end. The tyranny that Belichick and Tom Brady brought to the league all those years as the Death Star hovered over your stadium. The Empire invasion would rip out all those fans’ beating hearts. Then the Patriots victory formation for over two decades leaves you living the nightmare inside your head over and over of the slaughter. It took Tom Brady leaving the organization a few seasons back. It took 3 out of the last 4 seasons not making it to the post-season. The final straw that broke the At At’s back is losing 13 games this season. Something New England has not done since 1992 before the Empire’s dark days began.

Before Bill Belichick took a head coaching job in the NFL, he was a defensive coordinator with the New York Giants. Even Adolf Hitler did something else before he led the Nazi party. Belichick’s defensive scheme in the 1991 Superbowl grounded the K-Gun offense of the Buffalo Bills. The Bills offense was one of the best in the NFL led by Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly. They only scored 19 points in a game that went wide right at the very end. The kick heard around the world as the Giants won 20-19. The Cleveland Browns would then hire Bill Belichick as their head coach in 1991. Belichick only had one winning season in his first job as head coach. In 1994, the Browns made the playoffs and beat Belichick’s future team, the New England Patriots, in the wild card round. It was Bill’s first playoff victory as head coach. The Browns and Belichick would lose to the Steelers in the divisional round the next week. Belichick coached the Browns from 1991-95 and had a losing record of 36-44 during his tenure in Cleveland.

Bill Belichick was hired by New England in 2000. Belichick would get lucky and find his quarterback, a man named Brady, who they drafted in the 6th round in 2000. Like everything in the world, it took one play to change the entire history of Belichick and the Patriots. Looking at things now, you could blame Jets’ linebacker Mo Lewis for changing history.

It was the hit on Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe from Lewis back in 2001 that would open the door for Tom Brady. Bledsoe would leave the game as they thought at first it was just a concussion on the veteran quarterback. Bledsoe ended going to hospital for a collapsed lung, had massive internal bleeding, and obviously did not return that season. Brady and the Patriots would not look back as they went 11-3 the rest of the way and made the post-season. You know what happens from there. Belichick/Brady combination would dominate the AFC for two full decades. Bill Belichick had 31 playoff wins. Belichick had 266 regular season wins in New England as he leaves the franchise with the most all-time. Belichick has 333 wins as a head coach including playoffs for his entire career. All-time, he only trails the great Dolphins head coach Don Shula who has 347. Can you see Belichick having his own chain of steak houses like Shula? I doubt it. But Belichick has won more Superbowls than any other head coach in NFL history. How many franchises are still looking for one of those?

Without Tom Brady as Bill Belichick’s quarterback, the Patriots have gone 29-39 and made the playoffs once. Things look good for Belichick in 2021 when the team drafted Mac Jones 15th overall in the first round. The Patriots made the playoffs in Jones’ first season behind center, but they would be ousted with a quick exit. Belichick has always had full control of the Patriots throughout the dynasty as he drafted the players he liked. Jones would end up being a disaster for the Patriots the next two seasons including last when they lost 13 games. If you count the Cleveland days when Tom Brady was not in the league and after he left New England, Belichick is only 65-83 as a head coach.

The Patriots way of doing things is not the way anymore. The younger generation does not want to play the hard knocks style of a Bill Belichick. The Patriots when they were rolling through the league landed big name free agents. They were ones who wanted to get a ring, jump on board the Patriots way, and play hard for Belichick because they had Tom Brady. The Brady/Belichick combo worked. It is a combination of oil and water as eventually it did not work as they separated. I was never impressed by Belichick’s coaching tree as his disciples took on many head coaching jobs. Josh McDaniels failed at the Broncos and Raiders gigs. Then Matt Patricia was an experiment gone wrong in Detroit. Bill O’Brien destroyed a Texans franchise that were taking steps to be better. Romeo Crennel failed in Cleveland and Kansas City. It’s like Belichick deprogrammed them before they leave New England.

Belichick will land on his feet and take another head coaching gig somewhere. I don’t see him having full control over the organization as the General Manager. Tom Brady without Belichick won a Superbowl in Tampa Bay without his former coach. Belichick will have to live with that knock because I don’t see it happening. Belichick is a great coach but had luck with Brady delivering and buying in on the Patriots way at the time. Then the relationship became strained, but this team still rolled through the league like an well-oiled machine. Mike Ditka hated his defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan back in 1985 when they coached the Bears and won Chicago’s only Superbowl. Without each other, they never won the Superbowl. You can say the Patriots were cheaters with deflate gate and video recording the opponents’ practice under the Belichick regime. Belichick’s gift was the scheme – the game plan he put in place which you can’t take that away from him. He is a Hall of Fame style coach as he had to put personnel together and gather his “yes men” to do their jobs. You could say he rode the coattails of his quarterback for some of those Superbowl trophies. All great things come to an end. This day in the NFL is V-day as it officially ends the Patriots dynasty, aka the Evil Empire. It will not this time be stepped on like a cockroach and come back for more like all these years when we thought the Patriots’ way was done. We hoped that the dynasty was over. Now we can “Book it Danno” with Belichick and the Patriots parting ways, the Evil Empire has fallen and can’t get up until another team in the league takes over the vilian spot.