Six Super Bowls titles, 25 other playoff victories and a 294th regular-season win have added up to No. 2 all time for Bill Belichick.
Belichick made history on Sunday when he won his 325th career game (including playoffs) as a head coach by virtue of the New England Patriots’ 22-17 win over the New York Jets to move into sole possession of second place all time, surpassing Bears icon George “Papa Bear” Halas in the process.
Belichick, 70, now only trails Don Shula in all-time wins (including postseason). Shula finished his Hall of Fame career with 347 victories.
Asked after the game about reaching the milestone, Belichick put off weighing in on its significance until the end of his career.
“Maybe we can talk about that when it’s over. Add them up at the end here or whatever,” the Patriots coach said. “I appreciate all the great players we’ve had that have won those games. We had a couple of them in the locker room there. Besides our players — guys like [Devin) McCourty and [Matthew] Slater — [Jerod] Mayo, Troy Brown, those guys won a lot for us, for me. So it’s really a team win.”
Belichick and Halas were tied at 324 wins coming into Sunday, which also saw Belichick pass Shula for the second-most regular-season victories by a head coach with one team. Belichick now has 258 regular-season wins with the Patriots, one better than Shula’s total with the Miami Dolphins. Halas holds that record with 318.
Halas’ wins came across four stints with the Bears franchise, beginning when they were known as the Decatur Staleys, one of the NFL’s original franchises, in 1920 and extending to the 1967 season.
Belichick garnered 36 wins with the Cleveland Browns, but has found the majority of his success with the Patriots, who he turned into a dynasty by leading them to nine Super Bowl berths and six titles.
The 325 wins for Belichick came in 440 games in comparison to Halas earning 324 victories in 497 games.
Belichick improved to 36-11 and won his 13th straight game against the Jets, a team he was briefly head coach of, though he never actually coached the team in a game.
Perhaps the greatest coach of all time, Belichick moved further into hallowed ground as he improved his record to a history-making 325-159 overall.