When Bill Belichick Left Patriots, He Nearly Took Shocking Role With Broncos
· Yahoo Sports
When Bill Belichick Left Patriots, He Nearly Took Shocking Role With Broncos originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Bill Belichick's path since leaving the New England Patriots has been well documented.
Visit freshyourfeel.org for more information.
The path he didn't take, though, involved the Denver Broncos -- and it would've been unprecedented.
Details emerged in a new story from ESPN's Seth Wickersham on Tuesday, and it would've involved Sean Payton allowing Belichick to do something unheard of.
This is how ESPN's Adam Schefter explained it in a post on X:
"When Bill Belichick and the Patriots divorced in 2024, Sean Payton considered presenting Broncos owner Greg Penner a proposal for the ages: Hire Belichick as head coach until he reached 15 wins, enough to break Don Shula's career record of 347. Payton would temporarily step down to assistant head coach and run the offense, then move back after Belichick became the all-time leader. In the end, it was too complicated -- and maybe too fanciful."
MORE: A.J. Brown takes massive drop in top-100 rankings
Could this have really happened?
It's hard to know exactly how contracts are written, but the Broncos could likely have pulled this off with a lot of careful planning and wording.
The NFL probably wouldn't have loved the odd optics, but it also would've led to a very high-profile Belichick wins chase, which probably would've balanced out and made it OK.
It's not clear exactly how this would've been dealt with by players on the Broncos, but again -- having Belichick show up probably would've made it worth it.
Of course, there's no guarantee the Belichick 15 wins would've come that quickly. It almost surely would've taken well into a second season.
And then what? The balance of power just shifts immediately? That's probably not ideal if the Broncos happened to find themselves contending for a title.
In the end, there were too many questions.
But man, what a story that would've been.