Saturday 29 August 2015

Will Bill Belichick retire soon? Patriots don't seem to think so


Bill Belichick and retirement aren't words you hear in the same sentence too often.
After winning his fourth Super Bowl title with New England in 2014, Belichick doesn't appear to be slowing down at all as he heads into his 16th season with the Patriots.
Belichick doesn't talk about retirement often, but he did briefly bring up the subject during an NFL Network special in 2009.
Six years ago, Belichick said that he didn't want to coach into his 70s.
If the 63-year-old still feels that way, then the Patriots could find themselves looking for a new coach sometime around 2021.
So will Belichick retire when he hits 70?
Does this look like the face of a guy who's going to retire? (Getty Images)
Does this look like the face of a guy who's going to retire? 
No one in New England seems to think so. In an NFL Network special that's set to air in September, members of the Patriots front office and coaching staff were asked if they thought Belichick would be retiring anytime soon.
At 63, Belichick is the third oldest coach in the NFL, trailing only Tom Coughlin (who turns 69 on Aug. 31) and Pete Carroll (who turns 64 on Sept. 15).
Team president Jonathan Kraft thinks Belichick will see things different as he gets older.
"To project out 13 years isn't like the Bill Belichick I know," Kraft said of Belichick's 2009 comment. "The Bill Belichick I know literally goes minute to minute dealing with what's there. So hopefully his prognostication skills were off talking as a 56- or 57-year-old and hopefully when he becomes a 68-year-old he gets a new perspective of how young 70 really is."

Nick Caserio, the team's director of player personnel, sees a guy who's obsessed with what he does.
"Look, the guy is on a treadmill working out in the spring watching college tape of the 2016 draft prospects," Caserio said. "I mean, how many other head coaches are doing that? When that passion isn't there as much, then he'll walk away, and maybe he'll go coach lacrosse, I don't know."
Running backs coach Ivan Fears might have said it best though, "It's hard to imagine him not going until they drag him out of the building," Fears said.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who's 74, doesn't see 70 as an obstacle, "Seventy's pretty young, you know," Kraft said.

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