Bill Belichick joined the New England Patriots in 2000.
He was supposed to coach the New York Jets, but following Bill Belichick's lead, he shocked the world by signing with their division rivals.
Remarkably, the world has changed a lot since Belichick was last off the bench coaching the Patriots.
As Bridget Condon noted in X, there was no social media back then: no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, nothing like that.
The last time when @Patriots We took the field without Bill Belichick as our head coach, we lived in a world without Twitter, Instagram, Facebook… tomorrow a new era begins.
— Bridget Condon (@BridgetCondon_) September 7, 2024
However, if we go a little further and consider other things that did not exist then, it will be even more surprising.
There was no iPhone, not even an iPod.
LeBron James was still in high school and Derek Jeter was about to win the World Series MVP award.
Oh, and of course, Tom Brady was still a long way from being considered the greatest player in NFL history.
It will be strange not to see Coach Belichick in Foxborough, and the fact that he failed to get the job this hiring cycle was odd, to say the least.
Still, it's hard to imagine another hiring cycle without a few desperate teams turning to him.
At the same time, he will remain active and busy, and it will be interesting to see and hear what he has to say about the game now that he is not working for any team.
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