Bill Belichick’s devotion shows why he might be NFL’s best coach ever

HOUSTON — Bill Belichick stood at the podium Tuesday, looking a bit weary, slightly rumpled and sounding like, well, Bill Belichick: a football coach for all seasons, all players, all generations.

America won’t want to hear this, but a strong case can be made for William Stephen Belichick being the greatest head coach in NFL history.

Better than George Halas and Vince Lombardi. Don Shula, Chuck Noll and Tom Landry, too.

What’s his secret for longevity, for keeping his coaching mojo when so many great coaches before him began losing their interest, passion and direction at similar coaching/life intersections?

“I don’t really see it as work; it actually beats working,” Belichick said Tuesday, five days before Super Bowl LI, where his New England Patriots are favored to defeat the Atlanta Falcons. “You get to do what you love to do dealing with a lot of great people.

“I have a great staff. Players work hard and are very cooperative and compliant. Really, it doesn’t feel like work.”

Nothing eloquent. Merely exemplary in simplicity and function.

At 64, Belichick has the opportunity one day in the near future to become the oldest head coach to win the Super Bowl. Tom Coughlin of the New York Giants was 65 when his team captured Super Bowl XXXVI in 2012. (At 68, the Buffalo Bills’ Marv Levy was the oldest to coach in the Super Bowl.)

In the case of Belichick, statistics don’t lie, they illuminate his greatness — on the field, in meetings, in the locker room and, most importantly, on the sidelines during games. Consider these numbers regarding the man who made wearing a hooded sweatshirt a fashion statement:

— His New England teams have won four Super Bowls.

— His seven Super Bowls as a head coach enabled him to surpass Don Shula for most all time.

— His NFL teams have won 14 division titles, three more than Shula and the most since the merger in 1970. The Patriots have captured an NFL-record eight consecutive division crowns (2009 to 2016). His seven AFC championships are the most of any coach in the Super Bowl era.

— His 25 postseason victories are five more than Tom Landry’s second-best 20.

— With a 25-10 postseason record, Belichick’s winning percentage is a ridiculous .714, best among any NFL coach with a dozen or more playoff games.

“It’s quite simple: It’s either Coach Belichick’s way or you’re going to be somewhere else,” said Patriots receiver Julian Edelman. “That’s just how it goes. He’s been around the league so long … you look at a guy like that and his resume speaks for itself, so guys are going to buy into his system.”

Or as star quarterback Tom Brady said Tuesday, “Coach commits his life to coaching football.”

(Of course, it helps a little when Brady is your quarterback for 17 seasons.)

Fox broadcaster Jimmy Johnson, who won two Super Bowls coaching the Dallas Cowboys, said Belichick is the greatest NFL coach of all time for one simple reason: He was successful during the era of free agency, when rosters often underwent upheaval, unlike the great teams of the 1960s and ’70s that had the benefit of keeping the same players together for many seasons.

Sunday’s game is Belichick’s 10th Super Bowl as an NFL coach. Time to reflect? More like deflect.

“There will certainly be a time to reflect on that at some point,” Belichick said. “Right now, I’m just trying to put all my energy in preparing our team as well as I possibly can for the Falcons …

“It’s special to be here, there’s no question about that. In terms of numbers and other games and all that, we’ll get to that at some other point” in life, he said.

Spoken like, well, Coach Belichick.

Jon Mark Saraceno can be reached at jsaraceno@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jonnysaraceno on Twitter.