Sunday's win over the Detroit Lions was the 400th game of Bill Belichick's head-coaching tenure with the New England Patriots.
Belichick wasn't aware he'd reached that milestone. But he happily used it as an opportunity to reflect on his 23-year tenure in Foxboro.
Asked during his Monday morning video conference whether he takes pride in his Patriots longevity, Belichick replied: "Yeah, absolutely."
"Going all the way back, great opportunity to be here in '96 (as a Patriots assistant), and then Robert (Kraft) gave up a lot," said Belichick, whose team shut out the Lions 29-0 in Week 5. "It was hard to hire me in 2000, and he gave up a lot in the trade with the Jets and all that, for me to come here. So that in and of itself was a great level of commitment and a blessing for me to have this opportunity. It's worked out pretty well since then, all the way around. Hopefully, we can continue to improve and keep it going. I didn't realize that. Thanks for giving me that number. I didn't realize it had been 400. Doesn't seem like that."
Belichick -- the fourth head coach in NFL history to reach the 400-game mark with a single franchise -- went on to highlight the numerous current and soon-to-be Pro Football and Patriots Hall of Famers he's had the opportunity to coach, as well as the ex-New England assistants and scouting staffers who've risen to top coaching jobs elsewhere.
"It's been just awesome to see so many players and coaches come through here," he said. "Come in as rookies, grow, develop into great players and have great careers. We've had a couple of the Hall of Fame inductions the last couple of years with (Richard) Seymour and (Vince) Wilfork, guys like that. Of course, there were the other ones like Troy (Brown) and Kevin Faulk and those players that were already here when I got here. Ty (Law), guys like that, (Jerod) Mayo. All those guys that came in and were here. Then many of them now -- (Matthew) Slater, (Devin) McCourty, people like that.
"To just watch them come in as rookies and just start from scratch and then develop and grow into some of the greatest players in Patriots history, some of the greatest players of all time. -- certainly, (Tom) Brady and Slater will go down in that category at their positions and for the game -- yeah, it's been an incredible number of years.
"Same thing with the coaches. All of the coaches that have come in here and have gone from quality control assistants, all the way up the ladder to coordinators and head coaches, other places in the league. I think back on that every once in a while and just kind of say, 'Wow, I've been so fortunate to be able to work with so many great, great people.' Great coaches, great players, great people in the organization, personnel departments, Scott (Pioli), Nick (Caserio). I could go on here for days.
"Thanks for bringing it up. It's good to kind of reflect on it. (But) you're right, probably time for me to start thinking about Cleveland."
The Patriots will visit Belichick's former team, the Browns, this Sunday. A victory would bring him into a tie with George Halas for second on the NFL's all-time wins list, postseason included.
