One of sports’ most iconic coaching tenures is over.
The Patriots and Bill Belichick will part ways on Thursday, ESPN.com reported.
Rumors had swirled around Belichick’s future all season as the Patriots finished with a 4-13 record and missed the playoffs for the third time in four seasons.
He’s enjoyed little success without Tom Brady, and is now without a job.
Belichick, widely regarded as one of, if not the best coach of all time, led the Patriots for 24 years, famously winning six Super Bowls with the team.
He owned a 267-121 overall record with the Patriots.
The 71-year-old Belichick does not appear ready to retire, and needs just 15 more wins to match Don Shula’s all-time record of most wins by a head coach in NFL history.
Patriots inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo and former Titans coach Mike Vrabel are among the favorites to replace him.
3 Bill Belichick led the Patriots to six Super Bowls. AP
Others with prior ties to the Patriots, including Brian Flores and Josh McDaniels, will be in the mix as well, according to NFL Network.
Belichick initially joined the Patriots as an assistant head coach and defensive backs coach in 1996 under Bill Parcells before then serving as the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator under Parcells again with the Jets for the next three seasons.
Parcells stepped down as Jets coach after the 1999 season and had arranged for Belichick to take his place.
3 Bill Belichick has missed the playoffs three of the last four years. Getty Images
But one day after Belichick was announced as the Jets’ next head coach, he delivered one of the most famous press conferences in NFL history.
At what was supposed to be his introductory press conference, Belichick wrote a resignation note on a napkin that said, “I resign as HC of the NYJ,” and then proceeded to announce his resignation to the media.
He was then hired by the Patriots as their next head coach to replace Pete Carroll, and the rest is history.
3 Bill Belichick (R.) has had little success without Tom Brady. AP
The Patriots were forced to give the Jets a first-round pick as compensation.
Belichick initially rose to prominence as the defensive coordinator of the ferocious Giants defense from 1985-90, winning two Super Bowls with the team before an unsuccessful four-year tenure as the Browns’ head coach.
Now, he’s on the open market.
Bill Belichick out as Patriots coach after 24 seasons
