A week before Super Bowl LIX, Bill Belichick has suggested a stunning gesture involving the NFL’s championship game should be made in Tom Brady’s honor.
The pair won six Super Bowls together as they formed a dynasty in New England, while Brady picked up another ring with the Bucs and Belichick also won two as the Giants’ defensive coordinator.
And while the championship trophy is currently named in honor of legendary coach Vince Lombardi – who won the first two Super Bowls with the Packers – Belichick has suggested naming it after Brady.
Speaking on the ‘Let’s Go’ podcast with host Jim Gray, Belichick said it’s ‘impossible’ to win without good players.
‘You got to have good players and as a coach, you want to give your players a chance to win,’ he said. ‘You want to put them in a position where if they go out there and play well, they’ll have a chance to win. That’s what Coach [Bill] Parcells taught me, is there’s always a way to win. You just got to figure out what it is, and you have to give the players a chance.’
Gray retorted that, ‘They don’t name it the Starr Trophy,’ referring to Bart Starr, who quarterbacked Lombardi’s Super Bowl-winning teams.
Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won six Super Bowls together on the New England Patriots
The Super Bowl trophy is named after Vince Lombardi, who won two of them with the Packers
“They don’t name it the Starr Trophy. They name it the Lombardi Trophy.””Maybe they should name it the Brady Trophy.”🏆 @Belichick_B & @JimGrayOfficial on always crediting players before coaches, on this week’s “Let’s Go!”DOWNLOAD 🔗 pic.twitter.com/vuuMzcDyZT
— SiriusXM NFL Radio (@SiriusXMNFL) January 28, 2025
‘Maybe they should name it the Brady Trophy. He won seven of them,’ Belichick then said.
While Belichick and Brady combined to great effect in New England, the coach – who recently took over the top job at the University of North Carolina – actually struggled without the legendary quarterback.
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In 187 games without Brady, which includes a five-year stint with the Browns and four seasons in New England after the quarterback departed for Tampa Bay, Belichick posted a winning percentage of just 44.9 percent.
That’s compared to a staggering 249-75 record with Brady, good for a winning percentage of 76.9 percent.
Belichick and the Patriots parted ways following the 2023 season, in which New England went just 4-13.
The coach, whose only NFL head coaching interview afterwards was with the Falcons, then spent a year away from the sidelines as he contributed to coverage on ESPN and the CW’s ‘Inside the NFL.’
Belichick returned to coaching in December with a stunning move to North Carolina, a school more known for its prowess in basketball than football.
The Tar Heels will kick off their season against TCU on September 1.