ATLANTA — Bill Belichick joined exclusive company in the pro football coaching community Sunday night when the New England Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in Super Bowl LIII.
Belichick matched George Halas and Curly Lambeau as the only coaches to win six NFL titles, an accomplishment noted by commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday morning.
“Coach has had incredible, unprecedented success. We’re grateful to see him continue to bring football teams together in a way that I don’t think any coach has done in the history of the game,” Goodell said at the league’s Most Valuable Player award news conference.
Halas won six NFL titles with Chicago in 1921, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1946 and 1963.
Lambeau’s Green Bay teams were champions in 1929, 1930, 1931, 1936, 1939 and 1944.
Belichick, who has long had a deep appreciation for the history of the football, was asked what it means to him to now be linked with Halas and Lambeau, and other all-time greats.
“It’s incredibly flattering,” he said. “I grew up watching Coach Halas. He and my dad were friends. Coach Halas’ defensive coordinator, Chuck Mather, was a friend of my dad’s, his son went to the Naval Academy. So Coach Shula, Coach Lambeau, Coach Landry, just go right down the line. Coach Walsh. I competed against several of those coaches, and I was aware of Coach Lombardi as a kid growing up watching the first Super Bowl, and all the way through.
“But really, for me, it’s about the team accomplishment. That’s the most important thing for me — for our team to hold that Lombardi Trophy up and say we were champions. It took everybody. It took the entire team and organization to put forth a superior and supreme effort to achieve that. That’s really what it’s about — how all of us came together and pulled our weight so the team could achieve its goals. It’s what we’re able to accomplish as a team that makes me most proud.”
Between his time as an assistant coach and head coach, Belichick has coached in 12 Super Bowls, the most by a coach in NFL history.
His six wins as a head coach puts more distance between him and the Steelers’ Chuck Noll (4), the Redskins’ Joe Gibbs (3) and the 49ers’ Bill Walsh (3) on the all-time Super Bowl list (1966-present).