For the first time in decades, legendary NFL coach Bill Belichick will not be walking the sidelines for a team this coming season.
According to one account, that will not be because the six-time Super Bowl-winning coach did not have an offer.
Former NFL quarterback and sports commentator Boomer Esiason said on WFAN radio’s “Boomer and Gio” morning show on Monday that he had been told by a trusted source that Belichick turned down a job offer.
According to Esiason, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank in essence offered the 71-year-old coach the team’s head coaching position.
“I was told yesterday, and I do believe it from the source that I got it from … that supposedly Arthur Blank was bought into Bill Belichick and could have offered him the job,” he told his listeners.
Esiason said he did not know exactly why Belichick would have turned down the offer.
“I don’t know why guys say no … but legitimately, an NFL executive basically told me that they believe that Arthur Blank offered Bill the job,” he said.
“Now there may have been some caveats to that offer, you never know. It’s never, like, ‘OK, Bill, I want you, here’s a five-year contract, you do whatever you want,’” the former Cincinnati Bengal star added. “I don’t think it was one of those.”
Esiason speculated Belichick, who ran the show in New England as both the head coach and general manager of the Patriots, had some reservations about the gig in Atlanta.
Should he have taken the offer?
“The way it was made to sound to me was like ‘OK, I understand your concerns, but you’re gonna have to deal with some of this and we want you to come in, we want you to be the coach,’ and then maybe he just thought better of it,” he said.
The radio host concluded Belichick might have decided to sit out a year and see what opportunities might be waiting for him this time next year.
“And just maybe he said, ‘You know what? I don’t want to go right back in. I want a year away,” Esiason said. “‘I want to see what happens,’ because as we know there will be about five or six job openings next year, and there may be a better situation where an owner says, ‘You know what? I wanna go down this path with you and I want you to take my building over and I want you to run it the way that you ran it with the New England Patriots.’”
.@WFANmornings Audio of the Day: Did Belichick turn down Falcons job? pic.twitter.com/fW9wkNzC2E
— WFAN Sports Radio (@WFAN660) February 5, 2024
The Falcons coaching job ended up going to former Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris.
Belichick and the Patriots agreed to go their separate ways last month after a disappointing 4-13 season.
During his run in New England, the team went to nine Super Bowls in 18 years.
Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady led the team to six victories in those nine appearances — losing Super Bowls in 2007 and 2011 to the New York Giants.
The Patriots also lost in a shootout to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII in February 2018.
Brady went to Tampa Bay as a free agent in 2020 and won his final Super Bowl during his first season with the Buccaneers.
New England never came close to contention after Brady’s exit amid a struggle to find consistent quarterback play for Belichick and his offensive staff.
The Patriots posted one winning record in four seasons and were blown out by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of the 2021 playoffs.
