New England Patriots: Remembering the hiring of Bill Belichick

January 27th, 2000: The New England Patriots dynasty has been one like no other, and it all started 18 years ago when they officially hired Bill Belichick as the head coach.

Bill Belichick was named the New York Jets head coach in early 2000, but resigned after one day on the job. Since joining New England Patriots later that month, Belichick has achieved success that none have ever seen.

“I’ve never coached a team where we don’t think we have a chance to win,” Belichick said in his introductory press conference. He’s still winning with this team to this day.

In his 18 years, Belichick has coached the Patriots to 15 straight AFC East division titles (currently nine straight) and 12 appearances in the AFC Championship Game (currently seven straight). The Patriots have advanced to eight Super Bowls under Belichick, winning five with a chance to win six this season.

In Belichick’s first year in New England, the Patriots finished 5-11, the only losing season New England has ever experienced under Belichick.

While being the NFL’s longest active tenured coach, he’s tied for third all-time in regular season coaching wins with 250. His 26 playoff coaching wins rank first all-time. After winning Super Bowl LI, Belichick became the only head coach to win five Super Bowls. He is also the only head coach to win three Super Bowls in four seasons, and has a chance to do it twice next week in Minnesota.

What continues to make Belichick succeed is his overall preparedness and full commitment to his team.

"“It’s incredible throughout the season the way that he’s so driven on a day-to-day basis,” Nate Solder said. “When everyone is exhausted, when the last thing you want to talk about is football, and he’s still on top of it, ‘boom, boom, boom!’ It’s details, it’s football, it’s getting better, and that’s not always easy to do for anybody.”"

The resume he has compiled obviously makes him the winningest coach in the Patriots history, his 201 wins are the almost triple those of runner-up Mike Holovak. Belichick could also easily be considered the greatest coach of all-time, and certainly will be a first ballot Hall-of-Famer.

"“He loves it, man,” Patrick Chung relayed. “I mean, it’s like he sleeps here. He brings the best out of you.”"

The love of the game that Belichick has is the reason he is still producing winning football game to this day. As for Patriots fan, January 27th, 2000 will go down as a day in history, and a day of misery for Jets fans.

Next: Ranking the 10 greatest quarterbacks in franchise history

With another Super Bowl just a few days away, Belichick will have another great opportunity to add to his legacy.