Bill Belichick may be on his way out, but he’s winning the week after GameDay cameo

All Bill Belichick had to do was throw on an old Navy football helmet while visiting ESPN’s College GameDay and now he has Patriots fans crying real tears as they mull his not returning in 2024.

I exaggerate, of course. The Patriots are still 3-10, they are still absent a playoff victory since 2019, and Belichick is still the guy who pressed the button that resulted in Cole Strange being selected with the 29th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Even if the 71-year-old boss of all things football at Gillette Stadium were to balance the entire Seventh Fleet on his head, it wouldn’t change those inconvenient truths. If you ask me if Belichick will be back as coach in 2024, I’m here to tell you: No!

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But there’s been a noticeable shift of emotions vis-à-vis Belichick as the Patriots prepare for Sunday’s home matinee — as in 1 p.m., as in not prime time — against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. And it’s not just the talk shows and the press box punditry. There’s also the PIRIATCH: People I Run Into At The Coffee House. While there’s been no grassroots movement to storm the House of Kraft and demand that Belichick keep on keeping on, all the way to passing the late Don Shula in the Overall Coaching Victories sweepstakes, the mood shift boils down to this: You mustn’t trash Belichick without pointing out all the grand things he’s done, headlined by the six Lombardi trophies.

Most football followers in New England and beyond do believe Belichick will be, ahem,  “stepping away” from the Patriots at the end of the season. As to how the mechanics play out, perhaps he simply gets fired, or maybe the Patriots issue one of those phony-baloney mutual-parting-of-ways news releases crafted for Kraft by a team of crisis management specialists. They could repurpose the one the Red Sox used in 2011 when manager Terry Francona was fired.

Who knows, maybe Belichick will just quit, choosing to wave goodbye to the Gillette Stadium masses right there on the field following the Patriots’ guaranteed, 2-foot-putt of a victory over the Jets in the season finale.

So, yes, everyone is going Big Picture with Belichick. And speaking as someone who believes the Patriots need to make a change but also happens to believe Belichick is the greatest coach in NFL history, I endorse the Big Picture. You can’t just say, “In Bill We Trust,” in view of how things have played out over the last five seasons, but nor can you ignore the six Super Bowl championships. (In my imagination, Robert Kraft always brings the six Lombardi trophies to the NFL owners’ meetings and sets them up on the table. The visual is hilarious.)

Bill Belichick coming for Lee Corso's job!

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 9, 2023

Now then, and speaking of a sense of humor, let’s get back to last Saturday, and to Belichick putting on that 1962 Navy football helmet. He was invited to the College GameDay set as part of the run-up to the annual Army-Navy game, being played this year at Gillette, and it came as no surprise that Belichick picked the Midshipmen to win. It must have brought joy for Belichick to go Navy, given that his father, the late Steve Belichick, was a scout and assistant coach in Annapolis for more than three decades.

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The surprise came in the form of Belichick putting on the helmet. Everyone got a kick out of it, sure, but let’s do a deeper dive. And my deeper dive takes us here: It worked because it was real. Everyone understands what the Navy program means to Belichick, that this was his way of paying homage to his father, whose mentorship inspired young William Stephen Belichick to pursue a career in coaching.

If viewed in a vacuum, the freeze frames of Belichick in the old helmet would look silly. Had the helmet been representing any other school — Notre Dame, or Michigan, or, heaven help us, my beloved UMass and its train wreck of a football program — we’d have been laughing all week. But it was Navy, and it was Bill Belichick, which means you either appreciated the moment or you’re an uninformed troll.

Again, it was fake vs. real. Here’s an example of fake: Hillary Clinton parading around in a Yankees cap in 2000 while running for an open seat in the United States Senate out of New York following the retirement of Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Clinton won the election but took much-deserved heat for wearing the Yankees cap. She’s from Chicago. She didn’t root for the Mick growing up.

LIVE: Bill Belichick Press Conference 12/13

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) December 13, 2023

Belichick’s decision to wear a Navy football helmet on national television won’t have anything to do with who’s coaching the Patriots in 2024. If the Krafts want him back, if they don’t want him back, or if there’s a make-pretend parting of the ways, the 1962 Navy football helmet will not have had a blessed thing to do with it.

Now then, will Belichick be back? He batted away several questions about his future during Wednesday’s media availability, rolling out familiar, mimeographed answers:

“I’m getting ready for Kansas City. That’s what I’m doing.”

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“Yeah, I’m getting ready for Kansas City.”

“Getting ready for Kansas City.”

Old stuff, all of it. What’s new is Belichick putting on an old football helmet. Ya’ll loved it.

More importantly, he loved it.

The Patriots may not win the game on Sunday, but Bill Belichick is winning the week.

(Photo: Erica Denhoff / Cal Sport Media via AP Images)