Bill Belichick couldn’t quit. So Bob Kraft fired him.
‘It’s common in business at many levels.’
“Winners never quit and quitters never win.” So goes the locker room cliche.
Bill Belichick never quit, and that’s why New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft had to fire him this week after 24 years as head coach.
A grim reaper in his gray hoodie, Belichick, 71, is the most successful National Football League coach of his generation, and one of the best ever, right up there with Green Bay Packers legend Vince Lombardi and Don Shula of the Miami Dolphins, the only coach with more wins. But the Patriots dynasty imploded when Tom Brady left Foxborough after the 2019-2020 season. Belichick kept fighting to recapture the magic.
Grit is an essential leadership trait. But when the mojo fades, it’s tough for the boss to make a graceful exit. It’s as true in business as it is in sports.
“The very same tenacity, stubbornness, and refusal to quit that serve NFL coaches so well make it impossible for them to know when it’s time to leave,” said James Lemoine, associate professor of organization and human resources at the University at Buffalo School of Management. “It’s common in business at many levels.”
Plenty of CEOs hang on past their prime.
Many are founders or empire-builders, such as Ken Olsen at Digital Equipment and media mogul Sumner Redstone. Others climbed through the corporate ranks, like Jeff Immelt at General Electric.
Longevity is rare in a rapidly shifting economy. Strategies that paid off big in the past can be quickly outmoded.
“Belichick has found that he can no longer coach his team to a playoff spot out of sheer will,” the Globe’s Ben Volin wrote. “He can’t take a career defensive coach such as Matt Patricia and turn him into a successful offensive coach. His philosophies on team-building (like not investing in wide receivers) are antiquated . . . . The NFL is full of whiz-kid coaches who are revolutionizing offense, and Belichick is left holding 3 yards and a cloud of dust.”
Belichick dominated the NFL longer than most, underscoring his brilliance on the sidelines as a general manager. He had the longest oneteam tenure among current head coaches before he and Kraft “agreed to part ways.” Only four past coaches — George Halas, Curly Lambeau, Tom Landry, and Shula — stayed longer with an organization.
Kraft’s decision to hire Belichick in 2000 has to be the best business decision he ever made. His new coach picked an unheralded Brady in the sixth round of the draft that year. The duo went to the Super Bowl nine times, winning six of them, and the Patriots’ value soared, reaching $7 billion in 2022, according to the most recent estimate by Forbes. That’s second in the league behind the Dallas Cowboys.
Kraft bought the team in January 1994 for $172 million, meaning his investment had soared nearly 4,000 percent by 2022. The Standard & Poor’s 500 returned 350 percent, including reinvested dividends, over the same stretch.
Belichick, meanwhile, was the highest-paid coach in professional US sports over the past three years, according to estimates by Sportico. He earned $225 million as head coach with the Patriots and Cleveland Browns, Sportico reported, and had a guaranteed $25 million contract for next season.
“I don’t think in the NFL there’s been any partnership that’s lasted longer and has been as productive as ours,” Kraft said on Thursday.
Football made Belichick wealthier than he could have imagined when he was hired by the Detroit Lions as an assistant special teams coach in 1976. But it wasn’t just the money that kept him in the Patriots post until he was sacked. There’s little doubt that Belichick wants to surpass Shula’s record 347 career victories — he needs 15 more — and show the world that he can win a Super Bowl without Tom Terrific taking the snaps.
But there’s a powerful psychological force at work, too.
“It’s the fact you just don’t know anything else. It is your life 24/7,” said David D’Alessandro, who was chief executive of John Hancock Financial from 2000 to 2004 before the company was sold. “Combine that with the addiction to the pursuit of more accomplishments, the constant accolades,” he said, “and, frankly, ‘the action’ where everything around you is moving fast and you are making hundreds of decisions a day. It is terrifying to even imagine the action will stop and you fear what will become of you.”
Belichick’s next stop won’t be a chair at a network broadcast desk with ex-coaches like Bill Cowher or Jimmy Johnson. Can you imagine a worse TV talking head? “It is what it is.”
No, he will pursue another head coaching job. Likely candidates include the Atlanta Falcons, the Carolina Panthers, and the Cowboys.
Quitting isn’t an option for Bill Belichick. At least until he knocks Shula off his pedestal and can go out a winner.
JAMES LEMOINE, associate professor at the University of Buffalo School of Management, on the refusal to quit of leaders in the NFL and other industries