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Bill Belichick 8-28-09 Patriots-vs-Redskins

Bill Belichick is the current head coach of the Patriots, and has led the team to three Super Bowl championships.

The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in Foxborough, Massachusetts. They are a member of the East Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The team began as the Boston Patriots in the American Football League, a league which merged with the National Football League before the 1970 season.[1]

There have been 14 head coaches for the Patriots franchise. Lou Saban became the first coach of the New England Patriots in 1960, although he was fired part way through their second season.[2] In terms of tenure, Bill Belichick, the current coach, has led the team for more regular season games (176), post-season games (19) and more complete seasons (eleven) than any other head coach. He has also led the team to four of their Super Bowl appearances, winning three of them. Mike Holovak, Raymond Berry, and Bill Parcells all led the Patriots to league championship games, though all three lost. Five Patriots head coaches, Holovak, Chuck Fairbanks, Berry, Parcells, and Belichick, have been named coach of the year by at least one major news organization. Additionally, Raymond Berry is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1973, eleven years before he became the Patriots' head coach.[3]

Twice in Patriots history there were "interim" head coaches. In 1972, John Mazur resigned with five games left in the season. [4] Phil Bengston was named as the interim head coach for the rest of the season, during which he only won one game, and he was not made the permanent coach the next year. In 1978, head coach Fairbanks secretly made a deal to leave the team to coach the University of Colorado Buffaloes while he was still coaching Patriots. Team owner Billy Sullivan suspended Fairbanks for the final game of the regular season, stating "You cannot serve two masters," and Ron Erhardt and Hank Bullough took co-head coaching responsibilities for that game.[5] Fairbanks was reinstated when the team qualified for the playoffs, and he lost the first playoff game, his last for the Patriots.

Key[]

# Number of coaches
GC Games coached
W Wins
L Losses
T Ties
Win% Winning percentage
* Elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Spent entire professional head coaching career with the Patriots


Coaches[]

Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2010 NFL season.

# Name Term Regular season Playoffs Awards Reference
GC W L T Win% GC W L
Boston Patriots
1 Lou Saban 19601961 19 7 12 0 .368 [6]
2 Mike Holovak 19611968 107 52 46 9 .528 2 1 1 UPI AFL Coach of the Year (1966)[7] [8]
3 Clive Rush 19691970 21 5 16 0 .238 [9]
New England Patriots
4 John Mazur 19701972 34 9 21 0 .300 [4]
5 Phil Bengtson 1972[10] 5 1 4 0 .200 [11]
6 Chuck Fairbanks 19731978[12] 85 46 39 0 .541 2 0 2 UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1976)[13]

Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year (1976)

[14]
7 Ron Erhardt 19791981[15] 49 21 28 0 .428 [16]
8 Ron Meyer 19821984 33 18 15 0 .545 1 0 1 [17]
9 Raymond Berry* 19841989 87 48 39 0 .551 5 3 2 UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1985)
AFC Championship (1985)
[18][19]
10 Rod Rust 1990 16 1 15 0 .062 [20]
11 Dick MacPherson 19911992 32 8 24 0 .250 [21]
12 Bill Parcells 19931996 64 32 32 0 .500 4 2 2 AP NFL Coach of the Year (1994)

Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of the Year (1994)
Maxwell Football Club NFL Coach of the Year (1994)
UPI NFL Coach of the Year (1994)
AFC Championship (1996)

[22][23]
13 Pete Carroll 19971999 48 27 21 0 .562 3 1 2 [24]
14 Bill Belichick 2000Present 176 126 50 0 .716 19 14 5 AP NFL Coach of the Year (2003, 2007, 2010)

Sporting News NFL Coach of the Year (2003)
Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of the Year (2003)
Maxwell Football Club NFL Coach of the Year (2007)
3 Super Bowl Championships (2001, 2003, 2004)
4 AFC Championships (2001, 2003, 2004, 2007)

[25][26]

Notes and references[]

  1. "Boston Patriots". Pro Football Hall of Fame. http://www.profootballhof.com/history/team.jsp?franchise_id=19. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  2. "Buffalo Bills". Pro Football Hall of Fame. http://www.profootballhof.com/history/team.jsp?FRANCHISE_ID=4. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  3. "Raymond Berry profile". Pro Football Hall of Fame. http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?PLAYER_ID=25. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Grossfeld, Stan (2005-12-01). "For Mazur, the scars remain". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2005/12/01/for_mazur_the_scars_remain/?page=1. Retrieved 2008-05-14.
  5. Borges, Ron. "Butt of jokes to last laugh". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/superbowl/globe_stories/020502/butt_of_jokes_to_last_laugh+.shtml. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  6. "Lou Saban". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=SABANLOU01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  7. Gruver, Ed (1997). The American Football League: A Year-by-year History, 1960-1969. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. p. 276. ISBN 0-7864-0399-3.
  8. "Mike Holovak". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=HOLOVMIK01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  9. "Clive Rush". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=RUSHCLI01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  10. Phil Bengtson was the interim head coach for five games during the 1972 season.
  11. "New England Patriots (1960-present)". sports e-cyclopedia. http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nfl/nengalnd/patriots.html. Retrieved 2008-05-14.
  12. Chuck Fairbanks was suspended for the last game of the 1978 regular season. He was reinstated for the playoffs, and lost in the first round.
  13. "Chuck Fairbanks Head Coach". New England Patriots. http://www.patriots.com/team/index.cfm?ac=playerbio&bio=1030. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
  14. "Chuck Fairbanks". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=FAIRBCHU01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  15. Roh Erhardt's record includes one game where he shared head coaching duties with Hank Bullough during Chuck Fairbanks 1978 suspension. His first official year as head coach of the Patriots was 1979.
  16. "Ron Erhardt". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=ERHARRON01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  17. "Ron Meyer". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=MEYERRON01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  18. "Raymond Berry". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=BERRYRAY01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  19. "Raymond Berry". Pro-Football-Reference. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/BerrRa0.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
  20. "Rod Rust". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=RUSTROD01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  21. "Dick MacPherson". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=MACPHDIC01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  22. "Bill Parcells". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=PARCEBIL01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  23. "Bill Parcells". Pro-Football-Reference. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/ParcBi0.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
  24. "Pete Carroll". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=CARROPET01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  25. "Bill Belichick". databaseSports.com. http://www.databasefootball.com/coaches/coachpage.htm?coachid=BELICBIL01. Retrieved 2008-04-23.
  26. "Bill Belichick". Pro-Football-Reference. Sports Reference LLC. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/BeliBi0.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
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