Bill Belichick’s bedeviling of the Jets comes to an end

The thing is, this all started off so promisingly. The Jets already believed they held the moral high ground here, since it had been Bill Belichick who’d done the walking after all of one day on the job as the HC of the NYJ. They could have held his career hostage for a year, but Bill Parcells chose instead to let Belichick go inside the AFC East in exchange for the Pats’ No.

1 pick — and after dealing that pick to the 49ers, that became Shaun Ellis, who would make two Pro Bowls for the Jets. Best of all, there was Monday night, Sept. 11, 2000. In front of a national TV audience, it seemed like Belichick would earn a measure of revenge, his Patriots taking a 19 7 lead five minutes into the fourth quarter at old Giants Stadium, the first game he ever coached against the Jets — and his old boss, Parcells — as Patriots head coach.

There were 77,687 folks who slandered and slurred and defamed Belichick from the moment he trotted on the field that night. But he was going to get the last laugh. Until he wasn’t. Until Vinny Testaverde twice found Wayne Chrebet in the end zone, the last a 28 yard strike with 1:55 left in the game that gave the Jets a 20 19 win, elevated them to 2 0 on the season, dropped the Pats to 0 2 and dipped Belichick’s lifetime record to 30 36.

“BELI CHOKE!” screamed the back page of this newspaper, with a glee still audible 23 plus years later. “They’re a tough team,” Belichick said quietly afterward. “This is a tough place to play.” The Jets won the return match at Foxboro later that year, 34 17, and won the first game of 2001, too, a 10 3 rock fight in the Jets’ last appearance at old Foxboro Stadium best remembered for Mo Lewis nearly knocking Drew Bledsoe into tomorrow, forcing Belichick to go to a green second year man named … well, you know his name .

The Patriots and Bill Belichick will reportedly part ways on Thursday after 24 years and six Super Bowl wins. Rumors had swirled around Belichick’s future all season as the Patriots finished with a 4 13 record and missed the playoffs for the third time in four seasons. Belichick met with Patriots owner Robert Kraft over the past several days before reaching the mutual decision.

Belichick notched a 266 121 overall record with the Patriots and has another 31 playoff victories. The 71 year old has no plans to retire, and needs just 15 more wins to match Don Shula’s all time wins record — regular season and playoffs — by a head coach in NFL history. The Falcons, who fired Arthur Smith after the season , are the most likely suitor for Belichick, according to ESPN.

Patriots inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo is the favorite to replace Belichick with Mike Vrabel, who was fired by the Titans , also a possibility. Others with prior ties to the Patriots, including Brian Flores and Josh McDaniels, could be in the mix as well. After that one Belichick actually said: “We play in the same division as they do.

At some point we’re going to have to figure out how to beat them.” He figured it out. Over the following 47 games between the two teams, Belichick and the Patriots won 39 of them. That included a 15 game streak that lasted until Belichick’s last hour as the Pats’ coach , last Sunday, when the Jets won a 17 3 pillow fight in the snow.

Belichick and the Pats parted ways Thursday, locking in his final record as Pats coach as 266 121, a winning percentage of .687. That’s off the charts. Against the Jets, he finishes 39 11. That figures to .780. That’s off the charts, off the page, off the hook . Shaun Ellis was a nice player. Fair to say: the Pats won that trade.

There has been some speculation in the years since Tom Brady left the Pats regarding who deserves more credit for the New England dynasty. And Brady’s denouement with the Buccaneers did yield three more playoff berths, and a seventh Super Bowl ring. For the Jets, there’s little question. Belichick kept beating the Jets without Brady.

He beat them in 2008, when Matt Cassell was the quarterback. He beat them the last few years with Mac Jones and Cam Newton. The Jets have had seven coaches since Belichick’s awkward press conference at Hofstra in January 2000. They have won exactly six playoff games in that time. The Pats have six Lombardi Trophies.

He has been a nemesis and a noodge, a behooded behemoth that the Jets could never quite figure out (let alone replace), a looming shadow that has taken particular delight in haunting them, even when it seemed like piling on. You want to summarize Belichick’s feelings toward the Jets? Just watch the look that takes over his face during “The Two Bills,” the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, the instant he’s asked about the Jets.

He looks like he’s prepping for a colonoscopy. And if you look at the world through green tinted glasses, even two of Belichick’s most high profile failures came thanks to the Giants beating him a couple of times in the Super Bowl. You know that old quote: “The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he didn’t exist?” Well, OK.

Belichick isn’t the devil. Quite. But in 24 seasons with the Pats, the only two times he tricked Jets fans into be truly happy at his expense was because they found themselves rooting for the Giants. Give the devil his due..