Bill Belichick will likely never become the winningest coach in NFL history now that he has landed at North Carolina, but he insists chasing Don Shula’s record was not a big factor in his decision.
Belichick is just 15 wins shy of surpassing Shula’s NFL record of 347 combined regular-season and playoff victories. After the New England Patriots fired Belichick, many people believed he would be motivated to find another NFL head coach job in order to pursue the all-time wins mark.
Instead, Belichick chose to chase a college national championship. During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” Monday, Belichick was asked if he took into consideration how close he was to catching Shula. The 72-year-old said championships have always meant more to him than wins.
“I never gave that one a lot of thought, to be completely honest with you. It’s not about wins to me, it’s about championships,” Belichick said. “That’s what I wanna do — I wanna win championships. The wins are great and you’ve gotta win games to win championships, I get that. But to me it’s about championships. That’s what I’m most proud of, not how many games we won. Because it’s hard to win in the NFL.
“I am proud of the games we won and the teams that won those, but I’m proud of the championships that I was a member of and contributed to. Teams win championships. I’m proud to be an eight-time Super Bowl champion, part of eight (Super Bowl) teams. They weren’t my teams. I was part of those teams, but that’s really what means the most to me.”
"It's not about wins to me it's about championships..
I wanna win championships and that's really what I'm most proud of..
Teams win championships and that's what means the most to me" ~ Coach Belichick #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/ZeexIcHWBx
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 16, 2024
Of course, it is possible that Belichick knew there were not going to be any opportunities for him to pursue Shula’s record. One report claimed that was the case and was part of the reason Belichick got serious about the UNC job.
Belichick obviously still loves coaching, otherwise he would not have launched an entirely new chapter of his career. He is also getting good money to coach the Tar Heels, so that could have helped him forget about chasing Shula.
