Move over Lombardi, make room for Belichick

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Vince Lombardi’s trophy. Vince Lombardi’s record. New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick will leave Jacksonville with a couple of nice mementos that used to belong to the late Green Bay Packers legend.

Belichick guided the Patriots to a 24-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, earning his third Super Bowl title in four years and improving his career playoff record to 10-1. That surpassed Lombardi for the best postseason coaching mark in NFL history.

“I expect that he would have deep admiration for the way you play,” commissioner Paul Tagliabue told Belichick during the trophy presentation.

Belichick has won nine consecutive playoffs games since his only loss with the Cleveland Browns in 1995. It also is Belichick’s third Super Bowl title as a head coach, joining Washington’s Joe Gibbs and San Francisco’s Bill Walsh and just one behind the four Chuck Noll won in Pittsburgh.

Belichick also won two rings as Bill Parcells’ assistant with the New York Giants, earning him the derisive nicknames of “Little Bill” and “Tuna Helper.” Now Belichick has surpassed his mentor and just about every other coach in NFL history, too, devising a game plan that neutralized Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and kept receiver Terrell Owens from breaking the game open.

“He’s a guru, man,” linebacker Roman Phifer said. “He loves the game – he eats, breathes and sleeps the game. He doesn’t leave anything out.”

Belichick flunked out of his first head coaching job, with the Browns, when the team fell apart after it was announced at midseason that it was moving to Baltimore. But Patriots owner Robert Kraft liked Belichick enough after the 1999 season to give the New York Jets a package of draft picks that included a first-round choice for the coach.

“One of the reasons I hired him, he was understated, he was humble,” Kraft said. “He passed his humility on to the team, and that allows us to establish a sense of team. The work ethic and intellect of our coaching staff is really amazing.”

He even got a chance for the traditional ice water bath he’s missed during his last two wins because they weren’t decided until the final seconds.

“I hadn’t had water dumped on me in a long time, but it felt good,” he said. “Whenever they dump water on you, that’s a good sign. It’s when they throw stuff at you” things aren’t going well.

But things didn’t start out so well for Belichick.

At the beginning of the game, he jogged onto the field to the wrong sideline. When he got to the Eagles’ bench, he realized what he had done and jogged back across the field.

It was one of the few mistakes he made.