Three Sports Media Destinations For Bill Belichick

It feels all but official now that Bill Belichick will not be on an NFL sideline next season for the first time since the 1970s. The longtime New England Patriots head coach missed out on the one job he interviewed for-- leading the Atlanta Falcons-- and no other team with an open position has exhibited an inkling of interest. On Sunday, two separate pieces of information were reported to cement Belichick's year off in 2024.

First, ESPN's Mike Reiss wrote that Belichick believes having no job next season is better than having the wrong job. This is effectively a message to the league that he is perfectly fine waiting it out until the next coaching cycle:

Those familiar with Belichick's thinking relay that he believes having no job is a better result than a job that wasn't the right fit. So it seems safe to say he'll be motivated to find the right one in the future.

A few hours later, Ian Rapoport said on NFL Network that Belichick might end up on television instead of coaching.

If Belichick did express interest in doing television to keep close to the NFL for a year, every single rightsholding network would have interest. The breadth of Belichick's knowledge and experience are apparent in the very few instances where he is happy to be on-camera, like his appearance on the College GameDay set ahead of this past season's Army-Navy game or any of his NFL Films spots. Belichick could provide a lot of added value to a football broadcast if he's in the mood.

It is not likely Belichick would join a booth like Tom Brady is supposed to next year. That would require a longer-term commitment than he would probably be comfortable giving. But he'd be perfect as a pre- and post-game guy who can chime in with a story or breakdown once in a while.

If Belichick does go the television route, here are three landing spots that would make the most sense.

ESPN

ESPN makes sense for two primary reasons-- comfortability and flexibility. The four-letter network employs several former Patriots on staff. That includes Tedy Bruschi and Randy Moss, two main faces of ESPN's NFL pregame coverage on Sunday afternoons. Belichick could slide between them pretty easily and dominate the space as the most noteworthy football persona of anybody on the Worldwide Leader's roster. Furthermore, working for ESPN grants Belichick the latitude to show up on GameDay whenever he feels like it. He clearly has a deep appreciation for college football and had a great time when he was on the show last fall. This is the spot if Belichick wants to have a little fun while also accomplishing his other objectives.

Fox Sports

This feels like the natural landing spot for Belichick because he is exactly the sort of guy FOX loves to employ. He'd fit like a glove alongside Jimmy Johnson and Terry Bradshaw, and Fox NFL Pregame is the most likely space to give him the latitude to just cook. They like doing active segments with green screens and such; if Belichick wanted to keep his teaching senses sharp he would love to do plenty of those. Plus, he'd get to hang with Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski most weeks. The Brady connection might be enough to get FOX's foot in the door and from there it's a pretty easy sell as a static pregame show on at the same time every week.

NFL Network

Belichick has always held a deep respect for NFL Network. He willingly does any and all football history segments they ask him to do for projects like NFL Life and all reports suggest he's unusually enthusiastic about it, too. So he may just want to work for the NFL Network institution for what he is definitely hoping will be a short TV stint. Belichick would be an excellent addition for all their pregame coverage and there would be plenty of opportunities to talk real football instead of the narratives around it, like he'd probably have to do at ESPN. And working at a league-owned network certainly could not hurt Belichick's future plans to return to coaching.