Bill Belichick has had an incredible career with the New England Patriots, with exceptional stats and six Super Bowls. But today, he is jobless, as he was fired by the Patriots after his worst-season record. Interestingly, on the same day in 1996, Bill Belichick was facing a similar fate because of Art Modell.
Art Modell, the former owner of the Cleveland Browns, had a long history with the former coach of the Patriots. Their history together ended in 1996.
Art Modell fired Bill Belichick on this day in 1996
Bill Belichick coached Art Modell’s franchise Cleveland Brown for 6 seasons from 1991 to 1996. In 1995, Belichick had a record of 5-11, which made that year his final year in Cleveland. On February 15, 1996, Art Modell decided to fire Belichick.
The interesting part of this whole firing drama was that Art Modell initially indicated that he would not let go of Bill Belichick and would keep him in Baltimore. But surprisingly, 23 years ago, on Feb 15, Modell announced the firing of the coach.
At that time, Ted Marchibroda replaced Belichick as the head coach of the team. Till that time, the team’s name was still Browns and they hadn’t yet moved to Raven.
Reportedly, during his tenure with the Browns, Belichick was treated as a punching bag. He was known as a grumpy man who didn’t have any idea about what was going on. After Art Modell fired him, Belichick was hired by the New England Patriots and cemented his name in the NFL as one of the greatest coaches.
Along with Tom Brady, he won six Super Bowl championships and made the Patriots the best team in the league. However, pages have again turned for the coach and it seems like he is once again standing in the same place where he was 23 years ago.
The New England Patriots have now fired him because, after Tom Brady left, the performance of the Patriots declined to the point that the team ended the 2023 season with the worst score record. All these circumstances led to the firing of Bill Belichick and he is once again looking for a new franchise to coach.
How did Art Modell’s Browns relocation controversy end?
The Cleveland Browns have a long history of ups and downs in the league. The team was founded in 1945 as one of the original eight teams in the NFL.
But after that, it went through various ups and downs, with the most controversial one in 1995 when the then-owner of the team, Art Modell decided to move the Browns from Cleveland to Baltimore.
But his attempt met with a lot of criticism and rejection, which led to some legal proceedings. Art Modell agreed to return the Browns franchise to the NFL and it was agreed that it would remain in Cleveland.
In return, Art Modell was promised that he would get a new team in Baltimore (which was later named as Ravens). The Cleveland stadium was also demolished in 1996 in an attempt to build a new venue that matches the caliber of the NFL.
Under these circumstances, the Browns couldn’t play and the team was deactivated in Feb 1996, at the same time that Bill Belichick was also fired. The Browns were reactivated by the NFL in 1998 and ownership was handed over to AI Learner, who took over the Cleveland Browns.
Art Modell was allowed to keep player and coach contracts but he decided not to take Bill Belichick with him to Baltimore and he eventually moved to the Patriots.
Which team do you think Bill Belichick will join this time? Let us know in the comments.
