Devin McCourty would find it ‘ridiculous’ if Patriots never made statue for Bill Belichick
"I just think it makes a lot of sense for him to have a statue."
Tom Brady has his statue outside of Gillette Stadium. Now, one of his former teammates believes the head coach who won six Super Bowls alongside Brady should get his own statue outside of Gillette Stadium soon, too.
Devin McCourty strongly endorsed the idea of a Bill Belichick statue getting built at One Patriot Place during an interview with WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show,” saying it’d be “ridiculous” if he didn’t get one.
“I’m obviously biased. I think from playing there, and I think playing on defense, and some of the thought processes that went into some game plans, and even overall the team success that the Patriots had, you can’t take away,” McCourty said. “And I know people are going to be like ‘post-Tom this, and pre-Tom [that].’ But what we were able to accomplish in my time there, and what those guys did before me … I think it would be ridiculous that you wouldn’t put a statue up of him when that [time] comes.”
While only a handful of coaches in NFL history have ever earned a statue from the team they used to work for, Belichick has seemingly met the criteria to get one. No coach has one more Super Bowls in NFL history (six) than Belichick, as he also has the most conference titles (nine) and second-most wins (333) ever for a head coach.
But even with a résumé that might make Belichick the best coach in NFL history, it still doesn’t seem to be a sure thing that he gets remembered by the Patriots the same way the organization has celebrated Brady over the last couple of years. After two straight losing seasons, Belichick’s tenure as Patriots head coach came to an unceremonious end in January 2024 after two dozen years at the helm.
Since then, there’s been a lot of drama surrounding the relationship between Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft. As there have been a few spicy back-and-forths between the two, McCourty is hopeful that whatever divide that exists between the two can subside with time so Belichick can get a statue.
“You kind of lean on ‘time heals’ whatever happened towards the end of everything between the Krafts and coach Belichick,” McCourty said. “But I just think it makes a lot of sense for him to have a statue. Whether it’s next to Tom, whether it’s on another side of the stadium, whatever.
“I think that organization is built on, football-wise, what those two men gave to the team year after year. And we’re talking about two decades of excellence that, to me, deserves a statue.”
Of course, Belichick could also get hired as an NFL head coach again, which would mean that the Patriots might be building a statue of a future opponent. The 73-year-old hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down his workload, holding a heavy media presence last season before becoming the head of UNC’s football program in December. However, Belichick has only interviewed for one head coach vacancy since he was let go by the Patriots, possibly signaling that his time in the NFL is over.
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