Bill Belichick's absence from NFL coaching sidelines looms large – but maybe not for long

Nice try, Kyle Shanahan.

It surely would have been a coup if Bill Belichick took Shanahan up on his offer to “do whatever he wanted to do” in joining the San Francisco 49ers coaching staff. Shanahan, despite blowing the decision on the overtime coin toss that enabled the Kansas City Chiefs to win a repeat crown in Super Bowl 58, is one of the NFL’s sharpest offensive minds. Belichick, despite the decline of the New England Patriots under his watch since Tom Brady’s departure, is still a whiz when it comes to designing defenses.

Putting those two heads together might have been some kind of special.

“I threw it out to him,” Shanahan told The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami on “The TK Show” podcast. “He loves football so much that you never know what he…I can’t believe that he’s not a head coach of a team right now.

“I know what I would do if I was an owner, so that shocks me, and the last thing you want to do is insult someone like Bill Belichick. But I know he just loves ball in its simplest form, so I threw it all out to him, whatever he wanted to do.”

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At the time, Shanahan was searching for his third defensive coordinator in as many years. The opening was ultimately filled by Nick Sorensen. Even if Belichick was the first choice, the process still would have had to comply with the Rooney Rule. Yet Shanahan can't be blamed for swinging for the fences.

“I was like, ‘Would you be interested?’ “ Shanahan added. “And he was very nice and appreciative, but he politely turned me down.”

Undoubtedly, as Shanahan alluded to, it is rather weird that as the remainder of NFL teams opened training camps this week, Belichick is absent from the coaching mix after mutually parting ways with the Patriots following the 4-13 finish last season that marked his worst season as a head coach.

Call it one of the biggest surprises from another crazy NFL offseason, even with the personnel stumbles in recent years that Belichick oversaw and the blunder in turning over his offense (and young quarterback Mac Jones) to Matt Patricia and Joe Judge.

Aside from the Patriots, seven NFL teams had an opening for coach and only one team – the Atlanta Falcons – saw fit to even interview Belichick, 72, who is 15 victories from surpassing Don Shula’s record of 347 triumphs and becoming the winningest coach in NFL history. The Falcons, though, picked Raheem Morris over Belichick and others. And the buzz about Belichick during the last coaching cycle was flush with questions about how much control he’d want over personnel, given the autonomy he maintained in Foxborough. And some may also wonder how well he meshes with a younger generation of athletes.

Sure, it’s true, too, that Belichick’s tally of losses is historic. His 165 regular-season setbacks ties with Dan Reeves and Jeff Fisher for most ever, and his 178 losses, including playoffs, leaves him in a dead heat with Tom Landry. Without Brady, Belichick went 29-38 in his final four years in New England, with zero division titles and zero playoff wins.

Take your pick about what apparently scared off so many teams needing a coach. My guess is that it came down to the threat of power plays, with most teams structured to roll with GMs making the call on personnel decisions.

Anyway, rising young coaches including Mike Macdonald (Seattle Seahawks), Antonio Pierce (Las Vegas Raiders) and Dave Canales (Carolina Panthers), and second-shot coaches including Morris and Dan Quinn (Washington Commanders), are running teams this summer instead of the coach who won six Super Bowls during his 24-year Patriots reign. Still a stunner.

Belichick declined an interview request this week from USA TODAY Sports, indicating during a text-message exchange that he’s received more than 100 such requests.

“And if I do one…” he replied.

It would have been ideal to capture Belichick’s thoughts about his sabbatical – and how much his body clock has been thrown off without a camp to run – directly from the source.

Instead, he graciously apologized for being an “inconvenience” for this particular column theme.

Yes, Belichick, does have his sense of humor.

Do you realize the last time this noted historian wasn’t in camp with an NFL team? It was 1974. Kids, that’s the year Derek Jeter was born, Richard Nixon resigned from the White House after the Watergate scandal and Muhammad Ali and George Foreman engaged in “The Rumble in the Jungle." In other words, it was a long time ago.

Make no mistake. Belichick is still hungry to coach again – but hardly so desperate to take on a complementary role with the 49ers. Talk about giving up power. He’s now positioned to recharge his batteries and, well, undoubtedly sharpen his NFL intel from another vantage point, conceivably for use at a later date. His presence on the NFL landscape will still be huge, given the three high-profile media roles he’s signed on for – weekly appearances on “The Pat McAfee Show” that airs on ESPN, the “ManningCast” that provides an alternative on ESPN2 for “Monday Night Football” games and a slot on the “Inside the NFL” show that now airs on The CW Network.

Ironically, the TV gigs might also provide Belichick – nobody’s media darling – an opportunity to display another side of himself that just might appeal to particular fan bases…and perhaps to particular team owners.

In any event, it’s on to must-see TV for NFL fans. And a reminder that Belichick – whose name will pop up as hot-seat speculation emerges – is probably not done yet.