Bill Belichick: A legend's love-hate relationship with the NY Giants and NY Jets

Legendary coach Bill Belichick has always spoken fondly of his cherished 12 seasons as an assistant with the New York Giants.

It's long been a belief in NFL circles that, based on his respect for the Giants franchise and his long-standing relationship with the Mara family, if Belichick were ever to depart the kingdom he built in New England, the prospects of a Big Blue reunion might be appealing.

Sometimes the football gods have a funny way of twisting fate through timing.

Consider this: the Giants have fired a head coach every two years since 2017, but now, with Brian Daboll, they finally have a coach that has earned the right to break that trend.

Of course, this is the offseason when Belichick is finally free and available.

Belichick and the New England Patriots announced they were parting ways Thursday after a remarkable 24 seasons together, concluding an unmatched run in NFL history that included six Super Bowl titles.

Belichick, 71, leaves New England with 333 career victories (including playoffs), ranking second all time behind Don Shula, who finished with 347. Belichick, George Halas and Curly Lambeau are the only NFL coaches with six championships since the league began postseason play in 1933.

Belichick's coaching legacy, widely believed to be the greatest in NFL history, perhaps rivaled only by Vince Lombardi, will always be intertwined with the Giants and Jets.

It's forever been a love-hate relationship for Belichick, too: his deep appreciation for Big Blue has teased a return to the Meadowlands for a long time, while his disdain for Gang Green is ultimately what landed him in New England in the first place.

No one will ever forget his resignation after one day as Bill Parcells' successor with the Jets, delivered on a napkin with the scribbled message, “I resign as HC of the NYJ."

Where Belichick goes from here − rumors have already begun to swirl around openings with the Falcons, Commanders and Chargers − you can't tell his story without the two NFL teams from the Big Apple.

In the NFL Films' documentary "A Football Life" focused on him, Belichick was shown taking a walk down memory lane as he prepared to coach against the Jets in one of the final games played at the old Giants Stadium.

The iconic coach got emotional as he reminisced while walking through the old locker room, including Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor's locker, and the team's meeting rooms.

“This is a great organization,” Belichick said of the Giants in the documentary. “It’s hard not to get choked up about it... I loved it here.”

In the ESPN documentary, "The Two Bills," Belichick and Bill Parcells sat together in the Giants' locker room at MetLife Stadium and reminisced about their time together in the Meadowlands. They refused an offer from producers to go visit the Jets' locker room.

So maybe it's fitting for Belichick that his final game in New England was against the Jets last Sunday and surely a bitter pill to swallow with Breece Hall dashing through the snow and handing the Hoodie a tenure-ending loss.

Bill Belichick's NFL coaching journey

Belichick began with the Giants in 1979 as a special teams coach under Ray Perkins. When Parcells became the defensive coordinator two years later, Belichick became his right-hand man and worked with the linebackers, including a rookie first-round draft pick named Lawrence Taylor.

Parcells made Belichick the defensive coordinator in 1985 and the next season, with the Giants featuring the second-best defense in the league, they won the franchise's first of four Super Bowl titles.

There are four Vince Lombardi trophies on display in the lobby of the Giants' training facility, and Belichick was there for all of them.

Giants, Bill Belichick are connected forever

A pair of epic victories by the Giants produced two of the most bitter defeats in Belichick's career. In those games, Eli Manning outdueled Tom Brady, Tom Coughlin outcoached Belichick, and the Giants slayed the mighty Patriots, not once but twice, on the sport's biggest stage.

Belichick and Coughlin were together on Parcells' staff from 1988-90, including the Giants' Super Bowl XXV championship season. In addition to being defensive coordinator, Belichick also coached the secondary and his unit went against the group of wide receivers coached by Coughlin every day in practice.

"Certainly I have great, great respect for Bill," Coughlin told NorthJersey.com in 2015. "But their team, they are very-well coached, and as I study the tape and I see the various aspects of the way in which they play, [the challenge] does get your motor running, no question about it."

In the 2007 regular-season finale, the Patriots escaped with a 38-35 victory over the Giants, keeping their undefeated record at the time intact.

Belichick crossed paths with Giants co-owner John Mara after the game in the old Giants Stadium, and he offered that the two teams would meet again in the Super Bowl.

In the moment, Mara did not put too much credence in what Belichick said as a prediction.

Yet when the Giants earned the trip to Arizona, arriving for Super Bowl XLII with the 18-0 Patriots, the promise became reality.

“In the tunnel after they had defeated us, he was walking to his locker room, I was walking to mine, and I shook hands and congratulated him," Mara recalled at Super Bowl XLVI Media Day in Indianapolis, four years later. "And [Belichick] said, ‘We’ll play again.’ I remember not particularly believing him. I had a pretty strong sense that they were going to get there, but I wasn’t so sure about us and sure enough it happened."

During the chase for perfection, the Patriots' players told Hall of Fame linebacker and Giants legend Harry Carson that Belichick insisted on showing reverence to those days with Big Blue.

"Those guys would joke with me, Bill never stops talking about you guys," Carson once told NorthJersey.com.

Thing is, the Patriots were not joking.

Get him talking about Mark Bavaro vs. Carl Banks in practice, and the typically closed-mouthed Belichick will spend 30 minutes extoling their presence. Don't dare compare Taylor to anyone in Belichick's company if you want to avoid a fight.

That's how much the Giants meant to Belichick, and how much he still means to them, regardless of what has transpired through the years.

It's why they'll forever represent unforgettable chapters in the story of the greatest coaching career the NFL has witnessed, no matter where he ends up next on the Hall of Fame road to Canton.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bill Belichick: Former Patriots coach's love-hate relationship with Giants, Jets