Bill Belichick would be analyst ‘everybody shuts up and listens to’: Mike Tirico

Mike Tirico remains surprised at the “very odd” trajectory of this year’s coaching cycle that could leave Bill Belichick without a team for 2024, but the “Sunday Night Football” play-by-play broadcaster said the legendary head coach wouldn’t struggle to transition into a television role — even if it’s short-lived for now.

The pair overlapped for Super Bowl XL in February 2006, when they hosted the pregame show on the ABC broadcast for the Seahawks-Steelers matchup in Detroit, and Belichick — in the middle of his dynastic run with the Patriots at the time — “was terrific on the air,” Tirico said this week during an interview with Waddle & Silvy on ESPN Chicago.

“If he ends up not getting a job and does TV for a year or more, he’ll be awesome,” Tirico said. “He’ll be the guy that everybody shuts up and listens to. I promise you.”

Belichick appeared to initially be the favorite for the Falcons’ head-coaching vacancy this offseason after he and the Patriots mutually parted ways, but that changed when Atlanta — the only franchise where Belichick had interviewed — hired Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris instead.

The Commanders and Seahawks still haven’t hired replacements for Ron Rivera and Pete Carroll, respectively, but Belichick, 71, hasn’t interviewed with those teams.

As a coach, Belichick was known for his monotonous, enthusiastic tone at press conferences, but when he appeared on “College GameDay” as a guest for the Army-Navy game in December, Belichick channeled Lee Corso and stuck a 1962 Navy helmet on his head.

He spoke glowingly about his time growing up around the Navy football program when his father, Steve, worked on the staff, too.

It sounds as if Tirico worked with a similar version of Belichick during the Super Bowl broadcast.

He put together a presentation on the defenses entering the game, and Belichick also asked Tirico questions about the logistics of broadcasting.

“‘What are the basics here?’” Tirico recalled Belichick asking. “Do I look at you? Do I look at the camera? How do we play this? How do we use the videos that roll in when we’re talking about it? Do we get to pick those?’ All that stuff.

“… Coaches loved to be coached, and I just gave him a couple of basics and he crushed it. He didn’t need to hear anything from me. He probably was just making me feel good.”

If he was eventually hired, Belichick needs just 14 victories to pass Don Shula on the all-time wins list — which includes both regular-season and postseason games — and would work for an organization away from the Patriots for the first time since 1999.