True greatness is not captured with a championship.

It is repeated, stoked and reinforced until it becomes habit. Title after title, triumph after triumph. No NFL team made a habit out of greatness quite like the Belichick-era Patriots.

Over his 24 years, the Patriots won six Super Bowls and forged dozens more memories for a generation of fans. Belichick helped redefined a region, its sports identity and imagination.  The Patriots became the Patriots because of him.

In reflecting on Belichick’s tenure, here are the 24 moments that defined his time in New England and built the greatest coaching run in NFL history.

1. The trade

Robert Kraft acquires Belichick in Jan. 2000 trade that sends a first-round pick to the Jets and involves a few pick-swaps. Belichick assumes full control over the Patriots’ football operations and begins remaking the franchise.

2. Drafting Tom Brady

Belichick selects Tom Brady in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. Brady becomes the 199th overall pick, the most consequential selection in draft history.

3. Picking Brady over Bledsoe

At 5-5, Belichick sticks with Brady after starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe returns to health in Nov. 2001. Belichick’s decision temporarily divides the fan base, before the Patriots rally behind Brady and clinch the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoff picture.

4. The Snow Bowl

The fourth-quarter comeback. The tuck rule. The game-tying field goal and game-winning kick. Belichick and the Patriots close Foxboro Stadium with a 16-13 win over the Raiders in one of the most memorable playoff games every played.

5. Super Bowl XXXVI

(02/03/2002 – New Orleans, LA) SUPERBOWLBelichick and Je’ Rod Cherry hug.(020302superbowlgm – Staff Photo by George MartellFTP

The Patriots win their first title as 14-point underdogs in an all-time classic that furthers Belichick’s reputation as a defensive mastermind. After Belichick’s defense held The Greatest Show on Turf to 17 points, Brady leads the offense down on a game-winning drive that ends with another Adam Vinatieri field goal.

6. Super Bowl XXXVIII

Talk of a dynasty begins to stir, as Belichick coaches the league’s No. 1 defense in 2003; a unit backboned by recent draft picks (Richard Seymour, Ty Warren and Eugene Wilson) and key free-agent signings (Rodney Harrison, Ted Washington and Tyrone Poole). Brady leads another game-winning drive to clinch the Patriots’ second championship.

7. 21-game win streak

More history. The Patriots win 21 consecutive games, a streak that bridges the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Their final win is a 13-7 wrestling match in the Gillette Stadium mud against the Jets.

8. Beating the Colts — again

No starting cornerbacks against a record-setting offense led by the NFL’s MVP? No problem. Belichick thwarts Peyton Manning in the playoffs for a second time during a snowy, 20-3 win in the divisional round.

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9. Super Bowl XXXIX

Patriots 24, Eagles 21. “Yes, it’s a dynasty.” — longtime Patriots radio voice Gil Santos

10. Peyton strikes back

After upsetting the top-seeded Chargers in the divisional round, the 2006 Patriots stake a 21-3 lead at halftime of the AFC Championship Game at Indianapolis. But this time, Manning overcomes another elite Belichick defense, proving himself a worthy rival — and perhaps the only rival — of the Belichick-era Patriots.

11. Spygate

Ex-Patriots assistant Eric Mangini, then the Jets head coach, reports Belichick to the NFL for illegally taping opponents’ play signals after a Pats-Jets season opener in 2007. The Patriots are docked a first-round pick, and Belichick is fined a maximum $500,000 as punishment. Both the coach’s and team’s legacies are tarnished as a result.

12. 16-0

The Patriots unleash their season-long Spygate frustration on the league, dominating their 2007 schedule from start to finish — save for a couple late-season close calls — and end their march with a 38-35 road win over the Giants.

13. Super Bowl XLII

Giants defensive linemen Michael Strahan (92, above) and Fred Robbins (98) start the celebrationwhile Patriots coach Bill Belichick runs across the field to congratulate Tom Coughlin with 1 second left in last night%u2019sSuper Bowl XLII.

The most painful loss Belichick, Brady and the Krafts ever suffered comes at the hands of the same Giants who handed them a perfect regular season. This marks the Patriots’ first Super Bowl defeat under Belichick.

14. Coaching Cassel

After Tom Brady tore his ACL in the 2008 season opener, Belichick coaches backup quarterback Matt Cassel and the Patriots to an 11-5 record; an underrated feather in his cap.

15. Super Bowl XLVI

Another Super Bowl loss to the Giants is defined by a spectacular, fourth-quarter catch and leaves Belichick 0-2 against his former team on the game’s biggest stage.

16. Rallying against the Ravens

Belichick’s fingerprints are all over arguably the best game in Gillette Stadium history, from Julian Edelman’s double-pass touchdown, formational trickery and a game-sealing interception at the end. The Patriots overcome two 14-point deficits to beat Baltimore in the 2014 divisional-round playoffs.

17. Deflategate

Belichick drops the latest Patriots’ latest scandal — for allegedly deflating footballs — in Brady’s lap during a press conference after the 2014 AFC Championship Game. That reportedly creates friction between the two, before the Patriots forfeit another first-round pick and Brady serves a suspension.

18. Super Bowl XLIX

In this Feb. 1, 2015, file photo, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady celebrates with head coach Bill Belichick after the team defeated the Seattle Seahawks to win the Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz. The Patriots won 28-24. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

In the final seconds of one of the best Super Bowls ever, Belichick declines to call timeout and sows confusion on Seattle’s sideline, leading to an infamous play-call near the goal line that allows Malcolm Butler to make a game-saving interception.

19. Super Bowl LI

Brady becomes the face of the largest comeback in Super Bowl history, as he and Belichick cement their legacies as the greatest of all time by overcoming a 28-3 deficit against the Falcons in Feb. 2017.

20. Benching Butler

The Patriots allow 41 points in a Super Bowl loss to the Eagles, but all anyone wants to know is: where was Butler? To this day, Belichick has never fully explained his decision to bench the veteran cornerback.

21. Super Bowl LIII

From an all-time shoot-out to the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever, Belichick’s defense pulls off a historic defensive performance, holding the 10th-highest scoring offense in league history to three points and fewer than 300 total yards during a 13-3 win over the Rams.

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22. Saying goodbye to Brady

In March 2020, Brady’s contract expires, a mutual decision months in the making. All eyes turn to Belichick for how he will replace the greatest quarterback of all time.

23. The Mac Jones era

After the Cam Newton experiment fizzled in 2020, Belichick launches the final chapter of his Patriots tenure by drafting Alabama quarterback Mac Jones in April 2021. Jones starts his career by leading a playoff team, but regresses under Belichick’s new lead offensive coaches — Matt Patrica and Joe Judge — in 2022 and then completely breaks during a dysfunctional 2023 season that finishes with a 4-13 record.

24. The end

Belichick calls it a day of gratitude and celebration, as he and Kraft announce a mutual parting of ways Thursday at Gillette Stadium. For the first time in more than two decades, the Patriots need a new head coach.