Watch CBS News

Belichick On 200th Regular Season Win: 'I've Coached A Lot Of Good Players'

BOSTON (CBS) -- Not only did the New England Patriots pick up their first win of the season on Sunday, but they helped head coach Bill Belichick hit a career milestone.

New England's 30-7 victory over the Vikings was the 200th regular season win of Belichick's storied career, making him one of only six NFL coaches to hit that milestone.

Belichick was humbled after Sunday's game, but in true fashion gave the credit to the many players he has coached throughout his 40-year career.

"It means a lot, but what it really means is that I've coached a lot of good football players," said Belichick. "Those are the guys that win the game, players win games in this league. And I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to coach a lot of good players. And so that's really about them winning the games."

Belichick is now tied for fifth all-time in regular season wins with Marty Schottenheimer. Up next on the list is Green Bay Packers coach Curly Lambeau (226 wins), followed by Tom Landry (250), George Halas (318) and Don Shula (328).

Belichick said it was an honor to join a group of coaches he idolized growing up.

"Certainly an honor to have my name thrown in there with some of those guys," he said. "[Coaches] I looked up to as a kid and admired and maybe borderline worshipped as NFL coaches. So I certainly never got into coaching expecting that to ever happen, so it is very gratifying to reach that milestone. But what it really says is I had a lot of really good players."

One of those players, wide receiver Deion Branch, sent out his congrats to Belichick over Twitter:

Belichick notched his 200th win in 306 games -- the fourth fastest to do so in NFL history.

As for Sunday's victory, Belichick was happy to see a full team effort out of the Patriots.

"It's good to come up here and see the team play as well as they did, play hard for each other, play well as a team, good complementary football from all three units," he said. "That's what we need to do."

MORE PATRIOTS COVERAGE FROM CBS BOSTON

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.