default-cbs-image

If we learned one thing at the NFL’s annual league meeting this week, it’s that the Patriots’ dynasty isn’t ever going to end. 

Basically, if you’re a fan of the Dolphins, Bills or Jets, you might want to find another team to cheer for. If Robert Kraft gets his way, it sounds like New England might be running things in the AFC East for the better part of the next two decades. 

With Tom Brady and Bill Belichick both getting up there in age, you’d think that the Patriots’ reign atop the NFL would be coming to an end sometime soon, but that doesn’t appear to be the case, at least according to Kraft.  

During an interview at the league meetings this week, the Patriots owner was asked how long he thought Bill Belichick might keep coaching the team, and let’s just say that the answer might as well have been “forever.”

“I hope he coaches until his 80s,” Kraft said, via CSNNE.com. 

Although that seems ridiculous, this is Belichick we’re talking about, so it wouldn’t be a surprise at all. Belichick will be 65 when the 2017 season starts, so if he decides to coach until he’s 80, that would mean he’ll be on the Patriots’ sideline through the 2032 season. To put that in perspective, kids born in 2011 will be able to legally drink by then. 

Kraft thinks Belichick can coach that long because he’s watched other brilliant minds be productive in their respective fields past the age of 80. 

“I see Warren Buffett and Rupert Murdoch, and they’re in their mid-80s and they’re performing at a pretty high level,” Kraft said. “We’ve got to keep Bill healthy.”

If Belichick were to make it to age 80, he’d smash the NFL record for oldest head coach, which currently belongs to Bears legend George Halas, who coached until he was 72 (Bills coach Marv Levy also coached until he was 72, but he was several months younger than Halas was during his final season as a coach). 

One other thing helping Beilchick’s cause is that he basically feels like he’s on vacation when he’s coaching. 

“Really doesn’t feel like work,” the Patriots coach said just before the Super Bowl, via WEEI.com. “Try and give everyone the opportunity to do their job. We have a lot of people that do it very well. A great coaching staff and a great group of players. I have a lot of respect for all of them. I try and stay out of the way and let them do their job. They all do it pretty well.”

As if the thought of dealing with Belichick for the next 15 years isn’t frightening enough for other teams in the NFL, there’s also the Brady factor. Kraft said the quarterback told him before the annual meetings that he plans to play “six or seven more years.”

Clearly Father Time is a Patriots fan, because that’s the only to explain why he hasn’t sucked the talent out of Brady or Belichick like he’s eventually done to every other NFL player who’s crossed his path.