Not yet in Marv Levy territory, Bill Belichick hopes to ‘be a young anything’

“I have a hard time picturing not coaching football at this point. I mean, I don’t want to be like Marv Levy and coaching when I’m in my 70s. You don’t have to worry about that. But, fortunately, that’s a few years off.”

It isn’t now for Bill Belichick.

That quote, captured by NFL Films as he drove his Volvo XC70 to Gillette Stadium the morning after falling to the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC wild-card round, is a decade old.

The New England Patriots head coach is 67. And he remembers saying what he did at 57 in the documentary “A Football Life: Bill Belichick.”

“Yeah, no, I did,” Belichick said Monday evening on WEEI’s Ordway, Merloni & Fauria. “And when I said it, maybe I didn’t know what 70 felt like. So, I’m not really sure if that’s an accurate statement today or not. I don’t really know. At the time I didn’t feel that way. Now that I’m closer to that age, I don’t know.”

Belichick recorded his 300th victory as an NFL head coach, including both regular season and postseason, Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. He’s third all-time behind only the 324 victories by George Halas and the 347 by Don Shula.

It’ll take more time to reach those likes. It’ll take more time to reach the territory of Levy, who retired from his Hall of Fame career in 1998 at the age of 72, and did so tied with Halas as the oldest head coach in the league archives.

Maybe a young 70 is in the cards for Belichick. Maybe the chance to be a young 80.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Belichick chuckled. “Be a young anything.”

New England is off to an 8-0 start for the third time in franchise history under Belichick. A meeting with Baltimore at M&T Bank Stadium is next on the calendar.

NFL Films won’t be capturing the drive back to the facility the morning after.