Bill Belichick Jokes NFL Should Rename Lombardi Trophy After Tom Brady

Seven Super Bowl titles. Ten Super Bowl appearances. Five Super Bowl MVPs. Three league MVPs.

89,214 passing yards and 649 touchdowns in the regular season, both NFL records.

Tom Brady played 23 seasons, won titles in three different decades, and authored the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history after erasing a 28-3 deficit against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.

No player in NFL history has combined longevity, postseason dominance, statistical production, and championship success the way Brady did.

To many fans, analysts, and former players, Brady is not just the greatest quarterback ever. He is the NFL's undisputed G.O.A.T.

And much of that success came alongside one man, Bill Belichick.

On Wednesday, during an appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio, the legendary New England Patriots coach said that the NFL should rename the Vince Lombardi Trophy the "Brady Trophy."

"Maybe they should name it the Brady Trophy. He won seven of them," Belichick joked.

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The Vince Lombardi Trophy is named after legendary Vince Lombardi, the Hall of Fame coach who led the Green Bay Packers to victories in the first two Super Bowls.

Lombardi became football royalty during the 1960s because of his relentless discipline, tactical innovation, and obsession with execution.

After Lombardi died from cancer in 1970 at age 57, the NFL renamed the Super Bowl trophy in his honor in 1971.

That history is why any actual renaming is extraordinarily unlikely.

The Lombardi name represents more than championships. It symbolizes the NFL's early national rise into America's most dominant sports league.

The trophy is football's version of baseball's Commissioner's Trophy or hockey's Stanley Cup. Renaming it would require the league to untangle decades of tradition, branding, and historical reverence.

Even Belichick clearly framed the idea as tongue-in-cheek rather than a serious proposal.

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Still, the joke reveals something important about Belichick's current public posture toward Brady.

For years, Belichick avoided emotionally charged praise, often reducing even Brady's most historic performances to dry football analysis.

Now, whether through distance, retirement, or simple perspective, Belichick sounds increasingly willing to publicly acknowledge Brady's singular place in NFL history.

That shift matters because the league's most fascinating dynasty has long felt emotionally unresolved.

Were they football soulmates? Rivals trapped inside a dynasty? Two alpha competitors who tolerated each other because winning demanded it? Those questions have hovered over the NFL for years.

But when even the architect of the Patriots dynasty jokes that the sport's ultimate prize should bear Brady's name, it feels like the argument may finally be settled.

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This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 6:19 PM.