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One of the most successful coaches in American pro sports history is parting ways with the team he led to a half-dozen championships. Bill Belichick said during a news conference today that he is leaving the New England Patriots after 24 seasons and six Super Bowl wins in nine appearances.

“It’s with so many fond memories and thoughts that I think about the Patriots, and I’ll always be a Patriot,” he said at the presser. “I look forward to coming back here, but at this time, we’re gonna move on. And I’m excited for the future.”

ESPN reported that a deal with team owner Robert Kraft allowed Belichick to exit with a year remaining on his contract. Coming off a 4-13 season, its second consecutive losing record, the franchise now begins its first hunt for a head coach since the Clinton administration.

Belichick, 71, is a shoo-in future...

The list of things you can call "all-American" and not mean it in a bad way grows smaller and smaller as time marches ever onward, but today the title solemnly fits: we lost a true all-American star in Dick Butkus. The trailblazing football player and Hall of Fame inductee, widely considered one of the best linebackers who ever lived, has died at the age of 80. The Butkus family released a statement earlier today announcing that Butkus had passed "peacefully in his sleep overnight." George H. McCaskey, the Chairman of Butkus' career-long team, the Chicago Bears, released his own statement shortly after memorializing Butkus thusly:

"Dick was the ultimate Bear, and one of the greatest players in NFL history. He was Chicago's son. He exuded what our great city is about and, not coincidentally, what George Halas looked for in a player: toughness, smarts, instincts, passion and leadership."

In their touching obituary,...

Dick Butkus, a Hall of Famer who was among the greatest, most respected and most feared players in NFL history and also had a long acting career in TV, film and commercials, died overnight in his sleep at his Malibu home. He was 80.

His family confirmed the news on social media.

After back-to-back All-America seasons at the University of Illinois, Butkus was picked No. 3 overall by his hometown Chicago Bears in 1965. A fearsome force on the field and rather gentle giant off of it, he spent his entire injury-shortened nine-season career with the club, redefining the linebacker position in the process.

Dick Butkus circa 1965

Active from 1965-73, Butkus was named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team for both the 1960s and ’70s and was selected for the All-Time NFL Team in 2000. A six-time All-nfl selection and two-time Defensive Player of the Year, he played in eight consecutive Pro Bowls and...

Nearly 100 years ago, on November 25th, 1920, the biggest, most important professional football game that no one knows about took place in Chicago. The American Professional Football Association may have been officially founded at a car dealership in Canton, Ohio in September 1920, but by all rights, the Windy City was its hub.

After all, this was a league made up of teams from Midwestern cities, and there was none bigger than Chicago, which had two franchises: the Chicago Tigers from the North Side and the Racine Cardinals – so named because they played in Normal Park,...

Chicago – He was all Chicago, from his birth on the West Side to his passing on the North Side, blocks from Wrigley Field and his beloved Chicago Cubs. Howard Fagenholz’s family owned the Marigold Bowl near the corner of Grace and Broadway from 1941 through 2004. He was a lifelong entertainer at the bowling alley, combining his bellicose and sentimental virtues as a bartender and counter worker there, which earned him the nickname “Uncle Howard.” Fagenholz died in his sleep of natural causes on June 30th, 2017. He was 88.

Howard Fagenholz of Marigold Bowl, Chicago

Photo credit: Fagenholz Family

He was born to lawyer Fred Fagenholz and the former Myrtle Arkin in 1928. His mother’s family was close to the George Halas family, so Howard was used to having Chicago Bears football players like Sid Luckman hanging around – he was at old Comiskey Park watching the Bears vs. the Chicago Cardinals when...