Bill Belichick Suggests NFL Should Rename Super Bowl Trophy in Honor of Tom Brady

The NBA recently honored its history by renaming several awards after iconic players, something Bill Belichick would like to see the NFL adopt with its most prestigious trophy.

During his weekly appearance on the Let's Go podcast (h/t NFL.com's Kevin Patra), Belichick suggested the NFL should rename the Super Bowl trophy after Tom Brady.

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

The comment came amid a discussion about the importance of coaches and players for great teams, with Belichick emphatically declaring that having good players is the ultimate deciding factor:

"You gotta have good players and as a coach, you want to give your players a chance to win. You wanna put 'em in a position where if they go out there and play well, they'll have a chance to win. That's what coach [Bill] Parcells taught me, is there's always a way to win. You just gotta figure out what it is, and you have to give the players a chance."

The Super Bowl trophy has been named after legendary coach Vince Lombardi since 1970 after he led the Green Bay Packers to victories in the first two Super Bowls.

Belichick has the most Super Bowl wins of any person in NFL history. He won six as head coach of the New England Patriots and two as defensive coordinator for the New York Giants.

Brady is the only player in NFL history with at least seven championships, including the pre-Super Bowl era (1920-65). Pro Football Hall of Famer Charles Haley is the only other player with five Super Bowl victories.

The NBA renamed its MVP, All-Star Game MVP, Finals MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year and Most Improved Player awards during the 2022-23 season.

One trophy the NBA didn't rename was the Larry O'Brien Trophy that gets awarded to the team that wins the Finals. Larry O'Brien was commissioner of the league from 1975 to 1984 when it grew into being a national fixture on television.

Granted, sticking with Belichick's point, O'Brien's tenure also overlapped with the rivalry between the Showtime-era Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics featuring Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird.

Given how reluctant anyone in any sport frequently is to change anything that might mess with tradition, the odds of the NFL renaming the Lombardi Trophy seem pretty low.

At some point, though, it wouldn't be a surprise if the NFL decided to add Brady's name to the Super Bowl MVP award as the NBA did with Michael Jordan for the Finals MVP.