Is Patriots' Belichick, chasing a sixth Super Bowl title, NFL's best coach ever?

"I was just going to eat dinner with my coaches and I hate that you spoiled dinner for me by bringing that up," Gruden said.

After that unexpected AFC playoff victory, the Patriots advanced to Super Bowl XXXVI and beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17 for coach Bill Belichick's first championship.

Belichick has kept on rolling since then. His Patriots added Super Bowl victories following the 2003, 2004, 2014 and 2016 seasons, giving him five rings now.

He'll go for No. 6 in Super Bowl LII on Sunday against Philadelphia at U.S. Bank Stadium. A win would enable Belichick, 65, to tie legends George Halas of Chicago and Curly Lambeau of Green Bay for the most championships won by an NFL coach.

Gruden doesn't deny he's still smarting from 16 years ago with the way Belichick got that first title. Nevertheless, he's been in awe with what Belichick has been able to do with the Patriots.

"It's an amazing accomplishment, and they should be naming some kind of trophy after him soon," said Gruden, who won Super Bowl XXXVII with Tampa Bay a year after the "Tuck Rule" game defeat. "It's hard to not really root for New England with all they've accomplished. They're a team that has really stood the test of time.

"It's a credit to them. Belichick deserves all the credit he can get. ... There's different ways to judge success, but I think if you're talking about the greatest coach, if you're going to measure success by winning and winning championships, there's pretty much not any dispute there."

The Pioneer Press talked to six Super Bowl-winning coaches about Belichick's place in history as he seeks to hoist another Vince Lombardi Trophy. If the Patriots win, Belichick would have more titles than even Lombardi, the Packers legend who won five, including the first two Super Bowls.

Others to weigh in were Bill Parcells, who won two Super Bowls for the Giants and once had Belichick as an assistant; Tom Flores, who won two rings with the Raiders; Mike Holmgren, a champion with Green Bay; Dick Vermeil, who won with St. Louis, and Tony Dungy, who was victorious with Indianapolis.

"It's just a remarkable accomplishment if he does it, and regardless of whether he does it," Parcells said of Belichick chasing history on Sunday.

When Parcells coached the Giants from 1983-90, Belichick was one of his assistant coaches. He also had him as an assistant with the Patriots in 1996 and with the New York Jets from 1997-99.

The up-and-down relationship between Parcells and Belichick is the subject of the ESPN 30 for 30 film "The Two Bills," which premiered Thursday night. Parcells said he hadn't planned to watch it while not giving any specific reason.

"They sent me a link of it about 10 days ago, but I didn't watch it," Parcells, whose Super Bowl wins with the Giants came after the 1986 and 1990 seasons, said Thursday. "I don't think I'm going to watch it. ... I just don't think I'm going to do it, that's all."

Parcells said he spoke to Belichick about a week ago. He said he has called or texted him with congratulations after each of his Super Bowl wins.

"I'm very proud of him," Parcells said. "I think he's done a tremendous job."

Could Parcells have envisioned Belichick having this sort of success when he had him as an assistant?

"You never know how somebody's going to be until they're a head coach," Parcells said. "But I thought he had all the attributes. He pays attention to detail. That's what he does. That's served him well."

That didn't seem to help Belichick during his first head coaching stint, when he went 36-44 with the Cleveland Browns from 1991-95.

"They didn't give him a chance because of the impulsive change (of coaches) by ownership," said Vermiel, who led the Rams to win in Super Bowl XXXIV in January 2000. "Many times teams lose football coaches before they have a chance to do it. We won four games the year before we won the world championship, and if the (Rams) were impulsive and fired my butt, we might not have won a world championship."

Vermiel thinks Belichick's five championships make him the greatest coach in NFL history.

"It's hard to do what he's done," Vermeil said, "and he's done it in a league that's a lot more sophisticated today than it used to be, and there are far more people trying to do it well with all the money behind them.

"I just don't think there's an equivalent (to Belichick). You look at Tom Landry, Vince Lombardi, Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells, Don Shula, they were great, but it's a different day. It's tougher to build a better model today than yesterday."

Halas won his six titles coaching teams in Chicago during four different stints from 1920-1967. He won his first title with the Chicago Staleys in 1921, then won with the Bears in 1933, 1940, 1940, 1946 and 1963.

Lambeau won his six titles with the Packers from 1919-49. While playing home games at Lambeau Field, Lombardi won his five with the Packers while coaching them from 1959-67. The first Super Bowl wasn't played until after the 1966 season.

"(Belichick) has to be mentioned in the same breath as those legends, absolutely," said Holmgen, who won Super Bowl XXXI with the Packers in January 1997.

Like Vermeil, Holmgren said it's tougher to win championships now than in yesteryear. There are 32 teams compared to 14 when Lombardi won an NFL title in 1965 and compared to 25 NFL and AFL teams when Lombardi won his second Super Bowl after the 1967 season.

There also has been true NFL free agency and a salary cap for the past quarter century. That has made it harder to keep great teams intact.

"With Bill Belichick, you can't argue with his success," Holmgren said. "It's remarkable. ... To stay as good as long as they have, it's a combination of Brady, Belichick and the ownership there with Robert Kraft.

"(Belichick) has done it with some players that other teams don't want. He picks up guys and then all of a sudden they're great players for the Patriots. So, he's special."

Dungy, who won Super Bowl XLI with Indianapolis in February 2007, also has been impressed by how long the Belichick has kept the Patriots among the NFL's elite.

"It's tough to compare eras and all of that, but the longevity that he has had, that's what stands out to me," Dungy said. "To be able to do it over an 18-year period, that's incredible."

In Belichick's 18 seasons with the Patriots, they have gone 214-74 during the regular season and 27-9 in the playoffs. They have played in seven straight AFC Championship Games.

Sunday will mark Belichick's record eighth Super Bowl appearance. His Patriots lost to the New York Giants in Super Bowls following the 2007 and 2011 seasons.

Belichick's New England tenure started with an unimpressive 5-11 season in 2000. Then in 2001, Brady took over for an injured Drew Bledsoe at quarterback in the third game and the Patriots rolled to an 11-5 record.

Belichick's first playoff game with the Patriots will go down in history. At snowy Foxboro Stadium, trailing the Raiders 13-10 with less than left two minutes left, New England looked doomed when Brady apparently lost a fumble.

But the fumble was overturned on replay because the "tuck rule," a since-changed rule about an incompletion being called if a quarterback is trying to "tuck" the ball back into his body. The Patriots got a last-second field goal from Adam Vinatieri to tie the score and then won 16-13 in overtime on another Vinatieri field goal.

"That was a fumble," said Flores, who led Raiders to Super Bowl wins after the 1980 and 1983 seasons and was their radio analyst for the "tuck rule" game. "Brady knew it was a fumble because he went and sat on the bench and didn't argue. But sometimes you get a gift. One game can change the direction of your career, and maybe it did with Belichick."

Like Gruden, Flores still grumbles about that loss. But also like Gruden, he can't deny that what Belichick has done since that game has been remarkable.

"I won't take anything away from him for that," Flores said. "He's earned his Super Bowl wins. I give him all the respect in the world with what he's done. It's hard to compare the greatest, but if you label him, he's maybe the greatest, winningest coach ever."