Back in 2009, Bill Belichick said that he wouldn't be like former Bills head coach Marv Levy and be coaching into his 70's. Well, fast-forward a decade from the comments and now the 67-year-old Patriots head coach is apparently singing a different tune. During his weekly appearance on WEEI, Belichick was asked about not being like Levy, who retired at age 72, and has now kept the door open to stick around NFL circles a bit longer than even he anticipated.

"When I said it, maybe I didn't know what 70 felt like," he said. "So not really sure if that's an accurate statement."

He added: "At the time, I didn't feel that way. Now that I'm closer to that age, I don't know."

This is clearly a shift in thinking on the part of Belichick, but it makes sense why he wouldn't be so ready to walk away given the situation he's currently in with the Patriots.

His teams are in constant contention for the Super Bowl, have won three of the previous five Lombardi Trophies and are in the driver's seat to possibly win another in 2019.

Not only that, but Belichick has a system in place in New England where he controls every aspect of the football operations and even gets to work alongside his children as Steve Belichick is the current safeties coach and Brian Belichick is a coaching assistant. That latter point can't be overstated in how Belichick looks at his long-term future. On top of the simple joys of working with your family, it's conceivable that he'd want to help them get established in their own coaching careers over the next few years.

There is also the idea that the hoodie may want to hang on to continue to climb the head coaching wins ladder. He's fresh off the 300th win of his head coaching career and is 25 wins from passing George Halas for No. 2 all-time and 48 victories away from passing Don Shula for the record. If the Patriots can keep up the level of success they've sustained for the last two decades and Belichick decides to hang around a bit longer than expected, he should be able to achieve another level of NFL immortality.

So, to the dismay of every NFL team outside of Foxborough, Belichick doesn't look like he's slowing down anytime soon.