It is the end of eras, from one corner of this football-obsessed country to another.
Bill Belichick will “part ways” with the Patriots on Thursday, ESPN reported, after 24 seasons in which he won six Super Bowl titles and stamped himself as arguably the greatest coach in NFL history.
Belichick will be free to pursue other coaching jobs, and the Falcons appear to have emerged as an early front-runner destination for the 71-year-old.
The iconic, taciturn Hoodie is coming off a disastrous 4-13 campaign with the Patriots and back-to-back seasons in which he failed to reach the postseason, which was unthinkable in his heyday of ruling the AFC East and capturing hardware with Tom Brady.
The decision follows discussions with Patriots owner Robert Kraft that the report portrayed as free of “conflict” and “disagreement.”
Belichick’s departure, while expected, remains a jaw-dropper — and was the final domino in a 24 hours that reshaped the football coaching landscape.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban, the titan of college football and winner of a record-setting seven national championships (six of them with the Crimson Tide), retired on Wednesday.
The announcement came as a surprise to the public and elicited a wave of plaudits for the 72-year-old Saban, who finished with a 292-71-1 head coaching record and proved adaptable during his dominant 17-year run in Tuscaloosa.
Even if Alabama was no longer the shoo-in No. 1 it was in the past decade, Saban still took eventual national champion Michigan to overtime in the playoff semifinals.
“The rules for the game of football may change, but the ‘process’ will never go out of style: hard work, discipline, the relentless pursuit of a worthy goal, not cutting corners, and doing things the right way for the sake of constant personal improvement, not for the scoreboard,” Saban’s wife, Terry, wrote on social media in confirming the news.
Earlier in the day, Pete Carroll wrapped up his tenure as Seahawks head coach to take an advisory role, though the 72-year-old made it clear he had been kicked up upstairs.
Carroll — who previously coached the Jets, Patriots and USC — won 137 games during 14 seasons in Seattle and won the Super Bowl following the 2013 season.
His ouster, following a season when the Seahawks went 9-8 and missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker, creates another opening (there are now eight) on the NFL coaching carousel.
— Jonathan Lehman
Larry Rothschild had a front-row seat for the peak of Luis Severino’s career, when the right-hander was an All-Star and finished in the top 10 in American League Cy Young voting in 2017 and 2018 under Rothschild’s guidance.
And the retired former Yankees pitching coach believes what made Severino great when he was one of the top pitchers in the game can get him back to that level again — or at least close — as he tries to revive his career with the Mets.
“Sometimes it takes time to recover from and get back to where you used to be,’’ Rothschild said Wednesday from his home in Tampa. “Some of the injuries he’s had were probably connected to each other, but that can be managed. His stuff, from what I’ve seen, was still there for some of his starts. If that’s the case, he’s definitely got a chance to be the same guy. He works hard, and he’s still young.”
The Mets — who have said they are looking to put together a “competitive” team for 2024 — held an introductory Zoom call Wednesday with Severino, as well as another ex-Yankee, Harrison Bader.
The focus for both players was on improving their health.
It’s hardly what anyone expected upon Year 4 of the Steve Cohen era in Queens, and signing a one-year, make-good deal at the age of 29 wasn’t in Severino’s plans, either.
But Severino hasn’t had a healthy season since 2018, when he finished ninth in the AL Cy Young voting.
What followed was an array of health woes that plagued Severino during the life of a four-year, $40 million contract extension.
“If the injuries never happened, who knows where he would have wound up?’’ Rothschild said. “But that’s always the unknown with pitching. You can never look too far ahead.”
The issues began in March 2019, when Severino experienced rotator cuff inflammation. A lat strain followed a month later, and he missed most of the season.
Severino then underwent Tommy John surgery in 2020, which cost him all of that year and nearly all of 2021, due in part to a groin injury suffered while rehabbing from the elbow procedure.
Another lat strain cost Severino time in 2022 and again early last season, when the right-hander finished with a 6.65 ERA and said he felt like “the worst pitcher in the game, no doubt about it” after allowing a career-high nine earned runs across 3 ⅓ innings in a July outing.
“All of it might have gotten to him mentally,’’ Rothschild said. “He’s a prideful guy and the team wasn’t doing well, either, and I think he took a lot of that to heart.”
Both Severino and Rothschild mentioned Severino’s propensity for tipping his pitches, but it’s something he’s been able to overcome in the past.
If he can harness his stuff on the mound, there is an opportunity for redemption, according to Rothschild.
“You look around the game, and there are a lot of good pitchers that went through hard times and got back to where they were,’’ Rothschild said. “And he can be one of those guys. He just needs to get his confidence back to where it was.”
Among the keys, Rothschild said, will be for Severino to come along slowly.
“They just have to focus on getting him rebuilt and getting him into and out of games at the right time,’’ Rothschild said. “If that happens, he can be the same monster he was before.’’
Thanks to their five-game winning streak since the arrival of OG Anunoby, the Knicks (22-15) are on pace for 48 wins, which would be their highest total in more than a decade — since the Carmelo Anthony-led 2012-13 team won 54 games before losing in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
That winter, the Yankees reached the ALCS, the Giants were defending a second Super Bowl title in five years and the Jets had Tim Tebow on their roster. And the Rangers were on their way to the Eastern Conference semifinals, too.
This season, the Knicks — though they don’t have anyone with Anthony’s star power — have very little competition when it comes to owning New York.
The Rangers remain at the top of the standings, but they haven’t played like an elite team in more than a month.
The rest of the New York sports landscape is a mess, from the Mets and Yankees coming off their worst seasons in years to the Jets and Giants flopping.
And, sure, there will be plenty of attention paid to Aaron Rodgers’ offseason plans and perhaps another significant offseason move by the Yankees or Mets, but for the time being, the Knicks have a chance to own the city and perhaps make Anunoby a star.
His presence has already improved the play of the entire team, including its two top players.
Julius Randle’s scoring has risen from an average of 23.6 points in 32 games prior to Anunoby’s arrival to 28.2 in the five games with him.
And though Jalen Brunson’s scoring has dipped slightly, his assists have gone from 6.0 per game before Anunoby to 8.8 with him and his turnovers have dropped from 2.4 to 1.6.
Want more? It emerged Wednesday that starting center Mitchell Robinson might be able to return from an ankle injury before the end of the regular season.
Wink Martindale and the Giants officially “parted ways” Wednesday, making him the third consecutive defensive coordinator to not make it to a third season with the team. He follows Patrick Graham (2020-21) and James Bettcher (2018-19).
That’s among the reasons the Giants have made the playoffs just once in the last seven years.
None of the previously ousted coordinators, though, had quite the exit that Martindale did, which included — as The Post’s Paul Schwartz first reported — Martindale cursing at head coach Brian Daboll before storming off.
Under the terms of their agreement, Martindale will forfeit the remaining $3 million on his contract and be free to take a job with any other NFL team.
Martindale was liked by the team’s defensive players, even if the unit’s results weren’t as good as in his and Daboll’s first season at MetLife Stadium.
Players and coaches talk about having continuity from one year to the next, especially when it comes to roster-building and on the coaching staff.
Now the Giants have another major item to take care of this offseason, in addition to deciding the future of Saquon Barkley and whether to make a major investment at quarterback — in the draft or otherwise.
???? Inside the Jets locker room, they don’t care what Aaron Rodgers says on TV, writes The Post’s Brian Costello.
???? But Pat McAfee had enough of Rodgers for now.
⚾ The Post’s Joel Sherman asks: Are the desperate Yankees talking themselves into Marcus Stroman?
???? St. John’s improved to 4-1 in the Big East with a gritty 75-73 win over Providence at MSG. The atmosphere inside the building spoke to a team that matters again, says The Post’s Mike Vaccaro.
???? We were there as PWHL New York had its first home game at UBS Arena, the latest landmark for the new pro women’s hockey league.
???? Merci. The skidding Nets play Thursday afternoon in Paris.
???? Kawhi Leonard inked a three-year, $152 million extension with the Clippers.