Dan Marino Says He Hopes Bill Belichick Doesn't Break Don Shula's NFL HC Wins Record

Something about the Miami Dolphins makes it hard for anyone inside the organization to accept that records were made to be broken. For years now, members of the Super Bowl champion 1972 Dolphins have openly rooted against any team that comes close to matching their undefeated season.

Former Miami quarterback Dan Marino may not care about that record, but he's hoping New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick doesn't come close to surpassing Don Shula's 328 regular-season wins mark.

"I hope he don't get it," Marino told ESPN's Cameron Wolfe. "I'm a Dolphin for life. Coach Shula for life. I don't want him to get it."

Belichick enters 2021 season with 280 career victories—311 including the playoffs—after his first seven-win campaign since going 5-11 during in 2000. He's averaged 11.6 wins per season with New England, meaning it would take him at least four seasons to pass Shula if he keeps up that pace. If Belichick, 69, is going to surpass Shula's all-time record including postseason wins (347) it would take the Pats' coach at least five more seasons at his current pace in New England.  

Marino hopes that never happens. He wants Shula, who died last May at age 90, to hold onto the record forever. 

In reminiscing about his former coach with ESPN, it's easy to understand why:

"[Shula] was the best. He took care of me all the time. He was an incredible man and head coach. He taught me how to be in the community, be a leader, work hard. But from day one— which I thought was genius—he said, 'I want you to be the starting QB, so you have to learn this quickly, and now you're going to call all your plays in practice and exhibition games. It takes more work instead of a coach telling you what to run—you have to think about it beforehand, you have to prepare for it beforehand."

Pro Football Talk's Peter King doesn't believe Belichick will stay on the sidelines solely to break Shula's record, but he also doesn't expect the coach to head off into retirement anytime soon, either. 

In his May 31 newsletter, King explained why that's the case. 

"The way Belichick is, I doubt sincerely he’d leave the Patriots with a dim future," King wrote. "He’ll view as part of his legacy the shape he left the franchise. That’s why Mac Jones falling to New England at 15 this year was so important to New England’s long-term future—it allows Belichick to feel like there’s a good chance the team now has its quarterback for the post-Brady period."