Popular comedian Ronny Chieng jokes that Bill Belichick’s stern approach to football means he could be Asian as the Malaysian journalist jokes his strict NFL methods are similar to an Asian parent’s.

The ex-New England Patriots’ supremo is known for his cold focus on the sport and his dedication for improvement and unlocking that extra one percent, which is part of why he won six Super Bowl rings from 2001-2018.

And the 72-year-old’s mindfulness and willingness to focus on the present, rather than the past, is something that has captivated Chieng, raised in Singapore, who joked that the football boss may be of Asian descent.

“I think Belichick, the way he built the franchise like that consistently, I’m like, you know Bill Belichick might be the first Asian head coach in the NFL,” Chieng told The Rich Eisen Show. “I mean he’s so Buddhist about football, he’s so strict, and he rarely cracks a smile. This guy’s an Asian parent.”

When will Belichick be back coaching?

Belichick is widely celebrated as one of the, if not the, greatest NFL coaches of all-time through his stints with the Cleveland Browns (1991-1995) and Patriots (2000-2023) where he went on to win six rings, 17 divisional titles and appeared in 13 AFC Conference Championship games.

He won 226 games at the Gillette Stadium and on the road, whilst losing 121 for a .687 record in the regular season. Whilst his postseason record was even better with 30 wins and 12 losses (.714).

However he is currently without an NFL team after being fired by the Patriots at the end of the 2023/24 season when they finished with a 4-13 record and last in the AFC East after a few years of struggling without Brady’s guidance from the quarterback role.

But he might not be on the sidelines as a media analyst for much longer as he wants to return to the sport no later than 2025, in a similar role to his previous two roles when he worked as a head coach but also a de facto general manager.