At 37 years old, Bill Belichick became the NFL's youngest head coach when originally hired by the Browns in 1991.
At 37 years old, Adam Gase is now the NFL's youngest head coach after being hired by the Dolphins in January.
Age isn't the only similarity between football's greatest coach of the 21st century and Miami's nascentquarterback whisperer, according to Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.
"Instead of getting a retread that really hasn't had a great track record as head coach, I was looking for somebody that really could be the next, if you will, Bill Belichick, Bill Parcells," Ross said Monday, via the Palm Beach Post. "You know, really great head coach, and I think we got one."
Ross is fascinated with the Parcells football tree, which first sprouted branches as Belichick jumped to Cleveland in the early 1990s.
When Ross purchased the franchise in 2008, Parcells was already on board as executive vice president of football operations.
Parcells' hand-picked general manager (Jeff Ireland) and head coach (Tony Sparano) stayed on under Ross for the bulk of the next half-decade. Ross' new executive vice president of football operations, Mike Tannenbaum, was a long-time lieutenant under Parcells with the Jets.
In other words, it's no surprise that Ross would compare his new wunderkind coach to Belichick and Parcells.
What is surprising, however, is that Ross is already conceding that his new version of Belichick could be run out of town before the new program has a chance to reach fruition.
"After three years, if we haven't made the playoffs, we're looking for a new coach," Ross reasoned. "That's just the way it is. The fans want it."
Ross' associates immediately spun his message to the Miami Herald as a broad overview of NFL trends as opposed to a hardline mandate for their new coach.
With all due respect to a business man of Ross' shrewdness, he would do well to heed the time-tested football advice of former Eagles coach Joe Kuharich who quipped nearly 50 years ago, "If you listen to the fans, you'll find yourself sitting with them."
