It was late on a Thursday night about 24-1/2 years ago, Sept. 2, 1999, and the host Philadelphia Eagles had just beaten the expansion Browns 30-17 at Veterans Stadium in the preseason finale.

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Browns head coach Chris Palmer trudged off the field toward the locker room on the far side of the field, and Eagles first-year head coach Andy Reid did the same on the near side. The Philadelphia fans sporadically booed Reid. They boo everybody in Philadelphia. If they had known anything about him, then they might have booed him more vociferously. But he was a virtual nobody.

At the same time in 1999, Bill Belichick was back to being a defensive coordinator — this time with the New York Jets — after a failed head-coaching tenure with the Browns. The following season, 2000, he would go to the New England Patriots to get a second chance at being a head coach. By the time he was done about a quarter-century later, he would be regarded as arguably the greatest head coach in pro football history. No one could have seen that coming, either.

The point of this story is that, 25 years from now, two men who are currently virtual unknowns toiling in the backwoods somewhere, will be regarded as the top head coaches in the game. Who knows who they will be? The trick is for two teams to find them just at the right time as they’re ready to begin ascending to their greatness, just as Andy Reid and Bill Belichick were.

Steve King