Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft are waging their war in the court of public opinion – and neither side is winning.
It has been less than two years since Belichick departed his post as the New England Patriots head coach after winning six Super Bowls in what’s considered to be arguably the NFL’s best dynasty. At the time, it was billed as a mutual parting of ways.
The evidence suggests that the parting was far from mutual, however, with repeated sparring in the media following the bitter divorce.
Belichick renewed the war again on July 16 in a statement to ESPN.
“As I told Robert multiple times through the years, I took a big risk by taking the New England Patriots head coaching job,” Belichick told ESPN. “I already had an opportunity to be the head coach of the New York Jets, but the ownership situation (there) was unstable.’
The coach claimed he was urged to remain with the Jets, rather than accept the job in New England.
“I had been warned by multiple previous Patriots’ coaches, as well as other members of other NFL organizations and the media, that the New England job was going to come with many internal obstacles,’ Belichick said. ‘I made it clear that we would have to change the way the team was managed to regain the previously attained success.”
The statement, which seemingly came out of left field, was in apparent response to something Kraft had said a week earlier on the ‘Dudes on Dudes’ podcast with former Patriots, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski.
Kraft was asked to name his best decision as owner and responded by talking about Belichick – appearing to indicate that hiring the coach was the answer.
‘Well, the one that got questioned the most was in ’99,’ Kraft said. ‘I gave up a No. 1 draft pick for a coach who had only won a little over 40% of his games. But getting Bill Belichick to come to the Patriots in 1999 was a big risk, and I got hammered in the Boston media. But he was with us for 24 years, and we did OK.’
Belichick seems to have taken issue with being called a ‘big risk’ by Kraft, but the owner isn’t wrong. Trading a first-round pick for a coach with a 36-44 record was far from a safe move.
New England took a leap of faith, knowing they could’ve handed a top draft pick over to a bitter rival in their own division.
It was the latest chapter in a saga that already saw Belichick omit Kraft from his book and an Apple TV documentary about the Patriots, which portrayed the coach as the bad guy.
The duo went on to experience 24 years of success together, something neither side wants to let go of now. Recent history shows that they were better off together anyway.
Kraft’s Patriots fired Belichick’s successor, Jerod Mayo, after one season with a 4-13 record. Belichick, on the other hand, has become unrecognizable in his post-Patriots life. Between various media appearances and the ongoing circus surrounding his relationship with 24-year-old Jordon Hudson, the 73-year-old is far from the person NFL fans knew for over two decades.
Now Belichick is in the college ranks, set to make his debut as the head coach at the University of North Carolina in the fall.
It’s his latest attempt to move on in his football life, while trying to prove he can still coach at a high level.
Once known for his cut-up hoodies and intimidating sideline demeanor, the ruler of the ‘Evil Empire’ could’ve opted to walk away and ride into the sunset to await his moment of enshrinement at the Hall of Fame.
Belichick ran his Patriots teams on the idea that they would move on from players a year early, rather than a year late. That seems to be the same concept Kraft employed to move on from the long-time coach.
The previous unflappable, stoic coach finally met his match.
And he’s not going down without a fight.
All the NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY’s 4th and Monday newsletter.