Bill Belichick says he doesn’t think he’s ever spoken to Seth Wickersham. But the veteran investigative journalist says otherwise.
On “The Greg Hill Show” Monday, Belichick pushed back against Wickersham’s bombshell reporting in his new book about the rise and fall of the Patriots dynasty, “It’s Better to Be Feared.”
“Well, I don’t think any of us are surprised by that type of media coverage,” Belichick said. “I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever even talked to the guy, so I don’t know.”
Excerpts released from the book last week include several revelatory anecdotes about Belichick, including a story about how he almost got into a fistfight with Eric Mangini at the 2008 league meetings. In one passage, a source tells Wickersham that Robert Kraft once referred to Belichick as the ‘biggest f— a—hole in my entire life.”
Wickersham also details Belichick’s alleged semi-secret friendship with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
On Tuesday, Wickersham tweeted a couple of rebuttals to Belichick’s claim. “Curious thing for him to say,” Wickersham wrote. “We've spoken many times over the years, recorded and on record, for stories both on Brady and himself: An hour on his coaching tree, 45 min on Ken Shipp and learning offense; 20 min on the draft process, etc.”
In a follow-up post, Wickersham includes a screenshot of a passage from the book in which he recounts an interview he had with Belichick about his drafting philosophy.
Belichick has spent the last week refuting multiple stories in Wickersham’s book, including that he didn’t want to meet with Tom Brady face-to-face when he left the Patriots. “That’s not true,” he said last week. “I’ve heard a few things about this book and it sounds like it’s a lot of second, third and fourth-hand comments.”
Wickersham stood by his reporting Friday on “Merloni and Fauria."
“It’s Better to Be Feared” will be released Oct. 12.
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