During a live taping of Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski’s “Dudes on Dudes” podcast at Fanatics Fest in June, Patriots owner Robert Kraft told his two former players that the best move he’s made since buying the franchise in 1994 was trading a first round draft pick to the New York Jets in exchange for head coach Bill Belichick.
“The one that got questioned the most was in 1999,” Kraft said on stage in New York City. “I gave up a No. 1 draft pick for a coach that had only won a little over 40 percent of his games to get him out, I don’t know if there are any Jets fans here - [but] I think 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.”
“OK” is an understatement, of course, as Belichick helped usher in the most dominant era of modern day football the NFL has ever seen.
Kraft’s comments in June were seen as the 84-year-old attempting to extend an olive branch to his former head coach, who he unceremoniously parted ways with in January of last year after going 4-12 in his last season as Patriots head coach.
Originally framed as a mutual separation by both Belichick and the organization, Kraft later revealed on a radio show that it was a firing. There’s also been reporting by ESPN that Kraft poison-pilled Belichick’s attempt at landing another head coaching gig with the Atlanta Falcons. And we all know how things were framed in the Apple TV+ series - which Kraft Sports Productions had a hand in producing, per the credits.
So if Belichick takes Kraft’s comments from June as a backhanded compliment of sorts, can you really blame the guy?
On Wednesday, ESPN’s Don Van Natta reported on-the-record quotes from Belichick that showed the six-time Super Bowl champion has had enough with the “risk” narrative that’s been peddled by Kraft on various platforms for years and years.
"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 was unstable.”
Van Natta wrote that Belichick said he was “urged by scores of people to reject Kraft's offer and remain with the Jets,” despite the organization’s perceived instability.
"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 told ESPN. "I made it clear that we would have to change the way the team was managed to regain the previously attained success.
"I appreciated Robert giving me the opportunity to make those changes and build a program that was consistent with my vision for a championship team.”
Belichick wanted to make it perfectly clear to Van Natta that he was the one taking on the risk, not Kraft.
"The Jets were a solid team after three years of rebuilding under Bill Parcells, which included an AFC Championship Game appearance in [January of] 1999," Belichick told ESPN. "Meanwhile, the Patriots organization had dismantled their 1996 AFC Championship team and became one of the worst in the AFC. It didn't help that they were $10 million over the cap heading into my first season as head coach in 2000."
So if Kraft thought this comment to Edelman and Gronkowski was going to be well-received by the head football coach at North Carolina, he was sorely mistaken.
Just like Kraft’s failed attempt to pump Belichick’s tires on stage at the roast of Tom Brady last spring, these comments from Fanatics Fest in June landed flat with the future Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach.
In an attempt to garner a response from Kraft on Belichick’s not-so-veiled body blows, Van Natta wrote that Patriots spokesman Stacey James did not respond to questions from ESPN, and said Kraft could not be reached for comment.