If there was ever time for former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick to accept the olive branch extended to him by Patriots chairman and CEO Robert Kraft, it would be now.
On Wednesday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced that both Belichick and Kraft were finalists for their Class of 2026 - Kraft as the “contributor” nominee and Belichick as the coach nominee. They will join senior finalists Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and LC Greenwood as those who will be voted on by the PFHOF selection committee for potential induction.
If both Patriots legends receive at least 80% approval from the full selection committee at their annual meeting early next year, they will join next year’s Canton, OH induction class - unveiled during Super Bowl week every year as a part of the NFL Honors awards show.
With that said - under new PFHOF induction policies, Belichick and Kraft will be competing for votes within the room, as a maximum of three of those five names can be selected from that group. This is the second season under this revised PFHOF induction process, which was intended to make football’s most exclusive fraternity that much more exclusive.
And in case the minutia of it all intrigues you - if none of the five finalists receive 80% approval, the one person with the highest percentage would be inducted with next summer’s class.
Since winning their final Super Bowl together in February of 2019, there has been a constant tug-and-pull between Belichick and Kraft on the amount of credit each should receive for the unprecedented success of their double-dynasty run.
For Belichick, it’s obvious - the architect of some of the best defensive game plans in the history of the game, while building a sustainable model for success as an organization within the NFL’s free agency era that has yet to be replicated anywhere else. Additionally, Belichick drafted and developed the greatest quarterback of all-time, picking him at No. 199 in the 2000 NFL Draft and sticking with him during the 2001 season after incumbent Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Bledsoe was ready to return from injury.
For Kraft, the credit is a bit more nuanced - holding together the relationship between Belichick and Tom Brady over nearly two decades, while allowing the football operation the autonomy to do what was necessary to continue winning at an unprecedented level. While there’s plenty of reporting over the years that suggests Kraft could have spent more money on his rosters compared to others around the NFL, the proof is in the pudding. His stable leadership and direction, regardless of what you think of the finances, brought Gillette six championship banners.
Together, Belichick and Kraft won 296 games, 17 AFC East titles, 9 AFC Championships and those 6 aforementioned Lombardi Trophies. Their partnership stretched from 2000 all the way through the end of the 2023 season.
Despite that shared success, the relationship between the two can be described as frosty, at best, despite Kraft’s attempts over the last two years of trying to publicly mend fences with Belichick.
During a live taping of Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski’s “Dudes on Dudes” podcast at Fanatics Fest in June, 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 Jets in exchange for Belichick - another feather in his dynasty-credit cap.
“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.
Kraft’s comments in June were seen as the 84-year-old attempting to show admiration to his former head coach, who he unceremoniously parted ways with in January of last year after going 4-12 in last season at Patriots head coach. That 4-12 season marked the third time in four years his team had missed the postseason since Brady left from Tampa Bay in March of 2020.
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?
In July, ESPN’s Don Van Natta reported on-the-record quotes from Belichick that showed the 73-year-old 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 Belichick.
Even with Belichick snipping back at Kraft through Van Natta, it did not stop the Brookline-native from telling WBZ-TV in September that he plans on erecting a Belichick statue in Enel Plaza at Gillette Stadium as a companion piece to go along with the one for Brady unveiled this sumer.
"When that great 20-year era ended, it was always my intention to commission a statue for both Tommy and Bill when their respective careers were over, playing and coaching," said Kraft. "When Bill's coaching career ends, we look forward to sitting down with him and having a statue made to be right next to Tommy."
In the eyes of Belichick, these attempts at fence-mending may be too little, too late.
But whether he likes it or not, there’s a chance he will be sharing a stage with his former boss next August in northeast Ohio while wearing a matching gold jacket.
Tune in each and every Monday throughout the football season to Patriots Monday on WEEI. Head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show at 6:30 a.m. ET, and quarterback Drake Maye joins WEEI Afternoons.