Belichick Responds to Kraft’s Comments on Hiring Risk
Bill Belichick is pushing back against recent remarks made by Robert Kraft. After the New England Patriots’ owner indicated that he took a “big risk” in hiring Belichick as the team’s head coach back in 2000, the accomplished six-time Super Bowl-winning coach asserts that he too took a significant risk when he accepted the offer.
“As I told Robert multiple times through the years, I took a big risk by taking the New England Patriots head coaching job,” Belichick shared with ESPN. “I already had an opportunity to be the Head Coach of the New York Jets, but the ownership situation was unstable.”
The Patriots went through an unusual process to bring Belichick on board in 2000 bk8 mas. When they sought permission from the Jets to interview Belichick that offseason, Bill Parcells stepped down as head coach of New York and named Belichick, then the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator, as his successor. Belichick, however, resigned as Jets head coach the following day and eventually struck a deal to become the Patriots’ head coach, requiring New England to surrender a first-round pick to New York.
Given the circumstances, including Belichick’s 36-44 win-loss record during his five seasons with the Cleveland Browns, Kraft described hiring him as one of his most “questioned” decisions since acquiring the team in 1994. However, he also acknowledged Belichick’s hiring as one of the best decisions he has made as the team’s owner.
“I gave up a No. 1 draft pick for a coach that had only won a little over 40% of his games to get him out,” Kraft noted on the “Dudes on Dudes” podcast, which was filmed at “Fanatics Fest” in New York last month. “I don’t know if there are any Jets fans here. I think getting Bill Belichick to come to the Patriots in 1999 was a big risk, and I got hammered in the Boston area, but he was with us for 24 years. And we did OK,” Kraft humorously remarked.
While the Patriots secured their first of six Super Bowl titles in Belichick’s second season with the team, Belichick hinted that the Jets were actually in a stronger competitive position when he was hired in 2000. “The Jets were a solid team after three years of rebuilding under Bill Parcells, which included an AFC Championship Game appearance in January 1999,” Belichick explained. jili slot club “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.”
Despite the unprecedented success Belichick and Kraft achieved together over 24 years, there has been some tension since the coach’s departure in January 2024. In the Apple TV+ docuseries “The Dynasty,” which documented the Patriots’ remarkable run, Kraft referred to Belichick as a “pain in the tush.” Some former players criticized the series for being overly negative towards Belichick while portraying Kraft positively.
In that same offseason, ESPN reported that Kraft cautioned Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank “not to trust” Belichick when the Falcons were interviewing him for the head coaching position. bk8 bk8vao Additionally, Kraft disclosed during an interview with “The Breakfast Club” in October 2024 that he had fired Belichick, contradicting the earlier narrative that both parties had mutually agreed to part ways.
Belichick, who has since become the head coach at North Carolina, has generally refrained from directly commenting on Kraft’s statements since his dismissal. He has not publicly addressed the report indicating that Kraft steered the Falcons away from hiring him. However, he did make a lighthearted jab about his portrayal in “The Dynasty” during the Roast of Tom Brady in May 2024 and has questioned Kraft’s assertion that he was fired. “It was a mutual decision for us to part ways,” Belichick asserted in an interview with CBS News in April philippine map with color casinoplusph.com.
Additionally, Belichick’s recent book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football,” notably excluded any mention of Kraft, failing to acknowledge him in its 289 pages. “It’s about my life lessons in football and it’s really more about the ones that I experienced directly,” Belichick explained in his CBS News interview regarding the omission of Kraft’s name in the book.
What do you think of the ongoing dynamic between Belichick and Kraft?