Belichick Throws Shade at the Krafts in His Saltiest Interview Ever

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They say "Time heals all wounds." I don't who "they" are or why they say it. I mean, tell that to Roy Munson who had his hand jammed into the gears of a ball return machine and spent the rest of his life with a rubber one. And even if the wounds they're referring to are the kind you can't see - the emotional, psychological, spiritual ones - saying they all heal with enough time never met Bill Belichick.

A long time ago, Belichick demonstrated he is to holding grudges what Stephen Hawking was to astrophysics. A galaxy brain expert on the subject, who delivers his findings in a monotonous, unfeeling, robot voice. A voice which he shared with, of all people, long time Patriots nemesis Ben Volin to seemingly trash his former employers:

Source -  Speaking to The Boston Globe’s Ben Volin in an exclusive interview this week, UNC head football coach Bill Belichick didn’t pull any punches when asked about the freedom afforded to him now that he has the reins of the Tar Heels program. 

“It’s a much more cohesive, and I’d say unified, view of what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it,” Belichick told Volin.  …

“There’s no owner, there’s no owner’s son, there’s no cap, everything that goes with the marketing and everything else, which I’m all for that. But it’s way less of what it was at that level,” Belichick told Volin. “Generic NFL teams, you have the owner, president, general manager, personnel director, college director, pro director, cap guy, some other consultant, then head coach. 

“I’d say when we had our best years in New England, we had fewer people and more of a direct vision. And as that expanded, it became harder to be successful.”

As the article correctly points out, Belichick made similar comments last January on the "Let's Go" podcast:

“That’s (Robert Kraft’s) choice,” Belichick said. “People that own the team have the choice to do whatever they want to do. The other people that were in place … it’s also the rest of the organization, it’s not just the head coach. 

“So, you know, Robyn Glaser, Jonathan Kraft, whoever the other people are that are involved in those decisions and the structure of the organization. But you need that shared vision between ownership and the coaching and scouting. And that’s when you can be successful.”

Speaking to Gray, Belichick said that both he and Kraft eventually had a fragmented relationship as the team started to slide from perennial contenders to a rebuilding club once Tom Brady left for Tampa Bay in March 2020. 

“I had that up until about the last four years in New England,” Belichick said of a shared vision in Foxborough. “And when you have that shared vision and everybody pulling in the same direction, you have a chance and you can get a lot done. And even if you don’t win at all, you’re still really competitive,” Belichick noted.

“But when you’re going in different directions, then that makes it really hard to keep up with everybody else.”

As I look back at my last paragraph, I realize the word "seemingly" is doing way too much heavy lifting. And "definitely" fits a lot better. 

And while a lot is going to be made of this, and I guess it should since it's not every day you get to hear the greatest winner ever in his profession taking shots at the people he worked under for 25 years. It certainly happened with Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones. But if, say, Don Shula spent his post-NFL career lobbing grenades at Wayne Huizenga and his family, that'd be news to me. And Huizenga had it coming, since he put about 20 million mom-and-pop video stores out of business. But I digress.

But honestly, what did everyone expect? That Belichick was just going to go quietly into that goodnight? Exit gracefully into the twilight of his career? Suddenly become gracious and magnanimous in his 70s? That he was going to start playing nice with others?

Bill Belichick is a loner. A rebel who plays by his own rules. He's not a collaborator. He's an old dog who mastered all the tricks he's ever needed back when he was scheming the gameplan that beat the K-Gun Offense in the late 1980s. He's not going to change now.

This is the man who'll still dump on Steve Gutman, the president of the Jets who talked about him like he belonged in a psych hospital after he turned down the job of "HC of NYJs". Who told Tom Jackson "Go fuck yourself" within 10 minutes of winning his second Super Bowl. Who cut Eric Mangini out of his life altogether after getting betrayed by him. And he's godfather to Fredo's kid. 

So two years is not enough time to heal those wounds. But he's the same guy Mr. Kraft had the wisdom and vision to hire a quarter century ago. He knew he wasn't giving the keys to his franchise over to an affable, sweetheart of a guy. A hail fellow, well met. He hired a killer. And he got one. The two put together the greatest, longest running collaboration in sports history since Philadelphia A's manager Connie Mack spent 39 years working for Philadelphia A's owner Connie Mack. 

Clearly, the wheels came off toward the end, as Belichick said. It's going to happen when there are so many Alphas occupying the same ecosystem. And that includes Jonathan Kraft, a man who expects results:

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And those results hadn't been happening. The dynamic between the coach and the son was a perfect example of the movie trope where the Brilliant Scientist wants to continue Doing Research, without interference. But the Businessman paying the bills wants to be kept in the loop of where all his money is going. Think Harry Osbsorn and Dr. Octopus in SpiderMan 2:

It happens. It's human nature. And looking back, it's a minor miracle the coach, the owner, and the heir apparent were able to coexist as long as they did. (I'm sure having Robyn Glaser in the mix didn't help one damned bit.) But it doesn't mean any of them were wrong. That difficult dynamic produced nine trips to the Super Bowl and hung six banners above the stadium the Krafts built. I'll take those results. 

All that said, this is going to make things super awkward when that Belichick statue is unveiled.