Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft enjoyed an uber-successful quarter-of-a-century together as key figures in the New England Patriots' dynasty. However, no good thing lasts forever, and it appears there are harsh and awkward feelings left between Belichick and Kraft, if a moment between the two at former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's roast is any indication.
Julian Edelman and Drew Bledsoe, former Patriots players during different eras of Belichick's regime as head coach, were both present at Brady's Netflix roast. And on “Games With Names,” Edelman's podcast, he and Bledsoe recounted a moment backstage involving Belichick and Kraft, the latter of whom reportedly convinced the Atlanta Falcons not to hire the former.
“Bill's opening up, he's having fun, he's talking war stories, we're talking rookies, we're talking fun s—t, doing s—t we know Bill’s all about. But it was amplified because he was excited to see guys because he doesn't have a job anymore,” Edelman said before revealing he, Bledsoe, Randy Moss, Rob Gronkowski, and Bledsoe's brother and friend were in the room.
“The funny thing is — or interesting thing is, I think — I was kind of gone when it first sort of happened, but then Kraft walks in,” Bledsoe said. “So my brother was feeling sorry for himself because he's over there and Belichick is kind of holding court. Well, as he's in the middle of the story, Kraft walks in, and so you guys all go over to say hi to Kraft and the last man standing is my bro, and he’s like ‘Well, Bill's telling the story. If I leave, then he's telling the story to nobody because everybody's over saying hi to Kraft.'
“But they did break it down and got together for probably, I don't know, 10 minutes, at least the two of them.”
While they may have spoken, Edelman and Bledsoe agreed there was a “tension” in the air.
“The tension in that room, though, it could cut f—ing glass,” Edelman said. “I was so awkward. I was watching coach, and I tried to give coach a heads up. I see Kraft walk in, I’m like, ‘Yo coach, woo,' you know, some locker room s—t, like ‘5-0, 5-0.' Of course, he didn’t f—ing see it. He came in and I was like, ‘Oh s–t there’s going to be some fireworks.' I just walked away, I didn’t want to get in there.”
Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft's reportedly strained relationship
Robert Kraft purchased the New England Patriots in 1994, and six years later, he hired Bill Belichick away from the New York Jets. The rest, as they say, is history; with Belichick strolling the sidelines and leading the front office, and with Tom Brady, an overlooked quarterback, commandeering the offense, the Patriots dominated the NFL for the better part of 20 years, winning six Super Bowls and appearing in nine total.
The Patriots' stranglehold over the NFL seemed to officially end with Brady's departure in March 2020, which reportedly stemmed from Belichick not valuing Brady enough to sign him to a suitable extension. Whatever the reason, it turned out to be the wrong one, as Brady won a Super Bowl in his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while Belichick and the Patriots finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008, when Brady missed almost the entire season due to a torn ACL.
While the Patriots returned to the postseason in 2021, they were obliterated by the Buffalo Bills, their AFC East rivals, 47-17 in the Wild Card. New England would fail to make it back to the postseason either of the next two seasons, including this past year, Belichick's final as Patriots head coach. In 2023, the Pats won just four games, the fewest in Belichick's career.
After the season, Kraft and Belichick held a joint press conference in which they confirmed Belichick and the Patriots were parting ways. While the two seemed to share an emotional moment together, the feelings may not be as nice now.
Belichick, who turned 72 last month, seemingly had no desire to stop coaching. And for a little bit during the early parts of the offseason, it appeared Belichick wouldn't have to, as the Atlanta Falcons interviewed the longtime Patriots coach for their head coaching vacancy. But the Falcons ultimately went in a different direction, choosing to hire Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator and former Falcons interim coach Raheem Morris instead.
The reason why Atlanta opted against Belichick is up for debate, but according to an ESPN report by Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wickersham and Jeremy Fowler, Kraft may have played a rather large hand in Belichick having to embrace a media career now instead of coaching as he had done the last 50 years of his life.
“Publicly, Kraft and [Falcons owner Arthur] Blank have said Kraft expressed only support and offered praise of his former coach,” the report reads. “But in a conversation with Blank, Kraft delivered a stark assessment of Belichick's character, according to a source who spoke to two people: a close Kraft friend and a longtime Belichick confidant. The source quoted the Belichick source as saying, ‘Robert called Arthur to warn him not to trust Bill.' That account was backed up, the source said, by the close Kraft friend.
“Multiple sources said that Kraft spoke with ‘some candor' to Blank about Belichick, though the sources declined to elaborate. One source close to Belichick said Kraft ‘was a big part' of why the Falcons passed on hiring him.”
It had been reported and speculated that Kraft and Belichick didn't always see eye-to-eye, especially about the value and long-term future of Brady as the talented quarterback aged, but if Kraft's involvement in the Falcons' non-hiring of Belichick is true, or if Belichick believes it to be, it's no surprise at all that he and Kraft would be at least at a little awkward around each other.
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