Bill Belichick has been largely mum on the subject. At the same time, Robert Kraft is intensifying his campaign to burnish his legacy as owner of the New England Patriots. With a new chapter approaching for the team, their contentious relationship is starting to crystalize. An impressive hire for sure, and now Belichick is preparing to start his first season as a college head coach at North Carolina.
Kraft hired Belichick in 1999 and has since hailed that decision “the best” of his three decades in ownership. He got some early pushback, but that didn’t stop him from pulling the trigger on the change. He remembered, “I was crucified in the Boston area when I hired Bill Belichick in 1999. But in his five years with the Cleveland Browns from 1991 to 1995, Belichick’s record was a forgettable 36-44. This led to a winning percentage of only .450.
Bill Belichick’s first year in New England occurred during a time of great instability. To kickstart change though, he made some highly unpopular, but courageous decisions to release many high-paid mainstays including Bruce Armstrong, Todd Rucci, Henry Thomas and Ben Coates. These maneuvers were all orchestrated from the very beginning of his plan to remake the team in his image of greatness.
Even as he was being pilloried and laughed at by skeptics and armchair critics, Kraft saw something in his unconventional new head coach. So I forfeited a No. 1 draft choice to bring in a coach that had won a little over 40% of his games, Kraft was once quoted as saying. He underscored the absence of upside in rolling the dice on Belichick.
Even worse, I got admonitions from a whole host of different Patriots coaches and front office personnel from other NFL teams. Each of them warned me that the New England job would offer plenty of challenges from within,” he told me. He told us that these barriers would deeply influence his pedagogy and methods of coaching.
Looking back on that time, Belichick has acknowledged how close he came to coaching the New York Jets instead of the Patriots. Or that I’d get an opportunity to serve as the Head Coach of the New York Jets. The ownership landscape was chaotic back then,” he said. This decision would prove to be a pivotal moment for both Belichick and the Patriots. He ultimately built a dominating 266-121 record in his 24 years at the institution.
Under Belichick’s leadership, the Patriots were consistently the most successful sports franchise in American history. He brought the franchise to 17 AFC East crowns and made it to 13 AFC Championship Games. His tenure came to a glorious conclusion with six Super Bowl victories, making him one of the most successful coaches in NFL history.
In spite of these accomplishments, Belichick has never been enshrined in the Patriots Hall of Fame. At 73 years old, this lack of engagement is shocking. His omission has begun, once again, to raise questions about his legacy in the franchise and the league as a whole.
As Kraft reflects on a NM3T journey still in progress, he is personally grateful for the risks both men took. Belichick continued, I have told Robert on countless occasions over the years that I made a huge leap of faith in taking the head coaching position with the New England Patriots. This careful recognition of risk speaks to the young pilots’ high wire act of a partnership.
Whether Belichick’s future as a college coach is up for speculation, but it would represent a new era for him after spending four decades in the NFL. It is too soon to tell how his move will play out for his legacy in New England and around the country.
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