'Voted off the island': Inside Bill Belichick's failed job hunt (ESPN report)

ESPN just did a detailed look at Bill's offseason job hunt, with details about how the Falcons job evaporated.

Despite that friendly first session, the unthinkable happened for a billionaire and a legendary coach: Blank and Belichick checked each other's references. Blank spoke by phone, at least twice, to Robert Kraft. Among the NFL owners, Blank considers Kraft his closest friend. Publicly, Kraft and Blank have said Kraft expressed only support and offered praise of his former coach.

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.

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The heat is going all on Kraft.... The more stories come out they put a bad light on Kraft. He'll try to claim ownership for the success but it will bond Brady and BB with the legacy and reason for success. It will make Kraft look like he hit on fools gold

SpongeBob the Spineless says don't trust BB. Precious.

This epitomizes Kraft trying to have it both ways:

So, Bob decided to derail Bill's chances at another HC job. That's a strange way to show appreciation to the man who coached your team to 9 SBs and 6 SB wins.

It really doesn't look good for the future of the team if the Krafts have decided to be more involved with the football decisions.

And I hope the Falcons fall off a cliff.

I don't believe this.

mike_usagisan said:

ESPN just did a detailed look at Bill's offseason job hunt, with details about how the Falcons job evaporated.

Inside Bill Belichick's failed offseason job hunt

As the NFL has moved on from this year's firing-and-hiring cycle, two questions remain: Why is Bill Belichick suddenly and seemingly unemployable? And will he coach again?

www.espn.com

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Unnamed sources. It's BS.

archstanton543 said:

Unnamed sources. It's BS.

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LOL, says the guy who has believed every single one of the unnamed source articles in the past.

Hypocrisy, you excel at it.

I've certainly been critical of Krafty Bob here but enough is enough. It's a sad day when a BSPN article is getting props here on Patsfans. Truly a low point for this site. Did Mortensen come back to edit it? WTAF?

Would it make sense for Kraft to be on the hook for the remaining year in BBs contract without the Falcons subventing it.
that is if they didn't come to some deal on his remaining year.

Seems odd. But the way the Krafts tried to bury BB in The dynasty I suppose I could believe anything.

This quote in particular is damning. Who is going to cross one of the most powerful owners in football by hiring one of his enemies? It's not going to happen. Effectively, Kraft is blackballing Belichick.

He does not want to see him succeed elsewhere.

So, what owner does Kraft NOT get along with?

signbabybrady said:

I don't believe this.

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I dunno man. I think there's some real butthurtness down on Rte 1. I think Bill's stranglehold on everything at Patriot Place made a difficult workplace, but it was tolerated because they won. When they didn't win post-Brady, it seems it just became toxic. I think Kraft resents Bill for the Brady thing, the 4th son or whatever the hell they called him. I think Kraft's continued love affair with his QBs; Drew to Tom to Mac, is a little on the fanboy side, and I think Kraft really just got sick of Bill's ****. I don't think they'll be going out to dinner anytime soon. I don't want to believe it, either, but a lot of the wickerSHAM **** proved to be true, so this probably has a level of merit to it. Like all things, the truth is probably in the middle somewhere. That doesn't change the fact that the Kraft seemingly never liked Bill all along, but was a means to an end.

None of it is a good look for the team IMO. The owner should just STFU and not be blackballing Bill. With that, I don't think that anyone is going to hire Bill and all that he brings. No GM is going to sign off on it, no one is going to embrace his culture at this point in 2024, with the entitlement that young athletes have coming into the league. I feel he's coached his last game in the NFL.

archstanton543 said:

Unnamed sources. It's BS.

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SpongeBob immolated any benefit of the doubt in such cases by his behavior in FilmingGate and DeflateGate. He showed that if it's a choice between being a good water boy for the OG billionaires' club and standing by his own people, well, you know ...

Let's be real, Modell called Kraft and told him not to get Bill. Kraft ignored it.

Regardless of whatever Kraft said, the whole league passed on Bill this go around. If they thought they had a better shot with him, they wouldn't care what Kraft said, if he said anything. Bill's performance the last few years is the biggest issue right now.

I also call BS on this report. "Warn him not to trust Bill?" What does that even mean?

The simplest explanation is usually the right one. Most likely BB was not as close to landing the Falcons job as people thought he was for a few reasons including age and the collapse of the Patriots post Brady under his watch and that's the way it is.

Kraft destroyed his own legacy.

sb1 said:

The simplest explanation is usually the right one. Most likely BB was not as close to landing the Falcons job as people thought he was for a few reasons including age and the collapse of the Patriots post Brady under his watch and that's the way it is.

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I think it had to do with how much of a rebuild Bill thought the Falcons needed and how hard the front office fought Blank on that.

In fairness to Kraft, Bill had four years of near total control post-Brady and could only muster a 29-38 record. He made some colossal mistakes. He picked, prepared and served up those teams. That kind of performance gets pretty much every coach fired.

TomPatriot said:

In fairness to Kraft, Bill had four years of near total control post-Brady and could only muster a 29-38 record. He made some colossal mistakes. He picked, prepared and served up those teams. That kind of performance gets pretty much every coach fired.

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It was a prototypical rebuild. We just signed 4 of the year one (of the rebuild) draft choices to long term contracts.