Some Patriots and NFL-related news on this Wednesday:
1) When it comes to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former head coach Bill Belichick, it feels like there’s been no shortage of drama between the two over the last year.
And it continues.
The latest incident started thanks to a recent appearance by Kraft on the “Dudes on Dudes” Podcast, co-hosted by Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski during the Fanatics Fest event last month.
Kraft was asked to name his best decision in three decades as the owner of the Patriots, and to no surprise, he mentioned the hiring of Bill Belichick.
“Well, the one that got questioned the most was in ’99,” explained Kraft. “I gave up a number one draft pick for a coach who had only won a little over 40% of his games to get him out. I don’t know if there are any Jet fans here, but I think getting Bill Belichick to come to the Patriots in 1999. It was a big risk, and I got hammered in the Boston media, but I think he was with us for 24 years, and we did okay.”
The “big risk” comment apparently set off a firestorm and upset Belichick. Considering Belichick typically doesn’t speak to the media more than he needs to, the former coach recently addressed that comment with ESPN, firing back at Kraft.
Belichick explained that he essentially took a big risk by accepting the job, having apparently been warned himself about coming here.
“I had been warned by multiple previous Patriots’ coaches, as well as other members of other NFL organizations and the media, that the New England job was going to come with many internal obstacles,” Belichick told ESPN via Don Van Natta Jr.. “I made it clear that we would have to change the way the team was managed to regain the previously attained success.”
He also added that he was grateful to Kraft for allowing him to make the changes necessary to revamp the roster and build a program that turned out to be franchise-altering for the organization, resulting in nearly two decades of winning.
But in terms of who took the bigger “risk,” Belichick added that staying in New York with the Jets certainly seemed like the safer option, and that coming to New England was a decision that – at the time – didn’t feel like the better move.
“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 told ESPN. “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.”
Kraft didn’t seem worried at the time, and even went so far as to institute a 20% ticket price increase the following month after Belichick’s hiring. That in and of itself was a significant risk, especially for a fan base that had watched the Patriots fall from a Super Bowl contender to a .500 team the previous season.
2) Meanwhile, Belichick might be upset, but anyone who remembers that period likely recalls the fact that there was a lot of negative talk about his hiring. The former coach was just 36-44 in Cleveland, including a 5-11 finish in 1995 that led to him being fired by the Browns despite beating Bill Parcells and the Patriots a year earlier in the playoffs.
Following his resignation in New York, the Patriots immediately asked to interview Belichick. However, Parcells, who was in charge of football operations with the Jets during that span, declined, and it led to an ugly situation. Belichick’s lawyer threatened to file a grievance, while New York complained about potential tampering.
Despite playing up the Jets in that comment, it definitely didn’t feel like Belichick wanted to remain in New York. He cited uncertainty with ownership and Parcells’ role among things he wasn’t happy about.
”Maybe you can answer this for me,” he said in a telephone interview at the time with the New York Times. ”Who’s going to own the Jets? What’s Steve Gutman’s role in this? What’s Bill Parcells’s role in this? Maybe someone else has the answers. I don’t.”
Still, New England did explore other options. They interviewed then-Raiders defensive coordinator Willie Shaw, as well as then Ravens offensive coordinator Marvin Lewis. Former Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Gary Crowton was another name that was mentioned a fair amount, and was said to be a candidate.
But one name that got a lot of play here was former Carolina Panthers head coach Dom Capers. Based on the reports at the time, it sounded like Capers could have very well been Pete Carroll’s replacement had Belichick not been allowed out of his deal with the Jets. The rumor at the time was also that Tom Donahoe would have been hired to take over the front office with Capers, but none of that ultimately came to fruition.
Instead, an eventual phone call between Kraft and Parcells saw the Patriots give up a first-round pick to allow Belichick to become the head coach here, and the rest is obviously history. Although some might forget that there was also a stipulation that had Parcells returned to coach the Jets before at least 2002, that pick would have reverted back to New England.
Locally, there was a fair amount of backlash to Belichick’s hiring. After things hadn’t gone well during Carroll’s tenure here, there was plenty of talk at the time that Belichick “wasn’t the right guy.” Instead, many within the media had preferred someone like Capers, who had success in Carolina and had taken the Panthers to the NFC Championship game to cap off the 1996 season.
New England’s rough start in Belichick’s first season was ugly. The Patriots went 0-4 to start the season, which included a Week 2 loss to the Jets at the Meadowlands. Despite two-straight wins in October to end that skid, they then lost four-straight again, which began with another loss when the Jets visited Foxboro despite the emphasis Belichick put on that game coming off their win against Indianapolis the week before.
They closed out the season 3-4, and there was plenty of frustration when the season came to an end. The 0-2 start to begin 2001 didn’t help things, with Drew Bledsoe’s injury against the Jets being the big story. That came after Bledsoe had just been signed to a huge deal that offseason, and most people had written off the rest of that 2001 campaign, with several wondering if Belichick would even be around after it eventually ended.
We all know how that story played out, but having lived through it, there were plenty of people itching to say “I told you so” to Kraft when it came to Belichick. Fortunately for all of us, things worked out the way they did, and that chance never came.
3) The Patriots currently have the ceremony set for Tom Brady’s statue unveiling on August 8th, and his statue has apparently been ready since late last summer.
Kraft said on that same podcast that it’s currently in storage, and Brady’s decision to begin his broadcast career last fall is the only reason it hasn’t happened sooner.
“We made the statue last year, and Tommy started broadcasting, and we couldn’t get him up [here],” said Kraft. “So we have him coming August 8th.”
“Actually, I would love, since I saw your artistic work with the trophy,” he joked with Gronkowski. “If you did it, but we had the privilege of spending seven figures to get… We have the statue in storage in Foxborough. We wanted to present it last year. We’re going to unveil it. I believe it’s August eighth. August 8th. Our first preseason game against Washington. You’ll see it. It’s unbelievable. He’s not a bad-looking guy.”
Kraft added that having a statue of Brady is fitting, primarily because he embodies everything you’d want from a player both on and off the field.
“You guys know, and the general public doesn’t know, besides being a vicious competitor and an awesome player, he’s got a heart of gold, and one of the finest human beings I’ve ever met in my life,” said Kraft. “So for us to have a permanent statue of him there for our fans … Think about it. The greatest player in the history of the game, over 100 years, was the 199th pick, a comp pick in the sixth round. So all these great analysts for draft day missed it, and we lucked out and got him.”
4) Later this week, the Patriots are set to release their second episode of “Forged in Foxboro,” with the club essentially putting a documentary together as Mike Vrabel begins rebuilding the football team.
The episode is slated to drop on Friday, with the team releasing a trailer for it yesterday ahead of the release.
Safety Jabrill Peppers set the tone in the beginning of the trailer, urging his teammates not to beat themselves with mistakes.
“In order to take advantage of s*** in football, we’ve got to eliminate that s*** ourselves,” said Jabril Peppers. “Center to quarterback exchange, missed assignments, mental errors, all that s***. Don’t be no repeat offender. Be professional. Do what you’re supposed to do when you’re supposed to do it. Perfect practice make perfect, bro. We’ve got to keep chasing that.”
The theme throughout the trailer centered around competition, which is something Vrabel has been preaching all offseason. It also focused on the importance of having veterans to help out what’s definitely a young roster.
With the team just one week away before they hit the field in front of fans, this episode should definitely get everyone excited for what’s to come next week.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
Ian Logue is from the Seacoast and runs PatsFans.com, a site about the New England Patriots. He’s been doing it since 1997.