Things Between Belichick and the Krafts Keep Getting Much, Much Uglier by the Day

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

In a divorce, it's always the children who suffer. 

Today is NFL Christmas Day. When we're all supposed to be racing to the TV, the bar, the tailgate lot, to finally see what waits for us under the tree. This is especially true for Patriots fans, since the last few years have been so lacking. And Mike Vrabel is our new stepdad who's going to buy our affection the old fashioned way: By giving us things. 

But the holidays have a way of ripping open old wounds and making them open, sore, and bloody once again. And boy howdy, there is no wound that feels fresher than the one between Bill Belichick and the Krafts. They might have tried to make it make it look like an amicable split for the sake of the kids. But the more time goes on, the more we learn just how bad things got in those last few years. It's obvious the relationship had turned toxic and they were just trying to keep up appearances so the neighbors wouldn't talk:

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.”

Which led to reports that shined light on what some of that "everything else" that Belichick was alluding to was:

Source -  According to multiple sources, Belichick became upset when Kraft told him he couldn’t retain Matt Patricia as offensive coordinator following a disastrous 2022 season. Instead, the Patriots hired veteran offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien. If Belichick had his way, Patricia would’ve been retained.

That season, Belichick grew so frustrated with quarterback Mac Jones that he actually stopped talking to the 2021 first-round pick altogether. At the time, a source told MassLive that Jones told people around him that the Patriots stopped coaching him and Belichick refused to talk to him. 

In 2023, according to a source, Belichick was also upset when Jerod Mayo signed a contract that named him the coach in waiting. The source said that Belichick refused to talk with Mayo, who was coordinating his defense, that season. 

Well, OK then. Just because you hire your buddy who's never coached offense before to handle the second season of your developing (those somewhat physically limited) young quarterback who proceeds to spiral without proper guidance, that doesn't necessarily mean you cocked things up. And nowhere in the rules does it say a head coach has to talk to his franchise quarterback. Or his defensive coordinator. I'm sure there have been lots of successful teams who operate this way. John Wooden had his "Pyramid of Success." Bill Parcells developed the concept of "Smashmouth Football." Pete Carroll has brought "Win Forever" philosophy to his fourth NFL team. Nick Sirianni built a culture around trusting "The Process." Bill Belichick was operating under "The Silent Treatment." 

A cynical person might point out that this approach turned the Super Bowl LIII champions into a 4-13 team with a grim future in the span of five seasons. Or a realist. Or Mr. Kraft and Jonathan. And they're the ones who got a vote in this. So they fired him. 

And things are so bad between them that Belichick just famously banned Patriots scouts from Chapel Hill. And even on the indescribable high of a huge, season-saving 20-3 victory over arch-rival Charlotte last night wasn't enough to turn down the flame on that white-hot fire burning within his heart over the way things ended:

To circle back to that metaphor so I can beat it to death, when Belichick took the UNC job, I reacted like Walker and Texas Ranger in Talledega Nights when Ricky Bobby and Carley said they were getting divorce. "Yay! Two Christmases!" It's why I'm making a family trip out of next week's game against that football factory Richmond Spiders program this weekend. 

But all this pettiness and bad blood is sort of taking some of the joy out of at least one celebration. I'm hoping eventually this will die down. That the parties involved will learn to look back fondly at all the good times they shared and the impossible things they achieved together. But the way it's sounding right now? We should live so long.  And I'm not holding my breath on that Belichick statue going up next to Brady's any time soon.