New England Patriots
“It’ll get to a point where they get it squashed and we’ll be able to move forward and celebrate it how we should.”
Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft both played essential roles in orchestrating a two-decade dynasty that resulted in six Super Bowl titles in New England.
But the success the former Patriots head coach and current team owner achieved together during Belichick’s 24-year run in Foxborough has now given way to an icy relationship — one that doesn’t appear to be thawing any time soon.
For Patriots legend Vince Wilfork, that friction between Belichick and Kraft stand as a painful roadblock to what should be a cherished chapter in Boston sports history — one that he hopes will be cleared in due time.
“They’re gonna have no choice down the road. That’s just what it is,” Wilfork said at the Sports Museum’s “The Tradition” awards ceremony Tuesday when asked if Belichick and Kraft can mend fences. “I mean, we’ve accomplished so much in two decades … Whatever their beef is, I’m pretty sure eventually, one of these days, it’ll get squashed.
“Because what they did was amazing. I don’t think we’ll see that again. Basically two decades and a head coach who went out and won the way we won. And to have an owner like Mr. Kraft, as much as he does in the community, in the NFL. I mean, you want to celebrate stuff like that.”
Both Belichick and Kraft have landed punches against one another since Belichick’s tenure in New England ended after a four-win season in 2023.
At the time of Belichick’s exit in January 2024, both the former head coach and the team deemed his departure as a “mutual” agreement between Belichick and the organization.
But during an interview on “The Breakfast Club” in October 2024, Kraft offered up a different take.
“I kept him for 24 years,” Kraft said. “I didn’t enjoy having to fire him, but I tried to do it — if you look at the press conference and how it happened, tried to do it in a classy way.”
Belichick later made no reference to Kraft in his new book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football,” with the former coach once again stressing during his now-viral interview on CBS Sunday Morning that his decision to leave the Patriots was a “mutual decision.”
Belichick once again bristled at comments made by Kraft during an interview on Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski’s “Dudes on Dudes” podcast in July — with the Patriots owner stating that he took a “big risk” in hiring Belichick in 2000.
“As I told Robert multiple times through the years, I took a big risk by taking the New England Patriots head coaching job,” Belichick told ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. “I already had an opportunity to be the Head Coach of the New York Jets, but the ownership situation was unstable.”
In an interview with Ben Volin of The Boston Globe in August, Belichick appeared to take another dig at the Kraft family while elaborating on the freedom he has to run his football program as head coach at the University of North Carolina.
“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,” Belichick told Volin of the lack of interference he has to deal with at Chapel Hill. “But it’s way less of what it was at that level. 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,” Belichick continued.
Even though it looked as though Kraft doled out an olive branch after acknowledging in an interview that he wants to build a statue of Belichick at Gillette Stadium, Belichick has continued to twist the knife against his former team.
In September, Belichick confirmed a report that he banned a Patriots scout from attending football practices at North Carolina earlier this summer.
“It’s clear that I’m not welcome there around their facility, so they’re not welcome at ours,” Belichick said of the reason behind banning the Patriots staffer. “Pretty simple.”
Amid some of the flak that Belichick and an underachieving Tar Heels team has received so far this fall, Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported last month that Belichick believes some of that negative press is coming from his former NFL team.
“Belichick’s NFL past continues to hover around this situation, from questions about his legacy to regular flare-ups involving the Patriots to suspicions within UNC’s program that some of the negative headlines have origins in New England,” Russini wrote about Belichick’s future at UNC. “The Patriots have taken the high road, steering clear of the public sniping.”
While it doesn’t look as though Belichick is easing off of his current grudge with Kraft and the Patriots, Wilfork believes that time should heal all wounds.
Wilfork — who was honored as part of “The Tradition” after playing a key role in two Super Bowl titles in Foxborough — believes that this current strife between Belichick and Kraft is overshadowing all of the accomplishments that the duo achieved together.
“It takes time for things to heal, and that’s one of those moments where we’re gonna have to take time and let time pass, and let it heal — that relationship because they both did amazing things,” Wilfork said. “And, I mean, they’re both stamped in the NFL, so it’s like, why not?
“Why rob that [for] the city? Why? And I think eventually it’ll get to a point where they get it squashed and we’ll be able to move forward and celebrate it how we should. So until then, I’ll be waiting for that. But hopefully they get it squashed.”
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