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The New England Patriots are hopeful that the Mike Vrabel era will take the team back to prominence. New England has not had a meaningful season since the legendary combination of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady parted ways. Now Belichick is getting some revenge after some recent comments made at this expense.
Former Patriots coach Bill Belichick fired back at team owner Robert Kraft after his recent comments.
“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 in response to questions. “I already had an opportunity to be the Head Coach of the New York Jets, but the ownership situation was unstable.”
Kraft made headlines with his comments on Friday. Kraft claimed he took a big risk by trading draft picks for Belichick back in 2000.
“Getting Bill Belichick to come to the Patriots,” he said, “I gave up a No. 1 draft pick for a coach who had only won a little over 40 percent of his games in 1999. It was a big risk, and I got hammered in the Boston media. But I think we did okay.”
Clearly, Belichick was not happy about those comments.
Belichick added that he was urged by several people to reject Kraft’s offer and stay in New York. He made it clear that his inner circle recommended staying with the Jets despite the organizational instability.
“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 said. “I made it clear that we would have to change the way the team was managed to regain the previously attained success.”
One of those internal obstacles was the team’s salary cap. New England was $10 million over the salary cap when Belichick joined the team. He would go on to take over complete control of roster decisions.
To Bill’s credit, he quickly got the salary cap headed in the right direction. He also kept the team functional throughout the Brady era because of shrewd roster moves.
It is not surprising to see Belichick standing up for his peerless record as Patriots head coach.
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