No partnership owner-head coach partnership in NFL history has been as successful as the 25-year collaboration between Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick. Starting with their first championship to cap off an improbable 2001 season, they helped build the New England Patriots into the first dynasty of pro football’s salary cap era.
Nowadays, however, the two men appear to be at odds. With Kraft still in charge in Foxborough and Belichick now coaching at North Carolina, the once-mighty pair seemingly is taking shots at one another on the regular.
What happened? Let’s explain what has become a fascinating feud between two of the most successful men at their respective professions the NFL has ever seen.
Participants
Robert Kraft: A former season-ticket holder and longtime fan, Kraft first bought the land around Foxboro Stadium and later the arena itself. His strategic move allowed him to finally take control of the franchise itself: in 1994, he acquired the moribund franchise for a then-record sum of $172 million. As of 2024, the Patriots — now a six-time champion and one of the marquee franchises in the sport — were estimated to be worth around $7.4 billion.
Bill Belichick: A veteran NFL coach who rose to prominence as defensive coordinator with the New York Giants, Belichick had a brief stint in New England under Bill Parcells in 1996. Four years later, having surprisingly stepped down as head coach of the New York Jets on his first day, he returned to the Patriots via trade. Between 2000 and 2023, he led the team to six Super Bowl titles, 17 division crowns and an overall record of 266-121 (.687) in the regular season and 30-12 (.714) in the playoffs.
Origins of the feud
After winning three Super Bowls in four years in the early 2000s, Belichick effectively was given free reign to run the Patriots’ football operations. Kraft, meanwhile, was happy to own the most successful franchise in the league and see its value skyrocket. Even when the Patriots dynasty was alive and well, however, the two men reportedly butted heads at multiple occasions — including in the aftermath of 2007’s Spygate scandal (when a Belichick interpretation of an NFL memo led to severe fines for the organization).
The tipping point, however, appeared to come in the late 2010s. Belichick wanted to maintain his operational status quo even with longtime starting quarterback Tom Brady seemingly nearing the end of his career, leading to an impasse between the two: the Patriots were unwilling to commit to Brady long-term or at times adapt their ways to the future Hall of Famer, resulting in some behind-the-scenes friction.
This led to Brady leaving the Patriots as a free agent following the 2019 season (and promptly winning his seventh Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers). Kraft, meanwhile, stuck with his head coach and his vision for the team — a vision that seemed to work brilliantly when the rebuilding team found itself back in the playoffs in 2021.
From that point on, however, things went downhill. Some key personnel departures, questionable decisions by Belichick and insufficient drafting dating back multiple years, plus Brady’s designated heir Mac Jones flaming out, led to a team that went just 8-9 in 2022 before a rock-bottom 4-13 campaign in 2023.
Behind the scenes, meanwhile, Kraft was rumored to push Belichick to bring more collaboration into the football operations. Simultaneously, team president Jonathan Kraft and high-ranking executive Robyn Glazer, among others, became more prominent voices inside the building.
The dysfunctional 2023 season was the culmination of all this. Belichick reportedly grew increasingly unhappy with Kraft for designating Jerod Mayo as his successor and becoming more involved in other matters, while the owner himself was rumored to make no secret out of his desire to part ways with his head coach at the end of the season.
In January 2024, the partnership came to an end. At a joint press conference, Kraft and Belichick announced their “mutual decision” to part ways.
Current situation
The aforementioned disagreements in how to operate the Patriots particularly following Tom Brady’s departure, coupled with the losses starting to mount, had created an unsustainable situation between owner and coach. And while Belichick’s farewell was portrayed as an amicable split between two longtime partners, follow-up reporting and statements made by both men has cast doubt on this angle.
Since the split, after all, there have been numerous occasions of shots being fired. The first came when Belichick interviewed for the Atlanta Falcons’ head coaching job; Kraft reportedly called his Falcons counterpart, Arthur Blank, to advise him against hiring Belichick. The Falcons went in a different direction (Raheem Morris) while arguably the best coach in NFL history took a one-year sabbatical before taking the UNC job.
The two men crossed paths again at Tom Brady’s Netflix roast in May, but tensions were seemingly at an all-time high. The same was seemingly true for Belichick’s return to Gillette Stadium for Brady’s Patriots Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Then, there was The Dynasty, a Kraft-produced documentary about the rise and fall of the Patriots that glossed over some Super Bowl wins for plenty of drama. It also portrayed the team’s owner in a far more favorable light than its head coach.
Kraft later also appeared on a podcast to dispel the notion that Belichick’s departure was of mutual agreement; instead, he claimed that he outright fired his team’s now-former head coach (although it has to be said that neither he nor Belichick appear to be overly reliable narrators at this stage). Then again, Belichick’s youngest son, Brian, did remain with the team as an assistant coach for another year after his father left, for what it’s worth.
Last week kicked off the latest development. It started with Kraft telling ex-Patriots Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski on their Dudes on Dudes podcast that he had taken a “big risk” trading for Belichick in 2000.
Belichick, meanwhile, had remained mostly quiet since leaving New England outside of some media appearances in 2024 and a rather bizarre interview with CBS in April — neither actually touching on his Patriots departure. He did, however, not mention Kraft in his 300-page book, The Art of Winning, released in May.
He somewhat broke his silence this week, pushing back against Kraft’s “big risk” remarks in an on-record statement forwarded to ESPN. In it, he claimed that the Patriots job in 2000 came with “many internal obstacles.”
Future of the feud
The Belichick and Kraft feud seems nowhere close to an end, and it will be fascinating to see how it develops. One key point to watch is Belichick’s Patriots Hall of Fame candidacy.
The longtime Patriots coach, after all, is a surefire bet to get a red jacket at the earliest possible date. However, while there are timelines, a committee discussion and a public vote, Kraft has shown his desire and willingness to influence the process one way or another. Will he do so for Belichick? We shall see, but it is obviously his right (he literally owns the place).
Then, there are other potential touching points, the Pro Football Hall of Fame among them. Kraft has openly and so far unsuccessfully lobbied for his inclusion, while Belichick is currently eligible for induction in 2026. Neither man has a direct impact on that Hall of Fame, but one or both making it next summer could also lead to some, dare we say interesting moments and possible touching points.