In an interview with WBZ-TV, Patriots owner Robert Kraft revealed the team plans to install a statue of Bill Belichick next to Tom Brady’s recently unveiled statue outside Gillette Stadium.
“When that great 20-year era ended, it was always my intention to commission a statue for both Tommy and Bill when their respective careers were over, playing and coaching,” Kraft said Wednesday. “When Bill’s coaching career ends, we look forward to sitting down with him and having a statue made to be right next to Tommy.”
Belichick is now in his first season as the head coach at the University of North Carolina, where he lost his first game in a Monday night blowout to TCU. Belichick, 73, signed a five-year contract, though only the first three are guaranteed.
The relationship between Belichick and Kraft has gone cold since they called a joint press conference on Jan. 11, 2024, for what was then described as a “mutual parting of ways.” Days later, Kraft reportedly discouraged the Falcons from hiring Belichick as their next head coach. He also told The Breakfast Club podcast the following October he had, in fact, “fired” Belichick that offseason.
Between Kraft’s comments, and as recently as last week, Belichick has taken repeated shots at the Kraft family during separate interviews with ESPN and The Boston Globe.
“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 The Boston Globe. “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.
Belichick’s last known visit to Foxboro was for Brady’s induction into the Patriots Hall of Fame on June 12, 2024.
Together, Brady and Belichick powered the greatest dynasty in NFL history and won six Super Bowl titles from 2000-2019.