The more time that passes from the end of Bill Belichick's tenure with the Patriots in New England, the more it is clear that the legendary head coach still holds a harsh grudge against owner Robert Kraft.
And apparently, he might have an issue with Jonathan Kraft, too.
In an interview with The Boston Globe's Ben Volin, Belichick -- now the head football coach at the University of North Carolina -- took a not-so-veiled shot at the Krafts while explaining what makes life better in college football.
"There's no owner, there's no owner's son," Belichick told Volin. "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 expanded a bit on that thought, saying that front offices are crowded in the NFL compared to how college teams are run. But that one line -- "there's no owner, there's no owner's son" -- carried a very clear message.
While Belichick and Robert Kraft agreed to call the end of his coaching tenure a "mutual" parting of ways back in January 2024, Kraft has since referred to that decision as a firing. Belichick was also often cast in a less-than-favorable light by many viewers' estimation in "The Dynasty" docuseries, which ran on Apple TV and involved the Krafts in the conception and production.
More recently, Kraft said on a podcast that his decision to hire Belichick -- and giving up a first-round pick to do so -- was his biggest risk as an owner. Unprompted, Belichick fired back, insisting that he was the one who took a major risk by joining the Patriots after being "warned" by several former Patriots coaches that the job would come "with many internal obstacles."
The Krafts and Belichick enjoyed arguably the most successful owner-coach relationship in NFL history, with the Patriots winning six Super Bowls and reaching three more during Belichick's 24 seasons in Foxboro. Yet it ended poorly, particularly after Belichick let Tom Brady leave in free agency in 2020, with Belichick going 12-22 over his final two seasons in New England.
And now, with a direct jab at both Robert and Jonathan Kraft, Belichick is making it known that he's happier in North Carolina.
"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. "It's a lot of football, and there's not much in your way."
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