The Patriots have entered full-on damage-control mode.
One day after ESPN reported the team has reached a breaking point amid strife among owner Robert Kraft, coach Bill Belichick and star quarterback Tom Brady, Kraft told The MMBQ the story is wrong, calling major parts of the report “a total fabrication and fiction” and saying Belichick “absolutely” will coach the team next season.
The ESPN report details the behind-the-scenes power struggle between Brady and Belichick over the two-time MVP’s personal trainer and long-term future in the league.
The most shocking details allege Kraft forced Belichick to trade prized backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to reassure Brady his job was not in peril.
Kraft took special pains Saturday to deny putting any pressure on his coach to trade Garoppolo and specifically denied meeting with Belichick to discuss the backup’s future, a meeting the ESPN story claims took half a day.
“Until Monday at the trade deadline … the last time I talked to Bill about Jimmy’s situation was in a group with Bill, [club president Jonathan Kraft], [director of player personnel] Nick Caserio … a small group of us, I think in June,” Robert Kraft told The MMBQ. “That is the last time I talked to Bill about it. … I assumed once the season started, we’d talk again at the end of the season about it.
“The next time I spoke with Bill about it was the Monday before the trade deadline. He called me on that Monday and said he got a deal with San Francisco. … I was really taken aback a little bit. I wanted to think about it. I talked to Jonathan, who was OK with it, and I called Bill back and said, ‘OK.’ ”
Kraft’s version of events is in direct opposition to the ESPN report, which says the owner pressured Belichick to make the move to appease the franchise quarterback. It furthers says Belichick was reluctant to let Garoppolo go and has been bitter over the move ever since.
The report has caused shockwaves through the NFL community, with many believing this could be the last gasp of the Patriots dynasty and some even suggesting Belichick might be headed elsewhere next year.
The team released a statement Friday in the wake of the report denying any rift, and Kraft said Saturday he expects Belichick to be the Patriots coach in 2018.
“When you’re lucky enough to have someone exceptional, you let them do their job and you get out of the way,” he said.
It is unlikely anyone will have firm answers until the season ends, and even then, the game of “he said, he said” is likely to continue apace.
But for Giants fans hoping to see a Belichick-Big Blue reunion, it might be best to remember there are plenty of other coaching fish in the sea.