It's been an open season on former head coach Bill Belichick for New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and some other past players.
On Apple TV, the Patriots' rise to power as the NFL's premier dynasty over the 2000s and 2010s was documented in a show called "The Dynasty." Led by interviews of several former players, Kraft, Belichick, and seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, major points of the team's history were talked about and questioned over the 10-episode show.
In the last two episodes alone, the cause for the end of New England's run is talked about with Kraft (a co-founder of the show) detailing how the organization's fall has everything to do with Belichick.
"Tommy is the greatest in the 100-year history of the game. And I think he represented a threat to Bill’s full power,” Kraft said on the final episode that broke down the team's final three Super Bowl runs. “He didn’t want Tommy there. And so, when you come to the decision, Brady or Belichick, I thought back to the Eagles Super Bowl. Tommy threw over 500 yards, but Bill made a tremendous error. I credited Bill with that loss. To be honest, my head coach is a pain in the tush, but I was willing to put up with it as long as we won. So for the next Super Bowl, I wanted to keep an eye on him.”
To be frank, Kraft has used his documentary to seemingly take shots at his former coach for his deficiencies in key moments over the final years of the team. The fact that Belichick has decided to not take shots at his former owner, or the quarterback he won with, shows a person willing to move on and take the high road from the over 20-year relationship.
What does it say about Kraft that he's trying to absolve himself of everything?
The Patriots owner took over the franchise in 1994, keeping them in New England, fighting off the rumors of a move to St. Louis. His changes to the organization helped a new era of football finally hit the Northeast with the Patriots turning from miserable losers to the class of the NFL.
The latest moves by Kraft, though, aren't of an owner understanding his role in the team's recent demise. It's of a person deflecting as much blame as possible to protect his legacy as much as possible.
If Kraft was truly unconcerned about the legacy Belichick has with the Patriots, the entire documentary wouldn't exist. Instead, people now have to wonder why exactly the owner would go to such lengths to trash a multiple Super Bowl-winning head coach.
With a new era of Patriots football set to begin, the only clear thing right now is that Kraft's legacy is of an owner willing to deflect as much blame for the organization's recent failure onto anyone else.
And with that, shows he remains the organization's biggest issue.
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