The New England Patriots entered a new era this week when the decision was made for the team and longtime head coach Bill Belichick to part ways after nearly a quarter-century together. According to owner Robert Kraft, it was simply time for both parties to move on.
When asked why the move was ultimately made to go in another direction, Kraft explained that the last several years since Tom Brady left just hadn’t featured the standard of success desired in New England.
“Well, the last three years have been pretty tough,” Kraft admitted. “Our family is the custodian of this asset: the New England Patriots. We know how important it is to the psyche of the community and what’s gone on here the last three, four years isn’t what we want. We have a responsibility to do what we can to fix it to the best of our ability.”
Despite the need to move in a new direction at head coach, the bond between Belichick and the Kraft family is far from broken. In fact, when asked about potentially trading Belichick away as an asset, Kraft said that just wouldn’t have been right after all those years and Super Bowls together.
“I’m fortunate in our family, our businesses are all private, and so we try to create a culture and develop an environment where people want to stay and stay long term,” Kraft explained.
“Yeah, I guess, if you look at this as a transaction, he is so valuable and how we could extract something, I didn’t think it was right. I didn’t think it was right for Tom Brady, who gave us 20 years. And I don’t think it’s right for Bill.”
Shrewder and more aggressive owners may be willing to burn that bridge for the sake of a couple extra draft picks, but Robert Kraft would rather do right by the people who helped build this juggernaut rather than discard them like yesterday’s newspaper.
“Each of them earned the right to be in the position where they should do what’s right for us, given what they have done for this franchise. Some people might criticize me for not extracting as value, and I understand that. But we just try to do what we think is right for the proper values and ability to operate and try to get people who want to come and feel that we’re going to treat them fairly.”
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