During the Atlanta Falcons coaching cycle, all signs seemed to point to the fact that Bill Belichick was the clear front runner.
He had a one-on-one with Arthur Blank on the Falcons owner's 295-foot, $180 million superyacht, and it seemed to go really well.
Fast-forward a few weeks, Belichick was left without a job when Atlanta ultimately hired Raheem Morris to lead the team. So what went wrong?
ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wickersham and Jeremy Fowler released a bombshell report, detailing what went wrong during Belichick's job search. And it seems that Patriots owner Robert Kraft played a HUGE role in it.
A source close to Belichick told ESPN that they believed "Blank came away from the boat thinking this is my guy." But then things went downhill.
As expected Blank reached out to Kraft regarding Belichick, but the owner didn't give such a glowing recommendation. Speaking with ESPN, one source who talked to a longtime Belichick confidant relayed what they had been told: "'Robert called Arthur to warn him not to trust Bill.' That account was backed up, the source said, by the close Kraft friend."
And to add to it all, multiple sources told ESPN that "Kraft spoke with 'some candor' to Blank about Belichick."
"One source close to Belichick said Kraft "was a big part" of why the Falcons passed on hiring him," ESPN wrote. "The sources said Kraft made clear to Blank that "you'll never have a warm conversation with" Belichick, echoing what Bill Parcells told Kraft in 1996 when he wanted to bust the budget and hire Belichick."
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