Reporter offers insight into breakup of Patriots' Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick

During a recent chat with Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing (h/t The Comeback), longtime Boston sports reporter Michael Holley touched upon how things went south between New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former head coach Bill Belichick after quarterback Tom Brady left the organization as a free agent in March 2020.

"I think in the last couple years with Brady it got a little nasty," Holley said about Kraft and Belichick. "Nasty because Kraft wasn’t getting the credit that he wanted and you have the coach, the quarterback and the owner. The owner and quarterback are tight, and the coach is trying to move on. It was just very tense."

Brady openly suggested while speaking for an episode of Apple TV's "The Dynasty" documentary that he didn't sign a final contract with the Patriots after the 2019 season largely because of how he was treated by Belichick across their final handful of years together. While Brady guided the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl championship in his first campaign with that organization, the Patriots missed the playoffs three times in four years before Kraft and Belichick "mutually" agreed to part ways in January.

Kraft has since admitted it was a "mistake" to not do everything possible to hold onto Brady regardless of Belichick's feelings back in early 2020.

"They just got sick of each other," Holley continued. "If I were Robert Kraft I would have taken personnel power away from Bill three years ago but framed it as a way that would have been helpful to him and say, 'This is going to help extend your coaching career. I want you to be head coach forever.' But Kraft didn’t want him to be head coach forever. He wanted to move on."

Kraft allegedly knew in November of last year he would replace Belichick following the 2023 season. Kraft later said he believed having the six-time Super Bowl champion head coach work with a newly hired front-office executive regarding personnel decisions would've gone poorly for everybody involved.

Kraft confirmed earlier this spring that he looks "forward to the privilege of putting (Belichick) into the Patriots Hall of Fame one day in the future." Their public breakup serves as yet another reminder that all good things truly must eventually come to an end.