Patriots' Robert Kraft Reveals Best Decision He Ever Made Has Bill Belichick Twist

“It was on the sidelines at the ‘96 Super Bowl, we were in New Orleans and playing the Green Bay Packers,” Kraft said (h/t Masslive.com). “My third year of ownership and Bon Jovi had been a big fan of Bill’s and we’re on the sideline and we became real good pals after that.”

With head coach Bill Parcels at the helm, the Patriots would lose Super Bowl XXXI to the Packers 35-21, but that was the day Kraft met the coach he'd hire to lead the Patriots just four years later.

But the decision to hire Belichick at the time, Kraft said, was not a popular one. In fact, it one of his most questioned decisions. Although 24 years later, it looked like a pretty good decision.

“The one that got questioned the most was in 1999. I gave up a No. 1 draft pick for a coach that had only won a little over 40 percent of his games to get him out, I don’t know if there are any Jets fans here," Kraft said. "I think getting Bill Belichick to come to the Patriots in 1999 was a big risk and I got hammered in the Boston media, but he was with us for 24 years and we did okay.”

Kraft's jab at the Jets came because Belichick was originally going to become the new head coach in New York, but after one day he decided to jump ship to New England.

Belichick went 5-11 in his first season with the Patriots in 2000, but quickly turned it around. The legendary head coach led New England to three Super Bowls in the next four years.

After Belichick's departure in 2023, the Patriots hired Jerod Mayo to take over in 2024. But after a second straight 4-13 season, Kraft fired Mayo. Now, the Patriots enter a new era with Mike Vrabel at the helm, and Kraft has all the belief in the world in the Patriots' new man in charge.