Greatest mutual parting ever? Belichick, Kraft avoid painful way, take high road together (2024)

FOXBORO, Mass. — First Bill Belichick spoke, and then Robert Kraft spoke. What followed was not a bear hug between these pro football titans, which is surely what the photographers craved, but a barely hug. It was like two cars trying to back into a parking space at the same time, with a start, a stop, maybe a small tap, followed by one of the cars driving away.

To quote from the official news release, Kraft and Belichick have “mutually agreed to part ways.” After 24 seasons as head coach of the New England Patriots, a history-making run that included nine trips to the Super Bowl and six victories in pro football’s Big Game, Belichick now has some time to kick back and plan his next move, be it as a coach or, perhaps, a big-bucks sabbatical as a television analyst. But know this: The barely hug barely scratches the surface of what took place early Thursday afternoon. The fact is that the entire affair was handled with grace, dignity and class, allowing the two men, both future Hall of Famers, to share a platform and even a couple of laughs, and then be on their way.

“He’s got a cold so I’m not going to kiss him,” Kraft said as Belichick stepped away.

We can agree Kraft and Belichick were not particularly close, but let’s not dwell on that. Almost by design, the people who own the teams and the people who coach the teams don’t share family vacations. Sometimes they don’t even share glances. In this case, we’re discussing an owner who is a lifelong Boston sports fan — he rooted for the Boston Braves as a kid and was a longtime Patriots season ticket holder before he bought the team — who loves hosting celebrities in his 50-yard-line Gillette Stadium suite. And we’re discussing a coach who abhors the limelight and isn’t much for trifling with people who can’t speak the high-level, Algonquin Round Table-caliber footballese that comes natural to him.

But the two made it work for nearly a quarter of a century after Kraft identified Belichick to be the best man to run the team following the dismissal of Pete Carroll at the end of the 1999 season. Kraft allowed himself a little bow during Thursday’s presser when he said, “I trusted my instincts to bring Bill back to New England in 2000 after immediately regretting not hiring him after working with him in 1996.” Kraft has earned that bow; so often is the debate limited to Belichick and Tom Brady in terms of what the Patriots have accomplished in the 21st century that seldom is it mentioned that the first tumbler to click into place was the right owner choosing the right coach at the right time.

This, too, was the right time. The Patriots have done a slow fade, from Super Bowl champion to playoff contender to playoff pretender to prit’ near the bottom of the standings. Though neither Kraft nor Belichick spoke about a coaching change as the 2023 season staggered along, everyone else did. As it happens, everyone else was on to something.

That’s the easy part. The hard part was how it would play out. Would there be endless barbs and pointed counterpoint, Belichick saying this and Belichick saying that? Would Kraft demand some sort of compensation in order to allow Belichick to hitch on with a new team? Then, too, there was always the chance Belichick might salvage his job as head coach of the Patriots but in a reduced capacity, giving way to some young hotshot who’d run football operations.

None of that happened. What did happen was a lot of meetings, and then a decision: Belichick gets to move on, and do so in a way that his next coaching job won’t result in a parcel of draft picks being directed to the Patriots. And so we had Thursday’s buddy presser, which began with Belichick saying, “For me, this is a day of gratitude and celebration.”

He also said something that no doubt was a symphony to Kraft’s ears: “I will always be a Patriot. I look forward to coming back here.”

Then it was Kraft’s turn.

“The man standing to my left brought the leadership and coaching skills that were needed to make the type of unprecedented success that we have had possible,” he said. “Coach Belichick will forever be celebrated as a legendary sports icon here in New England and I believe go in as a Pro Football Hall of Famer on the first ballot. Why? Because he is the greatest coach of all time.”

"I'll always be a Patriot."

Bill Belichick thanks the fans and the support over the last 24 years in New England. pic.twitter.com/GCfGXdp66T

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Full transcript: Kraft answers questions about split with Belichick

— NFL (@NFL) January 11, 2024

Call it calculated, or smoke and mirrors, but these are miscalculations that omit the painful history each man has in terms of awkward exits and uncomfortable news conferences.

Following the Patriots’ 35-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXI on Jan. 26, 1997, Bill Parcells was angling to get out of his contract as head coach of the Patriots to take over the Jets, something he had leaked during the week leading up to the game. After the Super Bowl loss, the ensuing fallout included back-to-back news conferences at old Foxboro Stadium, Parcells and Kraft doing separate stints. It was during the Tuna’s turn that the coach uttered one of the most memorable lines in Patriots history: “If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to let you shop for some of the groceries.”

A few days later, at Weeb Ewbank Hall in Hempstead, N.Y., the Jets introduced Parcells as a “consultant.” Only he wasn’t physically there, speaking instead via a scratchy speakerphone. Who was in attendance? Bill Belichick, that’s who. He was the new “coach,” except it was all a lame stunt. The Jets eventually sent draft picks to the Patriots, hired Parcells as coach, and, these being the Jets, didn’t make it to the Super Bowl in the Tuna’s three seasons on the sideline.

The Jets then tried to make Belichick their for-real head coach, with Parcells running the front office. Belichick said yes, and then no, epically scribbling “I resign as HC of the NYJ” on a piece of paper. This time it was the Patriots sending draft picks to the Jets, and that’s how Belichick returned to New England.

Given where they are in their lives, given what they have accomplished over the years, Kraft, 82, and Belichick, who turns 72 in April, apparently agreed it was beneath them to engage in any more cheap carnival acts. This time, there was no dime-store speakerphone, and no “consulting” position. This time, there was no resignation scratched on a piece of paper, and, therefore, no need for anybody from the Jets to suggest that Belichick was having a mental breakdown. Which is pretty much what then-Jets president Steve Gutman signaled when he said, “Obviously I’m very surprised and disappointed. Bill’s conversation certainly tells me we should have some feelings of sorrow and regret for him and his family as he’s obviously in some turmoil and I have to wish him the best with whatever the future holds for him.”

Was what took place on Thursday really a mutual parting of ways? Probably not. Kraft did a separate Q&A with the media later in the afternoon and revealingly said, “What’s gone on here the last three, four years isn’t what we want, so we have a responsibility to do what we can to fix it to the best of our ability.”

It was a simple question, answered simply.

Kraft and Belichick are legends. On Thursday, they comported themselves as such. Kraft never did kiss Belichick, but the two held hands as they traveled the high road together.

(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

Steve Buckley is a columnist for The Athletic. He was previously a sports columnist for the Boston Herald and The National Sports Daily. Earlier stops include covering baseball for the Hartford Courant, Tacoma News Tribune and Portland (Maine) Press Herald. Follow Steve on Twitter @BuckinBoston