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The owner of the New England patriots, Robert Kraft, made a recent comment that caught Bill Belichick’s attention.
Kraft said that hiring Belichick in 1999 was the best decision he made as the owner of the Patriots, but added that hiring Belichick was a “great risk.”
“The one who questioned the most was in 1999,” Kraft said last month during an appearance in “Doubes On Dudes” with Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski.
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The new head coach of North Carolina, Bill Belichick, speaks with the media in the Loudermilk Center for Excellence. (Images Jim Dedmon-Imagn)
“I resigned from a number 1 draft selection for a coach who had only won a little more than 40% of his games to get him out. I don’t know if there are jet fans here. I think get Bill Belichick outside the Patriots in 1999 was a great risk, and they were hammered in the Boston area, but he was with us for 24 years,” Kraft said.
Belichick responded to Kraft’s comments and said that taking the work as a chief of the Patriots was a “great risk.”
“As I told Robert several times over the years, I took a great risk when taking the work of chief coach of the New England Patriots,” Belichick said in a statement to ESPN.
“I already had the opportunity to be the chief coach of the Jets in New York, but the property situation was unstable.”
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Chief coach Bill Belichick, on the left, of the New England patriots shake hands with the owner Robert Kraft during a press conference at the Gillette stadium on January 11, 2024 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Maddie Meyer/Getty images)
“The Jets were a solid team after three years of Bill Parcells reconstruction, which included an appearance in the AFC championship game in (January) of 1999.
“Meanwhile, the organization of the Patriots had dismantled its 1996 AFC championship team and became one of the worst of the AFC. It did not help that they would have been $ 10 million for the lid in my first season as a chief coach in 2000.”
North Carolina’s chief coach said that before taking the position of chief coach, he was “warned” about “internal obstacles.”
“Multiple previous coaches of the Patriots warned me, as well as other members of other NFL organizations and the media, that New England’s work was coming with many internal obstacles,” Belichick said. “I made it clear that we would have to change the way the team was achieved to recover the previously achieved success.”
The owner of the New England patriots, Robert Kraft, on the left, and chief coach Bill Belichick looks from the bank before the match against the heads of Kansas City at the Gillette stadium on December 17, 2023 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Maddie Meyer/Getty images)
Despite the warnings he received, Belichick went on to have one of the most successful races in the NFL history with the Patriots. The Patriots were 266-121 under Belichick, with six Super Bowl titles, 13 appearances in the AFC championship game and 17 AFC East titles.
“I appreciated Robert (Kraft) giving me the opportunity to make those changes and build a program that was consistent with my vision for a championship team,” said Belichick.
Although Belichick is at the forefront of the success of the Patriots, the 73 -year -old man is not yet in the Patriots Hall of Fame.
