One of the biggest surprises of the NFL offseason was Bill Belichick not landing a head coaching job after parting ways with the New England Patriots and we now why who might be responsible for that.
According to a report from ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr., Jermey Fowler and Seth Wickersham, a conversation between Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was the main reason the Falcons passed on Belichick as head coach and went with Raheem Morris instead.
The Falcons were the only team that showed serious interest in Belichick during the hiring process of the offseason. Every other team with a head coaching opening passed on the legendary head coach, not even offering him an interview. But the Falcons appeared to be serious about Belichick — or at least Blank was. He reportedly had two lengthy interviews with Belichick on his megayacht.
Via ESPN:
But in a conversation with Blank, Kraft delivered a stark assessment of Belichick’s character, according to a source who spoke to two people: a close Kraft friend and a longtime Belichick confidant. The source quoted the Belichick source as saying, “Robert called Arthur to warn him not to trust Bill.” That account was backed up, the source said, by the close Kraft friend.
Multiple sources said that Kraft spoke with “some candor” to Blank about Belichick, though the sources declined to elaborate. One source close to Belichick said Kraft “was a big part” of why the Falcons passed on hiring him.
The news comes as a surprise considering Kraft had publicly been supportive of Belichick. The ESPN report added that Kraft found Belichick to “be extremely difficult and obstinate and kind of stubborn and, in the end, not worthy of his trust. And also very, very, very arrogant.” A spokesperson for Kraft denied to ESPN that the Patriots owner said anything negative about Belichick during his conversations with Blank.
According to ESPN, Belichick had no knowledge about what Kraft reportedly said on the phone call, and thought he had the Falcons job in the bag. He found out with the rest of the world on Jan. 25 that the Falcons had decided to hire Morris.
