Belichick Reveals If He Purposefully Screwed Over New York Jets

There was some draft day shenanigans last year where the New York Jets were negatively affected by what Bill Belichick did, but he now reveals if what he did was on purpose.

It is well known how much disdain legendary head coach Bill Belichick has for the New York Jets.

His history with the franchise has an interesting backstory that includes two separate stints being named the Jets' head coach while having never coached a game, and being their defensive coordinator under Bill Parcells from 1997-99.

Belichick was introduced as the head coach on Jan. 4, 2000, but, instead of actually taking the job, he wrote "I resign as HC of the NYJ" on a napkin prior to taking the podium and announced his resignation.

Later that month, he became the head coach of the New England Patriots and the rest is history.

He went on to win six Super Bowls, while New York is still waiting for their second trophy to pair with their Super Bowl III victory in 1968.

The future Hall of Famer has also owned the Jets, holding a record of 38-12 against them as the coach of the Patriots. Only last season did New York snap the eight-year streak without a win against New England. They had lost 15 consecutive games before their 17-3 Week 18 victory.

Some might look at that as justice for what the Patriots did to the Jets in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft.

New England had the 14th overall pick while New York held the 15th.

Knowing that the Jets were looking to take an offensive lineman, the Patriots traded their pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers who subsequently took the best tackle remaining. New York then selected an edge rusher instead of bolstering their offensive line, something that came back to haunt them.

Belichick went on "The Pat McAfee Show" and discussed if he did things to screw over his rivals on purpose.

"The Pittsburgh trade: we only traded back a couple of spots. We were pretty confident that the Steelers were looking for a tackle and we were pretty confident that the Jets weren't going to take a corner, because they had taken [Sauce] Gardner the year before. And so we kind of thought that both teams were looking for the same thing, so in the end the Jets ended up taking a pass rusher."

Based on that, it seems like the legendary coach knew the Jets might not get the guy they wanted.

With three offensive tackles already off the board, there was only one clear top talent remaining who needy teams would have taken that high in the draft.

Meanwhile, Belichick told McAfee they were always going to take cornerback Christian Gonzalez, and would have done so at No. 14 if the trade hadn't been presented to them.

He also made a little comment at the end where it seems like it could have been on purpose, saying, "... we didn't know the Steelers were going to take the guy that the Jets wanted. I mean, I would say that we were not heartbroken that that happened" with a bit of a smile on his face.