Belichick Stays with Patriots a '50-50 Chance'? New Report via NFL Insider
When it comes to the media predicting the New England Patriots-related future with coach Bill Belichick, we're left having to be brutally frank ...
The media is now throwing darts. Or, put more crassly, throwing feces on the wall to see if it sticks.
There are now upwards of a billion (OK, not that many) "reports'' regarding the fate of the Belichick relationship with Patriots owner Robert Kraft. It's been written that the decision to divorce was made long ago, that Belichick has already picked out his team, that a firing and a resignation and a trade are all coming, that the Dallas Cowboys are locked in to hiring the six-time Super Bowl winner ...
But now, a new "report.'' Or a dart. Or some feces.
Credit: USA Today Sports Images
Sports Illustrated NFL insider Albert Breer has now "set the odds'' on Belichick sticking around at "less than 50-50."
That's a bit vague, so for the sake of the discussion, can we round that up to "maybe near 50-50''? Or is it enough to acknowledge that at different times over the course of this 2023 saga, some have set the odds on Belichick staying at "close to zero''?
Writes Breer in his column now: "I could see a scenario where Patriots owner Robert Kraft goes to Belichick and lays it out like this: 'I’m hiring a general manager. You won’t report to him, but he won’t report to you, either. Both of you will report to me, and you will work together, with his job being to build the roster up to 90, and your job being to cut it down to 53. If you want to be a part of that, great. If not, we can find a graceful way to end this.'''
Is that viable? Is this a guess? Or is it a fact-based opinion from Breer, who certainly has over the years cultivated Patriots sources? Would Belichick really agree to be stripped of the personnel control he's had in New England for almost a quarter century?
Our problem with this report isn't necessarily that it lacks viability, but rather, that is marks a sea change from where our colleague Breer has taken us before.
It was just a month ago that Breer claimed that Dallas joins Washington as the teams “most connected” to having a future with Belichick. (That report came at about the same time ESPN's Dan Orlovsky claimed the coach had already made arrangements to move to his new team, an assertion Belichick called "ridiculous.'')
And it was just a month before that, in mid-October, when Breer reported that "Robert (Kraft) knows what he's going to do,'' with Belichick. "I think that this is not the type of decision that you are making two or three weeks out from Week 18.''
And a few weeks before that, Dan Patrick asked Breer about Kraft firing Belichick. “These discussions have taken place,'' he said. "I can tell you for sure.''
Are the facts actually morphing like this? Or is it just the reports that are morphing?
It seems quite clear to us that when it comes to the media's ever-changing conclusions on Bill Belichick's future, only one thing is '"for sure'' ... and that is that nothing is "for sure.''
