Ex Patriots' Julian Edelman Reacts to No Belichick Hiring: 'Not Everyone About Winning'
It's said that football is family. That, at least, is how Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski viewed their tenures with the New England Patriots under Bill Belichick.
Ghosts of Patriots past continue to be questioned about their tutelage under Belichick, those queries getting a new layer of scrutiny thanks to the former Foxborough boss' continued unemployment. The latest round got oddly specific, as Edelman called out the seven teams beyond New England that denied Belichick work in their head coaching spot, accusing them of politely declining a fresh batch of victories.
"It just tells me not everyone is about winning in this league, if you're not going to hire Bill," Edelman said in an interview with Trey Wingo of The 33rd Team. "Yeah, he's tough, yeah he's a force to work with, but any team that brings him instantly gets like 35 percent better because of the amount of knowledge he knows, the amount of experience he has."
Edelman's oddly specific assessment appears to ignore Belichick's struggles from the last four years, but, in his defense, he would know what the head coach could offer without Tom Brady, serving as one of the few championship staples that briefly stuck around after the quarterback's departure.
He followed up his numerical analysis by bringing familial ties into the affair after Wingo asked the duo about the comments of another Foxborough alum. In the upcoming docuseries, The Dynasty, Danny Amendola claims the Patriots "worked for Bill but played for Tom."
"That is a true statement," Edelman admitted. "(But) he was like the older uncle or principal that you liked, he gave you some wisdom here or there but you were scared of him. He always kept you on thin ice, because you always had to be prepared around him. It just tells me that ... not every organization's trying to win."
Gronkowski concurred, calling Uncle Bill the one who would "put you in the best situation to win a game."
Despite the endorsements, most NFL teams have opted to keep things estranged and separated. If Belichick is indeed forced to take a year off, a likely scenario due to the lack of head coaching vacancies and his own ego perhaps denying him a chance at a defensive coordinator spot, it'll be the first NFL campaign with his hoodie on the sidelines since 1974.
