ESPN Host Addresses Backlash To Interview With New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft
The New England Patriots playing host to the Army-Navy football game on Saturday at Gillette Stadium didn't keep the state of their team from being brought up on College Gameday.
ESPN's Pat McAfee asked Patriots owner Robert Kraft about head coach Bill Belichick's future. Kraft was unsurprisingly evasive in his response.
“We like to win,” Kraft said." So we want to do everything we can do to get our team back to where we are winning again.”
McAfee replied by saying he wouldn't want to be in Kraft's shoes, seemingly assuming that Belichick's days coaching the Patriots are numbered.
"I don’t envy your position," McAfee said. "What’s about to happen. We all know. We don’t have to ask.“
Pat McAfee broached an uncomfortable topic with Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
The awkward exchange set the internet ablaze with speculation questions about McAfee's intent to ask Kraft about Belichick's future with the franchise. McAfee has since responded on his show, The Pat McAfee Show, on Monday.
"So when I said I don't envy your position, everybody in Boston was like, 'He just told Robert Kraft he has to fire Bill,'" McAfee said. "I was like, yo, you said that. I was talking about all of the other ... maybe that's one of them, maybe that's certainly one of the outcomes. Which leads me even more to say I don't envy his position because you heard what I just said about Bill Belichick. That's how I feel about Bill Belichick."
McAfee also wanted to make it clear that he didn't mean any disrespect toward the Patriots owner when he asked him about Belichick.
"I was not disrespecting Robert Kraft," McAfee said. "It was the complete opposite of that. It was like, massive respect for everything and you have a tough position right now."
Curiously, ESPN's video clip of the interview has edited out McAfee's last question to Kraft.
The Patriots (3-10) have already been eliminated from playoff contention and won't play in the postseason for the third time in four seasons. Reports of Kraft moving on from Belichick have also been more prevalent than ever.
Regardless of how McAfee's intent is interpreted, he had every right to ask Kraft about his franchise and what the future holds, though jumping the gun and hinting toward Belichick getting fired at the end of the season may have been a bridge too far. He also isn't wrong in saying that Kraft is in a tough spot when it comes to deciding if he's going to move on from arguably the greatest coach of all time.
Moving on from a six-time Super Bowl championship will never be easy for Kraft, and when you'll likely only get one shot to ask him about Belichick, it's a question you have to ask.
