PATS PATRIARCH, BRADY DENY RIFT CLAIMED BY ESPN
Business as usual for Pats trinity
Boys will be boys, but the reality TV-like, soap-opera storyline among Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and Robert Kraft shouldn’t have escalated into what amounts to an ESPN tell-all.
Well, a Patriots version of one anyway.
A hatchet job of Brady? Really? A week before the Patriots step on the field for the divisional round of the playoffs?
Let’s break it down. No matter how you sliced Seth Wickersham’s juicy opus, which appeared Friday on ESPN’s website detailing a so-called power struggle inside the Patriots organization, it was pro-Belichick and anti-Brady. For example, Brady comes off as a whiny child when he is portrayed as being put off by hard coaching from Belichick for the first time in 18 seasons or when he allegedly is miffed at not winning a weekly Patriots in-house honor.
Kraft also wasn’t cast in the most favorable light. The ESPN story claimed Belichick, after a lengthy mid-October meeting with Kraft, believed he had a mandate to trade backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
The Patriots owner, however, shot back yesterday, telling The MMQB there was no such meeting. He called it “a fabrication and fiction,” and even said he had to take time to consider whether to approve the Garoppolo trade when Belichick brought it to him. He vehemently denied being a meddling owner as the story suggested.
“When you’re lucky enough to have someone exceptional,” said Kraft of Belichick, “you let them do their job and you get out of the way.”
He also indicated Belichick would “absolutely” be the Patriots coach in 2018, attempting to shoot down the notion of a crumbling dynasty.
So here’s the question: Why did it take so long for Kraft to react? Maybe if he had gotten together with Brady and Belichick weeks or even months ago, at the first hint of trouble, there wouldn’t have been an ESPN expose.
Because right now, there’s a feeding frenzy going on. It’s big news if the Big Three are falling apart and reports of dysfunction are true.
As it is, conspiracy theorists reading the ESPN account might have easily come away thinking people in the Belichick camp dropped more than a few dimes to paint an unflattering picture of the other two. Or that the Hoodie was forging a path for his way out of town en route to ending his Foxboro run.
That’s what happens when no one puts a name to anything. Speculation runs rampant.
That’s why someone, namely Kraft, should have brokered a truce long ago at the first sign of unrest. Before Wickersham made headlines, there were plenty of clues and plenty of other stories written locally suggesting trouble inside Patriot Place.
Belichick’s swift dispatch of heir apparent Garoppolo before the trade deadline after not taking calls before the draft raised eyebrows. So did the sudden elimination of Brady’s body coach Alex Guerrero from road trips and the sideline.
There were whispers and hints of unrest between the coach and quarterback, but nothing substantiated. Belichick and Brady have never been best buddies, but even their professional relationship seemed to be suffering.
Meeting or no meeting, there were also whispers and hints that Kraft had put Brady off limits when Belichick broached the subject of a future trade. If true, that would have understandably put the Hoodie over the edge.
So with all of this swirling around, the boss should have gotten his coach and quarterback in a room, and done his best to get everyone back on the same page.
It was reported by the Boston Sports Journal a meeting had been planned in Miami with the trio prior to that Monday night game, only it never took place. The Patriots, for the record, lost that game. It was one of Brady’s worst performances of the season.
It’s not known if the meeting happened since that time. Maybe if there was actual proof that it did, some of this nastiness could have been avoided.
Because the dirty laundry that was aired out in public under the guise of anonymous sources and allowed to fester for months was just so un-Patriot-like, especially this time of year.
We’ve been so used to Belichick running such a tight ship, and nothing ever leaking out. That’s what made the behind-the-scenes representations of Brady in the ESPN piece stand out.
Of course, this team is the master of handling distractions. The Patriots draw on an us-against-the-world mentality when the media throws a dagger like Wickersham’s page-turner. It will be easy to just chalk this up to ESPN doing it to the Patriots once again. That falls in line with Kraft’s claims of the report being a fabrication yesterday.
The problem with that is the trio directly involved and those closely aligned with Belichick, Brady and Kraft really know what’s fact, and what’s fiction.
Will it impact the Patriots in the playoffs? Hard to say. By the time the defending Super Bowl champions play next week, it’ll be old news, unless there are more bombs to drop in the interim.
Belichick and Brady should be able to keep focused and not let their differences impact preparation or performance. It’ll be business as usual in Foxboro.
Distraction? What distraction?
There’s nothing to see here. Until the next expose hits the stands.