The saga between Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft and the NFL team New England Patriots, is growing stranger. After achieving his first win as head coach of North Carolina, the legendary coach confirmed he has banned all New England Patriots personnel from the UNC facilities, which appears to be retaliation for having been made unwelcome at the New England Patriots headquarters.
Sports podcast host Aaron Torres didn’t hold back when speaking about the absurdity of the feud on his podcast. Torres stated it is getting “weird” and suggested Belichick’s actions indicated he is paying the Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, back. The ban was revealed after North Carolina’s 20-3 victory over Charlotte on September 6, marking Belichick’s first-ever college football win after suffering a horrific 48-14 first game loss to TCU.
When asked about the ban from the Patriots facilities after Saturday’s game, Belichick responded in a straightforward way that showed no ambiguity.
“It’s clear that I’m not welcome there around their facility,” Belichick stated.
“And so they’re not welcome in ours. Pretty simple,” he further explained.
The exchange reflects how much the relationship for Belichick, Kraft and the Patriots has decayed since his leave of absence from New England in January 2024.
Meanwhile Torres admitted that the expectations for Belichick’s big money will eventually have to come true, but was keeping things in reason per the timeline. He thinks that at some point, since they are paying him $10 million a year, Belichick has to win big games and have this team in playoff contention, but he considers year one a reasonable time for building.
The podcast host also explained his initial measured reaction to North Carolina’s season-opening struggles.
“I bring it up because that was my thought coming in and I wasn’t even negative coming out of week one when they lost to TCU. I said, ‘Look, a lot of missed tackles, a lot of whatever, blah blah blah this and that.’ But what I will say is it continues to get weird,” he said. (1:53)
Torres was bluntly critical in response to Belichick’s decision, labeling it categorically wrong for college football.
“Okay, so first of all, it’s just a bad look banning the New England Patriots from your facility. I understand there’s bad blood. I understand you clearly don’t like Robert Kraft,” Torres explained (4:19).
And so, it’s clearly not about the players because if it was about the players, you’d put your ego aside and you’d say, you know what, I hate Robert Kraft. I hate the Patriots. I’m not welcome there,” he further elaborated (5:23).
The podcast host made his most pointed criticism of Belichick’s motives, suggesting that he should keep the interests of his players foremost, rather than hold tightly to a personal grudge.
Kraft Labels Belichick’s 1999 Hiring a Risky Move
The relationship between Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft has deteriorated substantially since their fallout. Their fallout was initially described as a mutual parting, which degraded into snarky public back and forths. Kraft recently said that hiring Belichick back in 1999 was a “big risk,” partly due to the criticism and how they lost their first round pick.
“I gave up a No. 1 draft pick for a coach (who) had only won a little over 40 percent of his games to get him out … I think getting Bill Belichick to come to the Patriots in 1999 was a big risk, and I got hammered in the Boston media,” Kraft said.
Belichick fired back with venom as well, explaining how the only risk in this process belongs to him for leaving a job with the Jets to go to an organization that had acknowledged internal issues.
“As I told Robert multiple times through the years, I took a big risk by taking the New England Patriots head-coaching job,” Belichick responded.
Meanwhile, Belichick did earn some positives in his first college coaching experience, including Saturday night, when they beat Charlotte. The Tar Heels defense remarkably limited Charlotte to 271 total yards and only 21 rushing yards. Quarterback Gio Lopez returned from injury and contributed 155 passing yards and did a nice job running the offense.
Read More:
- $70M worth Bill Belichick opens up about using Patriots experience at UNC ahead of 2025 CFB season
- Day After Hubert Davis’ Squad Lands $7,000,000, Bill Belichick Sounds Alarm on UNC Revenue Share
- Bill Belichick Bolsters North Carolina Staff With Another NFL-Caliber Coach
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