Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft apparently were personas-non-grata in Tom Brady’s inner circle.
This revelation was among the bombshells contained in ESPN columnist Ian O’Connor’s new book, “Belichick: The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time,” in which he reports, citing a source close to Brady, both the New England Patriots head coach and owner angered the family of their longtime starting quarterback by not doing more to protect him from criticism in January 2015 at the outset of the Deflategate saga.
From the ESPN.com article about the book’s content:
One person close to Brady said his entire family was “miffed” at Belichick for telling reporters to ask the quarterback about his preferences on game balls and “very miffed” at Kraft for reluctantly announcing in 2015 that he wouldn’t fight Brady’s four-game ban. Of the notion that Belichick had initially dumped Deflategate in his quarterback’s lap, one close friend of Brady’s said, “I thought Bill handled it terribly, especially when it involved a guy who’d done everything to help your career as a coach, and you hung him out to dry.”
Brady denied any involvement in Deflategate and fought a lengthy legal battle against the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell to clear his name. Yet Brady ultimately lost that fight and served a four-game suspension to start the 2016 season.
We’ll never know how Kraft’s and Belichick’s reluctance to back Brady forcefully affected public perception of the franchise quarterback. However, Brady’s family likely has firm opinions on how the organization should have handled that pivotal moment in history.
