For some Sunday Splash! According to reports, there is an interesting question that needs to be answered.
Who threw the stone?
When NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport broke the news Sunday morning that Patriots coach Bill Belichick had “secretly” signed a “lucrative” contract in the offseason, he explained that Belichick’s agreement with the Patriots was one of the league’s best-kept secrets . So how did information about the contract come to light? Either Rapoport slipped into a Hamburglar costume and found what he was looking for (or minced meat), or someone gave it to him expressly with the purpose of getting the information out to the public, as the Patriots were on the verge of what most mistakenly assumed would be another loss .
Common sense suggests the latter. And after thinking about it over the last 24 hours, I think Belichick himself wanted to close the door on the ever-increasing talk that he could or should be fired during the season.
If the Patriots wanted to send that message, owner Robert Kraft would simply have to say, “There will be no coaching change during the season.” Kraft could also say the same about the possibility of a coaching change after the season. He has not done this yet.
The leak could also be interpreted as a message from Belichick to the Patriots and the rest of the world that he is not going away. The word “committed” was used in the report. In other words, Belichick isn’t going to give up or retire. “If you want me to go, you have to pay me.”
Ultimately, whatever the takeover looks like, it won’t stop Kraft from making the move. These are business costs. A parting gift. An unavoidable expense that occurs when making a final change.
Yes, money is money. But it’s all a business expense and a write-off, and the Patriots are doing incredibly well, and Kraft will hardly bat an eyelid at owing Belichick the balance of his contract, no matter what the transfer fee might be.
Without knowing exactly what the takeover is, it is impossible to attach any significance to yesterday’s news. But it achieved its intended goal. Others repeated it without research or analysis, assuming for themselves and their audiences that Belichick isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
So yes, he has a “lucrative” contract. Every successful NFL head coach does that. And yes, the contract runs for several years. Again, only a few good NFL coaches are in the final year of their contracts. For the report to have any relevance to the question of whether the contract would prevent Kraft from not retaining Belichick, we would need to know how many dollars Kraft would have to spend to make a change.
Until someone intentionally leaks this information for a future Sunday Splash! According to the report, we believe that Belichick’s contract will not be an impediment to Kraft making a move at any time if he wants to.