Can we interest you in a new chapter in the least consequential beef in sports right now? New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and former head coach Bill Belichick are publicly disagreeing about who took the biggest risk when Belichick took the Patriots job way back in 1999.
With a month and a half until football games start, it's the kind of debate that could have some legs considering ESPN has gotten involved after hearing the 83-year old billionaire's comments on a recent podcast appearance when former Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman asked him what his best decision as owner of the team was.
"The one that got questioned the most was in 1999," Kraft said. "I gave up a No. 1 draft pick for a coach that had only won a little over 40% of his games to get him out. I don't know if there are any Jets fans here. I think getting Bill Belichick to come to the Patriots in 1999 was a big risk, and I got hammered in the Boston area, but I think he was with us for 24 years and we did OK."
ESPN actually reached out to Belichick about this comment, which again was in response to a question about the best decision he ever made and kind of sounds like Kraft saying other people thought he was making a mistake, but he was right and is glad he hired Belichick.
Belichick responded by saying he was the one who took the risk while pointing out the Jets were the worse situation at the time.
"As I told Robert multiple times through the years, I took a big risk by taking the New England Patriots head coaching job," Belichick told ESPN in response to questions. "I already had an opportunity to be the Head Coach of the New York Jets, but the ownership situation was unstable."
Keep in mind this is all over something Kraft said on the Dudes on Dudes podcast nearly a month ago. There are slow news days and then there's re-litigating who took the bigger risk a quarter-century ago between two guys who haven't worked together in two years.
Belichick should have seen this coming when he didn't mention Kraft in his book.
More NFL on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Bill Belichick Claps Back at Robert Kraft’s Innocuous Podcast Comments.