What to make of Bill Belichick-Robert Kraft feud after latest comments

What to make of Bill Belichick-Robert Kraft feud after latest comments originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Which person took the larger risk: Bill Belichick leaving the New York Jets to become New England Patriots head coach in 2000, or Patriots owner Robert Kraft spending a first-round pick to acquire Belichick via trade?

It's the latest chapter in the never-ending debate over who is more responsible for the Patriots' unprecedented success in the 21st century - a run highlighted by six Super Bowl titles.

Kraft did an interview on the Dudes on Dudes podcast last month with co-hosts - and Patriots legends - Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski in which he said his best decision as Patriots owner was hiring Belichick. But he also noted that it was a big risk" at the time.

The one that got questioned the most was in 1999," Kraft said. 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 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 media, but he was with us for 24 years, and we did OK."

Belichick didn't let Kraft's comments go without responding. He told ESPN's Don Van Natta in a story published Wednesday:

As I told Robert multiple times through the years, I took a big risk by taking the New England Patriots head coaching job. I already had an opportunity to be the head coach of the New York Jets, but the ownership situation was unstable."

Belichick didn't stop there. He admitted that people advised him not to take the Patriots job.

I had been warned by multiple previous Patriots' coaches, as well as other members of other NFL organizations and the media, that the New England job was going to come with many internal obstacles," Belichick told ESPN. I made it clear that we would have to change the way the team was managed to regain the previously attained success."

What should we make of this back-and-forth between Kraft and Belichick?

Tom E. Curran and Phil Perry discussed the topic on a new episode of NBC Sports Boston's Patriots Talk Podcast. Curran pushed back on Belichick's claim in the ESPN story that the Patriots team that went to the Super Bowl in the 1996 season had been dismantled" by the time he became head coach in 2000.

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So, just in terms of this dismantled team, let's roll through the players who were on this team when Bill took over," Curran began. It was Drew Bledsoe, Terry Glenn, Adam Vinatieri, Ty Law, Willie McGinest, Lawyer Milloy, Ted Johnson - many, many, many useful players who would form the core of the team that would then go forward and win Super Bowls.

Did they need Bill to give them some structure? Did it get to a point where Pete Carroll was getting treated like a substitute teacher? Check and check. But they had not been dismantled. They had destroyed their salary cap with contracts to guys like Max Lane and Todd Rucci, which were way overextending, and McGinest and Ted Johnson, for instance.

They couldn't pay everybody,and then they did. But the notion that Bill's trying to spin that this was one of the worst teams in the AFC is absolutely, patently false. They had no depth. It was a mismanaged cap. But there was talent all over the place."

Perry noted that both the Patriots and Jets went 8-8 in the 1999 season. So it's not like the Jets were a contender and he left them for one of the league's worst teams.

Overall, it's tough to determine which person took the larger risk. They both took a leap. Kraft needed a good coach to revive a franchise that was on the downtrend. Belichick wanted a second chance at being a head coach after a tough exit in Cleveland.

Both men did a great job for 20-plus seasons building a winning organization, one that produced an all-time great dynasty. Of course, they weren't the only people responsible for that success - a guy named Tom Brady played a significant part, too - but both deserve a lot of credit.

Also in this episode:

• What will the Patriots do with remaining cap space?
• Is the Patriots defense really going to be as dominant as we think?
• What will a Drake Make Year 2 leap look like?
• Will this season's Josh McDaniels offense look much different from his prior versions?
• Which of the recent do nothing' draft picks has the best chance to revitalize his career?
• When will we start to see some yield from this year's crop of rookies?