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Robert Kraft says he wants to build Bill Belichick statue next to Tom Brady’s at Gillette Stadium
"When Bill's coaching career ends, we look forward to sitting down with him and having a statue made to be right next to Tommy."
The Patriots unveiled a 12-foot statue of Tom Brady outside of Gillette Stadium last month, a fitting tribute to one of the leading architects of New England’s two-decade dynasty.
But, the statue of Brady might get some company near the entrance of the Patriots’ stadium in the coming years.
Speaking to WBZ’s Dan Roche on Wednesday, Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he hopes to build a statue for former head coach Bill Belichick next to Brady’s after Belichick officially ends his coaching career.
“When that great 20-year era ended, it was always my intention to commission a statue for both Tommy and Bill when their respective careers were over, playing and coaching,” Kraft told Roche Wednesday at Gillette Stadium. “When Bill’s coaching career ends, we look forward to sitting down with him and having a statue made to be right next to Tommy.”
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Kraft’s comments are the latest development in what has been an icy relationship between Patriots ownership and the team’s former head coach.
When the Patriots and Belichick ended their 24-year tenure together following a disastrous four-win season in 2023, both the future Hall-of-Fame coach and the organization deemed it as a “mutual” parting of ways.
But, during an interview on “The Breakfast Club” last October, Kraft said that he had to fire Belichick from his post.
“I kept him for 24 years,” Kraft said. “I didn’t enjoy having to fire him, but I tried to do it — if you look at the press conference and how it happened, tried to do it in a classy way.”
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Belichick has also made his chilly sentiment about Kraft and the Patriots ownership group very clear over the last few months.
Belichick did not mention Kraft once during his new book, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football” — while also reiterating during his interview on CBS Sunday Morning in April that his decision to leave New England was a “mutual decision,” and not a firing.
During an interview with Ben Volin of The Boston Globe last month, Belichick also landed a dig against the Krafts and their involvement in the Patriots’ operations — especially in contrast to the control he now has as head coach of the UNC Tar Heels.
“There’s no owner, there’s no owner’s son, there’s no cap, everything that goes with the marketing and everything else, which I’m all for that,” Belichick told Volin. “But it’s way less of what it was at that level. Generic NFL teams, you have the owner, president, general manager, personnel director, college director, pro director, cap guy, some other consultant, then head coach.
“I’d say when we had our best years in New England, we had fewer people and more of a direct vision. And as that expanded, it became harder to be successful,” Belichick added.
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It remains to be seen just how long Belichick will continue coaching, as the 73-year-old football lifer is currently in his first year at the helm in Chapel Hill.
Belichick and the Tar Heels were dealt a decisive setback via a 48-14 blowout loss to TCU in their season opener on Monday. Still, Belichick is under contract on a five-year deal with UNC.
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