From the time Tom Brady joined the Raiders as a minority owner, the rumors around Bill Belichick following Brady to Las Vegas didn’t slow down until the former Patriots head coach officially joined the college ranks.
Belichick accepted the head coaching job at the University of North Carolina on December 11, but there have been rumors he would still like to coach in the NFL.
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported in January that Brady reached out to Belichick about the Raiders job, but didn’t offer a timeline to when that conversation happened.
“Multiple NFL teams have inquired about whether legendary coach Bill Belichick would reconsider his move to college football — including the Las Vegas Raiders, whose new minority owner Tom Brady spoke recently with his old coach about what it would take to make a reunion happen in Las Vegas, per sources,” Pelissero reported on Wednesday.
“Brady has been in touch with Belichick recently as the Raiders weighed the future of head coach Antonio Pierce, who was fired on Tuesday after going 4-13 in his lone season as the full-time head coach,” Pelissero continued. “Brady and Belichick won six Super Bowls together with the Patriots, and sources say Brady believes the situation in Las Vegas requires a coach of Belichick’s expertise and stature to establish a sustainable winning program.”
In the wake of Pelissero‘s report, there were several accounts downplaying the nature of the conversation between Belichick and Brady.
But according to NBC Sports analyst Mike Florio, there may have been some disappointment on the part of Belichick around how the Raiders approached their coaching vacancy.
“We heard in the aftermath of the news that Brady was unlikely to hire Belichick, and that the leak was a favor to Belichick, in an effort to goose the goose egg of an NFL market for Belichick’s services,” Florio reported last week at ProFootballTalk.
“So how does Belichick really feel about Brady eventually hiring Pete Carroll, who is older than Belichick — and whom Belichick’s Patriots beat in the Super Bowl 10 years ago?” Florio continued.
“The talk in league circles is that Belichick wasn’t pleased, to say the least, that Brady’s Raiders went with Carroll. But, again, Belichick can never say that, because it conflicts with the narrative that he’s always been all-in with UNC. Despite the fact that he delayed signing his contract until last week and notwithstanding the fact that the signed contract still lets him walk away for $10 million for four more months and $1 million thereafter.”
We might never get to the bottom of what Belichick was thinking over the last few months, but it’s worth noting that his “general manager” at the University of North Carolina essentially mocked the Raiders, implying the job in Las Vegas wouldn’t have been appealing to Belichick.
In an appearance last month on the Jim Rome Show, Michael Lombardi took a clear shot at the players and team owner Mark Davis.
”Why would Coach want to go back into a situation where the players are taking to the owner about how hard they work and they don’t want to work?” Lombardi said, while implying the organization gave up too soon on Josh McDaniels.
For what it’s worth, Belichick responded last week to Florio’s comments.
”ProFootballTalk is not a good source for me,” Belichick said on the Pat McAfee Show.
But as Florio pointed out, it doesn’t take a great source to understand that if Belichick was holding out on signing his contract with UNC until recent weeks, there was definitely a job he had his eye on outside of Chapel Hill.
Whether or not that job might have been in Las Vegas, we probably won’t be getting those details from Belichick anytime soon.
x: @raidersbeat
Let us all rejoice that for whatever reason, the Patriots Way is not the Raiders Way. McDaniels was a horror, and he lost the locker room early on. Give up on him too soon? Giving up on him before he was hired would have been the smart move. Not hiring Glowering Bill is another good decision. Maybe we can make more in the weeks to come.
Who?
RAIDERS JUST HIRED CHIP KELLY!!!!
GREAT MOVE!!
I like the hire. Right now there is not a good trigger man on the roster, but we knew that, no matter who they brought in. I think this should end all the Russ and Pete reunion gibberish. Will Howard……Rd 3?
BB does not give two craps about the Raiders and who they hired. Beyond that, this ship is going to sink if they really think Chip is going to bring a winning offense to it. Chips style has proven not to work and it will not work. He has not changed it much and he will kill the defense (which is still average on players alone). Pets can help the D but will not be able to hide the problems when they are worn out by half time.
Am I the only one sitting here wondering why on God’s green Earth should we give a f*ck about what Belichick thinks? We’re already stretching it allowing Brady to have anything to do with us! I mean if it wasn’t for Brady in the first place would we really even know who Belichick was?