A Bill Belichick statue outside of Gillette Stadium is not as far fetched as some would think, according to New England Patriots chairman and CEO Robert Kraft.
Kraft told WBZ-TV’s Dan Roche during an exclusive interview on Wednesday that he will talk to Belichick about putting up a statue of him outside of Gillette Stadium when he is done coaching football. Kraft envisions the statue next to Tom Brady’s, which was unveiled in Foxboro in August.
“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 said Wednesday inside 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.”
Given Brady and Belichick were the two figureheads of all six Patriots Super Bowls, it would be only fitting the two are forever immortalized outside the stadium.
While Kraft called Belichick “the greatest coach of all time” when the two sides moved on, it’s been quite frosty between the two since Belichick’s dismissal. But the owner isn’t going to let that get in the way of honoring the man who turned the Patriots into champions a quarter of a century ago.
Bill Belichick since leaving the Patriots
The Patriots announced the decision to move on from Belichick as a “mutual” parting of ways back on Jan. 11, 2024. It was clear the relationship had frayed, and an awkward moment between Kraft and Belichick at the Tom Brady Roast illustrated that for all to see. However, that didn’t stop Belichick from showing up to Brady’s Patriots Hall of Fame ceremony inside Gillette Stadium last June.
But Kraft stoked the flames a bit last October when he said he “fired” Belichick (and tried to do so in a classy way) during an appearance on The Breakfast Club. There has been animosity between Belichick and the Kraft family since the coach’s departure, most recently when Belichick took a jab at Patriots president Jonathan Kraft in a recent interview with The Boston Globe about his first season at the University of North Carolina.
“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 Ben Volin of The Boston Globe. “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
Belichick kicked off his collegiate career on Monday, but his UNC Tar Heels were blown out by TCU, 48-18, for one of the biggest losses in the head coach’s career.
Bill Belichick’s career with New England Patriots
While Belichick’s career with the Patriots ended with a disastrous 4-13 season, capped off by a lowly loss to the New York Jets of all teams, his accomplishments in New England will likely never be matched.
Belichick left the Patriots with 266 regular-season victories and 30 playoff victories, both of which are far and away the most in franchise history. His six Super Bowl titles with New England are the most ever by an NFL head coach, and Belichick’s 333 wins (regular and postseason) are the second-most behind Don Shula’s 347 victories.
