On Monday, Tom Curran of NBC Sports Boston reported that Patriots owner Robert Kraft decided after the Week 10 loss to the Colts to move on from coach Bill Belichick. As we suggested when explaining Curran’s report — and given the fact that the decision has not yet been implemented — it could change.
That’s the latest official report on the situation, from Ian Rapoport of NFL Media.
“The fate of Bill Belichick as head coach of the New England Patriots has not yet been decided,” reports the employee of the network partially owned by the Patriots. “While the expectation is that a decision on his future will play out over the next month, sources also say it could take longer than that.”
It could take longer than that.
The objective should be obvious right now. Kraft wants to have his cake and fire it, too. Basically, he wants to move on from Belichick while getting compensation from the team that hires him.
As recently explained, why should Belichick go along with that approach? His position should be simple, and clear: Keep me or fire me. A middle ground based on Kraft moving on from Belichick while getting a little something as he moves on to a new team requires Belichick’s cooperation. There’s no reason for him to do it.
Keep me or fire me. It’s that simple. While it’s hard to fault Kraft for trying to pull off both firing Kraft and trading him, it makes no sense for Belichick to comply with that strategy.
Keep me. Or fire me.