Bill Belichick joined WEEI for his weekly interview on Monday and said that his relationships with the Patriots quarterback and owner are "great." That would be in direct opposition to a report that came out last week from ESPN indicating that this could be Belichick's last season with the Patriots because of souring relationships with Tom Brady and Robert Kraft.
Belichick insisted he hasn't read the report, but he'd heard enough about it to refute its claims.
"Eighteen years with Tom and 22 with Robert. Been great," he told WEEI's afternoon drive program with Dale Arnold, Michael Holley and Rich Keefe. "Appreciate everything Robert's done for me, the support. Been pretty lucky to have Tom as a quarterback for 18 years, playing for 17, but 18. He's a great player to coach, and he's done a lot for this team. He's been a huge help to me, personally. I have a great relationship with both Robert and Tom, and I'd throw in there, since it was part of the article, I feel like I have a good relationship with Alex, too."
That last line, of course, is in reference to Brady's business partner at TB12 Sports Therapy Center Alex Guerrero.
"I respect Alex, and I think I have a good professional relationship with him," Belichick added. "I can't speak for him, but I think he would say the same thing."
Guerrero's access to the Patriots on road trips and during games has changed since the start of the season, and according to the ESPN article, some believe Guerrero may have tried to create a rift in the Patriots locker room complaining to players about his access to the team being altered.
"We have relationships with a lot of people in the medical area," Belichick said when asked why Guerrero's access had changed. "Lots of consultants. Lots of specialists. Lots of people that do many different things. We try to have working relationships with multiple individuals, multiple groups in multiple areas, and we try to structure those the best that we can."
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During his interview, Belichick shot down the idea that he may be elsewhere in 2018, as he did on a conference call earlier in the day. And he did his best to knock down any notes made in the piece that were attributed to anonymous sources.
"None of those statements are attributable to anything," he said. "They're all just anonymous quotes, and I'm not even going to give credability to those anonymous quotes by denying them."
He did comment on one assertion made in the ESPN article: He did not, as the article notes, meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell last week during the Patriots' bye before postseason play.
"That's absolutely not true," he said. "The last time I saw the commissioner was before our game against Oakland in Mexico City. He was on the sideline. I saw him before the game. We wished each other well. That's the last time I saw him."
The ESPN story noted that Belichick and Goodell had become "good friends."
"I don't know what that means," he said. "Again, I'm not gonna reply to each individual anonymous quote. Somebody wants to put their name on something and talk about it, I'd consider that. But for every anonymous opinion and quote that's out there, I don't feel the need to reply to all of those by any means."
Belichick added: "I haven't read the story. A number of the points certainly are inaccurate. I'm not gonna acknowledge a point-by-point discussion that are anonymously attributed to nobody and random opinions that are unsubstantiated. If we want to do something that has some credibility to it that's one thing. I don't see that."