Shortly after NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero reported that Las Vegas Raiders minority owner Tom Brady “spoke recently” with current North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick “about what it would take to make a reunion happen in Las Vegas,” The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported that “Belichick has no plans to return to the NFL” and is focused “on coaching and recruiting for North Carolina.”
Shortly before the Raiders announced on Thursday that they had fired general manager Tom Telesco, NFL insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk explained why he still believes Belichick could make a shocking return to the league as soon as this winter.
“As one team executive remarked at the time Belichick jumped to the Tar Heels (in December),” Florio said, “Belichick essentially wanted a team to violate the spirit of the Rooney Rule by unofficially promising him a job without doing a proper search. He didn’t get what he wanted, so he took the bird in the hand.”
Belichick was first linked with the Raiders months before the club parted ways with head coach Antonio Pierce and before a noteworthy media personality said this week that Brady “is running [the Raiders] right now” and will stop serving as Fox’s lead in-game analyst after Super Bowl LIX because he “will be full-time in the Raiders front office running that team.”
Belichick’s North Carolina contract includes a $10M buyout that drops to $1M after June 1. Neither figure would stop an interested NFL owner from securing his services, and it’s unlikely such a buyout would keep Belichick from resuming his pursuit of Don Shula’s league record for career victories earned by a head coach (regular season and postseason combined). Belichick trails Shula by just 15 wins.
“The Raiders make the most sense,” Florio said about a potential landing spot for Belichick. “He reveres Al Davis, the late father of current team owner Mark Davis. And Tom Brady, the quarterback with whom Belichick won six Super Bowls, could be working on Belichick to join forces on the team...”
For what it’s worth, it appears Mike Vrabel could reject a chance to join his former New England Patriots teammate in Las Vegas to instead become the Patriots’ next head coach.
Regardless of whatever went wrong between Belichick and Brady during their final years together in New England, the two are now at least on speaking terms. If Brady truly is “running” the Raiders, it’s only logical he’d want to hire the man he’s repeatedly called “the greatest coach of all time” to replace Pierce.
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