Are Patriots paying Bill Belichick $25 million this year?
Wednesday’s latest #LongRead from ESPN.com, regarding All Things Belichick includes a claim that, as mentioned earlier, could/should be its own headline.
"If the Falcons had hired Belichick, the reported $25 million annual salary owed him by the Krafts for the upcoming season would have been offset by [Falcons owner Arthur] Blank," ESPN.com writes.
Per a league source with knowledge of Belichick's contract and his separation agreement from the Patriots, neither claim is true.
As to the first part, it could be a technicality. Often, highly-compensated coaches officially get a salary from the team and unofficially receive compensation from related companies. This keeps the overall coaching-salary curve under control.
As to the second part, we'll defer to others to report the actual information. All we know is that there wouldn't have been a dollar-for-dollar offset as to whatever amount the Patriots owe Belichick for 2024.
This specific report appears along with the broader claim that Patriots owner Robert Kraft gave Blank negative information about Belichick, influencing Blank's decision not to hire Belichick. Why would Kraft prevent himself from avoiding some of the financial obligation to Belichick if/when Belichick had gotten another job?
The two claims are inconsistent. The only plausible explanation is that Kraft was willing to eat the full obligation to Belichick in order to keep Belichick from thriving with the Falcons.
Would Kraft be try to avoid paying Belichick in order to keep him from getting a job? That seems highly unlikely, quite frankly.
