Mike Reiss: Bill Belichick’s contract doesn’t confirm he’ll be back
Mike Reiss of ESPN.com joined Zolak & Bertrand to discuss Bill Belichick’s new contract and explained that it doesn’t confirm he’ll be back next season.
This doesn’t change the conversations we’ve been having…
Mike Reiss: The main thing to me is it really doesn’t change anything that we have discussed relative to Bill Belichick and his future. So I think when you hear the report and I think, Zo, I saw you in the tunnel not long after the report came out, I think our first sort of reaction to each other was, whoa, does this mean that they’re locked in here? You know, after all we’ve talked about that they’ve committed to him and he’s their guy going forward.
What I’ve learned subsequently is this is pretty much standard operating procedure that every offseason there’s conversations. What is this going to look like going forward? And maybe it’s more of a year to year type situation. So to me, that’s the main part of it, is when you hear the report, you say, oh what does it mean? And to me, it doesn’t really change anything that we’ve talked about prior to the report.
Scott Zolak: To me, it means he’s back next year.
Mike Reiss: Not to me, Zo. Not to me.
Scott Zolak: That’s a bad report by Ian Rapoport.
Mike Reiss: I don’t think it means it’s a bad report. I think it just means that every offseason they have conversations. What is the future? How do you envision the future? What do we envision the future looks like? And you add on a year. That’s sort of to me… and I’m not saying this is definitely what happened, but I think that’s generally, like this isn’t like we just hired a coach four years ago. His contract’s coming up, let’s lock him up for another five. I think at this point in Bill’s career, it’s more, hey, every year we’ll go year to year here and add on a year to just create a smaller window. Not like five or six years.
Oct 15, 2023; Paradise, Nevada, USA; New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick watches play between the Patriots and the Las Vegas Raiders during the fourth quarter at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
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