Jeff Benedict: New England Patriots and Bill Belichick Go Their Separate Ways

From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmeade. Robert and I after a series of discussions have mutually agreed to part ways. For me, this is a day of gratitude and celebration.

Start with Robert and his family. So much thanks for the opportunity to be a coach here for 24 years. It's an amazing opportunity. We received tremendous support. We had a vision of building a winner, building a championship football team here and it's exceeded my wildest dreams and expectations. The amount of success that we were able to achieve together through a lot of hard work and contributions of so many people.

I'm very proud of that and I'll always have those great memories I'll carry with those with me for the rest of my life. The exit press conference of Bill Belichick along with Robert Kraft said goodbye and they've already hired another coach. It looks like Jeff Benedict joins us now, New York Times best-selling author.

His book The Dynasty is now going to be a tv series that looks fantastic. I was just looking at the trailer and chronicles the inside story on all the success and the turmoil and the controversy with the rise and on the winnings in the Super Bowls and now the crash of the New England Patriots. Jeff, welcome back. Are you surprised yesterday happened?

Hey Brian, happy new year. No, I'm not surprised at all. What I was surprised about frankly the entire time I was writing The Dynasty was how long these guys lasted together. It is an unprecedented run for frankly for three people for the quarterback, the coach and the owner. Yesterday marked the end of 24 years which is the longest partnership between an owner and a coach in the history of the NFL and four years ago we watched Tom Brady leave after what was the longest partnership between a coach and a quarterback and I just think there's so many things about that.

The focus is obviously you know the end but to me it's really about its durability and its longevity. We'll never see anything like this again in American team sports. I mean the truth is we've never seen anything like it in the past. The thing is you point out they were getting along most of the time. I mean Brady and Belichick, Brady said some incredible things about Belichick but how do you describe their relationship in your research in the book and soon to be on TV, soon to be a series? Well the comparison I made in the book Brian and I stick by it to this day is Belichick and Brady to me are the NFL's version of Lennon and McCartney. They started out together when they were both you know young in their career.

They ascended together. They became superstars together and then they basically conquered the sports world together and they became the two biggest stars in American football and they dominated that stage for 20 years and I think the reason I like comparison with Lennon and McCartney is because we all know that by the end of that relationship you know it had its strains. It had its moments of tension but that's also when they made their best music and I think that that's really what it was like for Bill and Tom. The best part of that run to me wasn't the beginning.

It was the end when they went to those three Super Bowls and actually four Super Bowls and won three of them at the end of a 20-year run. To me that just speaks to what the magic they made basically when Bill put on a headset and Tom put on a helmet. When those two guys were on the field together they just did things that no one else can do.

Well let me just tell you so we heard about the arguments. We heard that he didn't treat Brady at all like a superstar. Sometimes harder ran harder than he would other players.

How that affected the rest of the team is fascinating but he wrote yesterday did Tom Brady. I'm incredibly grateful to have played for the best coach in NFL history. He was a great leader for the organization and for the players who played for him. He accomplished some amazing things over a long period of time many of which will be hard to replicate. He worked hard every day to help to achieve the ultimate goal and the ultimate team sport and he goes on. Is that sincere? Oh absolutely 100% sincere. I think here's the thing anybody that's been around you know super successful high pressure partnerships whether it's in the corporate world in the entertainment space you know that obviously there are moments there is tension there are disagreements that's that's part of the nature of the of the business. I think what what really matters though and the reason that this this interesting relationship Kraft, Belichick and Brady endured for so long is because they they shared a mutual goal and at the end of the day when it was time to take on their opponents they were lockstep in line with each other every single time and and I think that's really what matters and then you know after the fact I think what you saw yesterday when when Robert and Bill said goodbye I mean you know Robert made a statement about marriage and marriages are hard and they take work and I think that that was a very elegant acknowledgement that you know even good marriages even great marriages have stress fractures at times and you got to work through things that's what makes them great and I think that the Brady Belichick and Kraft did that I see them more as a hallmark for class I mean think about it Brian you you're a big sports fan you consume a lot of sports how common is it for a coach to get fired at the end of the NFL season with a terse press release that says so and so has been always like every time what you saw yesterday you never see that you never see that and you also never see Tom Brady leaves the team goes to Tampa wins the Super Bowl retires and what's the first thing that happens is the Patriots bring him back for the opening day of this season they have a whole day dedicated to Brady and a big thing at halftime where he tells everyone in New England I'm a patriot for life I mean that to me is the uniqueness of the Patriot way but don't you think that Robert Kraft's role as a referee is understated and under reported it's Robert's role you know what Tom and Bill do is very visible because they're the ones that are on television they're out on the field sideline and field you can see what they do you can't see what an owner does and most of the time owners owners are more likely to mess things up yeah than actually help a team succeed I think what's been incredible about this partnership is Kraft at times was a very critical bridge I called it shuttle diplomacy in the book he performed a lot of shuttle diplomacy between Tom and Bill particularly in those latter years and I think he deserves a ton of credit as an owner for those last three Super Bowls when are we going to see the series Jeff uh series debuts or premieres I should say on Apple TV next month on the 16th of February awesome 10-part documentary series based off your book The Dynasty which is awesome uh no one does it like Jeff. Jeff Benedict thanks so much congratulations on making this TV radio and of course uh this story just moved again so you might have to change the last part thanks Brian go get him uh that's called Dynasty by the way always listen on this station and you can always listen on the Fox News app just click on the headsets listen to this show ad free on Fox News Podcast Plus on Apple Podcast Amazon Music with your prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts