Tom Brady’s Netflix roast exceeded the imaginations and expectations anyone could’ve reasonably had beforehand. Then again, should we be surprised? Anything Brady sets his mind to, he tends to be great at. As long as he was willing to be game for anything and everything — save for a Robert Kraft massage joke — this was bound to be a hit.
Perhaps the most momentous union of the evening came when Kraft and his longtime New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick came together for a good ol’ fashioned shooter.
That stunt was orchestrated by none other than comedy mogul Kevin Hart, a notorious Eagles fan.
Kraft waxed poetic about how great of a coach Belichick is/was, and well, he did coach the Pats to six Super Bowl victories. When addressing the topic of who deserved more credit between himself and TB12, Belichick was “diplomatic” in saying, “It was both of us…because of me.”
While that was a great moment, I most definitely did not have a Kraft-Belichick shotski on my Brady roast bingo card. It’d have been awkward if they were apart the whole night, and let’s just say Belichick was a little less than enthused about the whole situation.
I mean, not like Belichick emotes very often anyway, but still. Everyone’s skulls were positively blown open by this particular incident, including perhaps the most famous New England fan of them all and my sportswriting idol, Bill Simmons.
The closing press conference that Belichick and Kraft had at the end of this last season, when The Hoodie was making his grand exit from Foxborough, was awkward. It was way too brief and fleeting. Felt like an anticlimactic footnote wherein Belichick deserved better given all that he’d done for the organization. It was nice to see the two gents be somewhat cordial toward each other in a much looser atmosphere and show a bit of love. Nothing like a little booze on the brain to make your former brother in football arms lighten up a little.
It’ll be fascinating to see how the Patriots fare in the post-Belichick era. He managed to overcome numerous blunders as a personnel executive with his incredible coaching ability and the fact that Brady was his quarterback for many, many years. once Brady left for Tampa and won another Lombardi Trophy there, Belichick was left with Mac Jones and a bare cupboard of talent on offense. Time will tell if Drake Maye is a worthy Brady successor, but ex-Pats linebacker Jerod Mayo has his work cut out as Belichick’s uncontested replacement.
At least for one night, New England stans across the globe could forget about the somewhat cloudy, ominous future ahead and reminisce about the good old days. Nothing could’ve topped or prepared anyone for a Belichick-Kraft shot, though.
